Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beatles + Neutral Milk Hotel = Olivia Tremor Control, October 9, 2004
Take the heart of the Beatles and wrap it in the melodies of Neutral Milk Hotel and/or the Flaming Lips... and you have Olivia Tremor Control -- one of the best swirls of neo-psychedelica in history. "Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle" is an intoxicating, sprawling mix of abstract soundscapes and Beatles-esque pop -- and it never stumbles once.
The first song opens with a slowly revving bass, haunted by a backdrop of peculiar feedback sounds... followed by a majestic, poppy "Opera House." Things take a slightly stranger turn in the eerie music-box melody of "Frosted Ambassador" and the fizzing, exotic "Tropical Bells." But still there is the upbeat, slightly warped Britpoppy "Courtyard" and slightly ominous beauty of "Holiday Surprise 1,2,3."
But after the lush piano-pop of "Marking Time," things take a rather surreal turn. A ten-song cycle called "Green Typewriters continues, mixing distortion, fuzz and sputtery percussion with synths and lilting vocals. They return to their previous sound with the brassy pop of "Spring Succeeds," but most of what remains is eerie and strange. The climax is "Dusk at Cubist Castle," a sprawling seven-and-a-half-miniute track with a dark, shimmery background and the sounds of a Tibetan prayer bowl.
It's hard to criticize any one song on "Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle," because it feels more like a musical tapestry of many different colors. Diss one song while praising another? Can't be done. Even "Green Typewriters VIII," a ten-minute sprawl of ominous sounds, seems to fit in perfectly.
The biggest flaw might be the obvious debt to the Beatles -- at times you can almost swear you hear John and Paul in there. But the Beatles at their most psychedelic never made anything like this -- space bubbles, sparkling piano, trombones, the singing saw, Tibetan prayer bowls, all overlaid on jolly pop melodies and ominous soundscapes teeming with fuzz and distortion. Even at its most abstract, Olivia Tremor Control's sound is hypnotic.
The vocals are handled by Robert Schneider and Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum (who is rumored to have joined the circus or something like that). Their vocals are a bit off-key, but pleasant and warm. And the songwriting reflects the music -- it starts off relatively normal with "Conflict in our heads makes us see/without the depth that we used to/all of the problems in our way." Pretty ordinary, huh? But the second half has dreamlike songs like "Dusk at Cubist Castle/all the clouds are in past tense/all the kingdom is in fragments/and these paintings don't make sense..." You don't need to understand -- just listen.
Olivia Tremor Control's "Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle" is a sweeping psychedelic tapestry, full of strange dreams and even stranger music. This unrecognized classic is a must have, for those willing to dream and imagine the Cubist Castle.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Transparent Dream: Psychedelic, Ambient, Dear Prudence, Noise, Pet Sounds, Toy Piano . . . , December 3, 2005
Geez. I was forty-four years old. For twenty years (and more) I had been trying to re-create the moment when I first listened to Talking Heads' "Speaking in Tongues." "Dusk at Cubist Castle" had arrived that day. The wife and kids gathered around the boom box in the kitchen. "Let's check this out."
What I heard I was not prepared to digest--psychedelic, ambient, dear prudence, noise, pet sounds, beatles, pop, . . . transparent dream. I didn't have a category for this . . . and I still don't. But that night "Dusk at Cubist Castle" convinced me that music wasn't dead (as I had come to almost believe).
In the wake of that night, the Olivia Tremor Contral has ruined most other music for me. And here is why.
1. "Dusk at Cubist Castle" took me to a place I had never been before. A unique and new listening experience: I haven't gotten much of that from other artists before or since.
2. There is an artistic vision in the work. Sure the vision isn't as consistent in "Dusk at Cubist Castle" as it is in "Black Foliage," but it is there. The vision of most artist doesn't extend much beyond trying to get me to open my wallet and buy their stuff.
3. The work is generous. On listen after listen, "Dusk at Cubist Castle" continues to speak to me. It is layered and complex and is therefore able to give something over time. This is one standard of good art: with each viewing or listen it speaks to you. Most art has said all it has to say in one glimpse, in one listen.
4. It offers a rich sonic experience. I am sick to death of guitars, bass, and drums. In some sense that combination is in danger of playing itself out (the exception may be Spoon). "Dusk at Cubit Castle" creates a complex and unexpected landscape of sound.
So now I spend my time trying to re-create the experience of listening to "Dusk at Cubist Castle" for the first time. Here is what I have found that is worth mentioning: Olivia Tremor Control's "Black Foliage" (a stronger work); Circulatory System's eponymous CD; the Go! Team's "Thunder, Lightning, Strike"; Elf Power's "A Dream in Sound"; Dungen's "Ta Det Lugnt"; Manitoba's "Up in Flames"; and the Microphones' "The Glow Part 2"; All Night Radio's "Spirit, Radio, Frequency"; and, of course, Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea."
Check out "Dusk at Cubist Castle" and invite me over for the first listen.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Music from the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle, February 5, 2004
By A Customer
The debut double album by The Olivia Tremor Control, finally back in print! Their 74-minute psych-pop masterpiece from 1996 featuring Will Cullen Hart (guitar, vocals), Bill Doss (guitar, vocals), John Fernandes (bass, clarinet), Eric Harris (drums, organ), Jeff Mangum (chanter, slide guitar, vocals), Julian Koster (singing saw), and Robert Schneider (tibetan prayer bowl, production). Includes a 12-page booklet featuring the artwork of singer Will Cullen Hart. Side One
1) The Opera House 2) Frosted Ambassador
3) Jumping Fences
4) Define a Transparent Dream
5) No Growing (exegesis) Side Two
6) Holiday Surprise 1,2,3
7) Courtyard
8) Memories of Jacqueline 1906
9) Tropical Bells
10) Can You Come Down With Us?
11) Marking Time Side Three
12) Green Typewriters Side Four
13) Spring Succeeds
14) Theme for a Very Delicious Grand Piano
15) I Can Smell the Leaves
16) Dusk at Cubist Castle
17) The Gravity Car
18) NYC-25
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by The Olivia Tremor Control 
