Black Foliage: Animation Music By The Olivia Tremor Control

First and foremost, this groups makes *albums*, not just a pile of songs slapped on a CD. No, Black Foliage has a definite concept to it, albeit a very obtuse, complex one. But that fact just makes it all the more intriguing.

The concept is explained in the liner notes. There are descriptions of techniques for each track. I found the descriptions alternately informative and a bit self-serving, especially on the overlong description of "The Bark and Below It." (Hey guys, you don't really have to explain every instrumental technique and tape loop. Just...let it happen. It was a long time before I knew exactly what that weird quavering sound in "Good Vibrations" was (a Theremin), but the mystery of it made it better. I sort of LIKED wondering how the heck they got that sound :)

Black Foliage has some of the most spine-tinglingly good '60s-influenced songs I have heard in a long time (aside from their previous album, Dusk at Cubist Castle), with strong melodies, layered harmonies and always offbeat arrangements and instrumentation. The variety of sounds on this album is astonishing. There are so many layers to each song that I find it endlessly fascinating, and I've listened to this album a lot.

Black Foliage immerses the listener in a surreal dream world, with ideas and images that move as fast and as abruptly as they do in dreams. The album has some main themes running through its entirety. The first is a series of "animations" of the Black Foliage song, in which the bass line from that song is twisted and mutated into some surprising variations. Then there are the Combinations, which are pieces taken from ALL of the various songs on the album, filtered through various dream descriptions that people sent in on cassette tapes, along with other sundry sounds.

The proper songs themselves emerge, like dreams taking focus, from a stew of these combinations and other aural experimentations. There is hardly ever a completely silent moment on the album. Some people think the combinations and such are just a lot of mindless noise to wander through to get to the "good stuff," but they are not listening hard enough. There is a LOT going on in these things. Besides, the combinations usually only last a few seconds anyway.

So, there are not 27 "songs" on this album. There are "only" about 15 or 16 (which is still a lot for a typical album). The entire album last for about 70 minutes. Some of the tracks, such as "The Sky Is A Harpsichord Canvas," amount to a few seconds of noises and sound experiments.

One caveat: With both of OTC's studio albums -- beware of track 19 :-) On "Dusk," it was about 10 minutes of dripping faucets, traffic sounds and droning machine sounds in the middle of the "Green Typewriters" suite. On "Foliage," it is "The Bark and Below It," an 11-minute experiment in found sounds and all kinds of other weirdness. To me, it interrupts and slows down the intensity and focus of the previous part of the album, which had GREAT songs interspersed with only momentary, interesting noise. But here we have to wade through 11 whole minutes of it. Taken for what it is, though, it is really quite interesting, especially in headphones. And it is definitely dreamlike in its scattered aural images.

In short: If you want to buy an album by guys that (a) uphold the high artistic and aesthetic values of their '60s predecessors like the Beatles, (b) love to experiment like crazy with sound, instead of just banging out a bland "hit", (c) take their time and create albums that are cohesive in concept rather than just a bunch of tracks on a CD, and (d) know what harmony is all about...then BUY THIS. You will definitely get your money's worth, with an endlessly interesting and rewarding album.

Saying the OTC (the Olivias) strive to be The Beatles is something like claiming a politician is just trying to sound like Abe Lincoln. You learn from the best and incorporate the less obvious lessons into your own concepts. ("Less obvious" means that the Olivias' melodies sound like they COULD be Beatles songs, but damned if you can figure out which one. They haven't stolen from the master songwriters, they have discovered their secrets.) But more importantly, anybody who tells you the Olivias are nothing more than a Beatles knockoff is just grasping at straws. The Beatles at their most inventive would never have dared to ward off the less serious music listeners by inserting an eleven-minute track of ambient noises ("The Bark And Below It"). But were they just trying to weird us out, or perhaps describe their trips to an indifferent audience? To believe that is to miss the point completely.

Black Foliage should be experienced with a pair of headphones, eyes shut and mind open. Most importantly, don't skip the "animation" tracks, the sequences of floating sound, sometimes only a few seconds long and sometimes over a minute. The incredible beauty of this album is that it almost seems that the band members are caught in the middle of a symphonic cacophony and construct their songs by grabbing at whatever interesting sounds float their way. Uncovering the gorgeous songs becomes all the more interesting when they simply appear to rise from the primordial ooze that has seeped its way into the album.

But that's not to say that you can't listen to it repeatedly; on the contrary, the album becomes more symphonic and epic when you stop worrying about the strange concept and allow yourself to become absorbed in the world the Olivias have created. It is then that you can lose your breath upon hearing the surprising, final strains of "Hilltop Procession" floating away after grinding to a halt and resolving itself. You won't find anything on this album as catchy as "Getting Better" or as flat-out trippy as a Floyd song like "Astronomy Domine" (although, after repeated listens, you may find yourself unable to shake such moments as Jeff Mangum's chorus in "I Have Been Floated"). What you will find defies verbal interpretation and challenges you to look at music as something more than a chorus you can hum along to. The Olivia Tremor Control haven't stolen anything; instead, they have acknowledged their influences and kindly parted ways with them as they have embarked on a project more transcending.