Olivia Tremor Control
Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1
[Flydaddy]
Rating: 9.1
One reason record reviews exist is to help people make purchasing
decisions. I tell you a new album is great, you buy it, you dig it, you
say, "What should I buy next?" Well, buy Black Foliage next-- you'll
love it. You'll get insanely catchy '60s- inspired pop music in addition to
sound collages, field recordings, drony ambience, cathartic noise, and
outlandish production that makes Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" look like
a cubicle divider. You'll get an exceedingly long album that's high on
concept and low on tedium. You'll get a lot for your $15. So buy it,
already! It really is a fine, fine piece of work-- better even than
the band's strong debut, Dusk At Cubist Castle. Trust me.
So, now that you own Black Foliage, let's talk about what you can
do to maximize your enjoyment of it. The first thing you'll need is a box
of Q-tips. In order for your ears to have a chance at capturing the
32,486,978 distinct sounds that collectively make up Black Foliage,
you'll want those canals to be whistle clean. The next question is:
headphones or hi-fi? It should be noted that, at times, the sonic ambitions
of the Olivia Tremor Control exceed the ability of their recording
equipment to capture it. The end result of this is that parts of Black
Foliage can sound just a bit muddy in your average listening environment,
where microscopic sonic details can easily disappear into those ferns
hanging in the corners. Headphones alleviate this problem and bring a
mind- boggling amount of aural nuance to the fore, but they are far from
ideal if the album is listened to in a social setting.
So, you're settled in and your ears are open, and now you want to know
exactly what to listen for. It's not easy to say, as there will be as
many approaches to this record as there are listeners. The band's real
talent, like that of the late- '60s- era Beatles, is in combining
accessible pop with more experimental elements and making them work
together perfectly. Only the Flaming Lips are making comparable strides
at bridging the "catchy vs. avant garde" gap within a single piece of
work. While the Olivia Tremor Control is wildly successful in that
respect on Black Foliage, it's possible that some will be turned
off by either the syrupy- sweet melody of "Hideaway" or the quick- cutting
tape collage of "The Boat Below It," depending on which end of this
continuum you're coming from. The key factor in the synthesis is that the
Olivia Tremor Control are head over heels in love with sound-- it shows
in every saturated inch of their master tapes. And sound certainly takes
precedence over lyrics, to the degree that you remember the melodies and
textures much more than the words, which are really just one component of
the whole.
In the case of Black Foliage, that whole is a complex, ear- pleasing
conundrum, from the opening organ chords of "Opening" to the final chorus
of "Hilltop Procession," whose fade- out makes you sad that the lengthy
album is over. Part of the album's puzzle- like nature comes from the
constant references to other songs-- both Olivia Tremor Control works and
other band's songs. The album's theme, "Black Foliage," appears in four
very different versions, one for each side of the double album, and is
alluded to again in the sound collages. The song title "California Demise"
comes from the band's rare 7" EP debut of the same name. References to
Dusk At Cubist Castle are also made, hidden bits of one song are in
another, and the occasional musical quote, such as the vocal break lifted
from "God Only Knows" for "The Silvan Screen," all add to the fun.
The overall concept is also cryptic but worth trying to fathom. I've only
listened to the album 15 or so times, not the 50 that Olivia Tremor Control
co- frontman Bill Doss says is required to decipher it, so I can't help you
there. If I had to guess, I'd say that the album is really about listening,
really listening to what's going on around you and realizing that
sounds are music and music are sounds. Or, to paraphrase John Cage's famous
question, "Are sounds just sounds or are they the Olivia Tremor Control?"
-Mark Richard-San