Music from the Unrealized Film Scrip, Dusk at Cubist Castle was released in 1996 by The Olivia Tremor Control. It was their debut album and is quite probably my favorite album released in ‘96 and possibly my favorite debut album ever.

It’s an epic 27 track psychedelic rock masterpiece with tracks as short as 24 seconds and others as long as 9 minutes, 39 seconds. Both of those tracks (along with 8 others on the album) are named “Green Typewriters.” The Green Typewriters section of the album is mostly atmospheric experimental music and takes up about 20 minutes altogether right in the middle. On their follow-up album (and to date only other) released in 1999 also had a large portion of experimental atmospheric tracks but instead of putting them altogether, they were spread throughout. That album is titled Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One and is just as good as this one, if not better.

The album was recorded in a rather lo-fi fashion and at first that may be what you notice about it’s sound but once you fall in love with the album the “lo-fi” aspect quickly becomes an after thought. It’s the multi-layered sound and unusual arrangements that really stand out. There’s a lot going on in this album. It may be the very definition of “headphone music.”

They were clearly very influenced by psychedelic era Beatles. The album is filled with catchy riffs, memorable melodies, and beautiful harmonies. And there’s just so much going on that it can be overwhelming at times. There’s layer upon layer of instrumentation, voices, and sound which means that you are always hearing some buried treasure for the first time, no matter how many times you’ve heard it before. In that way it reminds me a lot of The White Album. While it’s not as varied in style as The White Album it does have a lot of the same sprawling aspect. There’s moments of beauty, there’s moments of fear, there’s completely bizarre moments that will hopefully make you question your sanity. I say that only because your sanity really should be questioned a little more often.

If I had to pick just one song to let people hear to get an idea of the greatness of this album I’d have to go with track #6 “Holiday Surprise” which features everything that makes this album great. Great melodies & riffs. Gloriously dense complicated layers of sound. Insane arrangement. And many psychedelic surprises like the freak-out at the end of the track which is a great example of the “studio as an instrument” idea which The Olivia Tremor Control were definitely into.

The Olivia Tremor Control are not as well known as some of the other Elephant 6 bands (like Neutral Milk Hotel, Of Montreal, & Apples In Stereo) which is a real crime because in my opinion they are the best of the lot (and I really like Neutral Milk Hotel a lot, so that means something coming from me.) If you like late ’60s psychedelic rock then I think you’re likely to get a kick out of this weird quirky original adaptation of that sound made in the ’90s. Although it was released in ‘96, it often sounds like it was recorded in ‘69. But that’s not to say I think it’s unoriginal. I think the Olivia Tremor Control have a sound all of their own that isn’t quite like anyone else’s. Sometimes I think they may have recorded the two most psychedelic albums of all time.

The Olivia Tremor Control broke up in 2000 and only did a brief re-union tour in 2005. There’s no sign of them recording a new album or touring again at this time. The band’s two main songwriters/singers have split to form two new bands; The Sunshine Fix & Circulatory System.

“Memories of Jacqueline 1906″ live in 1999
(awful sound quality so don’t judge them on this video, unfortunately there’s not much Olivia Tremor Control on YouTube)

1996, The Olivia Tremor Control

Do You Love Writing About Music?
Become A MusicByDay.com Blog Contributer.