Home > Uncategorized > #52 The Olivia Tremor Control – Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk At Cubist Castle

#52 The Olivia Tremor Control – Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk At Cubist Castle

The Olivia Tremor Control quite simply offered a fortuitous display of pop and psychadelic ear candy that tried to mix the similar worlds of mid-era Revolver Beatles and Beach Boys and then attempt to do the entire project underwater. Their project was more than just the members of the band but rather a collaborative effort of other “Elephant 6 Members” and beyond. However, what differentiated them from other bands was the complexity that they were making their recordings in a lo-fi environment. Remember, this was before the days when tracks could be mixed onto a computer screen and even the most basic of software offered you limitless amounts of opportunity to explore. Instead the band had to go through fairly complicated routines whereby everyone’s part had to be exact.

Being complicated is one thing but being good is another. Dusk at Cubist Castle feels very visual and besides the music that is playing games inside your head it is the lyrics as well. Consider tracks 12-21 that are all titled “Green Typewriters” if you were viewing the setlist, and no this is not an error. But this suite offers a bit of a movie within a movie, small vignets of stories within the lyrics, a more elongated instrumental before we are brought back down.

There is somewhat of a happy vibe to the music they are creating. Call it underwater floatation devices rock and roll. For a person like myself that often feels as if I am in a perpetual daydream, I can admit that if I am listening to them in the background, I am in a happy place.

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