| Artist |
Olivia Tremor Control |
| Album Title: |
Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1 |
| Album Cover: |
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| Primary Genre |
Alternative & Punk: Indie |
| Format |
CD |
| Released |
1999 |
| Label |
Flydaddy Records |
| Catalog No |
FLY027-2 |
| Bar Code No |
none |
| Packaging |
Jewelcase |
| Tracks |
| 1.
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Opening (0:25)
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| 2.
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A Familiar Noise Called "Train Director" (3:02)
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| 3.
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Combinations (0:04)
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| 4.
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Hideaway (2:34)
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| 5.
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Black Foliage (Animation 1) (1:11)
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| 6.
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Combinations (0:14)
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| 7.
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The Sky Is A Harpsichord Canvas (0:04)
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| 8.
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A Sleepy Company (3:40)
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| 9.
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Grass Canons (3:21)
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| 10.
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A New Day (2:29)
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| 11.
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Combinations (0:15)
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| 12.
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Black Foliage (Animation 2) (1:23)
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| 13.
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I Have Been Floated (3:39)
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| 14.
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Paranormal Echoes (3:30)
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| 15.
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Black Foliage (Animation 3) (0:44)
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| 16.
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A Place We Have Been To (2:25)
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| 17.
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Black Foliage (Itself) (2:54)
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| 18.
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The Sylvan Screen (6:07)
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| 19.
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The Bark And Below It (11:24)
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| 20.
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Black Foliage (Animation 4) (1:36)
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| 21.
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California Demise (2:46)
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| 22.
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Looking For Quiet Seeds (3:13)
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| 23.
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Combinations (0:11)
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| 24.
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Mystery (3:25)
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| 25.
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Another Set Of Bees In The Museum (3:07)
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| 26.
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Black Foliage (Animation 5) (2:08)
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| 27.
|
Hilltop Procession (Momentum Gaining) (3:21)
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|
| Date Acquired |
08/09/2000 |
| Personal Rating |
 |
| Acquired from |
Amazon |
| Purchase Price |
15.00 |
Web Links |
All Music Guide Entry:
Discogs Entry: |
| Reviews |
All Music Guide Review:
Review by Jason Ankeny
If the preceding Dusk at Cubist Castle was the Olivia Tremor Control's very own White Album, then the labyrinthine Black Foliage is their SMiLE -- it's an imploding masterpiece, a work teetering on the cliff's edge between genius and madness. Torn at the seams between pop transcendence and noise radicalism, the group attempts to have it both ways, meaning teenage symphonies to God like "A New Day" rest uneasily alongside musique concrète-styled tape pastiches such as "Combinations" (which, along with the similarly styled, multi-part title track, is one of the many sonic motifs snaking its way throughout the record). There are at least enough ideas for five albums here, which is both Black Foliage's strength and its weakness -- it's impossible not to get lost inside of the OTC's swirling schizophrenia, and too often snatches of brilliance flash by too quickly to savor the moment. Moreover, with songs like "California Demise 3" continuing the oblique narrative running through previous OTC records, the artistic statement the record is making (and there undoubtedly is one) is impenetrable at best. Still, with each of the band's successive releases seeming like just part of a much bigger picture only now beginning to come into focus, maybe that's the point. Ultimately, Black Foliage just might be an end-of-the-millennium appeal that speaks directly and solely to the unconscious.
Amazon.com's Best of 1999
Olivia Tremor Control can't decide whether they want to be experimental-noise progenitors or avant-garde psychedelic pop stars. That schism makes Black Foliage alternately wondrous, challenging, and frustrating, with moments of pure brilliance patched together with overworked, overedited passages of indulgence. But frustrating doesn't mean bad. It's just not easy listening, and OTC like it that way. --Tod Nelson
Amazon.com
Black Foliage: Animation Music by the Olivia Tremor Control is a triumph of an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink production, and by track 14 even the sink is fair game. Like 1996's Dusk at Cubist Castle: Music from the Unrealized Film, Black Foliage merges Beatles-esque melodies, lyrics, and quirky instrumentation, such as odd bleats of trumpet, crazy xylophone tinkling, toy pianos, and anything else within arm's reach. Stretching this sort of trip-out to more than an hour is a bit much--hell, even the Beatles only tried to do that once--but if broken up into smaller bites, Black Foliage has its rewards. On the ether-dizzy "Paranormal Echoes" OTC manages to play with all of their toys at once and yet keep them in line to produce a mind-numbingly beautiful and strange composition. The whole shebang is tied together with aurally disorienting interludes, occasionally disrupting the flow but never for long. In other words: happy songs, crazy arrangements, terrific fun. --Jason Josephes
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| Cover 1 |
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| Cover 2 |
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| Cover 3 |
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| Cover 4 |
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| Cover 5 |
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| Cover 6 |
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| Cover 7 |
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| Cover 8 |
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| Cover 9 |
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