Editorial Reviews Music Review:
Music Review
This Is the New Shit [CD-single] [Import]
Kompositionen von Heintich Schneikart
Lost Caverns of Thera [Soundtrack]
Mendelssohn: String Quartets, Vol. 1
Live at Max's Kansas City 79 [Live]
Amazon.com essential recording
Who needs psychotropic medicines when Olivia Tremor Control can thoroughly, positively alter one's mindset? OTC's crammed, lysergic debut full-length from 1996 is an undeniable masterpiece, but of what sort? Of the Elephant Six kind. Naturally, then, the vocals are smothered in Big Star/Beatles-like harmonies and the songs segue from musique concrète to delicate drone to Piper at the Gates of Dawn-style jams and even flat-out, poppy rock. The lyrics are a delirious update of psychedelia's most positive moments ("We feel OK, which is how we feel most of the time now / Nothing can be done without the willingness to succeed"). And oh yeah, it's a concept record (the full title is Music from the Unrealized Film Script 'Dusk at Cubist Castle') that has something to do with green typewriters and California sinking into the Pacific Ocean. This record is a life-affirming, druggy, beautiful mess. --Mike McGonigal