Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle
Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle | ||||
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File:Olivia Tremor Control - Dusk at Cubist Castle.jpg | ||||
Studio album by | ||||
Released | 6 August 1996 | |||
Recorded | 1993–1996 | |||
Genre | Indie rock, neo-psychedelia, art rock | |||
Length | 74:05 | |||
Label | Flydaddy, Elephant 6 | |||
Producer | Robert Schneider, The Olivia Tremor Control, The Elephant 6 Orchestra | |||
The Olivia Tremor Control chronology | ||||
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Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle is the debut studio album by the American indie rock band The Olivia Tremor Control, released on 6 August 1996. The album was produced by The Olivia Tremor Control and Robert Schneider, an associate of the band in The Elephant 6 Recording Company collective.
The first few thousand copies of the album were released with a bonus CD, Explanation II: Instrumental Themes and Dream Sequences. It has been claimed that this album will produce quadraphonic sound when played at the same time as that disc. However, the two discs differ in length by approximately five minutes, rendering this an unlikely intention. The Flydaddy 017 release was reissued as a double album with Explanation II as the second disc. This bonus disc was later re-released as a full album by Flydaddy in 1999 but the most recent Cloud Recordings reissues do not include the extra disc.
Production
Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle was produced by The Olivia Tremor Control and Robert Schneider, with creative input from The Elephant 6 Orchestra. It was recorded between 1993 and 1996 on 4-track cassette recorder, then completed at producer/engineer Schneider's Pet Sounds Recording Studio on 8-track reel-to-reel. Album artwork and design were created by W. Cullen Hart and Bill Doss.
Critical reception
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Alternative Press | 4/5[2] |
The Austin Chronicle | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The A.V. Club | A[4] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
NME | 8/10[6] |
Pitchfork | 9.1/10[7] |
Q | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Spin | 7/10[10] |
In a contemporary review of Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle, Tom Cox of NME called The Olivia Tremor Control "experts at combining the absurd with the uplifting".[6] Jason Cohen of The Austin Chronicle remarked that, with the exception of the "random bursts and transient noise" of "Green Typewriters", Dusk at Cubist Castle is "an embarrassment of pop riches, a mildly psychedelic, lavishly melodic quasi-masterpiece".[3] Alternative Press praised the album as "a perfect psych-pop explosion",[2] while Q called it "a soundscape where anything can, and frequently does, happen".[8] It ranked at number 37 on The Village Voice's year-end Pazz & Jop critics' poll.[11]
Dusk at Cubist Castle was later ranked at number 39 by the online magazine Pitchfork on its list of the best albums of the 1990s.[12]
Track listing
All songs written by The Olivia Tremor Control.
- "The Opera House" – 3:12
- "Frosted Ambassador" – 1:02
- "Jumping Fences" – 1:52
- "Define a Transparent Dream" – 2:49
- "No Growing (Exegesis)" – 3:00
- "Holiday Surprise 1, 2, 3" – 6:11
- "Courtyard" – 2:57
- "Memories of Jacqueline 1906" – 2:15
- "Tropical Bells" – 1:40
- "Can You Come Down with Us?" – 2:18
- "Marking Time" – 4:28
- "Green Typewriters" – 2:22
- "Green Typewriters" – 0:24
- "Green Typewriters" – 0:59
- "Green Typewriters" – 2:11
- "Green Typewriters" – 1:10
- "Green Typewriters" – 0:38
- "Green Typewriters" – 1:38
- "Green Typewriters" – 9:39
- "Green Typewriters" – 1:21
- "Green Typewriters" – 2:39
- "Spring Succeeds" – 2:25
- "Theme for a Very Delicious Grand Piano" – 0:57
- "I Can Smell the Leaves" – 1:50
- "Dusk at Cubist Castle" – 7:35
- "The Gravity Car" – 1:45
- "NYC-25" – 4:39
Personnel
Instrumentation, vocals and production by The Olivia Tremor Control:
- Bill Doss – instrumentation, vocals, production, artwork and design
- W. Cullen Hart – instrumentation, vocals, production, artwork and design
- Eric Harris – instrumentation, vocals, production
- John Fernandes – instrumentation, vocals, production
Additional instrumentation and production by The Elephant 6 Orchestra:
- Robert Schneider – Tibetan prayer bowl, bass,[ambiguous] vocals, melodica, co-production, engineering
- Jeff Mangum – chanter pipe, slide guitar, vocals, melodica, piano and space bubbles
- Julian Koster – bowed electric guitar, mallet struck acoustic guitar and the singing saw
- Steve Jacobek – trumpet
- Rick Benjamin – trombone
References
- ^ Ankeny, Jason. "Music from the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle – The Olivia Tremor Control". AllMusic. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
- ^ a b "The Olivia Tremor Control: Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle". Alternative Press (99): 97. October 1996.
- ^ a b Cohen, Jason (November 15, 1996). "Olivia Tremor Control: Music From the Unrealized Film Script Dusk at Cubist Castle (Flydaddy)". The Austin Chronicle. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
- ^ LeMay, Matt (November 15, 2011). "The Olivia Tremor Control: Music From The Unrealized Film Script / Dusk At Cubist Castle / Black Foliage: Animation Music, Vol. 1". The A.V. Club. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
- ^ Larkin, Colin (2009). "Olivia Tremor Control". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-972636-3. Retrieved August 18, 2016.
- ^ a b Cox, Tom (September 21, 1996). "The Olivia Tremor Control – Music From The Unrealized Film Script: Dusk At Cubist Castle". NME. Archived from the original on September 30, 2000. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
- ^ Thompson, Paul (November 17, 2011). "The Olivia Tremor Control: Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle / Black Foliage: Animation Music Vol. 1". Pitchfork. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
- ^ a b "The Olivia Tremor Control: Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle". Q (123): 140. December 1996.
- ^ Sarig, Roni (2004). "Olivia Tremor Control". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p. 603. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8.
- ^ Stephens, Chuck (September 1996). "The Olivia Tremor Control: Music from the Unrealized Film Script—'Dusk at Cubist Castle'". Spin. 12 (6): 155. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
- ^ "The 1996 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. February 25, 1997. Retrieved May 9, 2016.
- ^ "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s". Pitchfork. November 17, 2003. Retrieved March 10, 2016.