Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One
1999 studio album by the Olivia Tremor Control
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Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One (sometimes shortened to Black Foliage) is the second studio album by the American indie rock band the Olivia Tremor Control, released in 1999 through Flydaddy Records.[3] It was re-released on vinyl in November 2011 through Chunklet.[4]
| Black Foliage: Animation Music Volume One | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | March 23, 1999 | |||
| Recorded | 1995–1998 | |||
| Genres | ||||
| Length | 69:02 | |||
| Labels | Flydaddy, Cloud | |||
| Producer | Robert Schneider | |||
| The Olivia Tremor Control chronology | ||||
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The album's tone consists primarily of psychedelic rock deeply layered with various field recordings and found sounds with analog tape manipulation, as well as several noise collage tracks ranging in length from four seconds to over eleven minutes. There are five Black Foliage: Animation songs, which all feature the same melodic motif explored in several different directions, intertwined with heavy sonic experimentation. The album is heavily inspired by 1960s pop artists like the Beatles and the Beach Boys, particularly their later psychedelic work like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Pet Sounds, as well as the unreleased Smile.[5]
Background
In the liner notes of their debut album Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle, the Olivia Tremor Control asked their fans to send in tape recordings describing dreams they had, which are sampled in the album, most notably in "Combinations 2" and "Hilltop Procession (Momentum Gaining)".[6] This request is also repeated in the liner notes for Black Foliage. According to band member Will Cullen Hart, the Animation tracks are intended to evoke imagery of animations.[7]
Recording
According to the liner notes, Black Foliage was recorded on various 4 and 8 track tape between 1995 and 1998, with overdubs being recorded as the album was mixed over the course of 5 weeks in the summer of 1998 with producer Robert Schneider.[6] These liner notes also detail that the band collaborated with many fellow members of The Elephant 6 Recording Company collective, including Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum and of Montreal frontperson Kevin Barnes who both sing backup vocals in the song "I Have Been Floated".[8]
The album also made use of several eclectic and bizarre instruments, with Elf Power keyboardist Laura Carter reminiscing on the group using a "guitar organ".[1]
Composition
Interspersed among and sometimes within the psychedelic pop songs are experimental compositions, which contain elements of both musique concrète and sound collage.[9][10][11] Hart referred to these compositions as "animation music", and remarked, "almost during every song, you hear some little thing creak or groan or zip by ... sort-of a sound and space, personified -- just flying around to greet you in a friendly way".[7] Jason Ankeny of AllMusic compared Black Foliage to the Beach Boys unfinished album Smile, due to its mix of pop-friendly melodies and experimental compositions.[9] Ankeny described Black Foliage as, "a work teetering on the cliff's edge between genius and madness ... between pop transcendence and noise radicalism".[9]
Critical reception
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 75/100[12] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [9] |
| The A.V. Club | A[13] |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+[10] |
| The Guardian | [14] |
| Melody Maker | [15] |
| NME | 6/10[16] |
| Pitchfork | 9.4/10[1] |
| Rolling Stone | [17] |
| Spin | 7/10[18] |
| The Village Voice | B−[19] |
On the review site Metacritic, Black Foliage earned a rating of 75 out of 100, indicating "generally positive reviews".[12] Writing for Pitchfork, Paul Thompson described it as "among the most satisfying psychedelic albums of any decade", going on to compare it to the Buddhist concept of Bardo.[1] Matt LeMay, a writer for the A.V. Club favorably described the Chunklet re-issues as "bringing [Black Foliage's] remarkable complexity into greater focus".[13]
Track listing
All songs written by the Olivia Tremor Control.
- Side one
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Opening" | 0:25 |
| 2. | "A Peculiar Noise Called "Train Director"" | 3:02 |
| 3. | "Combinations" | 0:04 |
| 4. | "Hideaway" | 2:34 |
| 5. | "Black Foliage (Animation 1)" | 1:11 |
| 6. | "Combinations" | 0:14 |
| 7. | "The Sky Is a Harpsichord Canvas" | 0:04 |
| 8. | "A Sleepy Company" | 3:40 |
| 9. | "Grass Canons" | 3:21 |
| Total length: | 14:39 | |
- Side two
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 10. | "A New Day" | 2:29 |
| 11. | "Combinations" | 0:15 |
| 12. | "Black Foliage (Animation 2)" | 1:23 |
| 13. | "I Have Been Floated" | 3:39 |
| 14. | "Paranormal Echoes" | 3:30 |
| 15. | "Black Foliage (Animation 3)" | 0:44 |
| 16. | "A Place We Have Been To" | 2:25 |
| Total length: | 14:29 | |
- Side three
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 17. | "Black Foliage (Itself)" | 2:54 |
| 18. | "The Sylvan Screen" | 6:07 |
| 19. | "The Bark and Below It" | 11:24 |
| 20. | "Black Foliage (Animation 4)" | 1:36 |
| Total length: | 22:04 | |
- Side four
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 21. | "California Demise 3" | 2:46 |
| 22. | "Looking for Quiet Seeds" | 3:13 |
| 23. | "Combinations" | 0:11 |
| 24. | "Mystery" | 3:25 |
| 25. | "Another Set of Bees in the Museum" | 3:07 |
| 26. | "Black Foliage (Animation 5)" | 2:08 |
| 27. | "Hilltop Procession (Momentum Gaining)" | 3:21 |
| Total length: | 18:15 | |
Note: Track 21, "California Demise, Pt. 3" contains a small skip. The flaw was noticed during playback of the master recording in the studio, and the band decided to leave it in since it was a semi-ironic flaw, as it occurs on the lyric, "already".[20]