Dumbo Gets Mad - Elephants At The Door (2011)

Dumbo Gets Mad is an Italian psych duo (That I just learned about last week) and this is their debut LP. The album sounds very fresh and trippy, and every track on the LP sort of stands out in it's own way, especially Plumy Tale. The band cites Flying Lotus and Gonjasufi as influences for this album, and it's really not hard to see why as the album is also experimental as both of their LP's from last year. The album is very warm sounding, and it's bound to give you a smile on your face if you take the time to listen to it. Also, while you can't get a physical copy of the album anytime soon, the band was gracious enough to give it out digitally for the cost of a simple tweet or Facebook status.

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Small Black - New Chain (2010)

It isn't often that a band wins me over with just one song. Usually I'll need the full album to really get into a group. This was not the case with Small Black, another chillwave/psych-pop group from the Northeast.

"Despicable Dogs", the first track from their fantastic self-titled EP released last year, was one of the best tracks I gave listens to in 2009 (it currently sits as the third-most listened to track in the last twelve months on my Last.fm page) and is still held in regard by myself as one of the best chillwave tracks released so far if not the absolute best.

Their debut LP, "New Chain", is more of the same new wave-style beats and synths, with standouts such as "Search Party" and "Photojournalist". If you're into artists like Washed Out, MillionYoung, and Toro y Moi, you're in for a treat.

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The Olivia Tremor Control - Music from the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk at Cubist Castle (1997)

I just listened to this album for the first time yesterday, so I can't say much about it but I was really impressed. here's a summary I found:

"Take the heart of the Beatles and wrap it in the melodies of Neutral Milk Hotel and/or the Flaming Lips... and you have Olivia Tremor Control -- one of the best swirls of neo-psychedelica in history. "Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle" is an intoxicating, sprawling mix of abstract soundscapes and Beatles-esque pop -- and it never stumbles once.

The first song opens with a slowly revving bass, haunted by a backdrop of peculiar feedback sounds... followed by a majestic, poppy "Opera House." Things take a slightly stranger turn in the eerie music-box melody of "Frosted Ambassador" and the fizzing, exotic "Tropical Bells." But still there is the upbeat, slightly warped Britpoppy "Courtyard" and slightly ominous beauty of "Holiday Surprise 1,2,3."

But after the lush piano-pop of "Marking Time," things take a rather surreal turn. A ten-song cycle called "Green Typewriters continues, mixing distortion, fuzz and sputtery percussion with synths and lilting vocals. They return to their previous sound with the brassy pop of "Spring Succeeds," but most of what remains is eerie and strange. The climax is "Dusk at Cubist Castle," a sprawling seven-and-a-half-miniute track with a dark, shimmery background and the sounds of a Tibetan prayer bowl.

It's hard to criticize any one song on "Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle," because it feels more like a musical tapestry of many different colors. Diss one song while praising another? Can't be done. Even "Green Typewriters VIII," a ten-minute sprawl of ominous sounds, seems to fit in perfectly.

The biggest flaw might be the obvious debt to the Beatles -- at times you can almost swear you hear John and Paul in there. But the Beatles at their most psychedelic never made anything like this -- space bubbles, sparkling piano, trombones, the singing saw, Tibetan prayer bowls, all overlaid on jolly pop melodies and ominous soundscapes teeming with fuzz and distortion. Even at its most abstract, Olivia Tremor Control's sound is hypnotic.

The vocals are handled by Robert Schneider and Neutral Milk Hotel's Jeff Mangum (who is rumored to have joined the circus or something like that). Their vocals are a bit off-key, but pleasant and warm. And the songwriting reflects the music -- it starts off relatively normal with "Conflict in our heads makes us see/without the depth that we used to/all of the problems in our way." Pretty ordinary, huh? But the second half has dreamlike songs like "Dusk at Cubist Castle/all the clouds are in past tense/all the kingdom is in fragments/and these paintings don't make sense..." You don't need to understand -- just listen.

Olivia Tremor Control's "Music From the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle" is a sweeping psychedelic tapestry, full of strange dreams and even stranger music. This unrecognized classic is a must have, for those willing to dream and imagine the Cubist Castle."

Youtube 'NYC-25'


Tracklist:

1. "The Opera House" – 3:12
2. "Frosted Ambassador" – 1:02
3. "Jumping Fences" – 1:52
4. "Define a Transparent Dream" – 2:49
5. "No Growing (Exegesis)" – 3:00
6. "Holiday Surprise 1, 2, 3" – 6:11
7. "Courtyard" – 2:57
8. "Memories of Jacqueline 1906" – 2:15
9. "Tropical Bells" – 1:40
10. "Can You Come Down with Us?" – 2:18
11. "Marking Time" – 4:28
12. "Green Typewriters" – 2:22
13. "Green Typewriters" – :24
14. "Green Typewriters" – :59
15. "Green Typewriters" – 2:11
16. "Green Typewriters" – 1:10
17. "Green Typewriters" – :38
18. "Green Typewriters" – 1:38
19. "Green Typewriters" – 9:39
20. "Green Typewriters" – 1:21
21. "Green Typewriters" – 2:39
22. "Spring Succeeds" – 2:25
23. "Theme for a Very Delicious Grand Piano" – :57
24. "I Can Smell the Leaves" – 1:50
25. "Dusk at Cubist Castle" – 7:35
26. "The Gravity Car" – 1:45
27. "NYC-25" – 4:39

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