The Olivia Tremor Control
Presents: Singles and Beyond
Kindercore
A fair amount of indie-lore surrounds the Elephant Six collective, from their mythic origins in the swamps of Ruston, Louisiana to their psychedelic four-track alchemy. Enough so that now the collective is beginning to do some navel gazing. Collections of rare singles have already been released by the Minders, as well as Of Montreal. Now OTC weighs in with its Singles and Beyond, dusting off some goodies recorded from 1992-1996 and presenting them as a twenty-song assemblage. Listening to these tunes for the first time is a little like familiarizing yourself with pre-_Bee Thousand_ Guided By Voices; you can get a better appreciation for later work by seeing just what kind of lo-fi pioneers they truly were. Some of the earlier recordings on Singles and Beyond, like “Love Athena,” “Today I Lost a Tooth,” and “Sunshine Fix,” bleed into the style of GBV and Fun Trick Noisemaker-era Apples in Stereo. The CD exhibits OTC’s patent carnival, lo-fi-psych, which it looks like OTC has been brewing for about ten years running. For sheer listenability, this collection is a bit trying. But as a document of what OTC was up to before Dusk at Cubist Castle, and as a collector’s item, this is a wonderful CD.
Kindercore Records, P.O. Box 461, Athens, GA 30603; http://www.kindercore.com
