The Color Study
The Color Study is the offspring of Scott Oliphant, who hangs out in Bend, Oregon, and recently dropped a new album. Self-titled, the album’s genesis occurred when Scott’s long-time relationship melted down, leaving him in emotional disarray.
The Color Study
He purchased an empty vet’s office and transformed it into a recording studio. Scott shares, “It was an incredibly tough time. I was living in my recording studio while trying to figure out which end was up. I threw myself into making something instead of passing the time doing what I was doing which was not very productive or healthy.”
Ostensibly a drummer, his first instrument was the guitar, which he put to good used while making the album.
According to Scott, “The entire solitary process of recording became cathartic in its own way, though not without challenges around the mechanics of stopping and starting our two-inch tape deck and running and jumping over gear to get ready to play. It all kept me moving forward instead of looking at the past.”
Sequentially, Scott deliberately arranged the songs on the album like waves, with troughs and crests, in an effort to enhance the musical encounter for listeners.
The final track, “When I Learned to Sleep” offers low-slung textures of visceral dream-pop rife with drifting prog-rock sensibilities.
Explaining, he says, “There are a lot of themes on the album around loss, and processing loss.” And then goes on to add, laughing, “My favorite part of the process has been figuring out the album has some merit beyond the musings of a sad dude.”
Embracing nine-tracks, The Color Study commences with “Open The Windows,” traveling on swirling, oscillating colors flowing into a brilliantly gleaming indie-rock tune with kaleidoscopic radiance rife with various shaded coloration.
Entry points on the album include “Turn Around,” vaguely reminiscent of The Beatles’ White Album, offering innovative psychedelic guitars pumping out dreamy, punchy flavors. An off-center rhythm infuses the tune with a slanted mood. “Dead Leaves” conjures up memories of Simon & Garfunkel, if they decided to inject prog-rock aromas into their music, along with hazy, hissing washes of color.
“Running Red” merges element of grunge, dream-pop, and psych-rock into a raw, glistening concoction emanating both austere surfaces shifting to strident wall-of-sound coruscations. The final track, “When I Learned to Sleep” offers low-slung textures of visceral dream-pop rife with drifting prog-rock sensibilities.
Both inventive and avant-gardish, The Color Study is a powerfully emotional album, chock-full of psychedelic-flavored dreamy soundscapes.
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