Fun Trick Noisemaker
The Apples in Stereo
1995 [spinART/Elephant 6]

This record is a milestone of indie pop. As the breakthrough album for the group of bands known as the 'Elephant 6 collective' it represented a bright new sound ringing with the innocence of a lost age. Fronted by singer/guitarist Robert Schneider, this magic moment in time is difficult to compare to the band's technically superior later work.

On Avery Island
Neutral Milk Hotel
1996 [Merge]

The first of a pair of fabulous records from the Elephant 6 collective's Neutral Milk Hotel. Chief songwriter and mainstay Jeff Magnum specialises in lo-fi psych-folk vignettes spiced with the occasional bit of distorted fuzz and sonic invention. Although a makeshift lineup, the musicians on hand prove more than capable of pulling it all off.

Dusk at Cubist Castle
The Olivia Tremor Control
1996 [Flydaddy]

One of the three progenitive Elephant 6 collective projects to come out of Athens, Georgia. The album displays significant influences from the Beatles' White Album era, but there are also ample helpings of the experimental folksy psych that typifies many E6 recordings. Four more OTC albums were released before officially breaking up in 2000.

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Neutral Milk Hotel
1998 [Merge]

By the time of this record NMH was a fully-fledged band. Coming out of the Elephant 6 collective, chief songwriter Jeff Magnum based the record on the WWII story of Anne Frank's treatment at the hands of the Nazis. For quirky lo-fi psych-folk the album not only gained significant critical acclaim, but surprisingly sold a few copies as well.

When Your Heartstrings Break
Beulah
1999 [Sugar Free]

The best straightahead retro-pop record to come out of the Elephant 6 collective by a long shot. The band began in 1996 when Miles Kurosky and Bill Swan met in a San Francisco office mailroom. From such humble lo-fi beginnings this record finds Kurosky out front of a swag of support musicians reeling off a concise set of 11 psych-pop gems.

Circulatory System
Circulatory System
2001 [Cloud]

An offshoot of the Elephant 6 collective's Olivia Tremor Control fronted by William Cullen Hart. Overall the feel is more downbeat than the Olivias, with fairly simple melodies put to a psychedelic backdrop typical throughout. The differences, however, are minor. Had this been released as an OTC album it is likely no-one would have noticed.

Cannibal Sea
The Essex Green
2006 [Merge]

Anyone looking for a delightfully bouncy set of 60s retro pop with a tinge of psych would be hard-pressed to pass up this album. Although invited into the Elephant 6 collective, the band is far too traditionally folk-influenced have ever really fit in. The only real question that remains is whether or not this is a side project or a fully-blown band.

Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
of Montreal
2007 [Polyvinyl]

Gone are the upbeat pop ditties so common in outfits associated with the Elephant 6 collective, replaced instead by the story of frontman Kevin Barnes' troubled personal life. Barnes is pretty much a one-man show here, with the music a sort of psychedelic rendering of arty glam. It's brilliant, but 2004's Satanic Panic in the Attic may be more typical.