Boards of Canada: Classic or Dud?

As for myself, I like MHTRTC. It's background music, but it's lovely background music all the same. My only consistent complaint with BoC is how analog and cheesy they occasionaly get. Like the last two tracks of the new ep. But at the same time "Bishop Amo Roden" redeems the whole thing. So...a "Classic", with reservations. But still not "where all art should be focusing at the moment."

BoC are at their most interesting to me when they move away from the two formulae I mentioned at the start of this thread. "Chinook", "Rodox Video", "June 9th", "Skipping Stones, "Red Moss" are all excellent - I think BoC Maxima is their best album; too much of MHTRTC is overtly unobtrusive and quiet as you say. Also, "M9", which makes all Parr comparisons redundant.

When they go "analog and cheesy" it's curiously endearing because I really don't like what they're copying at all - I like "Iced Cooly" better than any Roger Limb track I've ever heard. There's something in that faded-brown-to-gold process, I think.

boards of canada are really good. i'd say classic, for distilling the one ambient track that's on every idm album and basing a career around it. that's usually the best song anyway.

Fred: I'm not embarrassed with the phrase "on the money", it's just that the Pinefox has turned it into something of a cliche round here and made it hard to use without a moment's tongue in cheek.

'music has the right' took a while for me to love. much of it is classic but there are some boring parts. roygbiv is, of course, the highlight.

the best thing though is probably happy cycling on the peel session (is this on the US version of 'music has...'?)

i disagree about plone though, fernando. i think plone work when they are overly twee and fisher-price like, but too often (on the patchy album) they try and sound darker, or more ambivalent, or go the cod- morricone way, and it doesn't work.

Boc have done some beautiful songs (the last single was wonderful too), and i think its a bit of a shame that they often get categorised as 'smokers music' (which is pretty harsh criticism)

I'd have agreed with you about Plone once, Gareth, but now I find those tracks *unlistenably* twee; I can't get more than a minute into "Marbles" without choking, and don't get me started on "Bibi Plone". Conversely, "Busy Working", "The Greek Alphabet" and "Top And Low Rent" sound better to me than they ever did.

K-reg hits the nail on the head, as often, I think.

elliot

What better comparison point for a band who call a track "M9"?

and into a world where synthesizers coexist with hundred-year-old willow trees.

-----

love this. Also the term 'soccer children' = beautiful, somehow very BoC. Ah well, that used to be me ;)

Since one of my earlier threads seems to have been resuscitated, I'll just add that I probably rate BoC higher in terms of *magic realism* than I ever have. I can sort of see where Billy's coming from with the ISB comparison, as well: if you're looking for the halfway point, Bill, I'm waiting with a C90 of "The Fourth Dimension" ...

The 70's BBC children's television series, The Changes, is an
indisputable influence for MHTRC. Robin Carmody is well aware. His BBC Radiophonic Workshop essay is outstanding.

IABP and Geogaddi are minor shifts in the BoC sound. The whole David Koresh theme is creepy, but I love it.

I say they're ace, hands-down, CLASSIC. They make beautiful textures, tones, and melodies with very few synths and outdated samplers and that is no simple feat!

Any ILXors ever been to the Pentland Hills area or met the BoC or any of the music70 collective?

Boards of Canada = Near Classic; depends on what they do next.

re: the "british sound" as mentioned above: stirmonster (v. occasional glaswegan ILM poster) once mentioned elsewhere [heavy paraphrase ahead] that he found the prettiness of BoC's music a sharp contrast to the dreadful starkness of the north coast of scotland.

Not in the north of Scotland though, just next to Edinburgh. The Pale Saints recorded some of their records near there.

anyhow, classic, "geogaddi" included.

in some ways i think much of their back catalogue is a bit tainted by the beats. as in, they seem unnecessarily leaden. they certainly date the records to a particular time period (its less apparent on geogaddi i guess). i like pretty much everything still, but the beats detract for me, or, at least, are the worst parts of most of their stuff

i can't think of many examples of tracks where the beat seems a real problem to be honest - anyone have any specific examples? it seems like a bit of a shot in the dark otherwise. i can think of many examples where the heaviness of beat compliments what else is going on - 'Whitewater' from 'Boc Maxima' for example - but i can see what is meant by the suggestion that more could've been done with the beats - they just come in and seem to trundle from A to B without varying much of the time, but somehow they manage to seem quite deft rather than leaden (Orange Romeda! Amo Bishop Roden!). it may just be the tempo of most BOC songs that makes the beats seem leaden rather than the sounds used to construct them (muffled, dirty, retro - to match the overall sound).

i think the drums on something like Mort Garson's Plantasia would have been a better approach

i nearly always find the beats a welcome addition, and BOC always seem to have valued electronic rhythm to a fair extent and they tend to prefer it heavy. it's usually one of the last things to come in, which can give the impression the track has been built to support the beat rather than the other way round, no? which is an understandable criticism if true, only i don't hear it as a big problem myself - i don't think it would make a significant difference to how i hear BOC. 'ROYGBIV' seems as good an example as any of the beat being useful, if only for the bit where the bassdrum drops out again just for 4 bars - that's possibly the best bit, but it couldn't work without the beat beforehand.

how about Autechre or Biopshere? do their beats sound better because they're complex or 'modern', or 'lighter'?

what are the drums on 'Plantasia' like (hint)?

It’s pretty coincidental; I listened to Music again last night and it didn’t work for me as well as it usually does. (I believe) I too felt the beats slightly lacking. But hey, some of my favourite moments are things happening to the beats. There is a wonderful bit in ‘Kid For Today’ where the heavier beat enters and plays two snares in a row (so that one is on the spot of a bass drum). And the lo-fi drums at the end of ‘Aquarius’. And the fantastic beat fucking in ‘Pete Standing Alone’. And the sonically beautiful drums in ‘Roygbiv’, ‘Turquoise Hexagon Sun’, ‘Last Walk Around Mirror Lake’... yeah, they’re not so bad after all.

as for BoC, they're like one of those artist everyone Loves and is influenced by, but justifiably. I Love Boards Of Canada, and I don't care what anyone thinks.

But I'll say that some of their tunes stick in the head alarmingly well for 'ambient' music. Is there a reason I haven't gone and re-investigated them since? Yes, it's that I actually find their music a little creepy and disturbing.

Yeah, this is one of the greatest things ever.

anyone heard this Cardamar remix of ROYGBIV?

nopeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

i think this is one of those bands that more than others, sometimes they are just EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED

I need a new album from these guys

Classic. I'm pretty sure they're aware at this point how they keep rehashing their sound in every album since MHTRTC, and will probably pull something out of the park... being a little optimistic, but BoC just doesn't strike me as a band that doesn't care about it's legacy.

Have you heard Walls on Kompakt? They don't sound the same but have a comparable aesthetic.

And, well, I like both of them.

They've got a ST album coming out soon and an amazing single out already called Burned Sienna.

http://www.myspace.com/wallsjams

Anyone know anything about "Chameleon"? Just popped up on iTunes, with the copyright listed as BoC's own Music70, not Warp...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIadksm7wjE

Uploaded: October 13, 2009

boardsofcanada
3 hours ago
diet coke green screen failure

youtube user boardsofcanada = http://www.youtube.com/user/boardsofcanada

Apparently, the last time a new discography entry was reserved (that black square next to their last EP) a new album/EP was announced within the week -> ?

http://www.boardsofcanada.com/discography.html

Hoping.

that def feels like the sorta thing they'd do, provided their history.

if only

...I had the guts to feel this way

1. Talk To The Sword (6:17)
2. Netskape Eschaton (3:01)
3. Bermuda Short (0.59)
4. Harlem Numbers (8:10)
5. Roundings (7:22)

^ excuse me but what?

oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please

dear jesus, i don't ask for much, but if you don't deliver a new boards of canada release within a month i am going to look up things that satan would like me to do and do them over and over

"a god with horns..."

i was listening to 'a beautiful place out in the country' today!

yah - zoetrope in bed, midnight, pitch black, headphones.......MEGA INTENSE

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/3105/bocc.jpg
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5055/5493901977_93b9ac6fc6_b.jpg

the tension is killing me

haha i've been checking every god damn day

1. Aleph Rising
2. Cochineal Helix
3. 50 Golden Goals
4. Mobius Flute
5. Fox Jupisister
6. Fiendish Feet
7. Benjy Never Saw
8. The Glade

wasn't there a thread, once upon a time, where we just came up with fictional BoC song names?

those are the real songtitles though.

go on, soulseek them.

4. Morbius Flute

ha ha!

The thread was Autechre song names, but these are equally accurate.

Still convinced that BOC create all their track titles via Markov chains.

~inspired~ by this thread, i went out to look for boc's geogaddi on vinyl. after 3 record shops, i finally requested a copy from a dude who looked online and said the cheapest he could find was $200bucks. this is WARP, right? when did they just stop pressing one of their greatest selling albums ever?

i found a used LP copy for $30 maybe a year ago, picked it up, ebay'd it for $100 or so-- but $200 is some wacky shit! really?? doubled in a year's time?

There's a geogaddi vinyl from £67.99 new&used on amazon.co.uk

$440 if you'd like it new
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00005Y0Q5/ref=tmm_vnl_new_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&qid=1300942394&sr=8-2&condition=new

but yeesh, approx $70US dollars is just way too much. I feel like I'm going out of my way when I get something for $25, esp. when I never actually buy anything on vinyl I don't already have (or will have within 30secs of downloading).

but i've def been on some boc personal revivalism the past couple weeks... i'm kinda appalled i've never listened to the interludes in geogaddi. they're horrifying.

like this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8HCYoEiesg

fact that there's a video should totally be ignored, and kinda ruins the imaginative aspect of it in the first place (not really being a "song"). i literally envision a giant fly buzzing around a city - the city in some odd postwar haze, as suggested by the piano. the buzzing seems to near you, the listener, but ignore you again to fly elsewhere until there comes the point where it absolutely overwhelms by proximity and that consistent sound of train tracks totally mutates into the screams of the citizenry, quelling the piano.

anyway.

http://www.myspace.com/abeautifulplace/stream

a bit anti-climatic considering i thought w/ the blank album art that they'd already had an album prepped, but still welcome n00z

lol I don't even know why they even bothered with that message. It's not like they need the hype.

OMGz, a studio!

Thanks for the update though.

pfffff.... this is ridiculous

can't believe they are still using myspace as a promotional vehicle

why not? they have a heavy fixation with nostalgia.

So what's this new thing? I can't tell from the link..

status update: "in the studio"

Solange Knowles once again using a BoC song as a backing track:
http://soundcloud.com/solangeknowles/left-side-drive

I'm not totally sure how official the BoC Facebook page, but just last night it went through a major overhaul in terms of pics
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150200232223927.309522.6168813926

they're all very BoC aesthetic-esque, and some of them I've seen before - others never. I heard Geogaddi came with dozens of little sheets of artwork... anything here recognizable?

anyways, I only came to post this as the band admittedly near thrives in it's secrecy and them doing pretty much anything sparks as many suppositions as an utter triviality in Lost will (or, um, did. Fuck you, Damon Lindelof)

Dud.

Classic (with reservations). The In a Beautiful Place In the Country EP is their peak, for me... I wish they'd done an entire record in the vein of its closing track, "Zoetrope"--arpeggiated bliss.

I wish they'd done an entire record in the vein of its closing track, "Zoetrope"--arpeggiated bliss.

Only a single tune, but Macquarie Ridge is basically a (superior) Zoetrope rewrite.

They tried mixing Zoetrope with their earlier aesthetic and they got a nice but less than the sum of its parts result imo.

I get a similar feeling to "Zoetrope" from a lot of Oneohtrix Point Never's stuff, especially things like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCJ7j0nELKU

I love "Zoeotrope" but an entire album of that would be the worst fucking thing (ie, Emeralds)

We'll have to agree to disagree there... What do you hate about Emeralds?

the unrelenting stasis, for the most part (opinion formed off of the album they released... last year? that people were raving about)

You mean "unrelenting stasis" (like the phrase BTW) as opposed to other groups that operate in the drone/ambient/etc field, or in a larger sense? I'm the kind that tends to like stuff that's unrelentingly static as long as the textures and sounds pull me in, and I think Emeralds' stuff has gorgeous textures...

I am fine with stasis when I find the repetitive loop engaging; with the Emeralds album I listened to, there wasn't enough there to hook my interest, and then those uninteresting loops went on for like 7 hours

Hmm, I find that Emeralds record to be actually really concise and quick-moving, especially compared to other stuff in the larger genre (and even compared to their older records)...

"Genetic" is actually really, really great (that is actually the track that came to mind as a link to "Zoetrope") but I just couldn't get into the rest of the album at all

great great album, agree that "genetic" is tops tho

I know I bang on a bit about this, but anyone looking for more Zoetrope/Oneohtrix/Emeralds type ambience should heck out the "Blue" and "Grey" albums by an artist called Acreil, which I believe are available for free if you look around the net.

"Genetic" is indeed amazing... I actually love the last few tracks, in which McGuire's guitar is forefronted more. If they're indeed shortening their songs and making them more punchy and less immersive than their earlier side-long tracks, I think the increased melodicism the guitar brings the briefer songs works really well. Acreil I'll definitely look for.

so what is the name for that "60's educational video" synth noise they use - you know what I'm talking about. I can't pin it down.

It's the Mildew Patch.

anlogax synth

Lolol

The Briscoe-Oram Confluence.

blinovitch limiter

Um...you all have been here , right? Couldn't find this upthread. Anyway...fantastic.

Do this band just not exists anymore? 8 years since Campfire.

I have a feeling they were pretty much announcing unofficial retirement when they did that PF interview where they said they were brothers and that any mystique built up around their previous albums was a load of nonsense etc...

I followed the "black box" debacle on Twoism - I think there's a lost Dave Foster Wallace in there somewhere

gulp:
http://www.factmag.com/2013/04/01/boards-of-canada-announce-new-double-lp-quetzalcoatl/

Comments beneath it suggest an April Fools prank...

Did you click on the links in the article?

FUCK YOU YOU MOTHERFUCKING CUNTS. LET YOU ALL BURN IN HELL. YOU JUST DONT DO THINGS LIKE THAT.

track 10. Vorderman

Lulz.

lol "Fractal Frisbee"

I was p excited for fractal frisbee

I've been had!

"Vorderman... Yeah! That's right!"

http://2020k.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/boards-of-canada-distribute-new-vinyl-releases-out-for-national-records-day/

http://www.reddit.com/r/boardsofcanada/comments/1cry5b/i_got_a_really_weird_record_today/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe4UCjjyr8U

I dig the hype. Feels very Close Encounters + Conet Project

if it is hex colour, as suggested in the comments, and the complement of turquoise (which it is), then the other colours are easy enough to calculate by taking the hsl value - hsl(14,26%,46%) - and adding multiples of 60 (ie 360 / 6) to the 14....

hsl(14,26%,46%) = #946557 - http://www.colorhexa.com/946557
hsl(74,26%,46%) = #869457 - http://www.colorhexa.com/869457
hsl(134,26%,46%) = #579465 - http://www.colorhexa.com/579465
hsl(194,26%,46%) = #578694 - http://www.colorhexa.com/578694
hsl(254,26%,46%) = #655794 - http://www.colorhexa.com/655794
hsl(314,26%,46%) = #945786 - http://www.colorhexa.com/945786

(give or take, the conversion isn't exact)

i hope whatever it ends up being doesn't include acoustic guitar

true

Will Pharrell be on this, too?

lol. frogbs implied in the random access memories thread that the current *OMG DATF PUNK* tizzy is overstated, given the (supposed) superiority of e-boom contemporaries like orbital, underworld and chemical brothers. i can see why affection for and anticipation of new product by those three might have dipped in recent years, but if any roughly similar act seems primed for a warm welcome, it's boards of canada.

More updates & mysteries at that 2020k page btw.

Meanwhile, just found this on youtube - I knew the song, I had seen the video footage, but not together like this. *magic*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ES02mWIJ2Tk

thats a fan made take on the superior original vid featuring joe kittenger's 1960 skydive. still cool though i guess.

it will be interesting to see what happens with this new release/ if BOC will attract many more new fans. their sensibility seems more in line with mainstream-indie tastes than it did in 2005, at least to me. we live in a post Ariel Pink world now

933567

i've done all near all possible applications of sequencing the digits together - i can't find anything that resembles a solid date.

coolpolaris

that little snippet of music is really gorgeous. in fact this may be the first BoC thing besides "Color of the Fire" that really kinda freaked me out.

anyone know how much the copy at Other Music sold for? How do you price something like that?

i dunno, but probably easier to price when you list it on eBay.

i like the idea of record store day being like willy wonka and the chocolate factory btw. a few golden bars of chocolate scattered here and there.

how would you even put a price on that? someone's got to be willing to pay hundreds

i wonder if the secret plan to sell the 6 separate pieces of the code to places around the world backfired when the owners of 5 of the 6 places they sent it to decided not to sell it, and instead to keep it, say nothing, and later sell it for several hundred dollars?

i was thinking the same thing

arrrrgh i can see that happening

reminds me that the guy who runs the record store down the road posted signs during RSD reading "no flipping on eBay" even though i know for a fact that he keeps some stuff and sells it on eBay himself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZCupxH0keM

daaaaaaaaang

aaaand it's gone

i like the idea of record store day being like willy wonka and the chocolate factory btw. a few golden bars of chocolate scattered here and there.

dj food actually did that this year.

into some random copies of a special vinyl press they inserted 10 pieces of exclusive art that kev sorted out.

Jesse says:
April 22, 2013 at 8:10 pm
In the “Julie and Candy” Video you posted, the strange interrupted lines (that went missing from the description) appear on 4:19 which is an essential number in BoCs work (explained in the comments) a few seconds later, another annotation appears, that reads “one got fat” which is the title of a bicycle safety video from 1963 that was sampled for a Video for “Everything you do is a Balloon” There, a link to video was posted, which was pitch black. in the description of that video was another link to this video, which seems to be a new clue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lub89YirmC4&hd=1

the same pattern as on the vinyl, but a new number!

adketiata says:
April 22, 2013 at 8:26 pm
The hidden footage in the CSCH video is from the opening credits to the TV Show Little House on the Prairie

adketiata says:
April 22, 2013 at 8:45 pm
Just took a screen cap and ran it thru google image search

judging by how L O S T turned out i can safely say we're in for a classic lp

i wonder if the secret plan to sell the 6 separate pieces of the code to places around the world backfired when the owners of 5 of the 6 places they sent it to decided not to sell it, and instead to keep it, say nothing, and later sell it for several hundred dollars?

― your holiness, we have an official energy drink (Z S), Monday, April 22, 2013 12:05 PM (6 hours ago)

yeah, the fact that other music (apparently?) stocked this like any old record and sold it to joe blow random customer is both mind-boggling and heartening. always dug that store.

not half so much as academy, but still...

the same pattern as on the vinyl, but a new number!

adketiata says:
April 22, 2013 at 8:26 pm
The hidden footage in the CSCH video is from the opening credits to the TV Show Little House on the Prairie

adketiata says:
April 22, 2013 at 8:45 pm
Just took a screen cap and ran it thru google image search

― r|t|c, Monday, April 22, 2013 8:04 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

can someone explain all this shit to me. i'm confused, pleasantly.

I dot know, but I hope the ghost of Michael Landon guests on a track!

holy shit boards of canada vinyl goes for a pretty penny

if they reissued their records I'd buy a few

Rough Trade in London sold one just an hour ago apparently...

https://twitter.com/RoughTrade/status/326660433845051392

I like the fact that it was there in the racks and you had to come across it by browsing, rather than stand in line hoovering up all the advertised RSD doohickeys. Makes you realize how little actual crate-digging there must have been on RSD itself. Maybe I should swing by my local record store on the way home, check out the IDM section.

Radio 1 just played another piece... https://twitter.com/NowOnRadio1/status/326770540813631488

so it's xxxxxx/xxxxxx/717228/936557/xxxxxx/727687 at the moment

Maybe they've gone all sudoku and it's some kind of grid

. . . . . .
. . . . . .
7 1 7 2 2 8
9 3 6 5 5 7
. . . . . .
7 2 8 6 8 7

The BBC thing was 519225 I think?

Oh, that other one was fake - this is the sequence right now:

xxxxxx/xxxxxx/717228/936557/xxxxxx/519225

what could it mean

the x's...they have to MEAN something!

there's also the disturbing possibility that the number sequence is as meaningful as the one on "Aquarius"

don't know if this is legit but i like it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=f-zOsnqSG8c

i'm sorry i went through this shit in 1994 with the publius enigma. never again.

holy shit boards of canada vinyl goes for a pretty penny

ooh I have In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country, I'm gonna get so rich.

yeah i couldn't find any of their EPs or LPs on vinyl for under $150... the big albums were more like $400.

I have a spectacular 3xLP copy of Geogaddi...that was shipped to me, brand new, with a giant rip across the top of the cover. Still sounds great, though!

i have music is the right, got it in 06 at bleecker in nyc.....would never sell it thou

+campire headphase and trans canadian ep, but those aren't worth anything especially high right?

does any living person actually own a copy of "boc maxima"

i'm fascinated by the provenance of the "a few old tunes" comps that have been floating around on filesharing/blogs for years. where could they possibly come from?

yeah i couldn't find any of their EPs or LPs on vinyl for under $150... the big albums were more like $400.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Wednesday, 24 April 2013 15:55 (34 minutes ago) Bookmark

recent sales on ebay are like $100 for the lps? uk at least

i think i might even have two mhtrtc but tbh i'd probably pay whatever i'd make just to not have to look through my records again

so it's xxxxxx/xxxxxx/717228/936557/xxxxxx/727687 at the moment

I used the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences to search for each sequence and a few permutations—nothing stood out.

discogs:

MHTRTC: NM copy will run you $130
GEOGADDI: same, $140
CH: $143
IABPOITC: $75
TCH: $65

so not as expensive as the other sites I was looking at, but still damned pricey

damn i should sell my BOC vinyl

Check the most recent couple of pages of these two twoism.org threads for the latest - the fifth code was discovered by combining two audio files that contained noise cancelling waveforms.

http://www.twoism.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7374
http://www.twoism.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10469

Those two files also contained mp3 ID type fields that said "Cosecha fan teaser 2" btw.

BoC changed the top video in their Youtube playlist to Twoism - which people took as a hint that the next clue lay on this forum perhaps

Someone looked at the code buried within the GIF banner at the top of this forum

The code revealed the links to the two Soundcloud files

The two Soundcloud files when played together revealed the next set of numbers

well it all seems rather obvious when you lay it out like that

the devil is in the details

holy shit boards of canada vinyl goes for a pretty penny

if they reissued their records I'd buy a few

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist)

Warp have repressed a few albums in the last couple of years on vinyl, Aphex Twin, LFO and Flying Lotus so far. I'm sure they'll get round to Boards of Canada soon. I'm desperate for them to reissue Broadcast albums on vinyl which is apparently happening fairly soon.

it just occurred to me that Boards of Canada is doing almost exactly what we told dog latin would be a terrible promotion idea for his band only ramped up by 100

I just downloaded this... beautiful.. once again BOC prove to be masters of radiant divine joy... breathtaking... simply breathtaing... a religious experience.... fuck cutty and all the other techno haters... BOC are gods!

-andrew

― andrew b, Thursday, September 8, 2005 2:27 PM

so many ellipses

simply breathtaing

it's funny listening to MHtRtC now since some of the trip-hoppy beats which kind of anchor some of the songs in some conception of I/EDM seem superfluous now.

yeah the beats are the one part that haven't really aged all that well

http://twitpic.com/cm4gg3 ?

more like boreds of can'taduh

hilarious.

the beats are the main thing I love about MHtRtC and why it's still my fave BoC album

Hello

https://twitter.com/RoughTrade/status/327868488175714305

clarify, ned

Fuck if I know.

curious. Is it my duty to take the half hour journey and see what's up? (Though I've already missed that time.)

https://mobile.twitter.com/jescoby/status/327874095138107392/photo/1

Short clip being shown opposite RT in London

That time (when GMT) has already passed no? Though I saw Ned saying on twitter now it is "in 25 minutes"... ?

Ned, you are in on it sowing confusion, aren't you?

Actually I AM BoC. Thanks for playing!

I keep forgetting what the time zone shift is going to be these days.

Video to follow if the Guys at Rough Trade get their shit together

https://mobile.twitter.com/RoughTrade/status/327878504286937088

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/robboc?utm_campaign=t.co&utm_source=14173299&utm_medium=social

Not working yet, livestream attempt

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lg4rr7V3tw1qaifa5.gif

Don't fear the tweeper.

Give him some time, he's on a train to London and will stream as soon as he can (not sure if serious btw)

yeah the beats are the one part that haven't really aged all that well

― frogbs, Friday, April 26, 2013 2:41 PM (1 hour ago)

i pretty much hate sampled drums but for some reason they don't bother me on mhtrtc

You know what would also be hilarious? If the coded message was T H E E N D (We've split up. Goodbye.)

https://mobile.twitter.com/RoughTrade

324 mb video that doesn't download on my phone.

it looks like the last numbers are hidden in the looped footage itself somehow, like one of the numbers was taken from code inside a GIF?

"There's sound inside. Can't hear it well at all. Callsign then numbers." - ah well forget that idea then

http://youtu.be/uZXFSngACXo also not available on mobile devices

Anyway. Looks like we'll know all the numbers but still have no clue to what they mean.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqtCUiPlsZw

?

ok. what now.

PHASE TWO

http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/xmjIZRTyju1wgqxRA2Cprw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en/blogs/ymusic-awards/beyonce-illuminati-super-bowl-jpg_184026.jpg

Did anybody hear that?

I would kill for a Beigel Bake right now.

I've had that UStream link open for 20 mins or so, then I hear this weird voice speaking in a foreign language for like 6 seconds. I'm scrambling through my tabs to see if I've got a page open with an ad on it (I hadn't) so I'm sure it came from the UStream link, now the channel is offline. I am spooked.

Now RT are tweeting quotes from Close Encounters

http://boardsofcanada.bandcamp.com/yum

Bastards.

That link might be hinky, RT not opening at 12 as rumored.

xxpost : /yum is a standard feature on bandcamp, its mere presence doesn't mean BoC is using it.

At the moment. this whole Rough Trade London thing appears to have been set up just to confirm that the NPR code is to be placed first. I wonder if this part was planned all along.

Building and desert scene in the projection has been found (already, this internet sleuthing thing is quite something isn't it?)(when they don't point out the wrong bombing suspect)

http://imgur.com/a/onf37

I don't know, but I don't think it's significant in the search though.

Google Earth

Uploaded on April 26th by "nog6x6h" whose only activity so far was uploading this and putting a comment on the Everything You Do Is A Balloon BoC video linking to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHt_wkY40ew

Probably contains the final clue (if this is official, but it smells like it) - download and open in notepad ?

as much as I'm excited by a new BoC album and as much as I'm a sucker for a long-winded tease of a campaign, I can't get into this thing. I mean we already know this is coming out in June, so whats the point really.

i literally have no idea what you people are going on about

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boards_of_Canada -> http://bocpages.org/wiki/Record_Store_Day_incident -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerd

i hope they can decipher the code before the ants begin building structures

How do we know the June date btw? I've seen a bunch of people referencing June 9, I wasn't sure if that was cos of the Hi Scores tune

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BO-9go5gdk

Okay something just happened

https://twitter.com/Clarknova1/status/328362689913036800

Jason DeMarco ‏@Clarknova1 1m
Hm, did @adultswim and #toonami just run a new BOARDS OF CANADA thing??
...yep, we did. :)

Wyatt Abernathie ‏@WyattAbernathie 1m
@Clarknova1 I won't be able to sleep thanks to that music video. I guess you got my ratings. Well played, Mr. Nova.

Hmm...

699742, first slot, ok, that's the NPR/Rough Trade projection code again.

/699742/628315/717228/936557/xxxxxx/519225/

intriguing - still with that Yermo gas station, but do they want someone to go find that building in the middle of the desert?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW2-rstKvuE

HD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6Bj9DvhBMw

This could be the only one of the 5 clips that say something meaningful when played backwards - listen to clip at this link: http://www.reddit.com/r/boardsofcanada/comments/1d9j38/we_believe_weve_found_the_last_code/

/699742/628315/717228/936557/347996/519225/ ?

(there's still no clear idea what we're supposed to do with the numbers - are they a path that should work on some site somewhere? Are they to be put into a square/triangular/hexagonal number grid (then what?)? Do they decode to letters? I bet that says something like UNERDS or 6YR2GO for "6 years to go to our next release")

are those nines or ones in the reversed audio?

Reversed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzSN0KFwIs8

(I presume the vinyl edition is being pressed by the Fact-magazine related Vinyl Factory?)

Doesn't help with the number quest, but the desert teaser video was by Neil Krug : https://twitter.com/honeybadgerco/status/328565498096807937
(he also made the one for http://www.honeybadgerco.com/directors/neil-krug/archive/boards-of-canada-in-a-beautiful-place-out-in-the-country/ )

^ tweet was deleted

theories aside, considering the chosen imagery of desolation and the desert, BoC is likely one of the only (hold on: the only) band i confidently feel could put the feeling of geography in music form... i can hear wind being a pervasive theme in between songs, the crackle of heat, the continual slamming of screen-door on an abandoned and sun-beaten midhouse

do you feel me

topological depth = kick

judging by the gif info, the album is going to be called Cosecha (spanish for harvest).

Also tbe title of one of the video codes used to read 'nuevas semillas' ( spanish for new seeds). By a user called "csch".

the new album is inspired by a recent trip to spain, the southern deserted points, and one of the tracks is titled "ibiza" and features the sound of copulating girls in foreground of a child counting backwards

this promotional "campaign" is kind of nuts, i love it

the new album is inspired by the warm smell of carnitas rising up through the air.

I think the guitars on the campfire headphase are pretty sweet, geogaddi no matter how good is way too fucking scary... v excited though, this should be the album of the year.

this should be the album of the year.

i love BoC, but this is based off of...a few 20 second clips?

the new album is inspired by the warm smell of carnitas rising up through the air.

wait nm, just read this, and now i also agree that it will be album of the year

Is it me or does the small snippet sound like something straight off Music/Children or Geodaddi, rather than something that could have fit on Campfire?

i love BoC, but this is based off of...a few 20 second clips?

lol did you read the Daft Punk thread?

hahaha, i know i know, but from THOSE 30 second clips it was pretty easy to tell that the song was going to be a classic slice of modern disco (the rest of the album remains a mystery of course). whereas the BoC clips don't suggest much except that it's going to be scary again. btw, two thumbs up to the possibility of scurry BoC!

I heard the full version of that in a bar last weekend and it was pretty striking how much better those 30 seconds were than the whole rest of the song though

which in retrospect is not surprising in the least

if i was in charge of PR, i would choose the very worst section on the entire album. people would get really pumped up, and then literally everything they heard from it afterward would be even BETTER!

i would also distribute the album as a giant jpg that needs to be converted to mp3.

if i was in charge of PR and had an assistant, i would delegate all questions regarding the conversion of the jpg to mp3 to them. it would be great practical experience for the asst, and it's also important to learn how to delegate.

oh I haven't heard the 20 sec clip and tbh don't care. it's better to read ilxor talk about it! I'm also convinced that the BOC's PR guy has the best job in all marketing.

each section of the jpg contains an encrypted version of the flac for every song and let's hire people, as in actually paying them (because fuck unpaid internship and crowdsourcing musicians), to make an "interesting" number of apocryphal new albums and

Are people under 30 even ~interested~ in BoC?

Asking for a friend.

under 30 what?

sorry, under 30 seconds...

like less than one minute of age.

is this gonna hit number one on teh US tween charts?

http://cosecha-transmisiones.com/

just heard Stuart Maconie play one of the tiny bits during The Freak Zone (on iplayer, from sunday night). 519225. Didn't say what it was, just pointed people at the 6music forums, which was odd.

From the source code of that page:

______________________________
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ ------ / ------ / ------ / ------ / XXXXXX / ------ \
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\ /
\______________________________/
-->

Argh, screwed that up

               ______________________________
              /                              \
             /                                \
            /                                  \
           /                                    \
          /                                      \
         /                                        \
        /                                          \
       /                                            \
      /                                              \
     /                                                \
    /                                                  \
   /                                                    \
  /                                                      \
 /                                                        \
/   ------ / ------ / ------ / ------ / XXXXXX / ------    \
\                                                          /
 \                                                        /
  \                                                      /
   \                                                    /
    \                                                  /
     \                                                /
      \                                              /
       \                                            /
        \                                          /
         \                                        /
          \                                      /
           \                                    /
            \                                  /
             \                                /
              \______________________________/
-->

http://cosecha-transmisiones.com/terminal.js

orange hexagon sun

is this gonna hit number one on teh US tween charts?

no, but will prob do well w designer and/or lucite bong holders between the ages of 18 and 35

that space seems to suggest the password is the number that goes in 5th place.

i'll start with 1111111... and work my way up (seems easier than deciphering that obfuscated javascript)

Asking for a friend.

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Monday, April 29, 2013 12:00 PM

lol why

wget "http://cosecha-transmisiones.com/password.php?attempt=11114"; ...
{"error":true,"url":""}

ineed to know my pasward

Don't get it.

brute force

699742 628315 717228 936557 813386 519225

Type that in as the password.

still awaiting the explation of the code though, but that gets you what we wanted to know

(keep watching at least 4 minutes)

no, i think it's just the 6 digits for the 5th number, based on the hexagon clue

try it. type in all those numbers in one row. You'll get a video with release date & album title.

Preorder link: https://bleep.com/boards-of-canada-tomorrows-harvest

Gemini
Reach For The Dead
White Cyclosa
Jacquard Causeway
Telepath
Cold Earth
Transmisiones Ferox
Sick Times
Collapse
Palace Posy
Split Your Infinities
Uritual
Nothing Is Real
Sundown
New Seeds
Come To Dust
Semena Mertvykh

http://d2z73vh7cr79ry.cloudfront.net/tomorrows_harvest_transmission.mp4

StanM wins!

seems like they've gone x-files

bit of a regression from wicker man steez but at least its not blissed out earth hippy guff i guess

ah, yes.

"Due to the current high level of demand we are staggering preorders."

yeah, and whose fault is that?!

xxpost: only found it somewhere else, haven't heard the explanation of why it's that number yet.

some of those track titles are p lol on the nose, as silby might put it

Ahh so we don't know where this 813386 suddenly came from?

I really hope opening the CD case will be easier than this.

Oh there will probably be a wiki article explaining how to do it.

We couldn't have figured it out. Someone on WATMM says (about that cosecha-transmisiones.com site I think?)

"found this in the header of the index.php : aHR0cDovL2Qyejczdmg3Y3I3OXJ5LmNsb3VkZnJvbnQubmV0L2Nvc2VjaGEubXAz"

That is (paste that long code into the Base64 field and click Decode) http://home.paulschou.net/tools/xlate/ -> " http://d2z73vh7cr79ry.cloudfront.net/cosecha.mp3 "

Which is another one of those mp3s, this one says 813386.

http://i.imgur.com/U0AK3sX.png

re: people under 30 liking BoC - if the live in a male-dominated house and smoke too much weed, then yeah, they like them.

How do you get to see these fields in your browser?

http://i.imgur.com/zd0H1Gd.png

Why I'll be damned. If you input http://cosecha-transmisiones.com here you can see the nuevas-semillas field for yourself:

http://web-sniffer.net/

So, new thread?

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest (2013)

i'll see you all on this thread in 2019 as we try to solve the next BoC album mystery

I almost thought they'd go "since you're all to dumb to figure out our code, we won't be releasing anything until 2019. Goodbye."

curious as to whether they'll do the month-in-advance digital download thing for pre-orders like they did for autechre. which would mean it's only a couple of weeks.

The preorder page says they'll transfer the mp3s to your bleep account on the release date.

yeah, but they didn't say they were releasing the autechre early until they did...

no other format options though, i notice. or maybe they just use 'mp3' as shorthand.

Didn't they release the ae mp3s after the album leaked? I thought it might have been something like that.

I think it's become a tradition with AE to do preorders and then suddenly release the digital files to those people a month early, pretty sure they've been doing that for a while now. Exai hadn't leaked beforehand, because all the promos were aggressively watermarked and people seemed exhausted by the months of fake leaks before the last couple albums.

I wouldn't guarantee that the BoC will be released early, though you never know. In the case of AE I think Warp just likes the unreal desperation and wants to play along with what people expect.

So there are still four copies of the 12" out there waiting to be found, right? Or were the NYC and London copies the only ones in the end?

So what's the deal with the BoC bros producing those Sexual Obects singles? Dude was in th Fire Engines?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Boards-of-Canada-RSD-Promo-Record-XXXXXX-/281100905866

Boards of Canada - RSD Promo Record XXXXXX

Item condition:Used
“one corner is just a lilllll bent, everything else is near mint”
Ended: May 06, 2013 15:08:17 PDT
Winning bid:US $5,700.00 [ 75 bids ]
Shipping: $4.00 Standard Shipping

Item location:New York, New York, United States

Seller:
rchaparro154 (1 ) | Seller's other items

ok i got it and listened to it 2 times already and nothing grand here.

If you mean the new album, listen to it 20 more times is my advice. I was unimpressed at first. Now I'm impressed.

listen to it 20 more times is my advice

Laugh-Out-Loud. If it takes 20 or more times to get into an album, then it's probably best to move on to something else.

It doesn't. After 20 you might still hear new details you didn't notice before though, there's a lot of that.

Laugh-Out-Loud. If it takes 20 or more times to get into an album, then it's probably best to move on to something else.

― van smack

Wrong on so many levels. I've had albums that have taken me years to fully appreciate (predominantly jazz records admittedly).

Damn right.

I'd rather have a record I'm still getting to know and getting stuff from after 20 listens than one I'm done with after 20 listens.

Difficult to listen to any of the tracks out of context. Have to listen to this as one long piece or at least broken out into chunks.

Laugh-Out-Loud. If it takes 20 or more times to get into an album, then it's probably best to move on to something else.

Who wants some Boards of Canada vinyl?

http://boardsofcanada.com/vinyl-reissues/#geogaddi

I bet those people that have just paid hundreds of pounds for the original records are going to be pissed off.

That's good news.

Were the original albums on 140g vinyl?

Geogaddi sounds like a different album on vinyl. Good god! Sounds I hadn't noticed before and the warmth and bass is next level.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dUcpirDMmA

Love the timestretched 'It's a meeeeeeeeeeeee, maaaaaaaarrrrriooooooo'

18mins in.. wtf!

http://youtu.be/GeeFjmposyc

Have you heard Sir Prancelot Brainfire? God their band oriented are fucking sick. I pine for the moment these will ever see a proper release.

band oriented tracks rrg

Yeah! I just dloaded Random 35 Tracks Tape/ripped it to my phone today (thanks to epicharmus) and it's amazing stuff, obv around 2004 they were working w electric guitar but I never expected anything as psych/whatever as this

Off topic: The last album left me stone cold. Very disappointing.

yeah same here - although to be fair I did not invest that much time in it

"Skam Records are very proud to announce the re-release of the
Boards of Canada - Hi Scores EP on the 13th October 2014.

The new edition has been re-recorded and re-mastered from the original DAT tapes and has been re-cut onto heavyweight collector’s edition vinyl. The CD will be placed in a Digi-Pak sleeve with some extra art & the vinyl will have a double-sided 12” poster.

The original image on the back of the sleeve will now be in colour. There will be a spot varnish finish on the images & text alongside the usual Skam Braille sticker to give the whole package new depth and a refreshing look and feel."

hmmm... sounds a bit boolshit to me.

the above is from the skam website btw. http://www.skam.co.uk/news.asp

and boomkat is listing it as pre-release. http://boomkat.com/downloads/1098725-boards-of-canada-hi-scores-2014-edition

oh no, i'm not saying it's not real.. sorry, i was just in a cynical mood this morning.

i know what you mean though, won't seem real until the cover is spray-painted on a rock in some desert somewhere and the co-ordinates broadcast using teletext during the next full moon.

weren't all the BoCs reissued not that long ago though?

http://boardsofcanada.com/vinyl-reissues/

BOARDS OF CANADA
VINYL REPRESSES 2013

Responding to popular demand, Warp Records is repressing its seminal Boards of Canada catalogue on vinyl for the first time in over five years.

On 21st October the albums Music Has The Right To Children (originally released in 1998), Geogaddi (2002) and The Campfire Headphase (2006) will be reissued. These will be followed on 18th November by the mini-album Twoism (1995) and EPs In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country (2000) and Trans Canada Highway (2006).

Also, look out for a vinyl reissue of Hi Scores EP (1996) through Skam later this year.

i guess that last bit slipped...

DJ Food - O Is For Orange (BOC video mix, tracklist at the Vimeo page)

https://vimeo.com/69721622

I know it's old but I only just found out he did this and it's BOC quiet so why not

feels like it's been a while since Tomorrow's Harvest. Would be great if they followed it up with something soon rather than waiting another 7 or 8 years.

Isn't DJ Food two people?

"pc" quit, now it's just "strictly kev"

lol i should now it's strictly kev

should say

tomorrow's harvest = biggest disappointment of the decade so far. forgot what it was called til i saw your post

nothing is real = one of their best tracks to date

never realised dj food = PC and Strictly

Okay, I didn't know about PC quitting, Stan was right.

DL, I think Coldcut were originally involved with DJ Food, but later on it became PC and Strictly Kev duo, and apparently now it's just Strictly.

nothing is real = one of their best tracks to date

― Eggs and the marketing board behind them, Friday, March 6, 2015 2:52 AM (3 weeks ago)

tick.jpg

omg lol @ this "everything you can do is a balloon" video

http :// www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQEmaj9C6ko

June 9th is a hot track. HOT one

love the counterpoint on that one.

like that one they did on the mr fingers ep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTn7YPPQ2dc

rather good at Pitchfork last night

oops wrong thread lol

BoC audio Instagram filters, booYA

just occurred to me that I've always thought of their albums like this:

MHTRTC: Sky
Geogaddi: Core
Campfire: Sea
Tomorrow: City

That's probably abetted by their album covers, but that's always how I've heard them.

Campfire esp. Dayvan Cowboy has always been about outer space for me, that must have to do with the video but it rings very true even without watching it.

For me it's

Mhtrtc: forests, fog
Geogaddi: sunny, cold, maritime

Trans-Canada Highway: highway driving
A Beautiful Place in the Country: beautiful places in the country

Interesting

I always think of places like Canada

Campfire Headphase actually sounds like... camping, maybe involving mushrooms.

Geogaddi - hiding out in the white mountains, preparing to launch a possibly suicidal assault on the Tripods.

loved that the first track on Geogaddi was included in Baby Driver.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3890160/soundtrack?ref_=tt_trv_snd

wtf ?

yep. i was psyched!

MHTRTC: childhood
Geogaddi: adolescence
Campfire: adulthood
Tomorrow: old age

"A beautiful place in the country" is one of my fave listens when being on an airplane. There is something in it which makes my mind fly which is perfect as my body flies already. That synchronisation between body and mind is perfect.

I don't see much variation between the albums. They're all good, to varying degrees, but they have more or less exactly the same mood and feel for me. That's fine, it's the kind of group they are. TH is a bit more melodic than the earlier ones, maybe?

last track on Ewans new record has a touch of Boards of Canada about it

Ewan Jansen

Great change of mood between Geo and Campfire. TH by far the least melodic IMO.

Tomorrow's Harvest made no impact on me. I was a massive fan of all of their work before- I first heard them when Campfire Headphase came out, which I love. Tomorrow's Harvest was just in one ear out the other. I owe it another listen.

i am very into late great's breakdown. what about:

MHTRTC: spring
Geogaddi: summer
Campfire: autumn
Tomorrow: winter

just relistened to Tomorrow's Harvest for 1st time in couple years and yeah it's not bad per se but def in one ear out the other. Feels like all of it could be condensed to 1 track.

exactly, it's not bad but it's so autopilot/anonymous. the thought of putting it on... it just feels like a chore.

i'll color the records this way:

MHTRTC: depression
ABPOITC: paranoia
Geogaddi: anxiety
Campfire: contentment

late great OTM

Geogaddi definitely is adolescence and the sinister edges/paranoia of the adult world creeping in

MHTRTC: Dorothy
Geogaddi: Blanche
Campfire: Rose
TH: Sophia

MHTRTC - up
IABPOITC - down
Geogaddi - strange
Campfire - charm
Harvest - top
yet to come - bottom

Off topic but for the brief time in my life where I was smoking weed they were one of my favorite bands. Geogaddi and In a Beautiful place EP can be terrifying in the wrong mood tho. There's a definite loss of innocence im those.

In not im*

Very few artists are timeless for me but BOC definitely have that distinction.

'The Campfire Headphase' is PEAK them for me. What a perfect album. It sounds like camping out on a beautiful alien planet where you're the only inhabitants.

MHTRTC - Mushrooms
IABPOITC - Ayahuasca
Geogaddi - LSD
Campfire - Ecstacy
Harvest - Marihuana

MHTRTC - Mushrooms
IABPOITC - Ayahuasca
Geogaddi - LSD
Campfire - Ecstacy
Harvest - Marihuana

Haha yeah that would be something

Says something good about boc that there's no consensus about what their best is. I couldn't listen to Campfire Headphase more than once, but I must have listened to Tomorrow's Harvest a hundred times or more

yeah TH is a great sustained bit of mood music although it's perhaps a bit too long. I need to take a long walk oke day and listen to it properly.

Campfire is the one I really didn't get. Too many horrible-sounding acoustic guitars, not enough subliminals for me.

Geogaddi I own proudly on vinyl, so maybe my favourite. That said, it's a bit disjointed (and again feels quite long). I like the fact it's by far their darkest-sounding record but I think they push it too hard on Beware The Friendly Stranger, which I really don't like. That track taints the record for me a bit.

MHTRTC and IABPOITC are obviously indisputable classics. you just can't fuck with them and they still sound amazing nearly twenty years later

Campfire progressively became my favorite. I get the BoC turns MOR criticism but they really nailed on that one the psychedelic pastoralism that I love most about them. Harvest always left me cold but otoh I never spent much time with it

Geogaddi freaked me out as a teenager due to the vocal in "The Devil is in the Details". There's a creepy vocal that sounds like it's saying "ross", which is my name. This may sound cheesy but it made the record feel cursed to me

that might be my favorite track on Geogaddi now. didn't jump out at me for years, then maybe 5 years ago it just clicked. Really disturbing song, I love the tense/hesitant keyboard motif that runs throughout.

geogaddi best album

yeah geogaddi's the best

i like tomorrow's harvest a lot. not my favorite but still remarkable

Their first albums are the best for me. Geogaddi is objectively the best one but it's too dense for me I can't listen to it full.

Objectively? Bullshit.

Music Has the Right to Children and Geogaddi are the ones I'll return to whenever I'm in the mood for a Boards of Canada record - the others, not so much.

The worst thing I could say about Boards of Canada is that in IDM (or whatever) terms they're just not as exciting as peak Aphex or Autechre.

Geogaddi>MHTRTC>>TH>>>CH

The MHTRTC/twoism/hiscores/bocuma stuff is really really special, connecting with the universal consciousness type stuff.. The rest of the albums are fine idm

The worst thing I could say about Boards of Canada is that in IDM (or whatever) terms they're just not as exciting as peak Aphex or Autechre.

Aphex Twin is not inert or soulless some of his songs are more soulful than anything BOC has done. I agree with Autechre tho.

Saying Autechre is without soul is bonkers imo. I don't even know where to begin...

It treats melody like a repugnant fart

yesca not exactly otm but this rings true ... there is an acrid (?) quality to latter autechre and much aphex whereas BoC melodies, even at their darkest, are always classically harmonious and beautiful

imo comparing autechre / aphex / BoC is a three-way apples to oranges thing, they're each quite distinct

i meant classically melodious but there are beautiful harmonies in BoC too ... occurs to me that although autechre are not always melodious they are good w harmony too

Aphex has written some of the best melodies of all time wtf you crazy kids

yep

also some of the most grating ever

aphex and autechre both have a lot of formal and emotional range, something that is sometimes slightly lacking in BoC (the formal part more than the emotional part)

imo

someone like djp will probably show up and school me on my (mis)use of music terms

Yeah I should have been clear that I was referencing IDM all up rather than specifically Aphex Twin who mostly certainly has some memorable melodies and very exciting work. But he also has a ton of the kind of IDM-like compositions in his catalog (especially the releases since he's returned to public presence) that fit the bill of the stuff I don't enjoy at all.

imo comparing autechre / aphex / BoC is a three-way apples to oranges thing, they're each quite distinct

Agreed. I was just suggesting that BoC is what I put on way more than the other two. ;)

there is so much bad IDM!

i hate the word IDM by the way and have stopped using the term. now i call everything "electronica".

It's always been one of the worst genre names. I mean, just think about what it means: not only is it pretentious and judgmental, it also backfires because anyone who says "I want some INTELLIGENT dance music" is probably someone you would never, ever want to party with. :D

This said, everyone hates Electronica, Progressive House, Chillwave, and just about any other name you can think of so IDM isn't exactly unique but the class distinction built into the term elevates into the need fop a special level of derision.

i like electronica because 1) it's corny as hell and funny to use and 2) it is at least accurate in describing the common thread (electronic instruments) and 3) makes clear the connection to exotica and other hi fi music (inventive production, emphasis on mood, designed for listening and contemplation rather than dancing or singing along to)

i realize w/ #3 that i'm kind of out on a limb

and i use exotica v loosely (i would call, say, delia derbyshire and pierre henry a type of "exotica")

I also love "electronica" as a genre name. Agree with IDM, chillwave and almost every genre that has -core or -step suffix

Plone had great melodies but yeah they were more in tune with exotica/library music than IDM

I love Plone.

Anyway ... there have been times in my life where I'd have said Autechre were my "favourite band" and I have lots of time for Aphex, too. If I was told I could only listen to one of Boards/Aphex/Autechre ever again, it would be Boards, though.

I'm a sentimental guy and BoC is definitely a sentimental band so they'll always be my favorites. But apples and pears really

Objectively? Bullshit.

― Hey Bob (Scik Mouthy), domingo 20 de agosto de 2017 8:06 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah I know music is subjective not objective yadda yadda I was tired and I fucked up I meant to say that GEOGADDI seems to be the consensus pick. I personally think In a beautiful place is their best one but it's an EP so I guess it doesn't count. MHTRTC is my favorite LP of them.

EPs should count as best albums iMO

Rhythm in Autechre's music plays the same role that melody does for most other artists. That's why they are special to me. BOC are unique because they create emotion with texture, maybe.

Not being 'funny', but it's kind of amusing that we're still discussing IDM vs house/techno and also moaning about the term 'IDM' in a 2017 thread. 'IDM' is like the Godwin's Law of electronic music discussion. Once invoked, it's a rabbithole you can't back out of.

But whatever, I'll bite:

The case for 'IDM':
- Yes, it's a gross term and comes with way too many trappings
- That said, yes, all genre terms are shit. 'EDM' might not be so haughty but 'Electronic Dance Music' to describe a very specific brand of US-centric turn-of-the-decade brostep/bro-house crossover is also ridiculous
- For better or worse, there is often a need to distinguish between the kind of music made by Autechre/Aphex/BoC and co, and say the Prodigy, Todd Terje, Royksopp, Air, Rusko, Deadmaus or whoever, all of whom could be described as 'electronica' or 'electronic music'
- Therefore, for better or worse, I use the term 'IDM'. It is bollocks, but it's the commonly recognised (if not the commonly agreed) term

As for IDM vs house - I came to the latter from the former. I didn't understand 'regular' dance music because I came from a rock background and didn't enjoy clubs or dancing very much. But as 'home listening' music, the Warp Records stuff was what opened my eyes to the possibilities of electronic music beyond the dancefloor. The melodic element was a big part of that, but mostly it was the ideas. Each track had some sort of central 'hook', or more often a gimmick (a rhythm that sounds like a bouncing ball for example), and that's what I liked. I also liked how, especially in the case of Autechre, it often sounded like aliens or machines trying to communicate emotions that only they could feel, that human beings would have difficulty understanding, and therefore you'd have to meet them halfway. In essence, you had to 'work' a bit to get the most out of it.

Later in my life I started going to decent clubs and parties and discovered dance music, largely through techno, electro and minimal house, finding out that this music could be just as sophisticated and emotional as anything by Autechre or Aphex, but in quite a different way. It was more indulgent in that this music wasn't designed to make you do mental gymnastics. It was still 'intelligent' in its design; still brimming with cool ideas, but this was more in the way it tapped into the psychology of the dancefloor, in the way it worked for DJs and dancers. I don't want to use the word 'spoon-feeding' here, but ultimately club-style dance music comes to the listener and the listener meets it back through her emotional and physical response. IDM rewards deep listening - it usually doesn't work that well as a backdrop. As I say, you have to channel a certain amount of your concentration in order to get the most from it.

So perhaps 'Intelligent Dance Music' isn't such a misnomer, in that it relates to the active mental response required by IDM listener as opposed to a passive physical response typically desired by a house dancer.

Great post

Generally OTM but - Each track had some sort of central 'hook', or more often a gimmick (a rhythm that sounds like a bouncing ball for example) I not sure this is true at all. What are some other examples?

*I'm not sure

Maybe not EACH track, but very often there's a clear central device or concept to the best IDM tracks.
For me, peak IDM was when composers worked a bit like writers of short stories, asking themselves 'What if...?' and executing the results in just a short space of time.

Autechre and Aphex were especially good at this. Here are just a handful off the top of my head:

Autechre - Vose In: Squelchy harmonic pads fading in and out like someone turning the volume knob up and down really fast
Autechre - Fold4, Wrap5: Time is like water in a bucket
Aphex - Nannou: An impossible musical box
Aphex - Milkman: A 'proper song', and a rude one at that
Squarepusher - Cooper's World: A funky, chase-scene pastiche
Autechre - Arch Carrier: what if Knightrider, but with a an epic string quartet?
Aphex - Alberto Balsalm: 'Bet this wooden chair makes a cool noise. Oh wait, it does!'
Boards of Canada - Aquarius: 'Now I want you to count for me while I drill into your frontal lobe'
Aphex - 4: 'Richard?' 'Yeah'
Mu-Ziq - The Hwicci Song: Ravel goes big beat
Aphex - Ventolin: 'Now you know how much asthma sucks'
Aphex - Logon Rock Witch: Trapped in the toy cupboard

There's quite a wide remit here. In some cases it's just a sample or a strange noise that disrupts the track and makes it unique ('ROYGBIV', '4') It could be the pastiching of a genre ('Red Hot Car, 'Windowlicker') for the length of one track, to signify (ir)reverence to that genre or play about with its parameters. Or speaking of parameters, in the case of Autechre it's an interesting algorithm that shows a through line from the idea to the execution (a lot of stuff around the LP5 / EP7 era does this).

I dunno seems like you're taking vibes or images the tracks give you and reading those as 'gimmicks', which is not a way I've ever interpreted this music! The playfulness is cool, but with the best 'IDM' artists it's always subservient to a greater (often quite serious) vision and not the raison d'etre of the tunes.

"IDM" is like "prog", you could write a book about why the term is dumb and pretentious but if you describe something as "IDM" I have a good idea of what it'll sound like already which is all a genre label needs to do

i dunno if Aphex had a big, serious vision. felt more like his tracks were self-contained ideas, or at least until more recently where he seems to have collated his 'style' into something more cohesive (which is where I started losing interest). Seems to have happened to a lot of these acts - BoC being a case in point where the last two albums seem to go for a more sustained mood with few great shifts in style between tracks. Maybe that's a subjective perception, but I never thought of IDM as a set 'sound' (like electro or trance) and more an electronic genre in its own right, quite apart from (but still clearly influenced by) dance-music. I couldn't tell you what IDM sounds like, it's more the functionality behind it, in that one would treat it more as a form of art-rock or art-pop than a dance subgenre

The label 'home listening electronica' was proposed as an alternative to 'IDM' but that's just a cumbersome, and I've listened to IDM stuff outside of a domestic setting. I've seen it performed live and in clubs etc (and likewise I've listened to dance music at home, while walking around etc), so that's not quite right, although 'home listening electronica' gets closer to the essential difference between IDM and dance music

Oh, there's a very definite set of 'sounds' I associate with IDM. It has wider parameters than most other electronic genres, by its very nature, but its producers have more in common stylistically than just a spirit of experimentation or whatever.

disagree!

yeah, i have to say i disagree too. Boards of Canada don't sound like Kid606 doesn't sound like Plaid don't sound like Two Lone Swordsmen, all of whom I associate with IDM to one extent or another. I Think one of the reasons the genre started to flag a bit c2003 was that a glut of producers had started to do precisely this by mimicking their heroes and forebears and making music that sounded generically 'IDM'; kind of in the same way Nickelback and Puddle of Mudd took all the hallmarks of grunge and mashed them together into something 'grunge-sounding' but beige and not half as interesting as Nirvana or Pearl Jam or Alice In Chains, all of whom sounded pretty distinct from each other.

i disagree w some of what you said too but yr posts were essay length and i don't have time for detailed response rn

soon though i promise

;-)

i'm not gonna post a rebuttal because obviously a lot of it is personal but i approach it in a different way

what's funny is i think of FSOL as totally "electronica" rather than IDM, although you just know they would rather ppl labeled them the latter hahaha

For better or worse, there is often a need to distinguish between the kind of music made by Autechre/Aphex/BoC and co, and say the Prodigy, Todd Terje, Royksopp, Air, Rusko, Deadmaus or whoever, all of whom could be described as 'electronica' or 'electronic music'

... why? especially when we've already established that autechre, boards and aphex don't have much in common except label and fans?

wouldn't it be more accurate to say there is a continuum of electronica, w/ artists like prodigy, royksopp, air, terje, autechre, aphex, BoC at different points?

Each track had some sort of central 'hook', or more often a gimmick

this is why i like comparing electronica to exotica or other hi fi novelty music

It was more indulgent in that this music wasn't designed to make you do mental gymnastics. It was still 'intelligent' in its design; still brimming with cool ideas, but this was more in the way it tapped into the psychology of the dancefloor, in the way it worked for DJs and dancers. I don't want to use the word 'spoon-feeding' here, but ultimately club-style dance music comes to the listener and the listener meets it back through her emotional and physical response. IDM rewards deep listening - it usually doesn't work that well as a backdrop. As I say, you have to channel a certain amount of your concentration in order to get the most from it.

ok i'm not trying to flame you here but we're largely having the same discussions about IDM because you're still saying some silly stuff i thought we'd moved past

club-style dance music comes to the listener and the listener meets it back through her emotional and physical response.

well you can't have it both ways. the music can't come to the listener AND the listener meet it back

IDM rewards deep listening - it usually doesn't work that well as a backdrop.

i don't know wtf u are doing in the club but when i am dancing i am way more attuned to the music than when i put on autechre in the background. as tim finney used to say, the dancer listens w every muscle in their body

It was more indulgent in that this music wasn't designed to make you do mental gymnastics.

why is music that forces you to do physical and spiritual gymnastics more indulgent than music designed to make you do mental gymnastics?

also why are we even privileging the idea of any sort of gymnastics here? since when was music about doing taste gymnastics? and why NOT be indulgent when listening to music? isn't it a sensual pleasure? or is it just a masochistic test of who can do the most rigorous mental gymnastics in reaction to a sound? (just remembered we're on ILM so don't answer that)

As I say, you have to channel a certain amount of your concentration in order to get the most from it.

also i forget that europeans don't actually dance

before you flame me back I'VE WATCHED BOILER ROOM all you all do is bop aimlessly in place

active mental response required by IDM listener as opposed to a passive physical response typically desired by a house dancer.

active mental vs passive physical

sigh

NERD ALERT

It could be the pastiching of a genre ('Red Hot Car, 'Windowlicker') for the length of one track, to signify (ir)reverence to that genre or play about with its parameters.

which is something that music producers of all genres have been doing forever in all sorts of music (pick a genre if you want examples)

The label 'home listening electronica' was proposed as an alternative to 'IDM' but that's just a cumbersome

i am surprised you have a problem w/ more words as opposed to fewer

. I couldn't tell you what IDM sounds like, it's more the functionality behind it, in that one would treat it more as a form of art-rock or art-pop than a dance subgenre

now this i actually agree w/ which is why i am so surprised that you would draw a sharp dividing line between, say, BoC and Air

Yeah, definitely not feeling this mind-body dichotomizing of electronic musics.

For me, peak IDM was when composers worked a bit like writers of short stories, asking themselves 'What if...?' and executing the results in just a short space of time.

Autechre and Aphex were especially good at this. Here are just a handful off the top of my head:

this is gross and unmusical

But also yes to the idea of defining the difference by their respective *functions*. I think that's fair. Just as chamber music has different characteristics from orchestral music, because one is designed to be listened to in a chamber and the other in a concert hall, so house music and IDM are going to have different characteristics because one is designed for the club and the other is for headphones, although of course there is going to be blurring and overlap. And there is IDM that's stupid as shit, and house that's smart as shit.

I couldn't tell you what IDM sounds like, it's more the functionality behind it, in that one would treat it more as a form of art-rock or art-pop than a dance subgenre

I've seen it performed live and in clubs etc (and likewise I've listened to dance music at home, while walking around etc),

ok so here you contradict yourself by first making it about the author's intention and then making it about the reader's response, you have to pick one or accept that both are insufficient to draw genre lines

i'm totally against using intention or use to put music in categories, it just creates social hierarchies and turns criticism into faux sociology

i'd rather focus on formal properties

which is partly because i don't know a whole lot about formal properties of music so it frees me from the pressure to interpret while also focusing me back on appreciating the actual music rather than judging the scene / culture / listeners that produced the music

sorry DL i guess i did end up doing a rebuttal

nothing personal, please forgive my playful digs

which is partly because i don't know a whole lot about formal properties of music so it frees me from the pressure to interpret while also focusing me back on appreciating the actual music rather than judging the scene / culture / listeners that produced the music

this is pretty much my relationship with all things on earth. it's pretty cool except the part where no one takes you seriously about anything (not a sick burn, i'm right there with you). and even the warm feeling of appreciating the actual music in a primordial way eventually runs into problems because there will be some professor of Appreciating music in a Casual Way, phd that knows how to express their casual appreciation in a way that cannot be responded to on the same level

the person listening to music decides how to treat it "as is" - if any IDM track makes me feel like dancing, its function has been defined by me. How you get to a feeling of dancing via house music or IDM seems largely irrelevant to me, it's like assuming music has a universal function when it's up to the interpreter. kind of with late great here

i'm not articulating great here but i think music shouldn't be sorted into neat function categories

there will be some professor of Appreciating music in a Casual Way, phd that knows how to express their casual appreciation in a way that cannot be responded to on the same level

oh GOD i hope that's not how i come off

;_;

great post Karl

no no no no

i'm a few martinis deep and i only skipped to the last few posts and read them before weighing in, because that's definitely the way a good ilxor operates

sorry, i really didn't mean anything at all about anything. i just saw something that i identified with (not being an expert on something but still feeling passionate about it) and was trying to sympathize in a really weird way

don't worry, i don't know if you're a dr, but you're not a dr of appreciating music in a Casual Way in the way that i described! haha

who wants a martini, basically

i'll drink to that

bong hits in dog latin's honor

Remembering the names of my records is tough enough don't make me have to worry about genres too! This sounds like an attack on reverie by the forces of bureaucracy

*falls down the stairs*

boards of canada!

orange

all are guilty

my friend criticised me over the weekend because i said a lobster theremin record wasn't electro because it wasn't 130+ bpm

tbf to myself the claps were on 1 and 3

i try to be open to new things but i will never be open to downbeats on 1 and 3, come on

cheers Karl

i'm pouring one out for you all, and by that i mean drinking it

i try to be open to new things but i will never be open to downbeats on 1 and 3, come on

i meant backbeats! aw jeez

now i've lost all credibility

you're sunk

boc remixes rule

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKZxR6PpZJo

i'm just listening to their midas touch remix

you know what, fuck it, i'm doubling down. i will never be open to downbeats on 1 and 3. yeah i said it

mhtrtc: after the sunset
iabpoitc: rafting and foosballing down the river outside of time
g: nighttime, a car, slows, circles the campground, and drives off. maybe the park ranger
ch: getting the gear together and riding the bus up to the take off point
th: hangover drive home

lol

they salvaged that nevermen remix

Maybe instead of calling it IDM we should call it "Chairgroove" or something like "Algorythmic Dance Music".

It's kind of a useless term because the original wave of artists changed a lot between ambient, breakdance, downtempo, noise sometimes even in the same record and they range from cyberpunk to pastoralism in their aesthetics. I don't see how AFX and BOC should be piled in the same collective.

That said if someone tries to describe me what the "IDM" sounds like I thinl of a spacey pad, a beat with fast transients that doesn't fit into the standard rhythmic pattern of other established electronic genres, and possibly an acid influenced synth line.

yeah and Plaid are also out on their own as well. Good post Moka

man i was just kidding afaik there is no music w/ claps on 1 and 3

whatever man, whatever

i rather like chairgroove

but i feel like i killed an important conversation here

dog latin (and other people) i would like to know your thoughts

I try and keep these ephemeral flights of fancy contained in one or two threads but this now like feels a suitable temporary home for this waywardly optimistic charmer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jNyqIWm_Dg

A+

I believe in Braindance?

Holy shizz is that your work saer? Do you Bandcamp? It's WONDERFUL.

"Chairgroove" made me laugh out loud

i associate braindance w/ a specific sound: aphex, ovuca, global goon, etc

drill and bass w/ floaty, fuzzy, wistful pads

it is a good word though

seat-ronica

sofa'n'bass

Holy shizz is that your work saer? Do you Bandcamp? It's WONDERFUL.

― attention vampire (MatthewK),

Its not one of mine, its by Lizz. Don't think this gone is going to be released though.There are a couple more Lizz track on the bobbins of 2017 thread

Thanks for informing my ignorance - one to check out thanks.

Simon Reynolds on the 20th anniversary of Music has the Right to Children...

https://pitchfork.com/features/article/why-boards-of-canadas-music-has-the-right-to-children-is-the-greatest-psychedelic-album-of-the-90s/

I think that was discussed on some other thread a few months ago when it was published

(Was 3 months ago but someone retweeted so came up in my timeline). Good read

missed that initially so thanks for sharing

Sounds like early them (and this is a series by artists not revealing who they are, it might well be some old track of theirs) : https://touched.bandcamp.com/track/november-air

i must catch up with those Touched comps (although all the anon stuff makes maintaining a digital collection difficult)

meanwhile, what is this? a new trendy compilation with a lot of Boards and other warp artists?

Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy
Boards of Canada - Peacock Tail
Bibio - The First Daffodils
Jon Hopkins - Singularity
Four Tet - Peace for Earth
Boards of Canada - Corsair
Jon Hopkins - The Wider Sun
Four Tet - Memories
Max Richter - Shadow Journal
Stars of the Lid - Requiem For Dying Mothers (Part 1)
Orbital - Dwr Budur
Clark - Petroleum Tinged
Pete Fowler - Barred Growl
Boards of Canada - Ready Lets Go
Air - Alone in Kyoto
Chilly Gonzales - Carnivalse
Richard James - Space Instrumental
Slowdive - Falling Ashes
Philip Glass - String Quartet no 2 "Company", last movement
Max Richter - Cd2 01 A Catalogue of Afternoons
Black Sabbath - Orchid
Beck - Cycle
Aphex Twin - Jynweythek
Four Tet - Alap
Boards of Canada - Uritual
Stars of the Lid - Broken Harbors (Part 3)
Cliff Martinez - On The Beach
Cliff Martinez - They Broke His Pelvis
Richard David James - Selected Ambient Works Volume 2 - Untitled 12
Plaid - Do Matter
Jon Hopkins - Emerald Rush
Daft Punk - Solar Sailer

(no, it's an episode of BBC4's Hidden Wales - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bsrhh2 lots of these clips are tiny, a few seconds, and low in the mix.)

jeez, that's either a boards of canada song or somebody took advantage of their anonymity to do the most on-the-nose boards of canada rip ever

I was watching that programme about Wales and was really amused at how much of my record collection kept turning up in it

also: R.I.P. https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/prominent-kanai-elder-pete-standing-alone-dead-at-90

That track, someone on Reddit claims it sounds more like Tycho than it does BoC (so... Tycho probably sounds a lot like early BoC)

Something about the filter in the drums sounds kind of generic for them, and the vinyl crackle effect also doesn't seem like something they'd do. But maybe that's why it wasn't released under their name. 50p on it being a very well done pastiche.

the stuff it's being compared to - tycho, the twoism mailing list comps - they don't sound as much like boc to me as this does. certainly as many fakes as boc fans have heard i'd be inclined to go under the assumption that anything that sounds like boc isn't. all i can say is that it sounds like boc circa "music has the right to children" and it's a great listen.

ROYGBIV now reminds me as much of the time and place I first heard MHTRTC as it does some indistinct moment in 1976.

I live in California and the fact that the smell of campfire smoke now has a sinister undertone is the most Boards of Canada thing ever. Tomorrow's Harvest indeed.

In 20 mins - https://artists.wxaxrxp.net/boardsofcanada

Thanks!

Just tuned in. On a train.

What's this rueful glam-prog thing just after Devo?

First of many ID requests no doubt.

Ppl are trying to work it out, nothing coming up so far, the one that sounds a bit like 10CC or the first Peter Gabriel solo record?

I wondered if it was Jobriath but I think probably not.

https://youtu.be/ouP2A0aMR-4

I see it's ID'd in a playlist on YouTube. Dude from mid 70s Amom Düül II. Shoulda guessed!

Found it yeah, Stefan Zauner, Discogs says 1978, it sounds exactly like something from Peter Gabriel II, even the production.

has this been archived anywhere for replay?

https://rareboc.ax.lt/23-21_00-Boards_of_Canada_2hr_complete.mp3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXV1dsx5yfs

nice, thanks!

Look out for the lovely Hell Interface style edit of Slave To The Rhythm/Just An illusion/Aquarius

The These Trails song is pretty wonderful. Shout out to man like Dave Choy on synthesiser and (presumably) vocal trmolo effects.

Head's up: poster Ledge has graced us with a link to a torrent of the whole shebang!

Crikey!

I've always been a stan of these guys but have never been much interested in remixes by anyone, ever. The ones I've caught on spotify are a fucking revolution, esp in observation that the source material I found to be sonic duds. Intentional choices, if I want to give the elusive duo a bit of ego. I don't mind.

whoooo!!!

Man this radio mix is great

"The (1998 Peel session) radio broadcast contained an additional track, "XYZ", which was originally included on the EP, but soon removed due to sample licensing issues, meaning that original copies of the CD containing "XYZ" are extremely rare."

I did not know this. It's going to be re-released with the track reinstated, it just came up on spotify - *chef's kiss*

I don't think XYZ was ever on the commercially released EP, not even for a short time. Discogs says there are like 5 handmade CDRs with the track which were made by the band themselves.

I've never heard XYZ without John Peel's introduction for it. Has one of the greatest BoC intros/buildups I've heard this side of Dayvan Cowboy, but the release sadly isn't there for me. Still a solid track and worth hearing again though.

have heard this on the radio twice in the last week. what's the sample?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0008yjy

(the other time was late junction, RIP)

"it would be like Samoa" by Edgar Froese, iirc

Man this radio mix is great

― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Thursday, 27 June 2019 14:58 bookmarkflaglink

Finally got round to listening to this (in fact I still am) and yes, it's wonderful! Perfect for today - spring outside, so i've got the windows open, and it's perfect for this sort of airy quarantine.

Best mix of last year for me

I'm sort of tempted to listen to Tomorrow's Harvest but I'm worried it'll freak me out

Out on the hills in on the beers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QTGyjQ_2lE

Tomorrow's Harvest gives me big end of the world vibes, so yeah, probably skipping that for now.

It's disconcerting at the best of times

Drinking in the sun on my terrasse in eerie silence brings strong ‘In a Beautiful Place..’ vibes

Played Tomorrow's Harvest while driving through Death Valley and the Mojave desert a month ago in February. It's definitely not an upper, but damn it sure does fit the scenery (which was influenced by them, of course - SF's cityline and the Mojave are the visual motifs for the record).

I wonder, is something brewing or is it just one of those periodic phases where the fanz are flapping their feathers...

Any potential clue dropped?

oh hey, happy saturday morning, BoC topic! you're looking well.

XP - Discussion is arising about an insta account, thought to be an official one, gone on a liking spree including liking any comments related to new music inquiries.

Unless they put out a total outta left field thing like a psych-pop vocal album (would love) I think that with “Tomorrow’s Harvest” they’ve done their duty for our current moment in time.

that's a rather bleak conception of "their duty". i'm not sure i've ever heard a record that was a more open invitation to mass suicide, and i've heard some of chris korda's records.

I had a church of euthanasia bumper sticker on my car for a good ten years & I'm still here

i'm not sure i've ever heard a record that was a more open invitation to mass suicide,
― Kate (rushomancy), Saturday, August 15, 2020 12:24 PM

This is intriguing. Care to expound?

xpost bleak times, soundtrack for

that s/b and xxpost to kate

I’d be so down for a soundcloud dump of early shit

no soundcloud dump, official release!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmOCvON8BuE

I need to go and listen to those 'A Few Old Tunes' comps again soon.

ah yeah of course! I got all those from the bocpages, whittled it down to the stuff I like. guess I just yearn for a galaxy of bocumas and skimming stones and carcans etc

White Cyclosa is one of their most unsettling tracks but also I reckon the main melody is the same as in this Stargate SG-1 cue.

Can be heard at 3:24 here:

https://youtu.be/FqqKJhN8fZo

This is intriguing. Care to expound?

― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin)

i don't know how to expound. do you _not_ feel the crushing weight of utter and complete hopelessness, despair, and futility when you listen to it? do you check it out and go "yeah that's some sick jamz alright"?

Not exactly. . . but I guess I should say that I sort of get that vibe from most of BoC's music. Some of it less so, to be certain, but Tomorrow's Harvest doesn't strike me as especially so in that regard.

Sidebar, but I often consider it as maybe their best overall record. But that's like picking a favorite ice cream flavor for me; even my least favorites are still pretty good and satisfying.

Would very much love to hear some new music from them — especially this year. It would be fantastic if they did release new music and, through doing so, finally exposed the fact that they have been communicating with their home world with their music this entire time and the aliens finally show up. Because if that's going to be the case with any music makers out there, I want it to be them.

☺

All the crazy marketing stuff, pre Tomorrow's Harvest, was fun, I remember watching some live-streamed video clip that was broadcast from a screen near the Shibuya crossing in Tokyo, sharing in the excitement of the people that had gathered there to watch some daft little video snippet late in the evening.

Oh, and Elvis Telecom going out to the weird desert playback session too...!

It would be fantastic if they did release new music and, through doing so, finally exposed the fact that they have been communicating with their home world with their music this entire time and the aliens finally show up. Because if that's going to be the case with any music makers out there, I want it to be them.

― Totally different head. Totally. (Austin)

you and i are coming from very different headspaces, my friend