Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest (2013)

yeah this is dope

Mildly interesting titbit... the boxes from the pressing plant that the LPs came in were labelled 'James - Classics', for purposes of secrecy, I guess.

CD was in my local CD shop yesterday, in a special edition with post cards.

(Had pre-ordered from Warp though).

Where do you live?

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/US_carriers_at_Alameda_1974_%28colour%29.jpg

"Thank you for pre-ordering 'Tomorrow's Harvest' by Boards Of Canada
We are pleased to inform you that the MP3 album has been delivered to your Bleep account."

And that on International Boards Of Canada day too! - we may even harvest the actual CD from our mail box tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm8yp2auPzw

CDs & LPs arrived with us in the shop in Glasgow on Friday.

free WAV & FLAC for everyone who preordered the vinyl or cd:

http://www.facebook.com/BleepBot/posts/10151622404087829

bleep.com downloads are struggling at the moment though, unsurprisingly

Was away last week and arrived home Saturday morning to the CD (+ art cards) on doormat. Only had a couple of chances to listen properly; first go on the main stereo reduced 4-month old baby son to tearful sobs during "Cold Earth", so I left it until he'd gone to visit Grandma today to crank it up again. Initial thoughts: mostly very good, and in places truly magnificent. Immaculately produced, which I expected I guess, but it *sounds* better than almost anything I've heard this year - beautiful placement of sounds and some ace sub-bass dotted around. As with all their stuff I'll need a few goes to really take it in, but "New Seeds" is getting a lot of repeat plays (stupendous key change therein), "Come to Dust" too.

There were a few albums I was really looking fwd to this year: MBV, Daft Punk, Low, and Phoenix. I'm getting a distinct feeling that this is better than any of them.

I insisted on trawling the shops for it on Saturday with my two-year-old son who was (shamefully) placated with a strawberry ice cream (and didn't mind listening to it when we got in). But now I've realised that I haven't got the poster or sticker and I'm a bit annoyed. Someone tell me that they're not that good and I'll be happier.

If it were going without the Geogaddi kaleidoscope that would be one thing but a poster and a sticker ... you won't miss them.

http://bocpages.org/wiki/Promotional_Items - nah, not worth getting annoyed over

Yeah, you're right.

what is the story w the art cards? special gift for people who preordered from warp?

They are (also) available in the version you can buy from independent record shops. 'Indie exclusive art card edition' is how we were billed it.

boomkat had the special edition at the same price as the normal edition but sold out in the time it took me to read the email...

Yeah, it is the same price.

just picked up the artcard edition at my local independent for £9.99. might leave it sealed and stick to the mp3s at least until i can play it on a decent system.

(The art cards don't really add much)

I think I like this ... by which I mean I don't dislike it but haven't been sucked into Boards of Canada-world completely yet. Really like the odd track but haven't begun caring about meaning or anything (around the time of Geogaddi, I cared what all the tracks were *about*).

had an opportunity to drop by the shop earlier but the shipment hasn't shown up yet. manager was kind enough to give me a download card but i sort of want to listen to the physical thing.

i don't want to hear it through computer speakers before i hear it properly

anyone in the US received the record yet?

Off three listens, this feels closest to the Beautiful Place EP to me. Really good.

Don't give a fuck what it's 'about' but I never did with any of their records, so that's fine; their music invites extreme solipsism from the listener, as far as I'm concerned, so who gives a damn what anyone else thinks it's about or what it means. That almost seems counter-intuitive.

I guess I'm interested in what it means to them but will equally apply my own meanings or uses.

Or will, perhaps, at some point, be interested in what it means to them.

really wish sick times, instead of petering out prematurely, returned with that propulsive beat, w/added flesh and some type of melodic/harmonic resolution or change. only track that really leaves me hanging.

I think this might be my favourite BoC album (after two listens). I feel it would be good to listen to both in summer and in winter

listened to this whilst biking home at 11pm on an unusually foggy night and it was perfect

heh - that sounds a bit scary actually!

Why I'll be... someone on Twoism suddenly noticed this anagram: palace posy = apocalypse

There's a connection between the song titles, isn't there? But what is it exactly? (is it from the last track to the first?)

sadly my newish job does not allow me to indulge in Twoism code-breaking and analysis - curious to see what's gonna come out!

http://www.thefader.com/2013/06/11/by-the-numbers-boards-of-canadas-tomorrows-harvest-lp/

Unlike Sick Mouthy, I lap this stuff up. They've clearly thought hard about the record's themes so why not engage with them?

huh. today i learned what a "weird number" is!

My vinyl LP arrived from Bleep right on US release here in Denver. Very satisfied with that. Unfortunately, getting the package scared the shit out of me when I saw the huge fold in the corner - it translated into the innards, which aren't at the point of showing white creases but are albeit still is very noticeable.

Sick Times is such a simple, but so effective head rush. It is great for walking anywhere, as all BoC is.

Those creases are unique and one of a kind and could make you $$$$ in a couple of years!

i also learned about weird numbers from boc

and now i know about cyclosa spiders

these guys are the best

New interview w/ NYtimes, roughly akin to that Guardian one

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/12/arts/music/tomorrows-harvest-by-boards-of-canada.html?emc=tnt&tntemail0=y&_r=1&

The reviews would have been very different if these interviews had been published a week or so earlier, in the same way that Burial reviews were shaped by the Hyperdub press release - all Ballard, drowned cities and deserted pirate radio stations.

Unlike Sick Mouthy, I lap this stuff up. They've clearly thought hard about the record's themes so why not engage with them?

― Deafening silence (DL), Tuesday, 11 June 2013 18:00 (Yesterday) Permalink

I agree. Trying to decipher BoC on a conceptual/cryptological level is a big part of the fun for me.

Obviously you can take an album any way you want to but the ideas here seem fundamental to the sound and structure, not just arbitrary window-dressing. I like the attempt to make instrumental music say something specific, even if there are enough gaps and ambiguities to allow for alternative readings.

This is why I found it so mind-boggling when people said they liked Campfire Headphase so much because this aspect of BoC was largely subtracted from that record. To me it sounded gutted, hollowed-out - still BoC on a superficial level but with the insides removed.

sort of hilarious how obvious the escape from NY ripoff is at the start of one of the newies. lovely lp though.

This album would make a great alternate soundtrack to the 1984 nuclear-horror 'Threads'.

And from reading the interviews above, this is probably something they were riffing off. Also the poem 'Scale of Intensity' by Don Paterson evokes a lot on this:

The Scale of Intensity

1) Not felt. Smoke still rises vertically. In sensitive individuals, déjà vu, mild amnesia. Sea like a mirror.

2) Detected by persons at rest or favourably placed, i.e. in upper floors, hammocks, cathedrals, etc. Leaves rustle.

3) Light sleepers wake. Glasses chink. Hairpins, paperclips display slight magnetic properties. Irritability. Vibration like passing of light trucks.

4) Small bells ring. Small increase in surface tension and viscosity of certain liquids. Domestic violence. Furniture overturned.

5) Heavy sleepers wake. Pendulum clocks stop. Public demonstrations. Large flags fly. Vibration like passing of heavy trucks.

6) Large bells ring. Bookburning. Aurora visible in daylight hours. Unprovoked assaults on strangers. Glassware broken. Loose tiles fly from roof.

7) Weak chimneys broken off at roofline. Waves on small ponds, water turbid with mud. Unprovoked assaults on neighbours. Large static charges built up on windows, mirrors, television screens.

8) Perceptible increase in weight of stationary objects: books, cups, pens heavy to lift. Fall of stucco and some masonry. Systematic rape of women and young girls. Sand craters. Cracks in wet ground.

9) Small trees uprooted. Bathwater drains in reverse vortex. Wholesale slaughter of religious and ethnic minorities. Conspicuous cracks in ground. Damage to reservoirs and underground pipelines.

10) Large trees uprooted. Measurable tide in puddles, teacups, etc. Torture and rape of small children. Irreparable damage to foundations. Rails bend. Sand shifts horizontally on beaches.

11) Standing impossible. Widespread self-mutilation. Corposant visible on pylons, lampposts, metal railings. Waves seen on ground surface. Most bridges destroyed.

12) Damage total. Movement of hour hand perceptible. Large rock masses displaced. Sea white.