Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest (2013)

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.

'every sinister electronic lp would make a great alternate soundtrack to every sinister film'

Would have been awesome if they got John Carpenter to just talk about his rudimentary but radical synth work on top of one of the tracks.

hah

thanks for posting that poem, dog latin!

no worries. i really like it. thinking of setting it to music for a performance on saturday actually.

Bit of a there-I-said-it but this really is AOTY material and the best thing they've ever done I think.

goaty aoty

I should be clear; I've absolutely nothing against other people going down the numerological rabbit hole and decoding cyphers (or deciphering codes or whatever); I've just not really got the brain for that kind of thing; I don't do crosswords (especially cryptic) or puzzles or stuff like that at all (much to my mother's dismay), and BoC's music to me has always been very sensual / emotional (more than enough to really, really enjoy it) without needing to get into the patterns and hidden references and so on.

just ordered this: http://www.canuxploitation.com/review/deadlyharvest.html

The scariest part of the film? The soundtrack by John Mills Cockell is downright creepy, switching between eerie synth, lumbering keyboards and maudlin piano themes with alarming impropriety.

same John Mills Cockell of Syrinx and INTERSYSTEMS

bored of canada
why the hell did i buy this album? boc are on autopilot here. i can' stand the ominous, swirling sound anymore. the crescendoes make me think of godspeed, a band i'd rather never listen to again in my life. there is also something totalitarian wagner-like in their heavy music which used to attract me in the past. the melodic parts are just too beautiful, too glistening. they seem to waste their time trying to hide a deep, mysterious meaning under their more and more generic music which simply isn't there. it's just totally hollow and daft. they do not advance. they have their complex recipe which always yields the same thick soup. the first time it was very tasty but it has become lukewarm and stale by now. i can't take them anymore. the worst is the counting and number-dropping. how bloody unoriginal. it would have been ok to do it once but it seems to be an essential part of their shtick. this album is not only superfluous and repetitive like hell, it is simply awful pretentious rubbish. i still cannot forgive myself that their marketing and this thread lured me into buying the cd.

Lol, where did you find that?

on ilx

This is number 3 in the UK midweek charts (behind Black Sabbath and Beady Eye!!) which is a bit surprising considering the last album made number 41. It seems like taking a long break is a good way to get a high charting album these days. The Avalanches should be looking at a number 1 album when/if they come back.

^poll

Geeta's review: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/music_box/2013/06/boards_of_canada_s_tomorrow_s_harvest_reviewed.html

geeta's such a great writer. that's a wonderful review for an audience that expands beyond the usual music-nerd crowd. so jealous of the talent of so many ilxors!

aww. thanks, guys!

Despite the myriad directions that electronic music has gone since the 1990s, and the many who have matched—or perhaps exceeded—their vision, their music still has lasting power. No one sounds exactly like they do.

who have 'exceeded' their vision?

the teleology implicit in that idea doesn't seem very plausible

someone's vision could be to eat a single cracker. but then they eat two.

they might have matched—or perhaps exceeded—the original in one aspect but they haven't exceeded its vision

zzzzz

nb that was a reply to markers

the review condenses all of the main tropes about boards of canada but it doesn't do anything more than that, which is maybe fair enough in the context of slate.com

jeezus christ "nilmar" "honorato" "da" "silva" wtf is wrong with you

lol you are such a little fuckboy

anyway, sorry to highlight geeta's awesome review and then provoke the inevitable reflexive ilx asshole response

yeah it's just people maybe exploring ideas beyond 'so jealous of the talent of so many ilxors!' reacharound dogshit

what an asshole

people people why are we fighting?

tlg have you heard this yet?

a tru wildcard