Where are you guys at with BoC?
For me, this is probably the most prolific artists Warp has ever signed. I’ve listened to these dudes for years, on all mediums. I’ve studied the fuck out of them and they stand the test of time as the best in a genre that I can’t even describe. Let’s talk some shit, whats up with these Scottish dudes?
Whats your favorite album, track, what makes them so fucking good?
I’ll kick this off with one of my favorites (because I could never pick one) -
I hate to reply to my own thread, but…
I’m curious to see what anyone has to say about “Tomorrow’s Harvest”… their latest album. I keep going back to it…
Thanks for reminding me about those guys!
For some reason I never got round to listening to their music, - but I realise that this is probably a mistake.
hmm…
Just ordered a CD copy of Tomorrow’s Harvest. It’ll take a few days to get here, but I’ll try to get back here and let you know what I think about it later.
I have spent many nights intoxicating in dark waters of the bath and candle lit mentality spinning their vinyls… definitely report back…
It was an 8 year gap between Campfire Headphase and Harvest… which came out in 2013. We are so overdue for a new album.
There has to be some fellow IDMf’ers that adore this project as much. They are truly one of the greatest electronic projects of our time.
BoC is life.
Tape machines, saturation, messed up phases, spectral morphing, freq band split, filters, time stretch, pitchshifting,…etc
Great composers…but I feel that the secret mystery of their synthesis methods have been cracked…still great songs though…
Wish vsnares or vaetxh would collab with boc though
That’d be great, but I don’t think they would. They are pretty private dudes. In one of the few interviews they’ve done, I remember them talking about they have a few albums worth of material that is literally to remain entirely private that they will give to their children after they die. Kind of interesting.
I really love just some of the beatless interludes they have. Super immersive.
B.O.C , 1 of my favorite artist ever, so emotional, viby stuff, sometimes intricate, i just love their music. They are on my top 4 artists of all time, yeah i go that far, on my top 4. There’s something with their overall sound i just can’t explain … Tomorrow’s Harvest is genius !!
The thing that beats the shit out of me is how I never heard of them till this thread on the old boards a year or so back. Actually listened to their albums first time this year. Bearing in mind I was listening to ambient, orb, etc since the ater 80’s how the hell had I never heard of them til now! Beats the shit out of me…
I like them a lot. I don’t get the fan-boy-ism over them with some folks, but its good music to chill out to.
Exactly that. But a good chill out dose is like good drugs. Shit just nails a vibe super hard.
I had a great shrooms trip with bath candles and hot water, throwing down their shit really hit the cloud. You know how certain artists get that.
Yea, I don’t know why I phrased it that way? I always think BoC is newer than they are. Considering when their earliest big releases came out, there wasn’t a ton like it at the time. For a while there though at least on gear oriented sites half a quarter of the talk was “what hardware for BoC sound” and I’m like…ya’ll can have the same studio and you will never nail the texture of their music.
I dunno what I’m saying really. BoC is good shit and IDMf is the only reason I listen to them, so thanks : )
Yeah now that you mention it there was definitely a slew of discussions talking about their production. I mean they use a lot of vintage stuff, tape saturation, analog delay… but… it’s nothing “new”.
I guess it’s just newly invented. they have a style, it’s cool - why does everyone want to copy it? Let it ride…
as for their drum machines, I have no idea. They are just a good band. Kind of like a electronic Floyd.
Could be my favorite BoC song… The way the melody and trip-step beat dives in with the metallic snare. So fucking dope.
Bit of background first so you know where i’m at…
Years back i was a vinyl junkie collected house/techno music from 89 to 93 but by 93 i started getting tired of the whole 4x4 dance music scene, its then i starting buying more experimental downtempo music , in 94 i bought DJ Shadows “what does your soul look like” on Mo’ wax records (it was awesome) that got me into collecting Mo’ wax and on Mo’wax records you tended to get a few Drum & Bass remixes which in turn gave me a taste for drum and bass, i spend 94 to 97 mainly collecting instrumental hiphop and Drum and bass.
I got a few Black Dog EP’s in 1990/91 that i played at parties at come down time, them thing got me into the downtempo stuff.
In 1997 i heard “Le Soleil Est Près De Moi” by French band “AIR” that blew my mind (i still have a sealed copy) and i managed to buy all their back catalogue by the time Moon Safari was released a year later i was pretty gutted as it had vocal tracks on it and up till then “AIR” were always an instrumental outfit, but i grew to like those vocal tracks
“Snooze - The Man in the shadow” was also an awesome 1997 release.
and while all this is going on I’ve already got a healthy obsession for “Zero 7” and “Lamb”, Lamb’s 1996 debut album was fucking ground breaking there was nothing outhere like it, Zero 7s rare 1997 EPs were mind blowing too.
Anyway come 1998 and i’m in the record shop doing my usual vinyl junkie thing when i came across “Boards of canada - Music has a right to children” double album and i bought it simply because i liked the cover.
I got home put it on my decks and found it unlistenable, don’t forget this was 1998 this type of music simply wasn’t about back then. The album must of sat in my bedroom for about six months, then one day i tried it again and the track “telephasic workshop” started doing it for me, listened to that track in my car for a few week then before i knew it the penny dropped and i was hooked on the whole album.
Two years later when “in a beautiful place in the country” EP was released i bought 3 copies on vinyl, “Amo Bishop Roden” is quite possibly the greatest electronic track ever made.
Geogaddi didn’t quite do it for me, although there are a couple of tracks i like on it “Music is Math” is fantastic, for me its their poorest offering.
Campfire Herdphase 3 years later i liked far more than Geogaddi, if you wonder what equipment BOC were using in 2005 well i can clearly hear a string patch from Spectrasonics Atmosphere (which later became Omnisphere) in the track Dayvan cowboy i know this as i used the string patches in Atmosphere all the time.
Tomorrow Harvest took me a few listens to draw me in then i was hooked.
I live and breath boards of canada, i think they set the standard from which all others are judged, by far my favourite electronic band of all time, electronic aside my favourite full stop.
My favourite track well there are a lot i love on MHARTC, and of course AMO BISHOP RODEN… and Everything you do is a balloon.
Nothing would make me more happy than to find out they are releasing a new album soon.
That’s an awesome story to read. My first exposure was Campfire, and… it was incredible… but I didn’t quite “get it”.
I would agree Geo is their poorest offering, although it has some of their most standout tracks including Music is Math.
I’m interested that you have such an adoration for Amo Bishop Roden, for me it’s a bit of a b-side. In fact, I really like “Kid for Today” as my favorite on that EP. But this is comparing gold to platinum, purely.
I’m not sure how, throughout all my boards phases, but Tomorrow’s Harvest has come to be my favorite. It’s just incredible through and through. All the interludes, all the main hitters… it’s so dark. It’s a great juxtaposition from the very major key of Campfire, and the child-like nature of Music has the Right.
Damn, I could rant about Boards forever… haha.
They are not only in a league of their own, they are untouchable as far as I’m concerned. I’m not sure what makes them so great… but any fan of them hears the same distinction; they are legends of electronic music.
Yes Kid for today is sublime, BMW used it in an advert
AMO BISHOP RODEN, i worked shifts for 25 years in a steel works, playing that track in my car on deserted streets after a nightshift was bliss, almost church like synths and them bass stabs at the time my head is thinking they shouldn’t be there, but oh yes they should.
Its a track i could play whilst reminiscing about life, the good times, the ones i love and have loved, the beautiful people who are no longer here.
Speaking of church like when i got married about 9 years ago i got hitched in a registry office, my wife walking in to "Brian Eno Accent “an ending” and walked out to “Amo bishop roden” I didn’t know that British registry offices will not allow religious music to be played, they listened to my CD when i handed it in and insisted it was religious music so whilst waiting for the bride i had to argue with them as to why Brian Eno and BOC were not religious music.
If i had to choose a best BOC album it would be “MHARTC” for me it show cased their sound at a time when nobody had ever made music like it although you kinda thought you here’d it before somewhere in childhood but you look back and can’t find it. Its nostalgic, sometimes erie, take some substances slip on your headphones listen to “Eagle in my mind” and before you know it you are that eagle flying high observing everything around.
Im quite comfortable calling it the greatest electronic album ever made.
When you were born in the 70’s and went to school in the 80’s watching programs containing music like this you kind of understand why BOC creeps into the psyche. The BOC brothers are roughly the same age as me so i’m sure they got brain washed with the same programs.
Why i love their music so much … some of their tracks are pretty light on sequencing , drum phrases in a simple 4/4, synth phrases not too complicated but suddenly, a voice or a tiny sound comes fitting perfectly the space you could feel in your brain & think … oh ok, that’s the perfect track … like this one here … pretty simple but when the voice comes in, it builds the whole track to some weird territories … genius …
1969
The first album I listened to was Campfire Headphase, and it was one of the first IDM albums I ever listened to. I had heard their name from a remix of µ-ziq that they had made and I absolutely loved
They totally had me in a phase with their music. I love the organic sound of their lo-fi cassette treatment, and the way the elements emerge out of the fog. The mix of electronic instruments and processed guitars in Campfire Headphase sounded awesome when I discovered it and listened to it on repeat at night.
Now I don’t really listen to them anymore. Campfire Headphase sounds too much like advertisment music to my new ears; that chill downtempo vibe has been spoiled by fifteen years of new age yoga bs. I still admire the beatless interludes and some specific tracks for their intricacy and really choice composition. I remember the excitement around the release of their last album Tomorrow’s Harvest, but it really didn’t do anything for me. I felt the vibe was that of a much more beat-driven and “efficient” music: less of that organic almost generative music, more synths and less samples. I couldn’t really let myself dive into it. I would have to give it a relisten with fresh ears.
They’re great artists anyway. They really have a specific sound that’s really their own and that you can recognize instantly, even in other people’s music.
lol that’s insane.
twoism still my fav. their first full album.
Spot on!