Do you think the early 'private' releases really exist??

[mc10101]

Does anyone else think it strange that in this age of copyright-flouting P2P sharemongering NO ONE at all has uploaded a genuine rip of "Catalog 3", "Acid Memories", "Closes Vol 1", "Play By Numbers", or "Hooper Bay"??? We've had confirmed copies of "Old Tunes" 1 & 2 and "A Few Old Tunes" floating around the web for years, but all supposed mp3s of the above have turned out to be fakes/mislabels. Anyone want to indulge in my 'invented-history' theory???

[thinkdontpray]

They exist for sure but other than the short clips that were on their old old website we will probably never hear them.

I can live with that if they keep putting out albums as amazing as this one.

[2020k]

Well, they were given to friends and family right? I know that my family wouldn't think to rip early releases in the future and distribute them on the internet. In fact, most of them probably wouldn't know how...lol.

[In_The_Annexe]

Personally, I've been thinking about this for awhile and I truly believe that some of those tracks are on the Random 35 Track Tape that was bootlegged.

The reason I think this is, some of the tracks are exceptionally good and reminiscent of the Twoism and Hi Scores Era, but seemingly different in their own respects.

If I could make a hypothesis I would say that the following tracks are from "Hooper Bay".
Not even close to 100 percent positive, but it's just a thought.

Audiotracks: 1A, 9A, 8B, 12B and 16B all sound like they would have taken place right before the Twoism EP.

- 16b
- 12b
- 9a - this feels like it should be the track "Point Hope"

This is a slight obsession for me, so don't read to much into it. I just think about possibilities.

[Keeoaddi]

i'm sure they exist, what would be the point of making them up?

[GeogEddie]

Sure they exist, though I don't know why they ever bothered to even mention them on their website at all if they never intended to publicly release them. It seems dumb to me to say "yeah, we have these old releases but you're never going to hear them unless you're one of the dozen people we gave them to LOL!"

[thinkdontpray]

Clearly you've never recorded music before.

[superuser]

I wish they would not exist.

[GeogEddie]

Clearly you've never recorded music before.

What does that have to do with anything?

[In_The_Annexe]

Clearly you've never recorded music before.

What does that have to do with anything?

quite a lot actually.

[thinkdontpray]

Clearly you've never recorded music before.

What does that have to do with anything?

Because if you had you'd understand the brothers reasoning for not putting their early stuff out for mass consumption

I was in a band for close to 8 years and we were extremely close to signing a deal with a big name record label but their interest in us was because of the music we were currently playing. If they had of heard the early tunes we wrote which were awful (mainly because we were 18 and trying to jock Korn) then more than likely they would had never shown any interest whatsoever.

Bands evolve as does their sound and just because you recorded something doesn't mean you want everyone to hear it. Those early releases are a part of BoC, they helped hone their craft and while they include them in their discography it doesn't mean they want everyone to hear them because it doesn't represent who they are now.

[Spaced]

Sure they exist, though I don't know why they ever bothered to even mention them on their website at all if they never intended to publicly release them.

i guess they removed them because of the increasing volume of requests from new fans. they probably never expected to be so popular so never thought anyone would care about the early work.

[GeogEddie]

Clearly you've never recorded music before.

What does that have to do with anything?

Because if you had you'd understand the brothers reasoning for not putting their early stuff out for mass consumption

I was in a band for close to 8 years and we were extremely close to signing a deal with a big name record label but their interest in us was because of the music we were currently playing. If they had of heard the early tunes we wrote which were awful (mainly because we were 18 and trying to jock Korn) then more than likely they would had never shown any interest whatsoever.

Bands evolve as does their sound and just because you recorded something doesn't mean you want everyone to hear it. Those early releases are a part of BoC, they helped hone their craft and while they include them in their discography it doesn't mean they want everyone to hear them because it doesn't represent who they are now.

I'm not questioning their decision to not release that material. It's probably sloppy, amateurish crap and what little of it has any musical value they repurposed into later tracks on Twoism/BoC Maxima/MHTRTC. I'm questioning their decision to list those demos on their website at all, knowing that they'd never want any of it available for mass consumption.

[Opothecary]

Yeah if you want to hear a bunch of it, listen to R35TT

[Yeah That's Right]

I know that this has been mentioned on the forum before from seeing an old thread, but I thought I'd share my personal opinion here - I honestly believe that there's a decent chance this track is Noatak from Hooper Bay. I'm basing this on gut feeling based on the feel and mood of the song matching what I believe the EP would be like - it's a foreboding and gloomy piece that feels like it would be right in place following 'Circle' based on the short sample that exists, and there's a (small) amount of anecdotal evidence to back it up. The length of the track is very similar to the alleged length of Noatak, especially when accounting for differences between live and studio versions, and while this is tenuous - Hooper Bay was supposedly the first album to feature samples of children's voices, which the aforementioned track contains, unlike the majority (or all?) of the tracks featured on the Old Tunes compilations. The album cover of Hooper Bay even features children which cements this idea a tad more in my mind.

I've seen someone else suggest that this track could be Point Hope from the same album. I'm not sure if there's anything to go on other than, again, the roughly similar track length and the general feel / mood of the track. It certainly suits a title like "Point Hope", but that's just a hunch.

There's no solid evidence to back any of this up. Like I said, it's more or less a hunch. A belief which I go along with in the hope that we might've actually heard just a small amount of the music from the mysterious alleged albums. Even if it turns out that none of this is accurate, these are fantastic songs either way. Particularly the former which is probably my favourite and most-listened to unreleased track of theirs. I wish it would be re-recorded and released in higher quality at some point.

[Kathleen]

Guys, we all love Boards of Canada, but I'm fine without hearing all the random keyboard noodles they recorded when they were 15 and learning to make music.

[MindElevation]

Yes they exist. Bored of first time posters starting threads like this. Yawn.

[Yeah That's Right]

Guys, we all love Boards of Canada, but I'm fine without hearing all the random keyboard noodles they recorded when they were 15 and learning to make music.

But can you really live with never knowing... how that keyboard noodling sounded?

Play by Numbers and Hooper Bay were allegedly released in 1994. A year before Twoism. And yet that's one of their most loved works. It's slightly unreasonable to assume that their compositions from a year before would be of significantly less worth.

It's one of those things you have to be a huge fan of the artist for to really care enough about in the first. But even if the majority of those earliest releases were crap, I'd rather hear that crap than never know. Play by Numbers is probably the release which has always intrigued me the most. Something about the album art was captivating from the moment I came across it. The sample is really good, but it's impossible to say if the sampled track or the rest of the album at that lives up to a 1 minute guitar sample. What I do know is that many people have expressed their love of this sample in particular and are incredibly eager to know how the rest of the album sounds.

I could understand that BoC would be reluctant to rerelease any of the purported albums due to the quality. But I think would be such a shame to forever hide them away from public consumption. I think at least 50% of the Old Tunes tracks are worthless and I could happily live without hearing them again. Others are absolutely wonderful and I love that I've had the privilege of hearing them. If I could pay £50 for a rerelease of Play by Numbers or Hooper Bay, I would. Without any expectations or requirements. Just being able to hear the content, in whatever state it is, would be worth the price of admission. I could finally be satisfied.

Yes they exist. Bored of first time posters starting threads like this. Yawn.

Well that's a tad scornful and assuming, even if he is a first time poster. No one other than those closely related to the Sandison brothers can say with absolute certainty that any of these releases exist. Even I'm not entirely convinced. Information surrounding the earliest albums is about 5% observational and recorded fact and 95% speculation. There is an overwhelming lack of evidence for their existence, yet I choose along with the others to believe that they might exist, or have existed. My main reason for thinking so is that I can't see why else they else would have included images and audio samples of the albums on their website at one point, but other possibilities still remain.

[wash]

I've always been curious about how Piero Scaruffi, of all people, seems to know what the early releases sound like. He may be talking about mislabeled tracks shared on P2P networks, but the descriptions he gives here are cited on Bocpages.

My personal favorite sample of the songs from this era that we've gotten is Duffy - so sweet, so short. It's what I imagine a baby hears sleeping. Acid Memories is the early album that intrigues me the most. This kind of sound coupled with the cover is everything I could want from Boards.

[MindElevation]

I've always been curious about how Piero Scaruffi, of all people, seems to know what the early releases sound like. He may be talking about mislabeled tracks shared on P2P networks, but the descriptions he gives here are cited on Bocpages.

What an incredibly weird article/review that is.