Anybody else a little underwhelmed by the new release?

[Amo Bishop Roden]

20 Years old, became a BoC fan post-TCH. I love this release. I LOVE Geogaddi and TCH (and their associated EP's,) I like MHTRTC, Twoism, Old Tunes etc.

d e n nailed it in his earlier post, I think: this album is different... the music is insidious i think that's where the real power comes from.

I understand why a lot of you are disappointed. This wasn't the record you expected, and it wasn't the record you wanted. But isn't that what makes BoC special? The balls-out unpredictability? Before Daft Punk released RAM, I knew what it would sound like (read: shit); you can expect that of a pop band, because that's how the pop industry works. You beat the horse 'til it's dead, and then continue to beat it until your arm gets tired. But Boards? Artists of extreme originality and creativity? Even after RFTD came out I had not a clue what TH would sound like (and neither did any of you, if you look back a couple weeks on these forums.) They took it in a new direction. They threw out the guitars, they abandoned the jaunty melodies (sort of), the kid's voices, the warbly documentary feel, the hyper-nostalgic themes. In short, they did something completely different. Sort of. It still sounds distinctly like BoC, and that's undeniable, it's just undergone some structural re-visioning. Some of you don't like it, and that's fine, and your opinion is no less valid than mine. But c'mon, throwing the LP in the trash? Don't discredit the musical/artistic merit of this record like that.

/rant

[Opothecary]

But c'mon, throwing the LP in the trash? Don't discredit the musical/artistic merit of this record like that.

/rant

You're just giving a Pitchfork kid attention on the internet. Anyone can put a record in the garbage, snap a picture, post it online to get the thrill of attention, and then retrieve it from the trash. No better way to achieve that than to do this with an album that is nearly universally acclaimed. We need to stop feeding the troll.

[El Camino]

I was born in '96 and the nostalgia still works for me even though my childhood memories are all from the 2000's.
For the record i love the album but i don't know what age has to do with the enjoyment of the new album.

[moonchildren]

Upon first listen, I was very disappointed. I felt like it was half-assed, and all the hype for the album didn't live up to the material. But, as with most BoC releases, it grew on me. There are some fantastic tracks on this album. And the apocalyptic theme is awesome as well. Gonna study this LP like I did Geogaddi.

[lumpenprol]

do you mean lacking fresh ideas for music in general or just for BoC?

surely Jacquard Causeway and New Seeds are breakthroughs for them? there's a touch of jazz twinkling in New Seeds!, never thought i would hear something like that from them.

I mean lacking fresh ideas for BoC. I don't really need "new ideas" per se, I'm more talking about musical passion. Like on old tunes, you can hear the pure passion, the experimentalism of youthful artists stretching their legs and pushing out in all kinds of directions (some funny throwaway stuff too, of course). On TCH, you can hear a more mature sound, but you can still hear the bros bringing a new richness and density of detail to the music, experimenting more with pop music structures (Dayvan), and of course with the guitars. Then of course there's always the "X factor", which is hard to talk about, but this is the first time I've felt it's been lacking, in large part. I can feel some hard work on this album, at least it's not sloppy, but it's harder for me to feel the inspiration. Feels more like they are squeezing their inspiration out of the end of the toothpaste tube. Too many bland arpeggios, songs that cut short, etc...

Jacquard Causeway is interesting, I'm guessing by the length that it is probably one of the tracks they are proudest of on the album? It does seem pretty experimental for them, I haven't made up my mind about it. I actually like the clumsy drums that sound a bit like ears adjusting to changes in air pressure, or heart valves pumping. And I like the way the chiming melody evolves, overall though it kind of annoys me...It may be a grower...about New Seeds I don't know about the jazzy-ness, to me it seems underdeveloped, a Dayvan-like intro looking for a song. Plus the ending choir that many seem to like sounds a lot like it was lifted from fellow Scot Syntaks, not sure how many folks bought his album "Awakes" (it was one of my favorite Benbecula releases), but it seems to share a lot in common with that, so I wouldn't say it feels groundbreaking to me.

Is it a bad album? No, but it is kind of a boring and safe one. I went back to listening to some Exai last night, and while that album is too dense, it feels more fresh and vital than TH, imo.

[Spaced]

fair and honest appraisal.

TCH used to annoy me whenever i would periodically try to force myself to like it, and only in all the hoopla since the announcement of TH i finally accepted it. not saying this might happen to you as i feel you are more entrenched in your antipathy towards TH than i was for TCH (i always loved at least a couple of tracks from it) but you never know.

i noticed you seem a bit fed up with thebrothers persona and the silly things they say in interviews eg casual mentions of old tapes knowing how much they are desired by their fans. do you think these little annoyances are making you judge the new stuff more harshly? could it be that you have lost a little passion for them?

i really think they would call it a day if they were lacking passion or were forcing themselves to make this thing. maybe you mean lacking real musical inspiration? a certain vitality they once possessed in spades? i can see that things sound a little knackered on TH. they sound more human. not godlike for sure. perhaps they did have to push themselves a little bit more than when they were younger. but this knackered quality is what i am enjoying about the record. if they wanted to, they could have turned Palace Posy into a total extravagance but they had this thing in their heads about having tracks just dissolve, i don't think they were lacking musical inspiration. they just had this thematic idea and went with it.

i liked reading your post and i see where you are coming from. it does sound like the good BoC ship is getting a little creaky, and it sure is taking in some water. but rather than bemoaning this i find it all rather exhilarating.

[lumpenprol]

@spaced,

yeah I think you've got me there, I guess I am a bit fed up with their persona and marketing too (if I'm honest I've been fed up with their self-cultivated mysterious persona since the Redmoon debacle, that really broke something I felt for them). I think we'd all agree that their marketing is quite slick now, which seems to me to be a bit at odds with their aesthetic as it was originally envisioned? It leaves me cold, at any rate.

In any case I do think I can see past that to evaluate the music on its own terms, it just means I'm not going to be looking through rose-colored glasses from the get-go. I do like some moments on this new album, for example I quite like the transition and vox manipulation in Palace Posy, and I love the moment at 1:48 in Sick Times when it sounds like a woman's voice saying "thank you" (most emotional moment in the album for me). In fact I have nothing bad to say about the sequence from Sick Times - Collapse - Palace Posy, I think it's quite lovely.

But if I pull back and look at the album as a whole, and ask myself - is there any high point as high as the outro of '84 Pontiac Dream, or anything as complexly woven as Oscar See Through Red Eye (not even a huge fan of the track, but credit where it's due), or as gently building as SAI, or as implacable and cold as Slow This Bird Down...the answer is no. And that's a pretty rough analysis, given that TCH isn't most people's favorite BoC album (it happens to be mine).

Different strokes and all that, I just don't think the album hits the same highs as I'd hope it would. And it doesn't seem to hit the same level of introspection as IABPOITC. So, it's like an epic album without the epic tracks, or an introspective album without the emotion. Either way it doesn't quite work for me. Good but not great, and seems a bit anticlimactic after the wait. If they release an ep shortly, and get back to a more regular release schedule, I'm sure I'll get more mellow in my assessments. I don't think Autechre shit gold every time, but I do like their dedication and lack of fuss, they just keep making music whether I like all of it or not...

[IanRedpoint]

All this debate about the merits of the album, and the fact that a lot of people are getting so passionate in their arguments, is surely a byproduct of the gap between records being so damn long. If BoC were a band that released records at the rate of Autechre, for example, then I think it would be a lot easier for us to view each record as a cohesive focussed work on a theme rather than expecting it to be an epic career-defining statement.

We know now from the interviews that they left masses of ideas and tunes on the cutting room floor, simply because they didn't fit what they wanted TH to be, and they are writing and recording all the time. I would love to see them work on and release quite thematically different records every couple of years. Some I would naturally prefer to others but that's all part of the experience. Gaps of 5 years plus make it difficult to appreciate a record for just being the record it is, particularly when you've invested so much of yourself in following the band.

[rubot]

I liked it from the first listen, but then on multiple studies have realised just how great it is.

And now its simply becoming an album I want to listen to - that is - obviously a BoC fan will repeatedly study a new album, but eventually the acid test is - do you enjoy listening to it? And i enjoy listening to TH very much.

[Aimo]

I liked it from the first listen, but then on multiple studies have realised just how great it is.

And now its simply becoming an album I want to listen to - that is - obviously a BoC fan will repeatedly study a new album, but eventually the acid test is - do you enjoy listening to it? And i enjoy listening to TH very much.

This is it for me, but on the opposite scale - I don't want to listen to it - initially, when I heard it first on the live stream, I loved it. Thought it was a great album, the hour went by so quickly, and I couldn't wait to get listening to it again. However, on subsequent listens, it failed to live up to that intial first experience. I don't honestly know why, and there are 4 or 5 songs on it that I love and would put up there with the best BoC have done. But as an album, it's left me a bit cold. I'm not that concerned about this, as Geogaddi took me a good six years to fully get into, so I think i'll just leave it for the moment, and go back to it when I'm ready. If nothing else, listening to BoC over the years has taught me that their albums are slow growers, so this slight ambivilance to TH I have at the moment is ok. I'll come back to it when I feel the time is right and I can give it the attention it deserves.

[North by North]

All this debate about the merits of the album, and the fact that a lot of people are getting so passionate in their arguments, is surely a byproduct of the gap between records being so damn long. If BoC were a band that released records at the rate of Autechre, for example, then I think it would be a lot easier for us to view each record as a cohesive focussed work on a theme rather than expecting it to be an epic career-defining statement.

We know now from the interviews that they left masses of ideas and tunes on the cutting room floor, simply because they didn't fit what they wanted TH to be, and they are writing and recording all the time. I would love to see them work on and release quite thematically different records every couple of years. Some I would naturally prefer to others but that's all part of the experience. Gaps of 5 years plus make it difficult to appreciate a record for just being the record it is, particularly when you've invested so much of yourself in following the band.

^^

[Taint3dBulge]

The first time i herd it i wasnt sure what to think.. I mean it totally sounds BOCish, but seemed all the songs were alittle "thin"

I listned to it a second time and was like well no I dont like it.. Mind you i was listening to it on my pc speakers while playing a race game..

Then i played it in my car, where i enjoy mymusic the most..

There is where i finally "herd" he album and started to enjoy it.. Been listening to it every day since..

I guess i was hoping/expecting the album to be deep dark an uncanny...

Id have to say at first thought it was close to those, but now I know that its way different.

The album is sorrowful dreadful and well its good very good in a depressing way lol..

The first 4 tracks though, Im just not a big fan of Those 4 are hard to get over.. I mostly listen to everything but those.

Best tracks by far are

Cold Earth
Palace Posy
Come To Dust

They are soooo good, but you have to really listen to the depths of those songs.. Once I herd the songs innards thats when i fell in love.

[hexagon son]

For me, this has been the best album they have ever released. This forum is too busy for me right now. I peek in now and again, but I just can't keep up with it all.

[The Telepathic Kid]

hey hex what's happe- Hey, woah!

*gets moved along*

I'll talk to you laterrrr.....

[jtk]

"Anybody else a little underwhelmed by the new release?"

NOPE

[d e n]

the craziest part about all this is that the record has been officially out for 4 days.

[paul]

earlier in the discussion someone mentioned not only age but general musical interest/ listening preference. i think this weighs in heavily. since TCH life has gone on, we have discovered new music while refining our musical tastes. for me, BOC was one of the true outliers to my overall musical range. i love classical music and old electronic but my mainstay is bone-crunching industrial music (Laibach, 242, FLA, MBM, Skinny Puppy, etc.). here i see talk of Rone, Bibio, Tycho etc ... all of which are great music but its really only been BOC for me when i want a palate cleanser or the car is full of people or we are partying at the cabin. BOC is much more appropriate and gets heads bobbing. Laibach - not so much. BOC was a huge departure for me and it made me happy too - like i had hope for new musical tastes to emerge ... i'll look silly pulling up to a red light at the age of 65 pounding out 'Headhunter' eh?

while i often don't care for what most here seem to like, i was always intrigued by their work. i guess i didn't have expectations other than there were secrets to uncover and they made me a kid again, that was enough. TCH was not a favorite and yet it grew on me after a couple of years. i didn't quite know what to expect with TH but was literally blown away. i could never have guessed their next effort - would be similar to the style of music that i fancy. i kept thinking 'has MHTRTC finally been eclipsed?' ... or 'am i turing into a fan-boy?' - perhaps the drought has impaired my judgment? but i realized after someone asking what else we listen to, that this about as industrial as they have ever sounded so it struck a subconscious chord for me that day in the desert.

now that the dust is settling - it is interesting (and a little humorous if we really think about it) to see us lobbying our subjective opinions to each other as to why its the 'best ever' or 'meh' ... but now, at least i understand the psychology of why i am so gripped by this one.

[hexagon son]

hey hex what's happe- Hey, woah!

*gets moved along*

I'll talk to you laterrrr.....

hahaha! Are you getting that feeling too? We've gone from Abeautiful place out in the country to a Tokyo metropolis around here. I am am honestly waiting for things to settle down around here so I can get back to listening new Twoism artists compositions such as yours. Right now, the only thing I'm playing is TM at least twicw a day. How do you do, anyway? Are you into the Aussie hardcore scene? I think it's great fun. You can deny it here and PM me if you want to talk about Auzzie hardcore DJ's!

I fucking love S3RL's material. (sorry, waaay off topic!)

[breadmaker]

i do agree with lumpenprol on a lot of his points, though i think i may be a little more fond of the album than he is. at this point i think "harvest" is about on par with "campfire," though they are very different albums.

if there IS any lingering doubt left about "harvest," its the worrying suspicion that the band is perhaps in danger of over-crafting some of the genuine charm out of their work. it's telling that they had quite a bit more time to work on this album than they did with "geogaddi," and yet it doesn't seem to have resulted in a substantially better album. i think even fans of "harvest" will agree that there's an aspect of the album that feels less effortless than earlier work. true they have improved on the more rudimentary beats of the "twoism" and "hi scores" era tracks but i'd argue that this has come at the expense of some of the personality and eccentricity which made their early stuff so weird and special. though - i do feel that there's something a bit misguided in ALWAYS feeling the need to compare new work to old work with any artist. i might be better off if i just viewed the new album in a vacuum and appreciated it on its own terms, even if this goes against a lot of my critical tendencies.

but if i must conceive of "tomorrow's harvest" as a point on a timeline, it does reminds me a bit of a friend who used to do a lot of psychedelics back in the early 2000s and has now, by 2013, grown up and "cleaned up his act." true, he's healthier now, more coherent, less likely to go on long rants, and so on, but nonetheless you do miss the frantic genius and scary unpredictability of his earlier self . . .

[c3tra]

I have had many listens now ,FLAC ,WAV, CD, MP3... my own opinion really does not matter as im a fan anyway, and have been since first listen...

My guitar playing stepson who is quite in demand here in somerset invited friends over a couple of days ago after being out for the night, and being only a day or so after my bday i still have dibs on music played while people are over..so i crack out TH...room goes from rowdy druk/stoned musos to silence....get to collapse and i say im going up and apologize to them for taking up their music listening time..go to eject disk and i am almost lynched...turns out 3 of them bought dl the next day...