Twoism, Hooper Bay and Christ.'s Pylonesque

[Echelon]

Just had a listen to Christ.'s wonderful EP Pylonesque and it really got me thinking about his contribution to the band. My theory is he brought the "glacial tones" (the description his own site uses to describe Pylonesque) to BOC because I distinctly hear a connection between the coldness in sound found in Twoism, Circle, B12 on R35TT, the track believed to be Noatak and Pylonesque. The keyboards always seem to have a distinct frozen yet hazy aura to them and the drums too have a similar, crisp icy sound too.

After hearing this one EP, I've recognized that Christ was a valuable third player to the band, and I can understand that maybe albums like Hooper Bay and Play By Numbers have an influence that is just as much Christ. as they are BOC. Maybe because Christ. contributed so much to the sound, they don't want to release Hooper Bay and Play By Numbers because of it. I feel as artists the Sandison brothers simply want BOC to be recognized for their contributions and HB and PBN are more BOC plus Christ. albums in terms of artistry. This makes sense if you consider they only released Twoism because Christ.'s contributions were minimal to it.

Feel free to dispute me, MDG, wherever you may be. But I think Christ.'s role in the recordings may have something to do with their lack of release.

[Vulpix]

Not to be rude of course, but to put it gently, I think there might be a reason Boards of Canada havent their old albums yet. Perhaps they would rather we listen to their more fully fledged work, and Christ.'s more fully fledged work, as it likely does a better job of telling the stories they wanted to tell!

[Echelon]

Not to be rude of course, but to put it gently, I think there might be a reason Boards of Canada havent their old albums yet. Perhaps they would rather we listen to their more fully fledged work, and Christ.'s more fully fledged work, as it likely does a better job of telling the stories they wanted to tell!

You're not rude at all. I think I'd prefer their released work. This is more me theorizing about why Hooper bay and such aren't released.

Just me having some speculative fun while I wait for something to happen.

Christ.'s work is great btw. I am so happy I found it during this lull of Board's activity

[Geogandhi]

Regardless of Christs involvement, would BoC really want to release their very first works? I know I wouldn't.

I really like Christs work but also I feel he needs to let his music be his own and not advertise he is Ex Boc (unless that is the promoters fault) It pangs of Dave Mustaine to be honest. I guess it's easy to feel hard done to when things you were once involved in have way more success than you have had. It can be lead to bitterness and cause rot within.
Chin up Christ, your music is rad, do more!

[Echelon]

Regardless of Christs involvement, would BoC really want to release their very first works? I know I wouldn't.

I really like Christs work but also I feel he needs to let his music be his own and not advertise he is Ex Boc (unless that is the promoters fault) It pangs of Dave Mustaine to be honest. I guess it's easy to feel hard done to when things you were once involved in have way more success than you have had. It can be lead to bitterness and cause rot within.
Chin up Christ, your music is rad, do more!

I've really taken to Christ.'s work honestly. It's really good stuff and I do feel he is an artist independent of BOC when you listen to his work. They have a similar genre but Christ. goes for that glacial type sound with really crisp druns. What I like though is you can see why Christ. and BOC worked together because they both valued similar things in music.

As for the ex-BOC promotion, I think Christ. deserves it since he was there at the beginning and helped shape their sound. Someone suggested Christ. helped them move from MBV sounding to the down tempo electronica we know and love.

[Omikron]

Christ. doesn't explicitly market himself as ex-BOC and has consistently distanced himself from the BOC association. Promotors are a different story.

I don't see how Christ.'s involvement in the early albums could have played a role in keeping them unreleased. He released three albums of his own previously unheard material after all.

[Echelon]

Christ. doesn't explicitly market himself as ex-BOC and has consistently distanced himself from the BOC association. Promotors are a different story.

I don't see how Christ.'s involvement in the early albums could have played a role in keeping them unreleased. He released three albums of his own previously unheard material after all.

I just think Mike and Marcus might feel that Hooper Bay has a huge Christ. influence in it that isn't fully their vision. We've seen how possessive they are of their visions and concepts. Circle actually sounds more like a drone from Pylonesque than anything Boards has done in terms of sound.

Compare that to Twoism where Christ. didn't write anything but contributed to Melissa Juice. Twoism sounds fully like a Mike and Marcus product.

[Omikron]

Christ. doesn't explicitly market himself as ex-BOC and has consistently distanced himself from the BOC association. Promotors are a different story.

I don't see how Christ.'s involvement in the early albums could have played a role in keeping them unreleased. He released three albums of his own previously unheard material after all.

I just think Mike and Marcus might feel that Hooper Bay has a huge Christ. influence in it that isn't fully their vision. We've seen how possessive they are of their visions and concepts. Circle actually sounds more like a drone from Pylonesque than anything Boards has done in terms of sound.

Compare that to Twoism where Christ. didn't write anything but contributed to Melissa Juice. Twoism sounds fully like a Mike and Marcus product.

The only evidence for that came from the PPL repertoire database (which contains a number of errors and inconsistencies, it's safe to say) where only Melissa Juice was credited to all three of them. It is my belief that he was involved in more than just that one track - hence why his name is on the sleeve next to M&M. His characteristic sounds can be heard all over Twoism if one listens with Pylonesque in mind. I should have asked him when I was stood right next to him at the Plaid gig for a few seconds.

[Echelon]

Christ. doesn't explicitly market himself as ex-BOC and has consistently distanced himself from the BOC association. Promotors are a different story.

I don't see how Christ.'s involvement in the early albums could have played a role in keeping them unreleased. He released three albums of his own previously unheard material after all.

I just think Mike and Marcus might feel that Hooper Bay has a huge Christ. influence in it that isn't fully their vision. We've seen how possessive they are of their visions and concepts. Circle actually sounds more like a drone from Pylonesque than anything Boards has done in terms of sound.

Compare that to Twoism where Christ. didn't write anything but contributed to Melissa Juice. Twoism sounds fully like a Mike and Marcus product.

The only evidence for that came from the PPL repertoire database (which contains a number of errors and inconsistencies, it's safe to say) where only Melissa Juice was credited to all three of them. It is my belief that he was involved in more than just that one track - hence why his name is on the sleeve next to M&M. His characteristic sounds can be heard all over Twoism if one listens with Pylonesque in mind. I should have asked him when I was stood right next to him at the Plaid gig for a few seconds.

Opothecary suggested he was more a musical director on Twoism because while there is that cold, down temponess found in Christ.'s early work the synth melodies sound like pure BOC to me.

On a side note, their remix of Mira Calix's Sandsings sounds remarkably like a Christ. type song too. But I think that was in 1998. Was that a Twoism leftover?

[Redd Panderson]

Reviving this thread because I FINALLY did a deep listen to a Christ. release, it was Pylonesque, and WOW I was not prepared for it to so clearly resonate as music made by a Turquoise Hexagon Sun member and ex-Boards of Canada member. I really enjoyed it and am surprised I never listened to Christ. earlier! I listened to Hi Scores & Pylonesque on vinyl back-to-back and they made a great double feature.

As I was listening, I couldn't help but wonder how much BOC is in Pylonesque; not literally per se, but these musicians spent plenty of time working on the same material, with the same equipment, in the same space, using similar techniques... I feel like at least some of the material on Pylonesque and Hi Scores must've been jammed out in the same sessions when they were a trio, then that swath of material / time is what split into these two releases after they amicably parted ways post-Twoism. Parts of Perlandine Friday sounded cut from the same cloth as June 9th, for example.

To my ears, various parts of Pylonesque also have some of Inferno's "redder" and more piquant ghostly vibe. The opening of Fantastic Light reminded me of Prophecy at 1420MHz a little. Dream of the Endless just generally felt that way. Another melody somewhere (I don't remember where) reminded me of the weirdly evil-sounding opening melody in The Word Becomes Flesh.

It was beautiful to hear in Pylonesque the same BOC-level of intentionality given to the timbral sculpting of the instruments used at the time. Digging into some of Christ.'s early material anthologized in his "Curio." series also revealed some BOC-ish moments. I don't remember all the specific ones, but the kick and bass synth in igorant (intro) from 1997 kinda reminded me of Naraka, and a couple of others reminded me a bit of Julie and Candy and Telephasic Workshop.

TL;DR: After years and years of putting it off I finally listened to Christ. and am only now appreciating that his work is a delightful alternative angle into the sound of the Turquoise Hexagon Sun.

[Wildfire]

TL;DR: After years and years of putting it off I finally listened to Christ. and am only now appreciating that his work is a delightful alternative angle into the sound of the Turquoise Hexagon Sun.

Have you listened to Blue Shift Emissions yet? The track Cordate is sublime.

[Redd Panderson]

TL;DR: After years and years of putting it off I finally listened to Christ. and am only now appreciating that his work is a delightful alternative angle into the sound of the Turquoise Hexagon Sun.

Have you listened to Blue Shift Emissions yet? The track Cordate is sublime.

I am definitely going to listen through the rest of his discography, and that one is next on the list for me! For now, it's only been Pylonesque and all the 90s tracks on the Curios volumes. Looking forward to it.

[Josh]

Does anyone know where Echelon's been?

[Echelon]

Does anyone know where Echelon's been?

Mostly on Discord nowadays. I posted too much on here in my early 20s but I was a big fan at the time. Still am. I really enjoyed the new album and the release and all that. Even went to a listening party at my local record store.

Nice to see some more posts in this thread about the Christ album. It's my favorite of his. I missed out on the repress though.

But yeah I'm here but I just mellowed out since my posting heyday. It's more fun to read than it is to write about BOC nowadays.

[Josh]

Hey, there you are! I'm glad you're still around. There's nothing wrong with mellowing out on the Internets.

[Echelon]

Hey, there you are! I'm glad you're still around. There's nothing wrong with mellowing out on the Internets.

Thanks my friend! I've been here the whole time no worries and yeah Inferno is a blast. Can't wait to see what they are cooking up next if anything. I'm just glad they came back and it went over so well with most people. Really all we can ask for.

[happy]

Thanks for resurrecting this thread and putting me onto this music. I recognised Perlandine Friday from James Holden's At the Controls (which also contains a slowed down Poppy Seed (BOC Reprise))

Always nice to have a new musical rabbit hole to explore!