Weird, completely unfounded speculation on unreleased stuff

[TheStatPow]

Not sure why it posted the edit I made in my previous message as its own message. buggy forum .o.

[~nick]

I have made some attempts to connect the songs on R35TT with the mystery albums and while this may be like chasing your own tail there are some connections you can make between the albums and the unnamed tracks.

These are some of my speculations, though some of it has been discussed before:

Catalog 3:
B16 is Powerline (fairly sure about this one.)
B07 is Stowed Under (very primitive, probably recorded on a 4 track. They definitely used one in the 80s)
B05 could possibly be Press, mostly based on the sound of it compared to the previous songs.

Acid Memories:
A14 could POSSIBLY be a continuation of the Duffy excerpt we've heard. I got kinda stuck on the idea that it is the same song, so i put them after one another and it sounded quite natural. Perhaps that's why the excerpt is only 20 seconds? They didn't want to reveal too much... r35tt was a well laid out plan......
A10 is probably something from this album.
B14 & B15 just flow into each other too well not to be the same track to me. I believe this is Echo The Sun. That ending would make a perfect closer.

Closes Vol. 1:
I believe the tracks claiming to be Focus On The Spiral, Close3, Helios Sound and Found The Way floating around the net are real.
They pretty much confirmed that A06 is 5D.
A08 could be Tends Towards.
B06 is Ithcus Sound.
The shorter vignettes on r35tt are the short closes tracks.
Trillions could be A12. I'm not buying that the unknown track from Societas (1h51m) is Trillions. Too much tape hiss. Perhaps something from Catalog 3.

Play By Numbers:
B08 has to be Remmy Kid.
WYLTBF MIGHT just be B09 but I'm struggling to think how it would connect to the excerpt we've heard. It might be something else entirely.
Untitled live track that Machinedrum remade sounds like it could be Infinite Lines.
Numerator is B04.
Echelon is A07.

Hooper Bay (this is the one I'm most sure of)
ATP 2 is Seward Leaf.
B12 is Geiser.
Circle is Circle, the webloop is a longer version of it.
ATP 7 has to be Noatak (amazing song)
This is far fetched but... Spiro? It sounds like it really could be a track from this EP, just renamed. In that case, Point Hope. It would be quite the closer.

Also, hello Twoism. This is my first post here.

Welcome to Twoism! Your lengthy post is appreciated, even if some of us will find something in it to disagree with

I've been thinking about connecting R35TT to the unheard pre-Twoism albums just for fun and to see what tracks could realistically be on those albums length-wise.

I think A14 is actually Godever from Closes.1

I think B04 Is Trillions from Closes.1

Because I fell on this little video with 44rpm sped up songs of R35TT and when it came, it made more sense at that speed. The guitar just feels more real and sounds that a finger makes when changing strings sounds closer in pitch to the real thing. And it comes perfectly at 3.18 which is about the lenght of Trillions.

Hey, that's me who uploaded that video today! I will make a separate thread about this once I upload a sped up version of B04 later, I think it's an interesting observation.

[bungler666]

I don't know... B04 at 45 rpm sounds great and all but no...

We don't know if Closes Vol.1 contains guitars. Based on the assumed to be 5D, I seriously doubt it.
Also the guitar in the track is very dense and in the spotlight.
It sounds too polished to be recorded on a 4 track in the 80s (Acid Memories), and way too "acoustic" and conventional to be something from Closes Vol.1 which seems way out there in terms of sound.

Also, why would they purposely slow it down on the r35tt? It would make perfect sense to speed it up if all the other tracks were slow as well but that is not the case as demonstrated by the OT tracks appearing on the tape and the samples they've reused on albums, for example A12 on Aquarius (Version 3), having the same pitch.

I would say that it sounds like something right out of 1994. Not earlier, not later.
This is what leads me to believe that this is, in fact, the track known as Numerator.

Regarding the belief that all tracks on the tape comes from the earlier releases: this is just speculation. We cannot know for sure and they might as well have 10 more hidden albums no one knows anything about. We do not know what sources of the tracks the person who made the tape had, nor do we know anything about the person who leaked it or how they got hold of it in the first place.

The tracks on this tape could be anything.

BUT........

Since we have all noticed a similarity in sound between certain tracks on the tape, matches in time length with tracks from the mystery albums, matches in the vague descriptions provided of the albums I can't help to think that this might just be what we want it to be.

Then there is the burning question:
If the person who made the tape had access to, assuming, all the known mystery albums and wanted to in some way share it with the world, wouldn't they record every track on every album so we could hear it all?
That's what I presume anyone on this forum would have done.

If we are to believe that the unknown live tracks are from the early albums then this is clearly not the case.

Not to go full Xaugh on you, but what if all of this is just one big experiment? Like a challenge, a puzzle?

They want us to connect the dots.

They have carefully chosen what snippets to share: Duffy, WYLTBF, Circle.
They make a mixtape containing most tracks from the earlier albums we know of, which they shared the covers and tracklists of online. They released the tracklists with TRACK TIMES included. This is overlooked.
Now why, especially on cassette-exclusive releases would they even have track times listed, especially in 1989? On a home made cassette given out to family and friends only? Why would they even care about that, especially on Acid Memories which seems like a quite conventional album in a Boards of Canada sense of the word.

Answer: they want us to figure it out.

In my fanatically schizophrenic theory I've came to the conclusion that all of R35TT + most, if not ALL of the unknown live tracks + the excerpts and POSSIBLY even the web loops make up all songs on all the early albums.

Now that I've figured it out, give us the boxset. MDG I know you're watching. Probably laughing your ass off.

[bungler666]

Also a very important thing with everything BoC:

They are all about theme and mood.

All of their albums have their own distinct sound and feel, you can easily hear what song is from what album just based on the sound of it. For example Oscar See Through Red Eye could never be on Music Has The Right To Children, Gyroscope could never be on Twoism etc.

Why wouldn't this be the case with the early albums? I think that shoving tracks together on the R35TT based on sound, theme, and feel might get us one step closer to the solution of the seemingly never ending mystery of Boards of Canada's early output. Or at least it might give us some hints.

[TheStatPow]

These are the themes I feel. Feel free to post yours.

Guitar Themed
A04
A07 (My favorite on R35TT)
A10
B04
B14 (By the way, compare this guitar track with B04 and tell me again B04 wasn't slowed down )

Closure (These have a feeling of endings/closures)
A09
A13
B15


Harsh (I LOVE BoC's harsh tracks, as we can see here, Side B is way harsher than side A)
A7
A13
B02 (Feels a bit Hooper Bay's type of stuff, maybe hooper bay was a harsh themed album?)
B05
B08
B12 (Feels Twoism-like ... so much I actually had to go on Twoism's album and verifiy all tracks to make sure I didn't forget that this one WAS actually on it )
B14
B16 (Feels only harsh because it is overdriven on the tape, I'm pretty sure it is not harsh sounding on its original album)

[TheStatPow]

They have carefully chosen what snippets to share: Duffy, WYLTBF, Circle.
They make a mixtape containing most tracks from the earlier albums we know of, which they shared the covers and tracklists of online. They released the tracklists with TRACK TIMES included. This is overlooked.
Now why, especially on cassette-exclusive releases would they even have track times listed, especially in 1989? On a home made cassette given out to family and friends only? Why would they even care about that, especially on Acid Memories which seems like a quite conventional album in a Boards of Canada sense of the word.

Let us not forget that they registered those album (They all have catalog numbers) which may be why we have the tracklistings, I don't think you can submit to a catalog with no tracks name and running time at all (not sure)

Interestingly enough closes.1 was repressed in 1997. how many? no idea, but they had to repress it.

[bungler666]

Well the catalog numbers they could have just made up themselves? I did with my band when we made a cassette.

[Juggle]

I always found it interesting to ponder who exactly compiled the R35TT. Like, what kind of person with what connections to the band would be able to pull it off? How many tapes is it derived from? The fact that tracks like She Is P and Davie Addison don't feature the same overlap with other tracks from AFOT makes me wonder what unknown releases those works are actually from.

[bungler666]

I always found it interesting to ponder who exactly compiled the R35TT. Like, what kind of person with what connections to the band would be able to pull it off? How many tapes is it derived from? The fact that tracks like She Is P and Davie Addison don't feature the same overlap with other tracks from AFOT makes me wonder what unknown releases those works are actually from.

I believe that they are songs from the unknown albums, just renamed as this is something they often do. For example Boc Maxima became Bocuma, I Luv U became The Color Of The Fire.

My theory is this:

She Is P = Seward Leaf from Hooper Bay
Finity = something from Closes Vol.1, True Map, Fonec perhaps.
The shorter tracks are interludes from various albums, mostly Closes Vol.1 probably.

[bungler666]

Yes, who could have compiled it??

Friend of the band? The band themselves? Family member holding a grudge against them perhaps?

[~nick]

I always found it interesting to ponder who exactly compiled the R35TT. Like, what kind of person with what connections to the band would be able to pull it off? How many tapes is it derived from? The fact that tracks like She Is P and Davie Addison don't feature the same overlap with other tracks from AFOT makes me wonder what unknown releases those works are actually from.

I believe that they are songs from the unknown albums, just renamed as this is something they often do. For example Boc Maxima became Bocuma, I Luv U became The Color Of The Fire.

My theory is this:

She Is P = Seward Leaf from Hooper Bay
Finity = something from Closes Vol.1, True Map, Fonec perhaps.
The shorter tracks are interludes from various albums, mostly Closes Vol.1 probably.

This seems very plausible (at least compared to the many far-fetched theories I've heard over the years ) We know that the brothers rename old tracks on "personal" releases to something new when they feel it'll make sense for them to be on newer records. For all we know, R35TT may not be the only tape that has tracks from pre-Twoism releases - this might extend to AFOT and OTV2 as well, just with the possibility of them assuming different names.

And great point about She is P and Davie Addison, Juggle. There's a possibility that there's more to their early discography than what we already know. AFOT and OTV2 might just be compilations of works they either didn't think were good enough for full releases or the opposite.

On a sidenote - I feel like Mukinabaht and House of Abin'adab wouldn't feel out of place on Hooper Bay, judging by how ominous Circle sounds

[PurpleFlurp]

While we're going down this rabbit-hole, it might be useful to point out that BoC have repurposed melodies and redone tracks entirely. If what we are hearing from r35tt is from the pre-Twoism albums, it's entirely possible that these tracks could be different versions of what might be on the finished albums themselves. Think 5d (A06) and Seven Forty Seven.

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[bungler666]

While we're going down this rabbit-hole, it might be useful to point out that BoC have repurposed melodies and redone tracks entirely. If what we are hearing from r35tt is from the pre-Twoism albums, it's entirely possible that these tracks could be different versions of what might be on the finished albums themselves. Think 5d (A06) and Seven Forty Seven.

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Yes, we also have A08 (June 9th), A12 (Aquarius V.3), B16 (Hi Scores, or at least very similar), Circle (Slow This Bird Down), P.C (Cold Earth) and so on and so on...

Yes the OT dilemma is quite the rabbit hole in itself. I'm fairly sure the OTV1 tracks appearing on R35TT are just renamed versions of tracks from older albums. Songs that I feel wouldn't be too out of place on the earlier albums are:

David Came To Mahana'im (Play By Numbers)
Mukinabaht and House Of Abin'adab (Hooper Bay, like you said Nick.)
Buckie High (Hooper Bay also?)

Then I also believe that most, if not all tracks on OT except the ones appearing on R35TT are just outtakes, "B-sides". Or just a collection of selected works from their supposed 100 songs a year archives.

[bungler666]

I have tried to put together a "maybe Acid Memories" playlist and this is what I came up with:

Duffy = Duffy excerpt followed by A14
Growing Hand = A10
Petina = A01
Stry Craty Bya = A13
Helter Skater = B01
Echo The Sun = B14 followed by B15.

These all have very similar mood and almost all of them feature guitar, as the album was described (guitars meet electronics.)
Sort of like a proto-Campfire Headphase.

Anyway, I will listen to this and pretend it's the real deal. Obviously the tracks are shortened, which takes away a lot of the fun, but what can you do.

[mechanismj]

Man, this thread just keeps drifting further and further into some strange universe right across the street from the twilight zone. Where in the universe are you guys getting these connections from?! P.C. is an early version of Cold Earth?! Man...

Don't get me wrong. I am enjoying this, but hoooly shit, guys...

[PurpleFlurp]

Man, this thread just keeps drifting further and further into some strange universe right across the street from the twilight zone. Where in the universe are you guys getting these connections from?! P.C. is an early version of Cold Earth?! Man...

Don't get me wrong. I am enjoying this, but hoooly shit, guys...

Yeh my mind would be blown if P.C was somehow the same melody as Cold Earth and I never caught it.

I should have been more clear with my earlier post stating that r35tt songs probably evolved into later tracks on 'official' albums- when I say official, I meant pre-Twoism as opposed to the leaked r35tt that is in no way official in comparison.

[mechanismj]

Man, this thread just keeps drifting further and further into some strange universe right across the street from the twilight zone. Where in the universe are you guys getting these connections from?! P.C. is an early version of Cold Earth?! Man...

Don't get me wrong. I am enjoying this, but hoooly shit, guys...

Yeh my mind would be blown if P.C was somehow the same melody as Cold Earth and I never caught it.

I should have been more clear with my earlier post stating that r35tt songs probably evolved into later tracks on 'official' albums- when I say official, I meant pre-Twoism as opposed to the leaked r35tt that is in no way official in comparison.

Seriously. I mean, it's just a 10 second porno sample that loops over and over for 45 seconds, isn't it? I completely fail to see the connection there.

Likewise with the Hi Scores comparison since there is another version of it on one of the other tapes that sounds nothing like the official version of the proposed R35T version. What do we do with that?

I think the names and the track times are the least reliable sources of information when it comes to comparing R35T to the unreleased albums. And since we've only heard a few seconds of a couple of those albums, we have NADA!

I personally think R35T is just another Old Tunes style comp, possibly older, that is missing labels. That's all it is.

Prove me wrong, BoC! Prove me wrong!

[bungler666]

Man, this thread just keeps drifting further and further into some strange universe right across the street from the twilight zone. Where in the universe are you guys getting these connections from?! P.C. is an early version of Cold Earth?! Man...

Don't get me wrong. I am enjoying this, but hoooly shit, guys...

Yeh my mind would be blown if P.C was somehow the same melody as Cold Earth and I never caught it.

I should have been more clear with my earlier post stating that r35tt songs probably evolved into later tracks on 'official' albums- when I say official, I meant pre-Twoism as opposed to the leaked r35tt that is in no way official in comparison.

Seriously. I mean, it's just a 10 second porno sample that loops over and over for 45 seconds, isn't it? I completely fail to see the connection there.

Likewise with the Hi Scores comparison since there is another version of it on one of the other tapes that sounds nothing like the official version of the proposed R35T version. What do we do with that?

I think the names and the track times are the least reliable sources of information when it comes to comparing R35T to the unreleased albums. And since we've only heard a few seconds of a couple of those albums, we have NADA!

I personally think R35T is just another Old Tunes style comp, possibly older, that is missing labels. That's all it is.

Prove me wrong, BoC! Prove me wrong!

What I meant was that P.C and Cold Earth share the same drum track. Listen closely and you'll notice.

[mechanismj]

What I meant was that P.C and Cold Earth share the same drum track. Listen closely and you'll notice.

Man, I am not hearing that at all. Sorry. Are you sure you are thinking of the right track?

[bungler666]

What I meant was that P.C and Cold Earth share the same drum track. Listen closely and you'll notice.

Man, I am not hearing that at all. Sorry. Are you sure you are thinking of the right track?

Yes, it's the same drums just time stretched and tampered with. At least I'm fairly sure?