Boards of Canada's recycle/reuse of samples

[The Spaniard]

I just noticed that the song titled Dave (I'm a Real Traditionalist) from A Few Old Tunes Vol. 2, and 5D from Closes Vol. 1 or Audiotrack 6A on the Random 35 Track Tape share a sample:

Second 41 of Dave (https://youtu.be/vJiREhmiUQs?t=42)
Minute of 5D/Audiotrack 6A (https://youtu.be/ufgpCJxDDIg?t=187)

"What comes with uh... chicken fingers?"

I am wondering why Mike and Marcus would reuse samples. Was it that difficult to extract them and use new ones? I guess that this adds some information about the lack of equipment Mike and Marcus had at the early stages of Boards of Canada. Maybe they had a few samples at their disposal and they reused them here and there. Maybe they didn't notice.

Maybe by reusing samples they wanted to create links and establish a dialogue among the tracks of their music catalogue, but in this case I think that they just thought that it just sounded well. What does this sample have that makes it appear twice? I don't know. It seems kind of a random sample to me. It doesn't seem to bear message or criticism of fast food (if one considers chicken fingers fast food).

Do you know of any other samples that have been reused in different songs by Boards of Canada?

[WaitingFor_22]

I would say that it probably has some kind of meaning to them, like a line that made them laugh or something.

My favourite reused samples:
* The flute from "When the Music starts to Play", used in "You could feel the sky" and "Dead dogs Two"
* The flourishing synth that appears in "Aquarius", "Alpha and Omega" and Warp10 track 3.
*The mysterious flute that appears in "An eagle in your mind", "Opening the Mouth", "5d", and I think a few more which I can't remember.

[oliveoil22]

They've also re-used synth presets. The beginning synth in the start of Forest Moon is also used in the Broken Drum remix in reverse. Appears at about 2:51 in the song.

Here's a reversed version of the song where you can hear the synth clearly:

[SamuraiDrifter]

The children's voices in the Dirty Great Mable remix also appear in Olson (version 3).

[IronMark]

Obligatory "I'm not on BoC's level, obviously" disclaimer.

But I've done this before in songs with samples that I particularly like or are meaningful to me, I'll work one into a song and then a few years later I'll have disowned my previous work and feel I've moved up a level in production and re-use the sample in a song I feel is much better etc.

Also, back when BoC were doing this in the Old Tunes days etc, it wasn't possible to just grab any sample you can think of from the internet so they had far fewer sources to work with.

[fefor]

I was surprised when I found out that Sixtyten also sampled Colonel Abrams Trapped

[chemical_si]

I quite like it when a musical artist re-uses samples. Take Luke Vibert for instance and his many aliases. For me it builds up a dialogue, and a little universe. The self-referencing between the different aliases also reminds you that it is all one person at the end of the day. And by that I mean, here's a bit of Wagon Christ in a Luke Vibert song, or here's a bit of Amen Andrews in a Kerrier District song, etc. It's a bit like a calling card that's been recontextualised.

[bakedsodium]

Sixtyten samples Magic Teens at about 0:27.

[PsilocyBen]

The Sesame Street “Many Me’s” has been sampled in Sixtyten, Sunshine Recorder, and Whitewater, though they are different little snippets from it.

[PsilocyBen]

The Sesame Street “Many Me’s” has been sampled in Sixtyten, Sunshine Recorder, and Whitewater, though they are different little snippets from it.

[A_Northern_Soul]

I quite like it when a musical artist re-uses samples. Take Luke Vibert for instance and his many aliases. For me it builds up a dialogue, and a little universe. The self-referencing between the different aliases also reminds you that it is all one person at the end of the day. And by that I mean, here's a bit of Wagon Christ in a Luke Vibert song, or here's a bit of Amen Andrews in a Kerrier District song, etc. It's a bit like a calling card that's been recontextualised.

Yeah - it's a nice bit of a wink to fans I think.

I find it a lot with Spacemen 3/ Spiritualized.

[Jango9]

There's a few I haven't seen mentioned yet:
-Twoism (the song, not the album) uses a loop borrowed from Spectrum
-Turquoise Hexagon Sun and Orange Hexagon Sun share a drum beat
-Seven Forty Seven uses the same choir sample as Audiotrack A06, just sped up a bit

Edit: And of course, the Summer Of '72 monologue that appears in both Sixtyniner and Sir Prancelot Brainfire

[Geogandhi]

Don't forget that none of us were even meant to hear the early stuff so we cannot consider them completely finished pieces of music. They are still scrap book material ripe for picking from to make newer music that will be heard. Re purposing a piece of a tune that has potential rather than let it waste away in a track they deem to old or not good enough for their current output.

[Jango9]

Don't forget that none of us were even meant to hear the early stuff so we cannot consider them completely finished pieces of music. They are still scrap book material ripe for picking from to make newer music that will be heard. Re purposing a piece of a tune that has potential rather than let it waste away in a track they deem to old or not good enough for their current output.

Absolutely true, it's kinda like seeing the armchair from someone's old house in the new one that they just built. If you've seen where it used to be then it's a nice extra bit of knowledge for ya, but if you only ever saw it in the new house then as far as you know it's just a good chair. If the chair's not falling to bits from overuse (which is almost certainly true if very few people even saw the old house to begin with) then it makes sense to bring it to the new house instead of just throwing it away when you move lmao

Not a perfect analogy by any means, but I think I got pretty close!

[Michi-LFG]

I think Circle choir was used in Turquoise Hexagon Sun

[bungler666]

I think Circle choir was used in Turquoise Hexagon Sun

Timestamp? Haven't thought about that one.

[The Spaniard]

Don't forget that none of us were even meant to hear the early stuff so we cannot consider them completely finished pieces of music.

That is a a good point. Music that was produced before Music Has The Right To Children wasn't intended to be sold in a massive way so obvious sampling wasn't really an issue.

Yesterday I noticed that the very characteristic beat line in Happy Cycling, released in MHTRTC, seems to be highly inspired by the drum beat of the song Heart Beat, Pig Meat by Pink Floyd. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGLX5CglVGY).

MHTRTC seems to be an album in which "obvious" music samples (strict music samples, not voice recordings) extracted from records by other artists are more obvious than in more recent releases by BoC. Maybe the huge recognition Mike&Marcus received after the success of MHTRTC made them be more cautious and careful with sampling.

(By the way, this reference to Heart Beat, Pig Meat by Pink Floyd is not listed in BoCPages yet).

[WaitingFor_22]

(By the way, this reference to Heart Beat, Pig Meat by Pink Floyd is not listed in BoCPages yet).

It is listed on the alternate take, Bad Day, that they made for their Peel Session, where the sample is much clearer.

[bungler666]

It has probably already been mentioned, but the P.C is a direct sample from Summer of 72 also. Also Niagara.

I watched the "The Samples - Boards Of Canada" video and damn, the intro to "Foreign Affair" by Manhattan Transfer really sounds like Staircase Whip. Might not be the same recording they sampled but it really is the same harmony.

Do any of you know if that melody is a common motif? Sounds a bit choral, reminds me of early christian music, like Gesualdo or Hildegard von Bingen....


I'm talking about the first few seconds of the song.

[funnnnpng]

"I Love My New Shears" has some of the same percussion sounds from "Roygbiv". The same snare sound is chopped up and messed with a couple times.
"Sunshine Recorder"'s beat sounds like a heavily chopped version of "oirectine"'s. You can hear one of the same sound effects used in the "oirectine" beat.
"Pete Standing Alone", "Hi Scores", "Mukinabaht" and "Sick Times" all have similar drum beats, idk if they're related though