The Optimism of the Past

[Geogandhi]

We assume alot of stuff about them, their outlook and processes but we don't know shit.

I kinda try to only have opinions on their processes as there is evidence in what we hear. As far as anything outside the actual music we hear all we have is interview material to go on and I always feel that stuff like that is unreliable as people say things for effect, ham things up, say things in the moment and generally change opinion and disagree/regret/be embarrassed with what they have said. Not saying that's the case but just saying that we have no idea who these dudes are, we really don't.

[bocbocbocboc]

As much as I prefer their old stuff, I understand why they're so sensitive about it. It's like someone taking your middle school diary and leaking it on the internet. Even if people say it's good, it's deeply personal to them.

Although it's interesting mdg mentioned there was a plan for a remastering old tunes, although that never came to fruition.

The more BOC strives for privacy, the more "mysterious" and "elusive" they get which ironically destroys their privacy.

I won't lie, part of me is *extremely* interested in hearing old BoC--more than any new release, actually.

[bocbocbocboc]

I don't know what I'd do if I found a copy of Acid Memories or Hooper Bay or something.

[tonx]

I don't know what I'd do if I found a copy of Acid Memories or Hooper Bay or something.

You’d rip it to a lossless format on the best gear you can get your hands on, upload it anonymously somewhere/everywhere, put a crypto wallet address in the id3 tags or metadata of the initial upload and collect a substantial bounty.

[Echelon]

I assume they did, Sean from autechre mentioned that when someone leaked those releases Boards of Canada went "weird and cut a lot of people off".

I think it's always important to continuously remind ourselves, they don't owe us anything. I made a thread about this a while back, about what autechre said and how I don't want any of their old albums to leak.

https://www.twoism.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14593

I know Sean said that, but they seemed pretty dismissive in '5 when they said that Acid Memories would probably leak. They probably knew who leaked Old Tunes and figured that person was going to betray them more and release Acid Memories. Miraculously, they didn't or maybe BOC threatened to sue them. Who knows.

I don't believe BOC owe us anything, but I can guarantee that everyone would download a copy of Acid Memories if it leaked. Hell, it would probably be treated as the "new BOC release" in place of what they're actually going to release.

[rodox_head]

I assume they did, Sean from autechre mentioned that when someone leaked those releases Boards of Canada went "weird and cut a lot of people off".

I think it's always important to continuously remind ourselves, they don't owe us anything. I made a thread about this a while back, about what autechre said and how I don't want any of their old albums to leak.

https://www.twoism.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=14593

I know Sean said that, but they seemed pretty dismissive in '5 when they said that Acid Memories would probably leak. They probably knew who leaked Old Tunes and figured that person was going to betray them more and release Acid Memories. Miraculously, they didn't or maybe BOC threatened to sue them. Who knows.

Where did they say that? Interesting that Acid Memories was the one that stood out to them, so I'm assuming they knew who it was.

I don't know what I'd do if I found a copy of Acid Memories or Hooper Bay or something.

I would give it back to Mike and Marcus. Imagine the community reaction if someone did that.

[funnnnpng]

If I found a copy of any of the rare albums on CD or cassette or even vinyl, I'd probably keep it to myself and friends/family. Sorry, I don't want to risk anything

[Echelon]

Where did they say that? Interesting that Acid Memories was the one that stood out to them, so I'm assuming they knew who it was.

One of the interviews archived on BOCpages circa Campfire Headphase. An interviewer asked if the legendary five albums existed and they responded, "Yes" and that they expected Acid Memories to leak soon, or that they wouldn't be surprised if it did.

I can't read it any other way than "We know one of our asshole ex-friends is going to do us dirty and put Acid Memories out to the public."

And as I said, either the person had a change of heart and didn't put it out, or Hexagon Sun went all wickerman on em.

[The Spaniard]

Before, MDG participated more. No MDG = No BoC.

[Fredd-E]

Before, MDG participated more. No MDG = No BoC.

Or he’s busy doing other things.
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor

[tonx]

Where did they say that? Interesting that Acid Memories was the one that stood out to them, so I'm assuming they knew who it was.

One of the interviews archived on BOCpages circa Campfire Headphase. An interviewer asked if the legendary five albums existed and they responded, "Yes" and that they expected Acid Memories to leak soon, or that they wouldn't be surprised if it did.

I can't read it any other way than "We know one of our asshole ex-friends is going to do us dirty and put Acid Memories out to the public."

And as I said, either the person had a change of heart and didn't put it out, or Hexagon Sun went all wickerman on em.

There’s often the assumption by folks on this board that their earliest self-distributed records/tapes are things they’d rather nobody hear and they’d prefer to bury them. I think it misses some of the context of discussions around leaking/filesharing and concerns of the smaller artists of that era—it was a different time. My read on it has always been that it’s more plausible they saw the leaks of AFOT/2/R35TT as depriving them of the crafting of future releases refining or contextualizing that material. We hear it as their early recordings, maybe they see it as years of raw stems they can no longer crib from?

I’d wager they’d be pleased if we stumbled upon Acid Memories or Play By Numbers. They were finished, contextualized works, meant to be shared/heard—there just wasn’t a big audience then. Better to have mostly us fans chewing through some random upload of a bad rip of a copy of a copy of a tape, than go through the mess of officially releasing any of them—having music journalists, label reps, record stores, all going ape shit about it. Pitchfork giving Acid Memories a 6.2… why bother?

When the day comes that they just say fuck it and throw all that shit up on soundcloud or wherever, I will not be very surprised.

[Echelon]

Better to have mostly us fans chewing through some random upload of a bad rip of a copy of a copy of a tape, than go through the mess of officially releasing any of them—having music journalists, label reps, record stores, all going ape shit about it. Pitchfork giving Acid Memories a 6.2… why bother?

Considering Pitchfork shit on Twoism, which is a brilliant record that predicted vaporwave and did it better than most of it, I agree. They probably don't want to bother going through the effort of putting Acid Memories out. I could even imagine reading them slagging off Play By Numbers, by telling us how "BOC was dabbling with shoe-gaze before realizing what they truly wanted to do" and "BOC clearly idolize Kevin Shields but lack his refined craft with their shoegaze meets electronica experiements."

Meanwhile the fanbase all adores it.

[rodox_head]

Considering Pitchfork shit on Twoism, which is a brilliant record that predicted vaporwave and did it better than most of it

I mean, the framework and aesthetic is there, but I don't think I'd go that far

[Echelon]

Considering Pitchfork shit on Twoism, which is a brilliant record that predicted vaporwave and did it better than most of it

I mean, the framework and aesthetic is there, but I don't think I'd go that far

Hyperbole maybe, but Pitchfork tries to pretend to be on top of things and locate influences when they start. They totally missed it with Twoism.

[rodox_head]

Considering Pitchfork shit on Twoism, which is a brilliant record that predicted vaporwave and did it better than most of it

I mean, the framework and aesthetic is there, but I don't think I'd go that far

Hyperbole maybe, but Pitchfork tries to pretend to be on top of things and locate influences when they start. They totally missed it with Twoism.

Something tells me that comparing BoC to vaporwave would be seen as a point against them, as genres like vaporwave, chillwave, and synthwave all kind of became oversaturated and not taken too seriously. That's just my impression, from an artistic perspective I love the concept of vaporwave. They were a stepping stone for sure, somewhere between acts like MBV or The Chameleons and the greater trip-hop/downtempo genre. Maybe nowadays it would be seen as a point towards it, but probably not ten years ago. It only took about 20 years for people to start looking fondly at eurodance.

Pitchfork also infamously slammed "Something To Write Home About" seemingly not even aware of the Emo genre, so.. yeah, if I were the bros I'd probably just laugh off whatever they have to say.

[Echelon]

Something tells me that comparing BoC to vaporwave would be seen as a point against them, as genres like vaporwave, chillwave, and synthwave all kind of became oversaturated and not taken too seriously. That's just my impression, from an artistic perspective I love the concept of vaporwave. They were a stepping stone for sure, somewhere between acts like MBV or The Chameleons and the greater trip-hop/downtempo genre. Maybe nowadays it would be seen as a point towards it, but probably not ten years ago. It only took about 20 years for people to start looking fondly at eurodance.

Pitchfork also infamously slammed "Something To Write Home About" seemingly not even aware of the Emo genre, so.. yeah, if I were the bros I'd probably just laugh off whatever they have to say.

Actually, yeah, I get your point about not wanting to connect BOC with a genre that people are annoyed by or find tasteless. Though regardless, it's still a part of history, as much as emo is a far cheaper, lesser sub-division to eighties goth, or radio pop-punk to seventies OG Punk. It's hard to tell with Pitchfork though because they were upgrading all of Taylor Swift's albums to higher rankings, and she's hardly a groundbreaking indie band, unless you want to count sales and social impact.

I actually think that vaporwave is what caused BOC to pivot towards seventies electronic music with TH. Most vaporwave kids probably had no idea about those soundtrack composers or Tangerine Dream. If their next album is influenced by the music of Societas X Tape, imagine more music influenced by stuff that vaporwavers have never heard before.

[rodox_head]

Something tells me that comparing BoC to vaporwave would be seen as a point against them, as genres like vaporwave, chillwave, and synthwave all kind of became oversaturated and not taken too seriously. That's just my impression, from an artistic perspective I love the concept of vaporwave. They were a stepping stone for sure, somewhere between acts like MBV or The Chameleons and the greater trip-hop/downtempo genre. Maybe nowadays it would be seen as a point towards it, but probably not ten years ago. It only took about 20 years for people to start looking fondly at eurodance.

Pitchfork also infamously slammed "Something To Write Home About" seemingly not even aware of the Emo genre, so.. yeah, if I were the bros I'd probably just laugh off whatever they have to say.

Actually, yeah, I get your point about not wanting to connect BOC with a genre that people are annoyed by or find tasteless. Though regardless, it's still a part of history, as much as emo is a far cheaper, lesser sub-division to eighties goth, or radio pop-punk to seventies OG Punk. It's hard to tell with Pitchfork though because they were upgrading all of Taylor Swift's albums to higher rankings, and she's hardly a groundbreaking indie band, unless you want to count sales and social impact.

Vaporwave certainly does earn its spot in music history IMO. I think it influenced how a lot of us view consumer culture and nostalgia currently, for better or worse, kind of like pop art. The problem is a lot of genres/artists get taken at face value and robbed of any deeper meaning or significance (I want "Depeche Mode are not a New Wave band" on my tombstone ).

A thought just occurred to me, with the ease of access to extremely niche genres (e.g. Japanese Disco, Slavic Post-Punk) and how much more likely any average Joe can stumble upon a band and fall in love with them, or how easily said average Joe can turn on the newest album from *insert big name artist here* and form their own opinion on it, would that make conventional reviews ultimately worthless? Not that they haven't been so before. Oingo Boingo put out a song trashing music critics back in '81.

I actually think that vaporwave is what caused BOC to pivot towards seventies electronic music with TH. Most vaporwave kids probably had no idea about those soundtrack composers or Tangerine Dream. If their next album is influenced by the music of Societas X Tape, imagine more music influenced by stuff that vaporwavers have never heard before.

Tomorrow's Harvest is more representative of the kind of stuff Vaporwavers should have tried to achieve, instead of nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. Maybe even kind of a "Take that!" in a sense. It's good that BoC have stuck to their guns and avoided falling into self parody, even if we have to wait...
*looks at calendar*
a whole decade for a release

[Echelon]

I actually think that vaporwave is what caused BOC to pivot towards seventies electronic music with TH. Most vaporwave kids probably had no idea about those soundtrack composers or Tangerine Dream. If their next album is influenced by the music of Societas X Tape, imagine more music influenced by stuff that vaporwavers have never heard before.

Tomorrow's Harvest is more representative of the kind of stuff Vaporwavers should have tried to achieve, instead of nostalgia for nostalgia's sake. Maybe even kind of a "Take that!" in a sense. It's good that BoC have stuck to their guns and avoided falling into self parody, even if we have to wait...
*looks at calendar*
a whole decade for a release

Back in 2010, between TCH and TH, there was a vaporwave album on Bandcamp. It seemed to be deliberately trashy, from the cover to the music, both utilizing trashy aesthetics and mock ominous dialogue snippets. The weird thing was, it was credited to Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin. At first, you'd think: "Oh that's something a troll made." But not only does it sound like a Hell Interface style piss-take with deliberately low-effort melodies, but there's one track on it that is so good melodically that it makes you wonder. Was this BOC's answer to the vaporwave movement? Did Mike and Marcus decide to stick it to the people who took their nostalgic music at face-value? Or was it simply a troll? We may never know the answer to this.

But it plays into your theory of how TH was indeed a chance to show up the poseurs. First they give us what a shit "vaporwave" album sounds like, and then they give us a loving homage to the seventies and eighties soundtracks they grew up with. If we believe that all the BOC shenanigans this year was them, than they're certainly up for some hooliganish fun

[Echelon]

Before, MDG participated more. No MDG = No BoC.

According to his profile log-in, MDG was here in November. Not sure what you're talking about Willis

[rodox_head]

Back in 2010, between TCH and TH, there was a vaporwave album on Bandcamp. It seemed to be deliberately trashy, from the cover to the music, both utilizing trashy aesthetics and mock ominous dialogue snippets. The weird thing was, it was credited to Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin. At first, you'd think: "Oh that's something a troll made." But not only does it sound like a Hell Interface style piss-take with deliberately low-effort melodies, but there's one track on it that is so good melodically that it makes you wonder. Was this BOC's answer to the vaporwave movement? Did Mike and Marcus decide to stick it to the people who took their nostalgic music at face-value? Or was it simply a troll? We may never know the answer to this.

I have to hear that if it still exists somehow. BoC are not above taking the piss out of fakers, hence "diet coke green screen failure". Wasn't there some fake BoC track uploaded to itunes back then that had a Bjork album cover on it or something?

I know this is probably not it, but did it sound something like this: