Let me preface these theories by saying this again: I've not been active on twoism in years. I couldn't find another post similar to this anywhere on the site, and the few bits of information I've been able to parse here and there haven't really been much to go off of. It seems like the best educated guesses on this topic are still total shots in the dark and baseless speculation, which I think is ok. I'd just like to share some of mine.
To start with, we're going to have to work under a few assumptions to narrow down, even slightly, the way that I make these guesses. If you don't want to read these, you can skip ahead, and I've marked them as spoilers. If you don't, some of the predictions won't make sense.
- Spoiler: show
A06 is 5d from Closes, vol. 1.
This has been quasi-confirmed for a while by the inclusion of an upload of A06 under the title 5d in a playlist by the official Boards of Canada YouTube Page. Some have called this wishful thinking, and in all honestly, I'd probably agree, but this is as close to proof as anything we've gotten so far.
B12 is a Twoism outtake and the only song on R35TT to be recorded at Hexagon Sun. It was not included on any previous release.
This song's melodicism and production style match that of Twoism much more than anything else on this tape,
Now we get into the baseless guesses that I can assign names to:
A04 is "Close1" from Closes, vol. 1
The runtimes for these two songs are very close, and given the audio quality as well as the silly style of the track, I feel as though this is a pretty good guess.
A07 is "Numerator" from Play By Numbers.
I've seen this theory thrown around a few times on this forum, and I think it's a pretty good prediction. The reversed guitars all over this, combined with the drum beat and runtime, make this a pretty good guess I think. This is unfortunately a baseless prediction, as we really have nothing to compare this to. I do think that if this isn't "Numerator," this is probably another song from Play By Numbers, or at least from that era. Which song it might be, however, I can't say.
A13 is an excerpt from "Echelon" from Play By Numbers.
This song I feel like fits what we know and have heard about Play By Numbers better than even A07. The reason I suggest Echelon and not Infinite Lines of Colorful Sevens is that a) I feel like when compiling a tape, you're less likely to take an excerpt of a 9 minute song than of a 6 minute one, and b) I feel like this feels "dramatic" like a closing track often does. Boards of Canada closers are often some of the moodiest songs on the album (Corsair, Zoetrope, if we're counting Happy Cycling then Happy Cycling), so I feel like this isn't a super far-fetched idea. Again, if it's not "Echelon," it could be any song off Play By Numbers, or was at least created during the same timeframe under the same set of influences. If both this and the previous prediction are correct, we have at least partial access to 3 songs from Play By Numbers already!!!
B09 is an early version of "Wouldn't You Like To Be Free?" from Play By Numbers, probably not included on any previous release.
This song shares its drum pattern with that of "Wouldn't You Like To Be Free?" I think it's possible that as they were working on this song during the production cycle of Closes, which, if the rest of Closes sounds similar to the tracks we've theorized to be present on it, would make the instrumentation of the rest of the song make sense. It's entirely possible that they just reused the drum beat between different songs (perhaps like an Orange Hexagon Sun sort of thing, in which case, maybe we should call this song Wouldn't You Hate To Be Free?).
Although I can't put a name on it, I'm reasonably sure that B08 is sourced from Hooper Bay.
If Circle gives us anything to speculate from, it's that Hooper Bay is likely to be the most alien and experimental of these pre-Twoism records. I think perhaps that this is either an excerpt from from a song of, or a vignette from, Hooper Bay. We know they used vignettes as far back as Closes, although they're listed as separate tracks on that record. Perhaps Hooper Bay was the first to introduce using these vignettes as part of the song, which we see later on Twoism just a year later.
B04 and B05 are two parts of the same song, and are either Helter Skater or Echo the Sun from Acid Memories.
This is either the boldest prediction or the biggest reach of this list, depending on how you'd like to look at it. If this is true, this would be absolutely nuts, as we would have had an ENTIRE SONG from Acid Memories sitting under our noses this whole time. If you combine the runtimes of the two tracks (4:26 + 1:53), you get 6:16, which, considering there's a fadeout at the end of B05, could either mean the fadeout is placed later than on Acid Memories, which would give us Helter Skater, or that there's another few seconds (what would support our case being about 15) that don't make it through the fadeout, which would give us Echo the Sun.
These final predictions are either pure speculation, and I can't put a name on any of these tracks, or they're predictions which could be accurate that I have little faith in.
B14 could be "Trillions" from Closes, vol. 1
This would fit with the descriptions from Hexagon Sun associates suggesting that the earlier works of the band "weren't all that electronic" (note that I don't have access to this post, which I believe was from MDG. If someone could link it that would be great.) The track lengths match up well, too, although there is a little bit of fade into B15. I think it also fits well with the kind of sound that the rest of these predictions have been laying out for Closes, vol. 1.
A03, A12, and B01 could be excerpts from the longer songs on Closes, vol 1.
All three of these songs share the similar rhythmic synths, simple machine drum patterns, and implementation of effects. These kinds of sounds aren't present any further forwards than Closes, and based on the description, the excerpt of Duffy, and the possibility that we have access to one of the two latter songs on the record, I think that they would fit pretty well in the sound of Closes that this set of predictions has established. B01 is my favorite of these, so if any of them are from Closes, I hope it's that one.
"Dave (I'm A Real Traditionalist)" could be a later version/mix of a song from Closes, vol. 1
The reverby snare from A14 is there. The simple rhythmic synthesizers are there. The pre-Hexagon Sun synth work is there. The only difference is the samples that are used, which I think could have been added by Mike and Marcus when compiling OTV2.
"Finity" was originally going to be included on/was recorded during the same sessions as Closes, vol. 1.
Finity, which we first heard on AFOT, actually has many of the same hallmarks as many of the songs that I've picked out to be from that record. Rhythmic synthesizers, a less simple drum pattern but a simple one all the same, some of the ambient synths from 5d... Even the title is mathematics related. It would make sense for this song to have been part of the original selection of songs to be included on Closes, vol. 1.
A08 is "Numerator (Original)" from Closes, vol. 1
This one is a little bold, especially considering the A07 theory, but bear with me. Boards of Canada have been known to reuse names for completely unrelated songs in the past (again I have to bring up Happy Cycling). This song matches the length of Numerator (Original) almost exactly, and it fits with the amateurish, rhythmic synth sounds we know are on Closes, Vol. 1. This would mean that June 9th is actually a later version of "Numerator," which is really weird.
"Forest Moon" could be "Numerator (Original)" from Closes, vol. 1.
I think that if either of the two songs I've suggested could have been Numerator, this one would certainly make more sense. This one leans more to the 5d side of predictions for songs from this record, which, if all of my predictions were somehow right, would make Closes, vol. 1, probably the strangest and most disjointed record in the Boards catalog. Forest Moon still doesn't have much in common with A07, but I feel like there's more in common here than there is with A08.
That about wraps it up, I think. I'd encourage anyone reading this to share their theories/correct mine in the replies. I'd love to get active on Twoism again (really for the first time) and I feel like this is a good way to really re-introduce myself. What do yall think?
P.S. I apologize for not listing the runtimes/interviews here - bocpages is down right now and I'd rather get this put out than forget about it. I'll update this when I can find runtimes for all the songs.
