NEW BOARDS OF CANADA VIDEO [Tape 05]

[Skytree]

Same here--"profound" is the right word, and it really does feel like stepping back into another time before things changed. I honestly hadn't listened to too much BoC as of late. But after seeing the video, I had to go on a long walk around the neighborhood while listening to some BoC like I used to, and it felt like both a new world and like an old friend was right there with me

I means a lot to share the vibe. Thank you for reflecting on it. Long walks are the best for moving energy around, in more ways than one.

[Den]

Hey you! Been a while since we went tromping around the Upper Midwest woods at night...

wut? I wanna hear about this

We had a few small Twoism meetups back then, from 2007 to 2010 or so if I recall correctly.

I lived on a wildlife preserve during the Headphase era. This necessitated biking several miles through the forest at night to get me some WiFi and hear Oscar See Through Red Eye the moment it dropped.

Rambling around that neck of the woods, especially after hours, is simply an excellent use of one's time.

Especially when in good company, and well provisioned in multiple dimensions. Or so I'd wager.

Never met another BoC fan I didn't jive with pretty much immediately.

Wow. Campfire Headphase is my favorite work of theirs, and my favorite album ever. I started listening to BOC 2008 so I’m curious to hear about everyone’s experience anticipating that album. Was Oscar See Through Red Eye a single?

[Nikanj00101]

Thinking about the way the hexagons zoom out and rotate anti-clockwise. Reminds me a lot of film trailers, but can't think of a specific example. Someone here will think of one.

Reminded me a bit of the opening of Brian de Palma's "Phantom of the Paradise"

https://youtu.be/j12CcYNPZDA?si=gbANTmNawpE4whMQ

[razlomlogic]

I never watch any opinion/reaction videos because it seems psychotic to think anyone cares how they react to anything. I felt, looking at the thumbnail, like this is the kind of guy that approaches people after gigs to tell them why they were wrong to have enjoyed the music. Then gives them his opinion like it would hold up in a court of law. I hope they forgive me if I’m wrong

100% this. He's basically saying we're wrong to be emotional and treating it like it's a watershed moment in our lives. Okay, whatevs. All I know is that I blubbed stupid amounts of tears at this. I don't think, at my venerable old age I have ever been so emotional at a piece of music, including real watershed things like Bowie's final release etc. It gave me ALL the feels, and still does, and that emotion is true and real. Some of this is undoubtedly due to the provocative and worrying time we're living in, but don't tell me I'm faking my love for it like I'm some teenage fanboy.

Pixel tears fall in slow cascade
I try to scream but it all just fades
Night after night the sky replays
Endless loop stuck in yesterday..

[Altruizine]

that a real harp or some korg something

It's interesting, I think I saw someone on some website, maybe Reddit say it sounds fake. There are differences in how the strings are plucked, not a matter of volume changes but the notes sound different to one another in many aspects. Seems real to me but if it turns out they used some "humanized" VST harp instead of just finding a real one I'm gonna question my fanhood

[Den]

If it’s a harp sound on an old synthesizer they may have wanted that.

[Altruizine]

If it’s a harp sound on an old synthesizer they may have wanted that.

Seems like a strange artistic choice for such a track because they would've worked pretty hard to make it sound authentic. Not to mention that I don't think you could really synthesize a harp sound that well, different story if you use recorded samples.

The idea of a real harp being used worked well with the gravitas attached to the BoC name and the long awaited return, I thought, because it's such an elegant and massive instrument. Sounds like a choir mixed in too. There's a sense of some real raw human emotion. Also some people saying it's a koto... not really hearing that myself.

[Soul_Slip]

that a real harp or some korg something

It's interesting, I think I saw someone on some website, maybe Reddit say it sounds fake. There are differences in how the strings are plucked, not a matter of volume changes but the notes sound different to one another in many aspects. Seems real to me but if it turns out they used some "humanized" VST harp instead of just finding a real one I'm gonna question my fanhood

Lol they would never do that.

[DFD21]

Thinking about the way the hexagons zoom out and rotate anti-clockwise. Reminds me a lot of film trailers, but can't think of a specific example. Someone here will think of one.

Reminded me a bit of the opening of Brian de Palma's "Phantom of the Paradise"

https://youtu.be/j12CcYNPZDA?si=gbANTmNawpE4whMQ

That's a good one! I didn't know it before.

[Den]

If it’s a harp sound on an old synthesizer they may have wanted that.

Seems like a strange artistic choice for such a track because they would've worked pretty hard to make it sound authentic. Not to mention that I don't think you could really synthesize a harp sound that well, different story if you use recorded samples.

The idea of a real harp being used worked well with the gravitas attached to the BoC name and the long awaited return, I thought, because it's such an elegant and massive instrument. Sounds like a choir mixed in too. There's a sense of some real raw human emotion. Also some people saying it's a koto... not really hearing that myself.

I agree that it is a stringed instrument played live. I was just making a distinction between the dreaded Reddit idea that it’s coming from the computer. No way. It could also be some other kind of stringed harp-like instrument.

[Redd Panderson]

Not to over-hype things, but my read on the harp is this:

In the context of faded media music from the past, the crisp live harp is real: it's the present. Organic. The harp rings out with lucidity while enrobed in the fingerprints of time. The eerie reminiscence of this piece to so many past scraps of BOC's work all woven masterfully into three minutes evokes, as others have put it, absolution. Release--as a release, and a return! And possibly as a completion of Boards of Canada.

And, to me, if this ends up being the final Boards of Canada release, then in a sense BOC is dead and their body of work enters an afterlife: so you hear angelic harp. The vocals fading in at the end, a community of listeners that live on after the music is done. Followers.

It is really fitting in this context that the lucid harp comes in to play what I feel is the most quintessentially Boards of Canada melody I've ever heard. It captures that moment when you're one with your instrument and a melody just comes out of your fingers that feels like it was channeled through you by the universe, and you're just a medium. Like this is what BOC came to do. Culmination.

The past inside the present! Or, the whole of time in this one moment, perhaps

[Den]

I just had deja vu… I swear I dreamt something about the harp and Boards of Canada months ago.

And I like that interpretation. It makes me think we’re going to hear more Incredible String Band influence on the new album. It’s been mentioned before but I love how the IV III I part of their melodies shows up in multiple places on Tape 05.

[armotron]

ever since the harp on Macquarie Ridge I'm convinced they straight up own a harp and record it reel to reel... i imagine their music room is filled with every strange instrument from every corner of the world and has lots of windows....

[Den]

ever since the harp on Macquarie Ridge I'm convinced they straight up own a harp and record it reel to reel... i imagine their music room is filled with every strange instrument from every corner of the world and has lots of windows....

Yes. They’ve said their studio looks like a junkyard…

I only can imagine the harp coming from a sample (meant to say sampler not synthesizer earlier) - even though I think it’s unlikely - because I know how much they love Stevie Wonder’s Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants, which I’m listening to right now and it’s blowing my mind, especially the song Voyage to India.

[rd1994]

I keep thinking. I don't think this is a new single per se. I think its similar to the TH "announcement" video. You know the one with what ended up being Semena Mertvykh

I don't have any doubt that this will be part of the new album but I don't think this is a new single and its actual title probably isn't "Tape 05" either.

[razlomlogic]

I like the idea that this could be the last track on the album, similar to Semena Mertvkyh

[Den]

The video that revealed the TH album cover and release date with Semena Mertvkyh came out on April 29th, and then the Cosecha video with the end of New Seeds came out the next day… then Reach for the Dead was released on May 23rd, and then the full album on June 10th.

If they move at the same pace then the album could be coming out in May. I could also see this unfolding in a completely different way than TH.

[Skytree]

Wow. Campfire Headphase is my favorite work of theirs, and my favorite album ever. I started listening to BOC 2008 so I’m curious to hear about everyone’s experience anticipating that album. Was Oscar See Through Red Eye a single?

It was the first preview track for the album on Bleep, and was a bit of a surprise drop if I recall correctly - a full month or more before the release. Loved that one right away and still do to this day. Definitely up there in my fave BoC tunes, so I feel ya.

Very special experiences listening to Campfire out there with no one around. Didn't have the lossless digital files back then, so walked around the woods with a Discman and the album on CD. Had to be extra careful so the music wouldn't skip. Those were the days!

[Den]

Wow. Campfire Headphase is my favorite work of theirs, and my favorite album ever. I started listening to BOC 2008 so I’m curious to hear about everyone’s experience anticipating that album. Was Oscar See Through Red Eye a single?

It was the first preview track for the album on Bleep, and was a bit of a surprise drop if I recall correctly - a full month or more before the release. Loved that one right away and still do to this day. Definitely up there in my fave BoC tunes, so I feel ya.

Very special experiences listening to Campfire out there with no one around. Didn't have the lossless digital files back then, so walked around the woods with a Discman and the album on CD. Had to be extra careful so the music wouldn't skip. Those were the days!

Beautiful.

I’d like to get a portable CD player again… it’s not even nostalgia at this point music just hits harder on a physical disc.

[Samplehunter]

I will believe in a new release when it would be released.