Reverse Melody in The Campfire Headphase (Easter Egg)

[Mind your eagle]

Satellite Anthem Icarus on TCH, what an original sounding track! Deep bass and a slightly offset and fat kick drum working well together. It is hard to tell if the twirping birds and crow sounds are real samples or were composed with synths to sound like samples. I imagine this is how cybernetic animals might sound one day in an AI kind of way. Maybe I am reading too much into things, but Icarus was the greek god who got too cocky and flew too close to the sun and lost his new found freedom when his wings melted and he plunged to his death in the ocean. I cant help but feel in an intuitive way that the title is a reference to the satellite technology available today like Google Earth etc, which whilst is a great toy now, has the power, later to control us, and to remove mystery from the World, which is so crucial to us remaining human, or having child like wonder. Or it could be that we are building a virtual world through satellites to replace the real world, which is perfect as it is without our intevention. To me, all BOC tracks, artistically allude to something much deeper and gets me thinking about things in a spiritual or political way. When I hear their music, I know a great mind or advanced spirit had to be behind music so beautiful, so dark, sublime and bittersweet. The hypnotic emotional power of the melodies goes straight into the subconcious in a way I cant quite put my finger on. Throughout all their albums this is the central theme spoken to me that true power, joy and beauty exists for us all... in the enigma!

Enough of my analysis:

At the 5:30 marker of this track you will notice the organ with that warpy damaged doppler effect running through it. When I heard it I thought that little part had to be a reverse melody or audio palindrome. So I ripped the track to a WAV and loaded it into Goldwave and simply reversed it without doing anything else to it. And voila... so it was a little vignette!

Simply play it on repeat in WinAmp or whatever tool you use. I have uploaded the 25 second reversed ending to this folder so you can hear the melody (670k mp3 format):

http://www.badongo.com/file/287435

Found any other easter eggs on The Campfire Headphase?

[Archrival]

great read and good analyze.

theres tons of eastereggs on TCH.

[Mind your eagle]

Would love to know what anyone else has discovered on TCH? Any hints on the easter eggs?

Are you referring to snippets at ends of tracks, speech and samples, reversing the melody or changing the pitch and tempo?

I have listened to quite a few of the tracks in reverse, but nothing stands out as much as Satellite Anthem Icarus.

[The Other]

Would love to know what anyone else has discovered on TCH? Any hints on the easter eggs?

Are you referring to snippets at ends of tracks, speech and samples, reversing the melody or changing the pitch and tempo?

I have listened to quite a few of the tracks in reverse, but nothing stands out as much as Satellite Anthem Icarus.

i posted a whole slew of things i observed through listening...some i am sure people have heard...
http://twoism.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t ... highlight=

[Mind your eagle]

Excellent piece by piece analysis "The Other".

I am a long time lurker here but new at posting so I may or may not have missed something, though I have searched the forum in an attempt to not be reporting old news.

But what I am referring to specifically is more the discoveries through manipulating the already existing song. Not so much the reverse speech or hidden messages, but reversed and hidden melodies. Like the well known "I saw drones" in reverse. Or tracks like "Alpha & Omega" where the ending melody sounds pue evil in reverse but not so great for the entire track in reverse.

Sometimes a 3 part chord progression in a track when reversed or slowed down or sped up and cut out from the rest sounds pure brilliant on its own. Deconstructing the songs sonically is what interests me as much as the hidden speech and samples.

Try speeding up the tempo but keeping the pitch the same on the old tune track: 5.9.78 for a completely different type of feeling.

[The Other]

Excellent piece by piece analysis "The Other".

I am a long time lurker here but new at posting so I may or may not have missed something, though I have searched the forum in an attempt to not be reporting old news.

But what I am referring to specifically is more the discoveries through manipulating the already existing song. Not so much the reverse speech or hidden messages, but reversed and hidden melodies. Like the well known "I saw drones" in reverse. Or tracks like "Alpha & Omega" where the ending melody sounds pue evil in reverse but not so great for the entire track in reverse.

Sometimes a 3 part chord progression in a track when reversed or slowed down or sped up and cut out from the rest sounds pure brilliant on its own. Deconstructing the songs sonically is what interests me as much as the hidden speech and samples.

Try speeding up the tempo but keeping the pitch the same on the old tune track: 5.9.78 for a completely different type of feeling.

right on man...i havent done that with TCH yet...i did with geogaddi and others...but i know there are parts when i listen to the album that make me think to go and do it...i would love to hear about other peoples discoveries...this would be the perfect thread to post them on....

[Mind your eagle]

right on man...i havent done that with TCH yet...i did with geogaddi and others...but i know there are parts when i listen to the album that make me think to go and do it...i would love to hear about other peoples discoveries...this would be the perfect thread to post them on....

I think that "Into the Rainbow Vein" was composed first and then reversed before BOC added it to TCH. The surest way to tell if the music has been reversed, is that "sucking backwards air" like effect that BOC use well in so many of their tracks to give them their trademark sound (which I am sure a lot of people are trying to figure out how they sound so unique in a technical musical way). Using the LFO envelope of attack on a synth can bring the same results, but knowing how much BOC love to manipulate and degrade their own compositions, I would say that it has been reversed. Strange thing is that it sounds fairly similar in reverse as to forwards playing. And both ways produce the same attack like effect, but at different parts of the song which makes me think that there are two seperate tracks here, layered together. One in reverse and one forwards playing, producing an atonal melody to set the scene.

The problem with reversing music is that for it to sound good, accessible and naturalistic, most of the time you need to have an absence of drums or a very subtle rhythm section, otherwise you get the clicking sound. So naturally the spots in any of their songs were there is an absence of drums is a good spot to try reversing. I believe that they compose their music often without the drum track and then reverse it, and add the drums at the final stage as ornamentation to the deep melodies. Meaning that even if you reverse it, is does not sound right with the drums, but the melody still sounds good underneath on a different layer.

Perhaps BOC are alluding to something metaphorically on a wider scope by placing emphasis on "reversing" things? (Remember the freaky old unintelligble blue GIF on the Music 70 website that when reversed said "The Internet is Evil Wake Up" - Sheer cheeky shannanigans!).

I thought that the track "Slow this bird down" might have been a hint at something hidden when changing the pitch to slow it down, much in the way that Geogaddi track "A is to B as B is to C" hints at reversing it. Nothing stood out at me on first and second listens, though I did find that when the track is sped up the drumming and rhythm section sounded very cool and much more naturalistic as though in real time, in addition to the choir in the background being really emphasized.

Would love to hear from any others who have sonically manipulated any BOC tracks and found something.

[The Other]

right on man...i havent done that with TCH yet...i did with geogaddi and others...but i know there are parts when i listen to the album that make me think to go and do it...i would love to hear about other peoples discoveries...this would be the perfect thread to post them on....

I think that "Into the Rainbow Vein" was composed first and then reversed before BOC added it to TCH. The surest way to tell if the music has been reversed, is that "sucking backwards air" like effect that BOC use well in so many of their tracks to give them their trademark sound (which I am sure a lot of people are trying to figure out how they sound so unique in a technical musical way). Using the LFO envelope of attack on a synth can bring the same results, but knowing how much BOC love to manipulate and degrade their own compositions, I would say that it has been reversed. Strange thing is that it sounds fairly similar in reverse as to forwards playing. And both ways produce the same attack like effect, but at different parts of the song which makes me think that there are two seperate tracks here, layered together. One in reverse and one forwards playing, producing an atonal melody to set the scene.


The problem with reversing music is that for it to sound good, accessible and naturalistic, most of the time you need to have an absence of drums or a very subtle rhythm section, otherwise you get the clicking sound. So naturally the spots in any of their songs were there is an absence of drums is a good spot to try reversing. I believe that they compose their music often without the drum track and then reverse it, and add the drums at the final stage as ornamentation to the deep melodies. Meaning that even if you reverse it, is does not sound right with the drums, but the melody still sounds good underneath on a different layer.

Perhaps BOC are alluding to something metaphorically on a wider scope by placing emphasis on "reversing" things? (Remember the freaky old unintelligble blue GIF on the Music 70 website that when reversed said "The Internet is Evil Wake Up" - Sheer cheeky shannanigans!).

I thought that the track "Slow this bird down" might have been a hint at something hidden when changing the pitch to slow it down, much in the way that Geogaddi track "A is to B as B is to C" hints at reversing it. Nothing stood out at me on first and second listens, though I did find that when the track is sped up the drumming and rhythm section sounded very cool and much more naturalistic as though in real time, in addition to the choir in the background being really emphasized.

Will keep you posted if anything else sticks out after some more sonic manipulation.

You seem to know alot about sound manipulation. Are you a musician? Over the years I have made the transistion from guitar player into what i call sound manipulator/experimentee...thanks to bands like BoC...Everything you said in your post hit close home

BoC in my opinion, are masters of reversing things..because they do it flawlessly and effectively...their sound techniques are top notch. many try to emulate, and fall short...but i give the so much praise for opening the door for us all...

[Mind your eagle]

You seem to know alot about sound manipulation. Are you a musician? Over the years I have made the transistion from guitar player into what i call sound manipulator/experimentee...thanks to bands like BoC...Everything you said in your post hit close home

BoC in my opinion, are masters of reversing things..because they do it flawlessly and effectively...their sound techniques are top notch. many try to emulate, and fall short...but i give the so much praise for opening the door for us all...

Thanks for your comments and thanks for asking. No I would not class myself as a musician, though I started experimenting when about 15 years of age playing classical guitar. At that stage I was always interested more in finding the perfect chord progression, that special chord that would produce that "ahh" type of release that would simply make a song out of a loop of tension. I also loved coming up with detuned arpeggios, that would evoke a lamenting longing feeling in my mind. That is why I dig "Bibio", that I read in an interview that Marcus endorsed as "the antidote to a lot of the banal laptop electronic music" featuring tired sounds.

Like yourself, I made the transition to electronic music about 10 years ago, when I bought my first synth - a crappy old Korg Poly 800 with 64 note step sequencer. It was absolutely amazing some of the weird sounds you could get out of it plugged straight into a guitar amp or hi fi. The neighbours used to think aliens had landed and the resonance and frequenices ended up blowing my hi-fi speakers. Today, I work on Win 98, and use old software and crappy soundcards to get melodies right, then save them to MIDI and decide at a later date how I shall flavour them. The tools do not bother me too much, because I believe that "ideas are more important than technology", and "experimentation is more important than formula". I have a few mates who have thousand pound studio setups etc. But nothing of what they produce strikes me as being that original or with a lot of thought and delicacy that has gone into it. Put any monkey in front of button and he can produce peanuts.

On the other end of the scale, I have some mates (jazz players etc) who are very technical minded, and extremely talented and gifted as to composing and playing scales and that sort of thing, but I find what they lack is just a very natural approach to making something work for the everyday non-muso person (eg Richard James has never studied a musical note in his life). They often get bogged down in the "muso syndrome" of making things too complicated or incredibally fast at the expense of real feeling and mood, which is a common syndrome in just about everything today - faster is better. In my mind it is better to take 10 years making one perfect album, than to make 10 average albums in one year. This is another message I feel BOC is trying to communicate, why be trashy and fast? What is wrong with slow? What makes them true artists is they do what everyone else is not doing, and get away with it. They will always be ahead of the game because they set their own rules and dont even bother with wasting their energy following others. If everyone started playing slow music tomorrow, BOC would play fast. If everyone went completely organic, they would probably go synthetic. This is the true punk ethos. Punk is attitude not a sound.

Layers, tension, mood and atmospherics, and the journey of progression in sound + getting that "sad but happy" bittersweet melody is what excites me, and is why BOC have inspired so many people (how many famous artists do we know who tried to rip off the dissonant MHTRTC sound and jump on the bandwagon?). I remember when electronic music was taking off in the early 90's. Some good some bad, but the most exciting thing to me was hearing an "other-worldy sound" for the first time...when you hair stands on the back of your neck and the music commands your attention. It was like taking a drug for the first time. Your thinking logical mind doesnt have time to react to it and you have no way to categorize it because it is so completely alien. Also 90's guitar and sample bands that used a sonic wall of sound like My Bloody Valentine, Seafeel and many others that embody those same ideas of making you go "what the f%ck was that". How did they do it? But at the same time it had a musical sensibility you could identify with or hum to in your head. There was still some sort of deep structure going on underneath it all.

I think if you take a good look at BOC you will find that they by no means endorse the latest technology or buy into it. Their website "author" tags say their site was made using Netscape 4 running on Windows NT. That kind of thing makes me smile. They have confirmed in interviews that they love using their trusted 8bit Akai S1000 sampler and rely on old technology because it sounds more human and hence more perfect than something that has no shade of dirty grey in it.

If you were to take one thing from BOC, that would be true to yourself. Fashion fades fast...art is ahistorical endures forever...and its your own expression...which is insanely cool. The old Taoist ethic if you dont compare yourself to anyone else then nobody else will compare to you, rings of the truth. The past is definately inside the present. The doors you talk about them opening up is true. Music can go in any direction you want. There are still many many possibilities to play with.

Sh*t I could write a PhD on how much they have inspired me, and not just musically but reading about all sorts of mind expanding philosophy, science and esoteric stuff - you know - question modern day authority and read what the ancient sages said before modern day religions. Think for yourself and you will never go wrong, and show respect to those who are truly creative etc. Your right, they have opened the doors and made our minds much bigger for it. As the perfect antidote to cynicism, they deserve all of our respect, even if it does border upon hero worship sometimes.

I know I have cr*pped on a bit and went of tangent in this thread, but its so cool to see so many people appreciating and having a hunger for what is beautiful.

[The Other]

You seem to know alot about sound manipulation. Are you a musician? Over the years I have made the transistion from guitar player into what i call sound manipulator/experimentee...thanks to bands like BoC...Everything you said in your post hit close home

BoC in my opinion, are masters of reversing things..because they do it flawlessly and effectively...their sound techniques are top notch. many try to emulate, and fall short...but i give the so much praise for opening the door for us all...

Thanks for your comments and thanks for asking. No I would not class myself as a musician, though I started experimenting when about 15 years of age playing classical guitar. At that stage I was always interested more in finding the perfect chord progression, that special chord that would produce that "ahh" type of release that would simply make a song out of a loop of tension. I also loved coming up with detuned arpeggios, that would evoke a lamenting longing feeling in my mind. That is why I dig "Bibio", that I read in an interview that Marcus endorsed as "the antidote to a lot of the banal laptop electronic music" featuring tired sounds.

Like yourself, I made the transition to electronic music about 10 years ago, when I bought my first synth - a crappy old Korg Poly 800 with 64 note step sequencer. It was absolutely amazing some of the weird sounds you could get out of it plugged straight into a guitar amp or hi fi. The neighbours used to think aliens had landed and the resonance and frequenices ended up blowing my hi-fi speakers. Today, I work on Win 98, and use old software and crappy soundcards to get melodies right, then save them to MIDI and decide at a later date how I shall flavour them. The tools do not bother me too much, because I believe that "ideas are more important than technology", and "experimentation is more important than formula". I have a few mates who have thousand pound studio setups etc. But nothing of what they produce strikes me as being that original or with a lot of thought and delicacy that has gone into it. Put any monkey in front of button and he can produce peanuts.

On the other end of the scale, I have some mates (jazz players etc) who are very technical minded, and extremely talented and gifted as to composing and playing scales and that sort of thing, but I find what they lack is just a very natural approach to making something work for the everyday non-muso person (eg Richard James has never studied a musical note in his life). They often get bogged down in the "muso syndrome" of making things too complicated or incredibally fast at the expense of real feeling and mood, which is a common syndrome in just about everything today - faster is better. In my mind it is better to take 10 years making one perfect album, than to make 10 average albums in one year. This is another message I feel BOC is trying to communicate, why be trashy and fast? What is wrong with slow? What makes them true artists is they do what everyone else is not doing, and get away with it. They will always be ahead of the game because they set their own rules and dont even bother with wasting their energy following others. If everyone started playing slow music tomorrow, BOC would play fast. If everyone went completely organic, they would probably go synthetic. This is the true punk ethos. Punk is attitude not a sound.

Layers, tension, mood and atmospherics, and the journey of progression in sound + getting that "sad but happy" bittersweet melody is what excites me, and is why BOC have inspired so many people (how many famous artists do we know who tried to rip off the dissonant MHTRTC sound and jump on the bandwagon?). I remember when electronic music was taking off in the early 90's. Some good some bad, but the most exciting thing to me was hearing an "other-worldy sound" for the first time...when you hair stands on the back of your neck and the music commands your attention. It was like taking a drug for the first time. Your thinking logical mind doesnt have time to react to it and you have no way to categorize it because it is so completely alien. Also 90's guitar and sample bands that used a sonic wall of sound like My Bloody Valentine, Seafeel and many others that embody those same ideas of making you go "what the f%ck was that". How did they do it? But at the same time it had a musical sensibility you could identify with or hum to in your head. There was still some sort of deep structure going on underneath it all.

I think if you take a good look at BOC you will find that they by no means endorse the latest technology or buy into it. Their website "author" tags say their site was made using Netscape 4 running on Windows NT. That kind of thing makes me smile. They have confirmed in interviews that they love using their trusted 8bit Akai S1000 sampler and rely on old technology because it sounds more human and hence more perfect than something that has no shade of dirty grey in it.

If you were to take one thing from BOC, that would be true to yourself. Fashion fades fast...art is ahistorical endures forever...and its your own expression...which is insanely cool. The old Taoist ethic if you dont compare yourself to anyone else then nobody else will compare to you, rings of the truth. The past is definately inside the present. The doors you talk about them opening up is true. Music can go in any direction you want. There are still many many possibilities to play with.

Sh*t I could write a PhD on how much they have inspired me, and not just musically but reading about all sorts of mind expanding philosophy, science and esoteric stuff - you know - question modern day authority and read what the ancient sages said before modern day religions. Think for yourself and you will never go wrong, and show respect to those who are truly creative etc. Your right, they have opened the doors and made our minds much bigger for it. As the perfect antidote to cynicism, they deserve all of our respect, even if it does border upon hero worship sometimes.

I know I have cr*pped on a bit and went of tangent in this thread, but its so cool to see so many people appreciating and having a hunger for what is beautiful.

erhmmm um...freakn beautiful...i loved reading this...there is no way i could have put how i feel any better...

i love how you said that music has so much more room to grow...because sometimes i feel as if i am the only one who believes this...

cheers...

[nlogax]

great read guys, this forum gets better and better by the minute!