____twoism

Audax wrote:Roygbiv is succinct enough to leave a new person wanting more.

Very very true.

I realize this is a pretty standard answer, but Music Is Math. that's what got me hooked when i didn't love MHTRTC immediately.

some candidates, highly dependent on who I'm initiating:

Everything You Do is a Balloon
Open The Light
Pete Standing Alone
Kaini Industries
The Beach at Redpoint
Over the Horizon Radar
Peacock Tail
Nothing is Real

Macquarie Ridge is another excellent choice I've found.

this topic reminded me of this video from a few years back..

I've since changed my mind about this.

I would introduce someone to BoC with one or more of the following: I Saw Drones, A is to B as B is to C (live and studio), Basefree w/It's Too Orangey, Nlogax, Original Nlogax, Audiotrack 07, 08 or 35, Atarachronon, Way You Show, Iraq Says, Lick, Trapped, Odd Nosdam remix of Dayvan Cowboy and the most distorted vignette from ATP.

Not at all the best choices and probably confusing to a first listener due to the changes in style or what others might call "monotony" or "inaccessibility" with some of these tracks. If they don't take it upon themselves to look further into this band from hearing those then I honestly don't feel wrong to assume that they probably wouldn't ever like BoC for their subtleties and uniqueness. Every good, down to earth and thoughtful BoC fan I know usually heard something that wasn't tremendously amazing to begin with and couldn't shake the curiosity away. They found out about all the gems on their own. I don't think they need to be shown. I'm not against a playlist or something with the popular tracks for someone who is new to BoC, but if it's just me introducing someone on a one on one basis with at most a couple tracks, I'm going to be reaching for whatever will hopefully make them less interested and more intrigued and eager for an explanation.

The first BoC song I actually played for one of my friends was Sir Prancelot Brainfire. I'm not entirely sure why. He did seem to like it, though, and he really got into it once I followed up with On A Rolling Sea, Melissa Juice, Sixtyten, Sequoia, and a few others I can't really remember.

ShaneAnthony wrote:

This was actually the first BoC song I heard.

Actually I would like to change my mind. The song I would use is "Under The Coke Sign". What a track! It's so lush, so full of emotion...it's BoC in a nutshell.

Or maybe Navigation...Those two tracks, anyway

Speaking of Trans Canada Highway, I'm quite partial at the moment to Heard From Telegraph Lines. It's warm and inviting and simultaneously ethereally spooky. It feels as if there was just a near catastrophe, but in averting it, something really cool happened instead. Here's a real life example of what I mean: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859 .

I feel like that mix of warmth and spookiness is quintessential BoC; if they like HFTL, they're gonna like the band.

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valleaux wrote:

ShaneAnthony wrote:

This was actually the first BoC song I heard.

Awesome, "left side drive" is great, amazing atmosphere!

ScienceGuy wrote:Speaking of Trans Canada Highway, I'm quite partial at the moment to Heard From Telegraph Lines. It's warm and inviting and simultaneously ethereally spooky. It feels as if there was just a near catastrophe, but in averting it, something really cool happened instead. Here's a real life example of what I mean: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_storm_of_1859 .

I feel like that mix of warmth and spookiness is quintessential BoC; if they like HFTL, they're gonna like the band.

Great way to describe boc, agree ,

My personal first track was Music is math, so I guess would also introduce it

depends as always on the genre, but i'd like to think that if they don't get Dayvan Cowboy, they'll never be able to get BOC

in one song ? Roygbiv obviously.
It's the flagship title of BOC, it shows in one song the whole anthologic theme of their discography plus the hiphop inspiration.
The downfall of that choice is that, roygbiv is more an introduction to MHTRTC. Make them listen to geogaddy after that, and they might get lost.

But to be honest it's impossible to introduce boc by only song. An album sure, but one song is not enough. You would be missing the whole narrative/ambiance construction that they build with the transition sounds.

In that case that album would be MHTRTC

------ / ------ / ------ / XXXXXX / ------ / ------

Roygbiv is a good one to get the claws in, but it's not entirely representative of the majority of BoC's work. The only other track that sounds remotely similar is Sequoia.

Personally, I'd probably go with something like Turquoise Hexagon Sun or Hi Scores. Those tunes have all the classic BoCisms, and I don't think either of them would sound out of place on the other albums/EPs.

I agree with Turquoise Hexagon... but Hi Scores ?
The only track that is not on MHTRTC or BOC MAXIMA is the self title (wich is, tbh, not the best one i heard). And overall, starting BOC with their old works is a very bad idea. A lot of that stuff is meh (to not say bad, but hey, it's just my stupid tastes).


Also, like a said, there is no track that can be entirely representative of the majority of BoC's style. If you want to make an introduction to BOC, give them an album. Not just one track.

PS: thanks sherbet, you made me discover something new

Honestly I wouldn't introduce anyone with something older than TCH. Like common, introducing someone to the music with 20 years old tracks. It would be either Daywan Cowboy, or something from TH, or maybe some of the recent remixes. And then you may notice a person, that there's a huge pool of almost undergound electroinca of highest caliber. MHTRC, Geogadi and so on

arvy wrote:Honestly I wouldn't introduce anyone with something older than TCH. Like common, introducing someone to the music with 20 years old tracks. It would be either Daywan Cowboy, or something from TH, or maybe some of the recent remixes. And then you may notice a person, that there's a huge pool of almost undergound electroinca of highest caliber. MHTRC, Geogadi and so on

My take would be to introduce someone with a track that embodies what their work means to me, and maybe it's because TCH and TH were both so different from their earlier work that I wouldn't use anything from those albums. Dayvan Cowboy would never even be on my radar--When I first heard TCH, it was one of the songs that turned me off initially. Someone earlier in the thread mentioned the "spookiness" of BoC being absent on TCH, and I agree. Dayvan Cowboy has a carefree lightheartedness that took me a long time to appreciate. Another earlier comment mentioned they didn't see how someone who doesn't get Dayvan Cowboy could get into BoC, but I feel quite the opposite. As Dayvan Cowboy was the first song from TCH that I heard, I practically wrote off any new work they would produce and didn't really give the album a chance.

The first track that I remember hearing was Music is Math and subsequently the rest of Geogaddi. The darkness and mystery there and general weirdness ("underground" does describe it well) are something I find to be quintessentially BoC. I find their releases up to Geogaddi to be what they would produce as "the thing in itself," and their true colors, whereas TCH and TH are albums created with more of a spotlight and public eye on them.

With all that being said, I think my choice would be Dawn Chorus. To me, there isn't another track that creates such a range of emotion: hope, despair, mystery, reassurance, abandonment, comfort, emptiness, nostalgia, peace, and oneness. It isn't necessarily my all-time favorite, but I think it represents so much of what their work means to me all at the same time.

This topic also reminds me that I would love to ask them which track they've done is most important to them (apart from remixes).