LP5 - Inferno

[Den]

I can't believe that Madonna wasn't trying to get them to produce her next album. William Orbit had done a fine job on Ray Of Light and as usual Madge was looking for the Next Big Thing.

Fortunately, the brothers refused the big cheque.

Is this real? I’ve used her as a random example when describing how BOC receive remix requests from big artists yet have only continuously worked with Nosdam, Doseone, and Why? Lol. I didn’t know that actually happened.

[Corvix]

Yet another speculative read:

It is virtually impossible to live up to hype like this. Now I do not predict that Inferno will be bad, but if BOC were somehow to crash and burn with this album, well, that's a spectacle in and of itself

This degree of hype might not have been possible without the internet. The Internet is a modern bonfire/spectacle (not getting too fussed over the specifics of how I could word that better), but where the campfire evokes connection, the Internet has unprecedented power to polarize and disconnect

Damned. The more I look into it the more I'm feeling this. This is THEIR hell.

[Redd Panderson]

Yet another speculative read:

It is virtually impossible to live up to hype like this. Now I do not predict that Inferno will be bad, but if BOC were somehow to crash and burn with this album, well, that's a spectacle in and of itself

This degree of hype might not have been possible without the internet. The Internet is a modern bonfire/spectacle (not getting too fussed over the specifics of how I could word that better), but where the campfire evokes connection, the Internet has unprecedented power to polarize and disconnect

Damned. The more I look into it the more I'm feeling this. This is THEIR hell.

"We're sick of the leaks and the unsolicited messages and the ridiculous theorizing and the rumor mills and the expectations and you know what? Now it's your turn!"

[Den]

Yes, and that feels connected to their sense of humor too.

[outhudd]

I am committed to my reading of ‘fern’ in Inferno, even if it isn’t intentional. Ferns, bonfires, the stone circle imagery…

"In Fern? No."

The counterpart to The Campfire Headphase.

[Fredd-E]

Gotta say that I really appreciate how this snippet of a BOC interview from 2000 aged in light of the new album:

"One time we were out in the woods on a really wet day. My friend bet me I couldn't start a fire using only one match. But I managed to get this meagre little flame going in this damp little patch of ground. Then when we were about a mile down the road, we looked back and it was like, 'whoosh!' - the whole wood was on fire!" -Marcus Eoin

Thanks for the interview quote suggestion!
https://bocpages.org/wiki/Boards_of_The_Underground

[Redd Panderson]

I have to bring this bonfire connection around full circle to something that I posted back in the VHS tape imagery thread during the time after the VHS tapes arriving and before Tape 05 dropping:

I was thinking about the BOC tape yesterday and, easy as it is to overlook, the disclaimer is one of the most interesting parts. There's an irony in how this echoes what happened to their Old Tunes Tapes, how they only shared those tapes with a few people they trusted, but they were leaked anyway. So they release a tape on analog media and expressly asked it not to be distributed--and what happens? It is digitized and diffused online for all to pick apart, frame by frame. Everyone can see it and everyone knows a new BOC release is likely on the horizon.

This is a gastronomic process. When something is put online it is literally consumed by frenzied masses (us). Inferno is both another log on the fire and a mirror reflecting back what could be considered the all-consuming hellfire of the internet and its influence on people and civilization.

Once something is released, it's out for good and you can't take it back. So Tape 05's feeling of full-circle absolution, surrender, and release feels threaded into this to me, too.

A side-connection, I saw Altruizine in the Morse Code thread talking about people getting sent into war. Soldiers are similarly fed into the war machine.

Grain of salt as always, I'm just a rando on the internet! But all of this is solidifying Inferno as a very cool concept to me for the 5th album.

[Bocolito]

ONE new album of a band of TWO brothers was announced using THREE videos and FOUR posters. This is their LP number FIVE, and they are again using a SIX sided polygons, but this time the logo has SEVEN hexagons.

[Altruizine]

ONE new album of a band of TWO brothers was announced using THREE videos and FOUR posters. This is their LP number FIVE, and they are again using a SIX sided polygons, but this time the logo has SEVEN hexagons.

[Den]

I am committed to my reading of ‘fern’ in Inferno, even if it isn’t intentional. Ferns, bonfires, the stone circle imagery…

"In Fern? No."

Another way to read it.

I really like the image of Inferno as another log on the bonfire.

[pianoforte]

Can I just say - I'm beyond excited for this record and grateful that I lived to see it.

Going to try and go somewhere in nature to listen for the first time, God willing.

[WATER_CAN-_-]

Gotta say that I really appreciate how this snippet of a BOC interview from 2000 aged in light of the new album:



"One time we were out in the woods on a really wet day. My friend bet me I couldn't start a fire using only one match. But I managed to get this meagre little flame going in this damp little patch of ground. Then when we were about a mile down the road, we looked back and it was like, 'whoosh!' - the whole wood was on fire!" -Marcus Eoin

I love the countryside,

Marcus protests, adding,

I hate the idea that animals or trees or anything might get hurt. I had dreams about it for months afterwards.

[Evrox]

Useless tidbit:

Number of hexagons in the new BoC logo: 7
Number of letters in Inferno: 7

I feel dumb that I didn't notice that! Nice!

So now we have:

- 7 hexagons
- 7th major release (arguably, if we count High Scores and Twosim)
- 7 deadly sins
- 7 letters in the title

I also just thought of these:

- 7 continents - Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, South America, Australia
- 7 oceans - Arctic, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, North Pacific, South Pacific, Indian, Southern
- 7 colours! [ROYGBIV]

The number 7 is very prominent with this release. I also see a 666 reference. The total duration of Inferno is 69:51. In esoteric symbolism, the 9 can be turned upside down into a 6. Turn the 9 and add 5+1 = 666. It could be a nod to time itself:

6(0) seconds in a minute
6(0) minutes in an hour
24 hours (2+4 = 6) in a day

It took 13 years for a new release. The new album has 18 tracks. In the Book of Revelation, chapter 13, verse 18 it says:

“This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.”

Other notable details (some already mentioned) include: The 7 hexagons. The 7 letters in the album title. The continuous mix is 7(0) minutes. The duration of the album teaser video is 43 seconds. 4+3 = 7. The amount of days between the release of Tape 05 and the new album is 43 days.

The number 7 remains one of the most powerful sacred numbers across traditions:

- 7 days of creation (Genesis)
- 7 heavens (Islam, Judaism, Hinduism)
- 7 continents
- 7 seas
- 7 metals of antiquity
- 7 chakras
- 7 classical planets
- 7 colors of the rainbow
- 7 music notes A to G

[Corvix]

The total duration of Inferno is 69:51. In esoteric symbolism, the 9 can be turned upside down into a 6. Turn the 9 and add 5+1 = 666.

damn, I missed this one.
Also observe that if you add
19. Inferno. 29 May 2026

(19, like 7, is sacred in islam because above hell = 6+6+6 right ? for some rap music reason here in France drawing from 2Pac's Killuminati we know very very well of that)

which strangely is 0:42 long
you end up with an interesting runtime for the whole album.

[Altruizine]

Apparently singles are usually released on Fridays. I’m thinking we might get a single with the Robert Beatty video next Friday May 1st, four weeks out from the album release. Like, Mayday, get it? Cuz the album’s about a global crisis. Got some time to kill until then… sigh

[mechanismj]

Next Friday is May day, I believe.

General strike is planned, or so I have heard.

Next thing that drops will be Arena Americanada!

[turquoise70]

My personal hope is that this record is far more complex thematically than Tomorrow's Harvest felt. TH felt like a very straightforward apocalyptic soundtrack.

My hot take: "We are in the doom timeline" media is boring and I have no use for it. Such a one-note statement. Ok, Earth has problems, humanity is doing bad stuff. Cool, very profound of you to point it out. Give me something more varied, give me art that pays a little more homage to the insane manifold contradictory *entire spectrum* of the experience of being a sentient being.

That's what I fell in love with about BoC's stuff for in the first place - it opened my eyes up, it broadened my perspective on life. Having it reduced to a narrow band of depressing rumination would be... tragic, to me.

[WATER_CAN-_-]

Next Friday is May day, I believe.

General strike is planned, or so I have heard.

Next thing that drops will be Arena Americanada!

yeah, too much getting carried away with numerology

apathy is antithetical to the BOC ethos

[bungler666]

My personal hope is that this record is far more complex thematically than Tomorrow's Harvest felt. TH felt like a very straightforward apocalyptic soundtrack.

My hot take: "We are in the doom timeline" media is boring and I have no use for it. Such a one-note statement. Ok, Earth has problems, humanity is doing bad stuff. Cool, very profound of you to point it out. Give me something more varied, give me art that pays a little more homage to the insane manifold contradictory *entire spectrum* of the experience of being a sentient being.

That's what I fell in love with about BoC's stuff for in the first place - it opened my eyes up, it broadened my perspective on life. Having it reduced to a narrow band of depressing rumination would be... tragic, to me.

100%

[The Other]

I’ll make these “mix VHS tapes” with stuff I record off of YouTube. Random things…old tv shows, retro cartoons, and commercials. Sometimes more abstract stuff. I like having them on in the background while I’m home.

Decided to have some fun and make my own Tape 005/Inferno Teaser tape to commemorate this time. Probably will add more if there are more new videos or some of the great fan made videos. I already added a vintage Dirt Devil commercial with jingle from A Few Old Tunes. This tape has 6 hours so, it’d be cool to make one of just BoC related videos.