____twoism

Only thing I have to say right now is totally unrelated to the topic. They weren't the first to do what they did? No, not in its entirety. Even their drum programming and percussion sampling unique as it is was damn near mastered already along with how it was layered among other sounds. Ambient music by techno artists was also nothing new.

However, I have yet to find anything released by anyone at all before Hi Scores that bears the same sort of technique they honed with samplers leading a melody, not even among early Warp artists and all those who might have influenced this. Their production in this regard is incredibly unique and every bit of music treating their leads similarly that I've heard is all post-Hi Scores. I'm waiting to hear a track that truly exhibits this and so far every one that's been linked to me has been different and I have to either just go "ok" or question how someone thinks it is anywhere close. As close as anyone has come, I believe they have an element to their work that goes beyond just the fact that it can't be truly emulated because you're not using the same setup. They've come up with something and they've used it well.

Seeing an artist like Flying Lotus on Warp leads me to believe that the catalyst for their approval of an artist or duo is just one thing unique. Doesn't even really have to be good. Has to be different. I don't think BoC would be there if they weren't different.

So yeah, I like them "best" with many things but there is at least one quality distinctly theirs that stands out from that and I picked up on it immediately.

Rodheh wrote: I'm waiting to hear a track that truly exhibits this and so far every one that's been linked to me has been different and I have to either just go "ok" or question how someone thinks it is anywhere close. As close as anyone has come, I believe they have an element to their work that goes beyond just the fact that it can't be truly emulated because you're not using the same setup. They've come up with something and they've used it well.

well like the borrowed name [which was a freakin REALLY cool choice] that little nit you played reminds me of one of the NFB's segues from the 70's. i used to see that shit on TV all the time. its BURNED in my brain. the music always kinda made me uneasy when i was a kid. the one I'm trying to find the is really close to that one has loons in it. haven't found it yet. but this one kinda has the vibe....ill keep looking. and i KNOW there are some bands that did that kinda thing too....but it was more rock. electronic music hadn't taken hold yet.

but check this vid. i remember these all SO clearly

down to the font at the end...

you could break down to sampling/emulating a vibe....

its all been done man....it all repeats. again....does it matter?

Alright.

Find me a video with the sampler sound I was talking about. The 'dancing sampler leads', I'd consider them. That one wasn't remotely anything like it. More like something BoC would be influenced by and try to emulate in the Old Tunes days. More or less like a lot of the tracks people go "this is so BoC!" in response to. Aerial Boundaries also had an interesting note that might factor into what what makes them more unique but I hadn't considered it, which was something along the lines of he "hasn't heard a 'BoC melody' from anyone else", which sound a lot more subjective but I kind of see what he's saying.

It's probably pointless though because we're probably thinking of two totally different things if you see some similarities with the font at the end. BoC font is OCR A Std, some variant of Bauhaus and Strausa to me, first one being the first that comes to mind. Obviously there are heavy similarities with the music but I don't see any similarities with the font at all.

Unless I'm mishearing, Track 3 is made of two or three samples being triggered over a bed of... another sample? I'm pretty sure layering like that (with melodies even!) HAD to have been done before BoC, though I struggle to think of an example off hand I'll admit, I wasn't listening to the right things back then. Maybe even something from way back in the Fairlight or tape days..?

MrMessiah wrote:Unless I'm mishearing, Track 3 is made of two or three samples being triggered over a bed of... another sample? I'm pretty sure layering like that (with melodies even!) HAD to have been done before BoC

I know it's a long shot, but I think you could go back to Fripp & Eno's experiments with Frippertronics, i.e. linking two tape recorders together to create a rudimentary tape delay, over which they'd lay melodies to keep reverberating over each other. The result is not too far off from that BoC example.
As for "samplers leading a melody", I think I don't really understand what that means; but isn't that what Jean Michel Jarre did in Zoolook? I know, in his case, he was doing it in a more techno-freak thing than in BoC's meditative vibe.