____twoism

I've still not heard a single thing by BOC that I don't like, so yup - I like Campfire too.
I know, I know.... "BURN THE WITCH!"

campfire gets much love from me, however, i admit it wasnt what i was expecting. which is a good thing

at this point, i like campfire headphase more than i do music has the right to children...the trans canada tracks are ace too, even better than some earlier tacks in my opinion like aquarius, rue the whirl, smokes quanitity, and sixtyten

many and many things have changed since 2007.

for one thing, i now like most of the Aphex Twin i've heard. guess it's an acquired taste.


but for me, the rollercoaster of BoC is over. stopped. have a great rest of the day and drive safe.

i'll remain on Twoism because i love it here - great people, great music, all around awesome community.

but i have to admit something that i've been pondering for several months now - my discovery of BoC is now so far behind me that it feels like a lifetime ago. and all the things - thoughts, moods, behaviors, ideas, musics, everything - that was spawned from my discovery of BoC have since gotten old and crusty too. the mental space i was in then is over.

it doesn't help that, thanks to the internet, i know enough about BoC themselves to know that i have absolutely next to nothing in common with them and that creates a kind of detachment from the music that was once warm, close, and intriguing. now i just feel like "eh, whatever, if they ever put out a new record i'll give it a listen" but that's the extent of my enthusiasm. and i have to stress once again, as time goes by, and my mental picture of what BoC are all about gets slightly more well rounded, i realize i am nothing like them as a person and it creates a kind of distance that acts as a vacuum through which musical interest gets harder and harder to pass. i believe i've become better at eliciting my own childhood nostalgia and warm feelings and finding what's important to me than i used to, BoC is no longer a gateway to those feelings.

this has all gotten so old that i'm even tired of existing in the nebula of vaguley BoC inspired electronic music, i'm tired of speaking its language, dealing with its critics and fans and analysts, and playing the game of it. i'm starting to get downright resentful of the ginormous influence BoC have had on music and the world - since i'm so close to the epicenter of it, it feels like it's everywhere, and it feels like, through the magic of people and communication, BoC unofficially have the monopoly on warbly childhood nostalgia. the phrase "kill yr idols" keeps coming up. this morning i wished i had never discovered them - although that's not true, because of the reprocussions my discovering BoC have had, and because of how important to me it was at that time of my life, it's a sentiment i never would have dreamed i'd have back in 06 or 05.

so whatever, i don't know how people will respond to this but those are my feelings right now and it felt good to get them down in words.

Thank you for posting that. The listener's relationship with the musician is something that fascinates me. Traditionally that fan obsession makes you either want to be the musician or one of their closest friends/confidants. With someone like BoC, who I still think have given us only the haziest of sketches of their personalities, that is less of the case. All we really have is the music. What little I know about them as people still resonates with me, although that could be as much to do with geography and age as their view of the world.

I suppose that I tend not to worry over how important a band is to me at any given time. I've been through all this with My Bloody Valentine - the mystery, the rumours, the long gaps between records. I went for years without listening to Loveless, convinced that it no longer mattered to me, but like all good music it comes back around and still finds a place in your life. Less obsessive, sure, but no less powerful and rewarding. It's a natural process.

It's good to take time away from something that know is good but isn't connecting with the person you are right now. Those records will always be there for you to return to someday.

Sounds like you're finding the BoC influence is stifling your creativity, or at least stopping you from feeling your music can be listened to in its own context. I definitely know how that feels. Just so you know, we're not all constantly comparing everything with BoC. A good tune is a good tune regardless.

turquoise70 wrote: but for me, the rollercoaster of BoC is over. stopped. have a great rest of the day and drive safe.

i'll remain on Twoism because i love it here - great people, great music, all around awesome community.

but i have to admit something that i've been pondering for several months now - my discovery of BoC is now so far behind me that it feels like a lifetime ago. and all the things - thoughts, moods, behaviors, ideas, musics, everything - that was spawned from my discovery of BoC have since gotten old and crusty too. the mental space i was in then is over.

That's too bad, I've usually lurked but I've always enjoyed your input around here and your work as Boreal Network. I think the brothers have a good idea about their "mysterious persona" and they're right that if too many people know too much about them as people, that knowledge of their personal lives and beliefs could help take away some of the magic of their music, as it seems to have in your case. It's human nature to want to know more about your heroes, so if they were even less forthcoming, people would be even more frustrated once they have tired of filling in the blanks themselves. It's a tough battle for the guys, and tough for us as we want answers, but deep down we know those answers will likely be mundane and anticlimactic. These guys are human after all, even though I remember thinking after hearing MHTRTC for the first time, that no human could have produced something some sublime.

Their shotgun marriage of late 70s/early 80s technology in their music, while channelling the culture of that time as it relates to being a kid along with the more mature aspects of agnosticism paired with an interest in the behaviors of organized religion along with the presence of personal spiritual mysticism and math/science thrown in are all things that interest me in different respects. I'm just a few years younger than they are, so that helps me a little bit. I grew up catching some of the same types of things they grew up on, particularly the types of things they used to play here on PBS and way old school Nickelodeon (like the weird scifi-ish Canadian produced kids' movies they'd show on there come to mind).

All that aside, I don't think viewing musicians as "different" than I am would ever affect my ultimate enjoyment of them. To me, good music is good music regardless of the genre. I have never been inspired enough by music to create it myself, as you have so maybe I'm not as close to it as some people might be. I feel like I'm mostly a normal guy with a normal life, I check in here all the time for the latest scuttlebutt but those oldf days of digging around for the still unreleased pre-Twoism stuff is long gone. I can remember viewing their original website and listening to those crappy RM samples of Circle, Duffy and Wouldn't You Like to be Free and knowing that stuff would be around someday. I can remember MHTRTC being the reason I tried weed for the first time, and Geogaddi the reason for psychedelics. I remember when Maxima first showed up in MP3 form! I remember my friend finding it on some private FTP site of his, and it was the real deal. This was long before the days of fakes, and the presence of some songs we already knew made everyone pretty sure it was authentic. I remember Twoism finally coming out on CD and me thinking to myself that this would finally mean all the pre-Twoism stuff would come out, even if it meant a single release a year! It is strange to be nostalgic about a group that tends to inspire nostalgia with regard to other subjects. I think I may have briefly lost the faith in 2004, but then Campfire Headphase came out, and while pretty sweet for the most part, that sort of intense magic was gone but I was okay with that. By then I had met my then future wife and I had sort of made peace and spread my attention elsewhere and had already spent about as much time living in the past as was healthy.

All that said, I'm sure I will be one of the first to preorder their next release, whether that's this fall or next year sometime. When I think back on the all good times and firsts that I've had with their music, I know it will always be part of my life, even if I'm in a slightly different place now than I was when I first discovered it.

turquoise70 wrote:but for me, the rollercoaster of BoC is over. stopped. have a great rest of the day and drive safe.

this has all gotten so old that i'm even tired of existing in the nebula of vaguley BoC inspired electronic music, i'm tired of speaking its language, dealing with its critics and fans and analysts, and playing the game of it. i'm starting to get downright resentful of the ginormous influence BoC have had on music and the world - since i'm so close to the epicenter of it, it feels like it's everywhere, and it feels like, through the magic of people and communication, BoC unofficially have the monopoly on warbly childhood nostalgia. the phrase "kill yr idols" keeps coming up. this morning i wished i had never discovered them - although that's not true, because of the reprocussions my discovering BoC have had, and because of how important to me it was at that time of my life, it's a sentiment i never would have dreamed i'd have back in 06 or 05.

I see what you mean with the whole nostalgic thing. It has sort of taken over a lot of musicians minds, including my own for a period of time. I was a slave to the beautiful sound of degraded and warped goodness. So in that sense, I completely agree.

But, on the other hand, I don't think all their music is about nostalgic memories, and I think it's sort of excessive to dismiss all their music, just cause some of it has sort of become, well, whatever it is that it's become to you. Take Dayvan Cowboy, Peacock Tail, Satellite Anthem Icaurus (I'm not just naming my favorites ), I think songs like these have sorta branched off from their style and began something new with them, all on their own.

They're music is still beautiful and amazing to me, and I think their newer stuff is still appreciable even if you're not into nostalgic music as much as you once were.

i'm glad to see such positive responses. i hoped my post wouldn't be received in bad humor.

as for me and MY music, it doesn't mean too much, i've been trying to rediscover and simultaneously reinvent some of the earliest themes and motivations and inspirations that moved me when i started boreal network, and the sounds i've worked on these past few years are still around in my music.

again, the fact of the brothers being different from me wasn't the main turn-off catalyst for me. as you guys pointed out, we all barely know anything about them (i just know enough to realize that my life and what moves me are far removed in time and space and culture from theirs and what moves them). it was just the passage of time and accumulated experience in the little space of the world that BoC and its fans and its musical-satellites occupy. i probably could've predicted that i would lose interest in BoC (besides 'gee, nice-sounding song' but that's less appreciation than i used to give their music) when i realized that i was more interested in meeting other twoism artists and getting to know them than finding out more about BoC.

this has been a learning experience.

but do you still listen to the boards from a nostalgic (but un-nostalgic) approach?
I mean, I can put on any old band I listened to and be like "oh yeah, I remember this tune from fifth grade when I was a d-bag" haha, jk
It's weird, what happens to that approach when the music is already nostalgic. I can put on Nine Inch Nails or Smash Mouth now and still enjoy them cause they bring back old memories from when I listened to them...but with BoC, is that like some weird multi-dimensional string theory jump, cause it's like the original listen was nostalgic, and the new listen is nostalgic, so it's like a picture in a picture, which continues on until...

GAH this is so confusing!

dave_from_2001 wrote:

turquoise70 wrote:
it doesn't help that, thanks to the internet, i know enough about BoC themselves to know that i have absolutely next to nothing in common with them and that creates a kind of detachment from the music that was once warm, close, and intriguing.

quote]

here's the problem! the myth of phantasmic association! if you had remained aloof you may have avoided these symptoms.


i myself suspect BoC as great game animals. sometimes i get a lucky shot off, and sometimes i get kicked in the shin and am left with dung, but i'll never paste antlers to my head and go dining with those bastards.

yeah i've heard of the expensive Bill c.

what do you mean exactly dave?

i see this as a completely natural thing. i'm just exhausted of being enthusiastic about the band and its surroundings, that happens all the time. not everyone stays excited about them for life. i still think it was great music and it really touched my life. but i'm totally tired of all the personalities that have shaped this little niche of the music world, so many are great but there's just so much input from so many people, i feel like i've been listening to a giant crowd all at once for the past 6 or 7 years straight and i'm totally sick of how it's shaping my perceptions

remember when it was just me, alone in my car listening to MHtRtC, going fuck yeah, this shit's weird? knowing nothing about it all? i miss mental and artistic solitude.

turquoise70 wrote:what do you mean exactly dave?

i see this as a completely natural thing. i'm just exhausted of being enthusiastic about the band and its surroundings, that happens all the time. not everyone stays excited about them for life. i still think it was great music and it really touched my life. but i'm totally tired of all the personalities that have shaped this little niche of the music world, so many are great but there's just so much input from so many people, i feel like i've been listening to a giant crowd all at once for the past 6 or 7 years straight and i'm totally sick of how it's shaping my perceptions

remember when it was just me, alone in my car listening to MHtRtC, going fuck yeah, this shit's weird? knowing nothing about it all? i miss mental and artistic solitude.

its the wheel. if the thunder don't get you then the lightning will. but, it might just be the yooper in me. the trick is expecting nothing at all. its why Elmer keeps his fool on.

THAT WASCALLY BOC, AND SUCH

of course, they have to keep it fresh to make it work.. so it becomes a matter of new material.

Totally understandable Cole. Like all things in life, stuff come and go.

It still amaze me to see how some are kind of hypnotized by BoC and their music & mysticism. (I might be wrong but I have a feeling this fanboy thing happens more with our younger members here on Twoism?)

Boards of Canada to me are two damn good musicians who happend to create music which I really enjoy. But with all good things, I try not to overdose myself with it because I know if I do, I get used to it and can't appreciate as much as I do now. At the time that TCH got released I heard it a few times just to let it sink in and to make my mind up about it. Liked the record but did not overplay it. In the following months I heard it once in a while and I really started to appreciate the record (which I was not fond about in the first place). The only time I normally listen to BoC is when it passes by on shuffle and occasionally when I play a record. I guess what I'm trying to say is that when one throws himself into something new, the fall will be even harder. Like in all things. the higher one rises the deeper the fall will be once reached the top.
Don't know why I say this but this is something I think off regulary when seeing another new fanboy register to Twoism "how long is this one going to be hypnotized before he moves on?"

Being on this board for so long also makes you kind of respect and ignore newbies for their new discovery as I've seen it many times. Respect, because I've been there as well and I need to approach them like when I was a newbie. And ignore them for their 'innocence'. I kind of got immune for it because when I don't, I might annoy myself to see the same sort of questions and discussions which have been discussed many times before, over and over again.


I remember you clearly when you signed in because you have a BoC related username and somehow expected you to be yet another one timer. Awesome that, despite your bocliness you choose to stay part of this community . It's great to have you here and luckely you did not decide to vanish like a lot of other great personalities/posters did. (Derail, zander two, nlogax, six-five-two, bulletsoflove, hills west?, ryetronics and those I forgot...)

You guys have the right attitude. I'm suprised when BoC fans get aggressive / arrogant on this forum. It kinda contradicts the attitude one would expect from people with an appreciation of such good music.

First of all, the OP is on crack. The Campfire Headphase is undeniably great, and it still has their aesthetic and just as much if not more attention to detail as their other albums. I mean you can't expect a band to remake their first album over and over again, you wouldn't appreciate it as much and call the band a one trick pony. Also, there are more than enough people on the internet trying to remake BoC's early music.

All that said, he is right that there is a lot of other great music out there, and that'll hold us over until the next BoC album due summer 2014.

i dunno shadowshocker, i haven't earnestly listened to BoC just for the fun of it in a long time. the last time i deliberately put BoC on was while hanging out in the woods with 88marquis. we played most of Music Has The Right around a bonfire. it's good music. i still 'like' it. but i was way more interested in the fact that i was chilling with a new friend in the woods at night, doing my thing in 2009, than in some mystic nostalgia supposedly coming from the music.

i owe a lot to BoC's music, and i don't want to understate that. a lot of my sound as a musician, for one thing. for another, a lot of personal exploration and understanding. these things remain as true now as they were in the beginning. and once again, i still like it - especially my old faves, Olson and Pete and Open the Light and whatnot.

but now a lot of the things that used to intrigue me are merely annoying - what was BoC's childhood like, when are they putting out a new record, what is their recording technique, what do they think of this or that. i hear it and i'm like, i really, really don't care. they can go be vinyl-worshipping secretive old curmudgeons and i'll sit here in the suburbs listening to my mp3s and dying for more friends and more meaningful connections to the world around me.

the BoC fan community is tremendous. but instead of praising it like i often do, i just want to point out that people within it are just as often unreceptive to me and my personality as they are welcoming and warm to it. maybe i'm what you think of when you imagine a BoC fan, maybe not, but it seems like dudes like me are rather in the minority in the BoC fanbase. i definitely fit better in the greasy uncouth loudmouth crackpot stoner camp than the soft sensitive music geek camp, and i'm one of the younger ones to make things worse. damn kids with their ipods and their cell phones and their disregard for the sanctity of this and that... give me a break old man!! maybe i'm wrong about that. i just thought i'd add it.

I guess, I don't really understand your point. Do you miss the "old times" or not? Are you clear what you do feel about boc now?

When you told the story with your mate and the bonfire, my first thought was like: hey, of course you enjoyed having someone around joining this great night. When you think back, was it ever that you really did it because of the music?

Maybe I think too naive, but I only listen to what I call 'good' music when I'm alone (which I regularly am). These are the moments when I jump into the worlds the music put into my head. Of course I am interested in the music makers too, I think that's normal.

In the last two years I made a not so different discovery with boc's Geogaddi. I really love it for years. But nowadays it just doesn't fit in my world anymore. The feelings are gone, independent of the music. The music doesn't manage to bring back the feelings. I think, these songs are kind of dead for me, and I don't miss them. But that doesn't shorten the joy of hearing the other songs, luckily.

Don't listen to me, I'm telling rubbish in the end.

<-- Pissed to have even looked at this thread.

rdy2bz wrote:I guess, I don't really understand your point.

there is no point. these aren't the kind of posts that 'make a point'.