(Theory) Why haven't the mystery albums been released yet?
Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2016 5:36 am
This is mainly in response to the speculation about the BoCset in another thread, I made this new one so as to not derail the old one.
Cosmic Manta and I were putting forth a lot of thought, and we think we've pinpointed the main reason why M&M aren't big fans of the old tapes. In several interviews, they've said how much the use of computers in composing music irks them, they've also expressed distaste for how much modern music sounds so "perfect, rationalized, and bland".
With that in mind listen to the Old Tunes tapes, especially volume 2. Notice how much more step sequencing is involved than on their later albums. Although it seems like every track has at least one part that's played live, there's definitely a more "calculated" element to most of them than the songs that came later. Drum patterns and rhythms were much more simple and didn't evolve as much throughout the tracks as they did on the later albums. I'm not saying this is a bad thing as they all still sound pretty excellent (except for The Way You Show), but it's still something to take notice of.
Also notice how the old tunes that ended up on BoC Maxima (except for maybe Rodox) are the ones that are lacking that "calculated" element. Both Hi Scores and BoC Maxima were billed as "the best of the early years", so that's a pretty big clue right there. According to the liner notes on AFOT and OTV2, everything on those tapes dates to around the same time as the five mystery albums. Some apparently date back as much as 2 years earlier than Catalog 3's release if OTV2's liner notes are to be believed. Also notice how everything on Side A of OTV2 sounds noticeably older both production wise and in terms of how much it deviates from the standard BoC sound (Side B sounds a lot more like AFOT).
Stepping into the Random 35 Track Tape territory, pretty much every track on there has that same "calculated" element that I mentioned earlier. We already have some evidence that A06 is 5D (The youtube upload in BoC's favorites) and A14 is Godever (leaked with that titled years before the rest of the R35TT, plus both match up time-wise). It's pretty safe to assume that this is a compilation of early works with that in mind, especially given the presence of AFOT tracks. On A06 and A14 (possibly others), the instruments don't sound that far off from those used on OTV2, and indeed they share the same type of laconic flows that appear all throughout both volumes of Old Tunes and that BoC have shown themselves to not be particularly fond of. The same could be said of B04 (Numerator?), so if these are indeed what the early albums sound like then these laconic flows are probably the main reason why they haven't seen a wide release. Some bands choose to hide their early work because it's rather messy, I think BoC are hiding theirs because it's too clean for their (notoriously perfectionist) standards.
I personally think the old tunes are still (for the most part) fucking brilliant, if some more unreleased material were to ever get a proper release you'd better believe I'd be all over it (and so would most of you, for that matter).
Cosmic Manta and I were putting forth a lot of thought, and we think we've pinpointed the main reason why M&M aren't big fans of the old tapes. In several interviews, they've said how much the use of computers in composing music irks them, they've also expressed distaste for how much modern music sounds so "perfect, rationalized, and bland".
With that in mind listen to the Old Tunes tapes, especially volume 2. Notice how much more step sequencing is involved than on their later albums. Although it seems like every track has at least one part that's played live, there's definitely a more "calculated" element to most of them than the songs that came later. Drum patterns and rhythms were much more simple and didn't evolve as much throughout the tracks as they did on the later albums. I'm not saying this is a bad thing as they all still sound pretty excellent (except for The Way You Show), but it's still something to take notice of.
Also notice how the old tunes that ended up on BoC Maxima (except for maybe Rodox) are the ones that are lacking that "calculated" element. Both Hi Scores and BoC Maxima were billed as "the best of the early years", so that's a pretty big clue right there. According to the liner notes on AFOT and OTV2, everything on those tapes dates to around the same time as the five mystery albums. Some apparently date back as much as 2 years earlier than Catalog 3's release if OTV2's liner notes are to be believed. Also notice how everything on Side A of OTV2 sounds noticeably older both production wise and in terms of how much it deviates from the standard BoC sound (Side B sounds a lot more like AFOT).
Stepping into the Random 35 Track Tape territory, pretty much every track on there has that same "calculated" element that I mentioned earlier. We already have some evidence that A06 is 5D (The youtube upload in BoC's favorites) and A14 is Godever (leaked with that titled years before the rest of the R35TT, plus both match up time-wise). It's pretty safe to assume that this is a compilation of early works with that in mind, especially given the presence of AFOT tracks. On A06 and A14 (possibly others), the instruments don't sound that far off from those used on OTV2, and indeed they share the same type of laconic flows that appear all throughout both volumes of Old Tunes and that BoC have shown themselves to not be particularly fond of. The same could be said of B04 (Numerator?), so if these are indeed what the early albums sound like then these laconic flows are probably the main reason why they haven't seen a wide release. Some bands choose to hide their early work because it's rather messy, I think BoC are hiding theirs because it's too clean for their (notoriously perfectionist) standards.
I personally think the old tunes are still (for the most part) fucking brilliant, if some more unreleased material were to ever get a proper release you'd better believe I'd be all over it (and so would most of you, for that matter).
