____twoism

If “Inferno” had leaked, which tracks would you say “that’s 100% BOC” and which tracks would you say “that’s a fake!”?

Somewhere Right Now In The Future is the first one that comes to mind. It's the one that sounds most like if could be pulled directly from the Old Tunes era, yet it's not impossible to imagine someone cooking it up as "New BOC found omg"

Incidentally, I almost might not have clocked Naraka as Boards of Canada if someone told me it was BOC and I had 0 Inferno experience or other context. That's not a knock against it at all, I like it and it is definitely BOC, but it's not something I expected!

Introit I would have also believed to be "too on the nose to be real" if it was released on soulseek 8 years ago as a 128kbps mp3. But I've been duped by some very bad fakes in the past so who am I to judge.

Into The Magic Land feels like the one that I would have clocked the BoC influence but got you couldn't have convinced me was them. I would 100% have got excited about hearing it though if it had leaked because I'd have been convinced there was an interesting band that was taking lessons from them and going somewhere completely different.

For the one that I had no doubt was BoC it's hard not to say Prophecy. I know when I heard it for real we knew it was them, but my first thought was "this sounds nothing like what they've done before but it's so obviously them". If I'd heard it in any other context, if they'd uploaded it under a false name, I'd be starting the conspiracy theory it was them

"wow, this is awesome. unlike anything they've done before but so, so clearly BoC":

• prophecy @ 1420
• HHLL
• father & son
• SRNITF
• acts of magic
• word becomes flesh
• arena americanada
• the process

"hehehe yep those are my boys":

• memory death
• deep time
• you retreat
• platonia

"all right... who uploaded this... but i do like it":

• introit
• age of capricorn
• into the magic land
• blood in the labyrinth
• all reason departs
• naraka

There is no way anyone could have faked any of these tracks

But would anyone want to make music like that?

If the whole album leaked, it would either be all real tracks or all fake tracks, not a mixture of both.

Their production is pretty unmistakable. I think perhaps Somewhere Right Now in the Future would be the most dubious because it's more lofi, but still, those chord progressions are distinctly BoC. I would probably be most confused over Acts of Magic at first now that I think about it.

i guess i interpreted the question as though if an individual track were leaked ahead of the release, how would i react to each track individually in the even that each was a singular leak (e.g. 'if someone leaked The Process on may 10th would you have thought real or fake')

Introit and Father & Son

If introit leaked by itself I would probably have doubts on whether it was an actual BoC track or a very good imitation or homage by someone.

Cool idea for a thread!

Introit seems like the most obvious choice, but the more I think about it, I'd probably assume most of the record was fake. It strikes a perfect balance of 'classic BoC' and new, unfamiliar territory, There were several "I never thought BoC would do this, but it works!" moments during my first listen. Lots of really nice surprises.

Yeah, I think I would instinctively assume that some masterful genius producer, clearly inspired by Boards, has had their work re-tagged and passed off as an Inferno leak.

For two weeks I ran around listening to what was probably an AI creation on the prompt

"make a boccish album matching the tracklengths of Inferno and resembling actual tunes, timbres and melodies of previous albums. But make it a bit sleazy."

Today I bought the actual record. What a flonking suprise!! Actual meaningfull new weird ass music as you can expect. I still have to go through it a couple of times to get the complete picture. But my love and respect to everyone making or listening to this record. That should be a lot of people. I really should stop listening to other things than records and cd's, cause I think I ended op with a complete fake. And in those two weeks I really thought a couple of times they (and I) might have gotten a bit old for this game. But not!