plaid Why no release of old material from WARP?

[beerwolf]

I'm not on facebook either. It's either that or a hobby and I chose my cycling. Anyway.....

 

It's a bit strange when you think about it that BOC probably have a fair sized young fanbase who for years have never bought new music by them, never read a new interview with them, haven't seen any new photo's of them and generally haven't got much of a fucking clue about them. In this day and age that must seem very weird, but at the same time cool.

 

It's a bit like Willard going up river to find Kurtz. Just a few dossiers, a few blurry photo's and some very peculiar recordings.

[purlieu]

In terms of UK album chart places - which don't actually gives sales, but have some idea of their relative popularity:

 

FSOL:

 

Accelerator #75

Lifeforms #6

ISDN #44

Dead Cities #26

The Isness #68

 

 

BoC:

 

Music Has the Right to Children #193

Geogaddi #21

The Campfire Headphase #41

 

 

So Lifeforms (plus their seven top 40 singles) definitely elevate FSOL above BoC in terms of popularity/awareness, but otherwise there isn't quite so much difference as one might expect. And, much as I hate to admit it, FSOL do seem to get an 'oh, are they still going?' response a lot these days. You certainly wouldn't get anything like the response the 'new BoC album' Facebook thing received the other week for FSOL.

 

Another point of interest which, again, doesn't necessarily say anything about overall potential sales, but certainly signifies popularity amongst certain circles, is last.fm stats

FSOL

BoC

That even surprised me.

[Joyrex]

For those too lazy to click and look:

 

FSOL on last.fm: 7,708,124 plays (466,521 listeners)

BoC on last fm: 53,598,950 plays (930,588 listeners)

 

I think the age factor might be at play here - most FSOL fans are probably a bit older, and perhaps more "pre-internet" than BoC fans. I was very suprised at the gulf between plays, however. If this was anything to go by, WARP should be pushing BoC to get together a compilation of outtakes for release pronto!

[o00o]

In terms of UK album chart places - which don't actually gives sales, but have some idea of their relative popularity:

 

FSOL:

 

Accelerator #75

Lifeforms #6

ISDN #44

Dead Cities #26

The Isness #68

 

 

BoC:

 

Music Has the Right to Children #193

Geogaddi #21

The Campfire Headphase #41

 

 

So Lifeforms (plus their seven top 40 singles) definitely elevate FSOL above BoC in terms of popularity/awareness, but otherwise there isn't quite so much difference as one might expect. And, much as I hate to admit it, FSOL do seem to get an 'oh, are they still going?' response a lot these days. You certainly wouldn't get anything like the response the 'new BoC album' Facebook thing received the other week for FSOL.

 

Another point of interest which, again, doesn't necessarily say anything about overall potential sales, but certainly signifies popularity amongst certain circles, is last.fm stats

FSOL

BoC

That even surprised me.

 

I did the last.fm chart before its really interesting:

 

Boards of Canada: 53,598,950 plays (930,588 listeners)

Aphex Twin: 39,178,188 plays (1,021,620 listeners)

Flying Lotus: 17,528,934 plays (355,010 listeners)

Autechre: 12,371,497 plays (394,102 listeners)

Venetian Snares: 10,056,627 plays (309,867 listeners)

Squarepusher: 9,913,777 plays (453,524 listeners)

The Future Sound of London: 7,708,124 plays (466,521 listeners)

Bibio: 6,503,106 plays (202,061 listeners)

Plaid: 5,799,088 plays (289,858 listeners)

AFX: 4,238,860 plays (206,265 listeners)

Clark: 3,470,121 plays (155,842 listeners)

µ-Ziq: 2,627,690 plays (166,335 listeners)

The Black Dog: 1,608,895 plays (104,488 listeners)

Bola: 1,426,390 plays (131,079 listeners)

Lorn: 835,244 plays (48,794 listeners)

Cylob: 377,113 plays (50,604 listeners)

VHS Head: 170,372 plays (8,655 listeners)

[o00o]

for the lulz: Skrillex 17,525,399 plays (568,358 listeners)

[purlieu]

Age is definitely a big thing (if you ignore anything remotely 'archive' based or Amorphous psych rock, their last proper release was still 1997), but even if you factor that in, as you say, it's a large gulf. Also add the fact that Warp would be able to do a thousand times the promo campaign that FSOLDigital do (which seems to be little more than sending an email out about once a year) and I do think an archival compilation would make some sense, even if it was limited edition. And of course if it was digital-only then there's even more of a case.

 

 

In terms of last.fm, BoC being that high is surprising.

The Orb: 4,642,684 plays (356,194 listeners).

Orbital: 9,808,425 plays (636,423 listeners)

[beerwolf]

however. If this was anything to go by, WARP should be pushing BoC to get together a compilation of outtakes for release pronto!

 

Hey presto!!! My point exactly. That's why it seems weird that there is no release of older stuff, it would just notch up a bit of interest (probably a lot of interest), and keep old fans and new fans happy. Just sees strange to me why there is so much silence. The tunes are done and dusted, what work is there to do?

 

(This is a diplomatic way of begging, without losing too much face )

[o00o]

It also shows that touring and spam of releases is not that important if you have great records and a good label

[sheatheman]

even great artists lose hope

[Joyrex]

I think the same factors as to why BoC haven't released anything since TCH EP are the same factors that would preclude any touring/live shows or releasing anything in the interim, whatever those factors may be.

 

Also, don't assume those tracks are 'done and dusted' - the OT stuff is far from 'releasable' in terms of mastering, etc. (and I would reckon BoC wouldn't just poop anything out as-is, and would want to make improvements and tweaks here and there), and unless they were digital-only, you still have artwork to produce and approve, etc.

[Guest sirch]

however. If this was anything to go by, WARP should be pushing BoC to get together a compilation of outtakes for release pronto!

 

Hey presto!!! My point exactly. That's why it seems weird that there is no release of older stuff, it would just notch up a bit of interest (probably a lot of interest), and keep old fans and new fans happy. Just sees strange to me why there is so much silence. The tunes are done and dusted, what work is there to do?

 

(This is a diplomatic way of begging, without losing too much face )

 

maybe they (BoC) just don't want to put anything like that out..?

they probably just don't need the money enough yet. :)

 

It also shows that touring and spam of releases is not that important if you have great records and a good label

 

yes!

[apriorion]

All of this internet social media data is really interesting. It tells us not just how many plays and how many listeners, but it also gives us a rough idea of the "loyalty", if we consider plays per listener a sort of loyalty.

 

Just getting started:

BoC: 57.59 plays per listener

Aphex: 38.34

FSOL: 16.52.

 

That's some interesting shit, right there. It would be more interesting to know how many tracks are available per artist, to get more of a sense of how many repeat plays are going on too. But given that the total BoC available tracks is smaller than the Aphex total (is that right?), then that makes the BoC "loyalty" even more interesting.

[splesh]

It's also a factor of how many fans of band/artist X care about scrobbling their music.

[goDel]

It's not too often statistics are discussed at watmm. Good times!

 

My two cents which someone else will probably have already mentioned: another important factor is the population that visits these sites. To what extent can these statistics be generalized to the non-visiting part of the population? And if these statistics are indeed meaningful what do they actually represent?

 

Personally, I'd still prefer sales figures. They're more meaningful in the sense that people were actually willing to directly pay for the content. So the intention behind the action is more clear. The internet statistics are less clear in that aspect, imo.

[purlieu]

BoC: 57.59 plays per listener

Aphex: 38.34

FSOL: 16.52.

I reckon Papua New Guinea, its fame, and appearance on compilations and soundtracks, gives FSOL a fairly low plays-per-listener stat, whilst Geogaddi having so many tracks ups BoC's a little. I also attribute that to The Orb's relatively low stats, given that the first three records and the Gilmour one have relatively few tracks per album. Putting on UFOrb takes as long as putting on Geogaddi, but involves 16 fewer scrobbles. So it does get blurred around these points, and yes, it would be interesting to see record buying stats. Mind you, as sales dropped between the mid '90s and the '00s, they too wouldn't be entirely free of complication.

[xyrofen]

Could it really be as simple as sample clearance as to why BoC hasn't released any of their older stuff or some specific stuff? I meant, cutting a lot of the tracks from the Old Tunes tapes really would take away from them and getting clearance for those would be a nightmare with how many of them there are. I know I'm not the first to say this (a member previously mentioned Trapped), but I've been thinking about it a lot considering what's come up about XYZ.

[yshf]

If the bros really are recording new music now, when we see any kind of release i think we will get some news about the release of old tunes... it has been a while... people getting into warp records because of grizzly bear/daniel rossen and indie acts like my best fiend might not be too interested in an old box set (bocset) of tunes from an artist who they dont know as well.

 

Just a thought... i'm usually way too hopeful... also, i haven't read any of this thread yet. prob already been said...

[Redruth]

i think it difficult to fully understand the boards of canada without listening to their old tunes

[Joyrex]

I think like most artists, Boards wants to "move forward" and not focus so much on their old material - fans unfortunately love to "see where an artist has come from, developed from", whereas I think artists typically are all about the newest thing they can create.

 

While it would be nice to see their older material finally see commercial release, I'm not hopeful. I'm sure the new album will make some fans forget all about the older material once they hear their new output.

[Alzado]

the stuff I want to hear most are all the unreleased tracks that we've heard bits and pieces of over the years...the ones seem to be more contemporary with their properly released music. Trails, Time Apple, all the unreleased live tracks. They finally released 747, so it's feasible that the rest can be released too.

[Joyrex]

the stuff I want to hear most are all the unreleased tracks that we've heard bits and pieces of over the years...the ones seem to be more contemporary with their properly released music. Trails, Time Apple, all the unreleased live tracks. They finally released 747, so it's feasible that the rest can be released too.

 

Yeah, kinda interesting they gave the designer who made the interactive BoC site (James Mars, I think his name was) a lot of music never heard or mentioned before to use on that project... I wonder if there were plans for another EP based around those tracks, or it was just what BoC was working on at the time that fit the project...

[ZmillA]

The Old Tunes family of output is required listening if you really want to understand BOC.

 

It's a shame they/warp don't feel that way. Fans know best in this situation.

[zlemflolia]

As far as I'm aware, I've always considered the Old Tunes to be a bit more of a Hexagon Sun Collective compilation than a purely BoC release

 

Maybe they have no intentions of releasing them because they aren't even ALL made by BoC, only some tracks are, and some are compilations between other collective members, or purely by those members, etc.

[Hugh Mughnus]

As far as I'm aware, I've always considered the Old Tunes to be a bit more of a Hexagon Sun Collective compilation than a purely BoC release

 

Maybe they have no intentions of releasing them because they aren't even ALL made by BoC, only some tracks are, and some are compilations between other collective members, or purely by those members, etc.

 

This is a very realistic explanation for it. There would be a lot of legalities surrounding it right?

[kinski]

i'm pretty sure the inlays to old tunes clearly shows there are no outside musicians involved other than some bloke called jimbo or jumbo or whatever, who plays drums. or lend them his drums.