chim Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 There's a lot of attention to detail that makes the album more of a thing than most electronic music, it's weird and boccy in a good way, but it is still fillertastic and unmusical with few exceptions. It neither offends or drags you in. The apocalyptic vibe is one-dimensional and gets old fast. Geogaddi didn't need a bunch of arpy vignettes, sure there's a bit of Leslie Nielsen in there but it's mostly just killer tracks. Every single time I listen to Geogaddi I keep thinking I must have missed one of the tracks on the playlist - it's bigger than the sum of its parts and uses less to say it than it truly deserves. TH drags on and doesn't say much. It's the kind of palatable nostalgia that's prevalent now. Cold Earth is the most classic BOC sounding. Nothing is Real and New Seeds are good tracks. I'm not sure what I expected, I didn't demand an old school fanservicey return to form... but at least something more interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcofribas Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 “unmusical?” Lol come on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apriorion Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 Man, people say weird things. "unmusical" is simply incorrect. Sorry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dingformung Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 unmusicalol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sweepstakes Posted April 12, 2020 Share Posted April 12, 2020 1 hour ago, chim said: There's a lot of attention to detail that makes the album more of a thing than most electronic music, it's weird and boccy in a good way, but it is still fillertastic and unmusical with few exceptions. It neither offends or drags you in. The apocalyptic vibe is one-dimensional and gets old fast. Geogaddi didn't need a bunch of arpy vignettes, sure there's a bit of Leslie Nielsen in there but it's mostly just killer tracks. Every single time I listen to Geogaddi I keep thinking I must have missed one of the tracks on the playlist - it's bigger than the sum of its parts and uses less to say it than it truly deserves. TH drags on and doesn't say much. It's the kind of palatable nostalgia that's prevalent now. Cold Earth is the most classic BOC sounding. Nothing is Real and New Seeds are good tracks. I'm not sure what I expected, I didn't demand an old school fanservicey return to form... but at least something more interesting. Yeah, "unmusical" is a little unfair but otherwise I mostly agree. Alongside Geogaddi and even Campfire Headphase, "palatable nostalgia" is about right. The textures are really well done, but I think at this point VHS Head carries the crown for retro but interesting sampler mastery. That thing about feeling like Geogaddi is missing a track is funny, I know exactly what you mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcofribas Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 very much disagree. when I hear those tunes I am neither struck by nostalgia nor apocalypse for the most part. the theme of the record can be perceived if you think about it but imo it’s incredibly easy to listen to the music without considering that theme in any way. for a record that contains very little in the way of perceptible spoken word I’m kind of confused how people are finding the theme so overwhelming. are we hearing apocalypse in the beats or something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apriorion Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Isn’t this album just a Rorschach test? I get the sense that you can read many different things into it, and I thought that’s more intetional than they let on in interviews. When they did the press, they said this album was full of even more Easter eggs than their previous work. But that’s clearly not true: Geoggaddi has way more goofy shit packed into it than TH, by far. So, weren’t they fucking with us? If they were, it doesn’t bother me at all: I kinda like it. They’re just fucking with us, but they still made a killer album, even when you leave the themes off to the side. It’s clearly got some emotional shit going on, themes of isolation, desolation, depression. But the nostalgia and apocalypse stuff can be taken too far. There’s more of a laugh at all that doomsday prepper shit than it seems on the surface. That’s the nihilism here: don’t take this shit so seriously. Heh, Easter eggs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vkxwz Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 38 minutes ago, Mesh Gear Fox said: i think it's a great album, the main criticism that i agree with seems to be that many tracks tend to peter out before reaching a peak. from a textural and sound designy point of view they do an outstanding job of representing a particular aesthetic. would have been nice if it were a double album or something tbh. and that's not something i can say about their earlier albums which are a perfect length They actually mentioned this petering out thing in interviews, not that it being intentional makes it automatically great or something but yeah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcofribas Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 1 hour ago, apriorion said: Isn’t this album just a Rorschach test? I get the sense that you can read many different things into it, and I thought that’s more intetional than they let on in interviews. When they did the press, they said this album was full of even more Easter eggs than their previous work. But that’s clearly not true: Geoggaddi has way more goofy shit packed into it than TH, by far. So, weren’t they fucking with us? If they were, it doesn’t bother me at all: I kinda like it. They’re just fucking with us, but they still made a killer album, even when you leave the themes off to the side. It’s clearly got some emotional shit going on, themes of isolation, desolation, depression. But the nostalgia and apocalypse stuff can be taken too far. There’s more of a laugh at all that doomsday prepper shit than it seems on the surface. That’s the nihilism here: don’t take this shit so seriously. Heh, Easter eggs. idk about the Easter egg thing. even sean remarked on how he thought people were going to have a hard time figuring out the samples in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vkxwz Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 3 minutes ago, Alcofribas said: idk about the Easter egg thing. even sean remarked on how he thought people were going to have a hard time figuring out the samples in it. got a link to sean talking about th? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apriorion Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 The samples? I saw many of those decoded. The "eleven" thing, which sounded like "BFF" in "Palace Posy", or that one from Youtube where that woman was obsessively connecting the dots between some barbed wire fence and her whack-ass conspiracy-theory predictions about a new haulocast: I thought those were funny. When I was referring to easter eggs, I had in mind the anagrams, time signatures, melodic and harmonic references, etc. I thought there would be much more than just samples. Geoggaddi had weird scale stuff that was far more interesting, at least on the Easter egg front. I really don't think that's the point. It's just cool tunes with some goofy Easter eggs (owl of minerva, man), but again, they're fucking with their fans. I don't blame them; I would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcofribas Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 just bc you didn’t figure it out doesn’t mean it isn’t there lol im not saying there are for such things but I think it’s a weird stance to take that you definitively know there are less deliberately hidden details in this record. like, how man this sub forum is wild On 4/1/2020 at 12:55 PM, auxien said: 11 minutes ago, vkxwz said: got a link to sean talking about th? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apriorion Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Oh, I know. I get what you're saying. I don't know all the uncovered things. But I'm running on an induction from the past: by this point, so many more secrets were uncovered in Geoggaddi than there have been in the same span of time of TH. Granted, it's not fool-proof, but it's inductive reasoning, not deductive. I'm as confident as I care to be when it comes to art that I care about, but it's not something I really care so much about to take the mantle of certainty. If I made it seem like I'm certain that there aren't other uncovered secrets in TH, that was my mistake. But I'm as confident about that as I care to be. There are so many goddamn weirdo BOC fans out there that dissect these things that I expected to hear more about it by now, and nothing has surfaced. That's all. I don't think that my reasoning is so crazy. It's basic inductive reasoning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apriorion Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 I should say, I don't rule out that they have, just as a matter of countability, more easter eggs in this one compared to previous albums, in so far as they're like weird random, technical recording tricks and music theory jokes, and sample jokes, and so on. All of that is plausible to me, and it would please me if there was some actual list where we could check these things off one by one. But again, I really think it's all missing the point. They've certainly got some anal side to them, and I can appreciate that, but I am more confident that they are fucking with people who take this shit too seriously than I am confident that they definitely have some hidden messages here than haven't been uncovered yet. And if there are more messages revealed tomorrow about TH that none of us knew, cool! That's great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcofribas Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Haha it’s cool. I get what you mean. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markedone Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Enjoying this multi-year thread-revival easter-harvest voodoo.. My random 2c: have always rated this album, but the parts that continuous to resonate the most with me are the weird sounding ones that I didn't get at first: namely Jacquard, palace posy, new seeds. Those always sounded like they couldn't have fit on any previous albums. Also semena mertvykh, underrated track that one. I guess there's not much to discuss about it, but that texture is amazing the louder you play it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh Mughnus Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 TH good album. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
President Squidward Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 TH good album [2]. Not up to the heights of classics Geogaddi and Music Has the Right but still damn good. Tracks such as Nothing Is Real, Cold Earth, Jacquard Causeway, Reach For the Dead are amazing, beautiful tracks. Campfire Headphase is honestly my least favorite BoC album, even though I still enjoy that one. I guess their folktronica isn't that amazing to me? As much as I really love Boards of Canada, I feel I don't get that "magic" I did when I first discovered them 3 years ago. Maybe I overplayed them, I think I get more magic from their pre-studio album releases, whether it be the old EPs or Old Tunes/Random 35 Tracks Tape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d-a-m-o Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 It’s a great album Imho love the kind of mystical end of the world atmosphere of the album ( but Tbh I love everything by BOC so...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YangYing Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 2 hours ago, Alcofribas said: idk about the Easter egg thing. even sean remarked on how he thought people were going to have a hard time figuring out the samples in it. Another thing Sean mentioned iirc was that he "missed their little keyboard runs" which is something I actually didn't notice until he mentioned it.. other than Nothing is Real most tracks are really atmospheric and do kinda lack dem playful melodies.. I do enjoy the album alot tho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soloman Tump Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Not being a huge boc nerd, TH was the first boc album I bought as it hit the shops. I enjoy it and still do, spin my vinyl quite regularly. Whilst I acknowledge their previous work are classics, happy to enjoy TH for what it is, a weirdly accurate premonition of the isolated times we live in now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beerwolf Posted April 13, 2020 Author Share Posted April 13, 2020 I play TH a lot and enjoy it. And always have done. Unlike their other albums which seem to have many layers to them, TH seems a little straight forward. No Sonic Magic Eye, or concentration for all the details is required. And sometimes that's a good thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
President Squidward Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 Makes me wonder if BoC will use this album as their farewell one since it's 2020 and times are definitely bleak like that album theme suggests. I wanna see what they do for the next album's theme though since I desperately want to see another album soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Candiru Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 I gotta be honest. I think the cult/sentimental weirdness prevented anyone from being honest about how dull this album is. It's first time I was shocked by witnessing brainwashing. The second time was when Trump won the election. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshuatxuk Posted April 13, 2020 Share Posted April 13, 2020 1 hour ago, Candiru said: I gotta be honest. I think the cult/sentimental weirdness prevented anyone from being honest about how dull this album is. It's first time I was shocked by witnessing brainwashing. The second time was when Trump won the election. Daft Punk's RAM of the same year had the effect x100 so much so I think it's an achievement not as a musical album but as an elaborate PR effort. Any cult artist/band has it's core zealot fans but I agree BoC's following is excessive at times, especially on their subreddit and I assume on twoism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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