Post-WXAXRXP Societas X Tape Tracklist & Discussion

[Valotonin]

Hey MDG, can you please tell us which tunes from the societas X tape are actual BoC / Hell interface etc?

Worth a try..

Many a twoismer has tried before ye, to summon him one must prove his worth.
What has blood but doesn't bleed? What grows from a seed? What falls from up a tree?


Yeah... That's right

[TheStatPow]

[SamuraiDrifter]

"next door neighbours child" (possibly by Amon Duul 2) - This gruesomely lyriced song with such a lovely melody and style currently sits as my favourite of the bunch.

This song has been identified as “Billy Miller” by Stefan Zauner.

40 ? (boc synths with vocals "climbs to the end of time...")
This might be by an American band called The Mathletes. I have some rare music by them from 15+ years ago. It includes a cover of Roygbiv. I'm going to check this out more later on. I'm currently at work. It definitely rang some bells though.

This has been identified as “35,000 Feet (Challenger’s Theme)” by Jupiter Prophet.

[Valotonin]

I think I will give the Mathletes a listen anyway.
I've been stagnating in terms of finding new music recently so this mixtape was most welcome, alongside any other suggestions.

[Valotonin]

Oh, also.
ahem *gets into character*

The StatPow answered truth all three, to receive the wisdom of Em Dee Gee.
One will have to wait and see as the chances are that he's asleep.

[luminousdusk]

Well if I was MDG I would come here to have the piss ripped out of me that's for sure

[♄ope keeper]

Really interesting discussion here, just one addition:

2006 interview:

Mike takes the lead "We've been under a lot of pressure to play of course," he confirms. "One of the things that comes through from the big boss man Warp Records is offers from festivals. Usually our respons to that is that we would be more comfortable playing a small venue that would suit what we do. Our live show as it was had ah eavy reliance on visuals--we were using video projections and monitors--and secretly over the last 3 years since we last played a gig we've started to develop a different show. We expanded the band and have friends who are part of the potential group if we go out on the road again. And we do intend to go out and play again but at the moment what we want to do is at odds with the offers coming in to play alongside bands like Foo Fighters and people like that."

Marcus, the quieter but by no means less passionate of the two, finishes Mike's thought and addresses more specifically what it is about Boards of Canada's sound that makes the prospect of a live show do tricky. "You've got to know the limitations of the music that you make. I always think of our music as being a lot more like headphone music, a brain music that you can drift into," he says. "So the idea of playing on a stage where you may be coming on just before a massive set by The Chemical Brothers doesn't sound like it would work. Earlier on though, when we were in transition from working with Skam to working with Warp, we did a couple of gigs that were label showcases with Warp artists. We have massive respect for guys like Squarepusher and Aphex Twin but we found ourselves doing shows with these guys and they were so full-on electronic and really full of energy. It wasn't really what we wanted to do at the time."

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11766&start=20

2013 interviews:

In the past you occasionally performed live, but you haven't done this for years. Is there a possibility that Boards Of Canada will be on stage again?

Michael: "We want to perform live again if we can make it into something really special. We've already started working on this a little and we hope that this will soon result in something special."

viewtopic.php?f=2&p=274727

On the other side, one thing that always amused you is to bypass offers to play live.

MIKE True, we get lots of requests. Especially from festivals. But we decided that if we chose to perform live we want to make something special. We must confess that lately we have begun to think of it as a feasible hypothesis, and yes, we started to work on it.

https://forum.watmm.com/topic/79804-boc ... ulaug-2013


Headphone music, live something special (now Warp 30), nevertheless, I still believe there will be a live gig/gigs once...

[Electronic Dave]

Ironic thought on Doxa Sinistra. A lot of the lyrics, with the exception of the "Leo the Lizard" line from A Team and a few others, are the voice of Douglas Rain. He was a CANADIAN actor/narrator. His parents were from Glasgow, SCOTLAND. Just found that a tad interesting.

I had mentioned Douglas Rain before a few pages back in this thread - he was the voice of HAL from 2001. He did narrate a film called 'Universe' for the National Film Board Of Canada which then led him to do the iconic voice in 2001. Def most interesting and thanks to you Mozart for pointing out the Indian female voice track

Of course B.O.C. have sampled Leslie Nielsen's voice on Geogaddi track 'Dandelion'.

I've just listened to the original Doxa Sinistra track and I'm shocked that the vocal sample styles are not original B.O.C. but by the original artist! One amazing influence. I had assumed that the backing track had been used and their samples put on top. I spent a good hour writing down the lines and trying to work out who, what and when.

[ross adey]

Has there been any discussion regarding the significance of the 'Swine Flu Shot' snippet?
Perhaps this is in reference to the growing fears surrounding Synthetic Biology, and its potentially disastrous implications if in the wrong hands.

https://medium.com/s/powertrip/the-ender-c525d87e66cf

[Soul_Slip]

Really interesting discussion here, just one addition:

2006 interview:

Mike takes the lead "We've been under a lot of pressure to play of course," he confirms. "One of the things that comes through from the big boss man Warp Records is offers from festivals. Usually our respons to that is that we would be more comfortable playing a small venue that would suit what we do. Our live show as it was had ah eavy reliance on visuals--we were using video projections and monitors--and secretly over the last 3 years since we last played a gig we've started to develop a different show. We expanded the band and have friends who are part of the potential group if we go out on the road again. And we do intend to go out and play again but at the moment what we want to do is at odds with the offers coming in to play alongside bands like Foo Fighters and people like that."

Marcus, the quieter but by no means less passionate of the two, finishes Mike's thought and addresses more specifically what it is about Boards of Canada's sound that makes the prospect of a live show do tricky. "You've got to know the limitations of the music that you make. I always think of our music as being a lot more like headphone music, a brain music that you can drift into," he says. "So the idea of playing on a stage where you may be coming on just before a massive set by The Chemical Brothers doesn't sound like it would work. Earlier on though, when we were in transition from working with Skam to working with Warp, we did a couple of gigs that were label showcases with Warp artists. We have massive respect for guys like Squarepusher and Aphex Twin but we found ourselves doing shows with these guys and they were so full-on electronic and really full of energy. It wasn't really what we wanted to do at the time."

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11766&start=20

2013 interviews:

In the past you occasionally performed live, but you haven't done this for years. Is there a possibility that Boards Of Canada will be on stage again?

Michael: "We want to perform live again if we can make it into something really special. We've already started working on this a little and we hope that this will soon result in something special."

viewtopic.php?f=2&p=274727

On the other side, one thing that always amused you is to bypass offers to play live.

MIKE True, we get lots of requests. Especially from festivals. But we decided that if we chose to perform live we want to make something special. We must confess that lately we have begun to think of it as a feasible hypothesis, and yes, we started to work on it.

https://forum.watmm.com/topic/79804-boc ... ulaug-2013


Headphone music, live something special (now Warp 30), nevertheless, I still believe there will be a live gig/gigs once...

It really seems like they are really excited about new music over these last few years. Even though Societas was mostly a mixtape which was amazing, they have consistently pushed out quite a bit of material since TH. They never have really been interested in releasing unreleased material except for every now and then so I didn’t excpect that box set just yet, and honestly we may never get that ha at least not until they are old and retired lol I really hope a new album comes out sometime soon and they go on a mini-live tour, even if it is just a few “one-off” performances, I’d still go see them no matter where they play! But, until then, this mixtape is awesome, hope it gets pressed to vinyl sometime soon

[luminousdusk]

Here's the updated BoC-only edit of the Societas X Tape. I added the track around 57 minutes, which I'm now pretty sure is an original vignette, and subtracted the Indian track that's since been identified (there was a significant degree of manipulation to it but I felt not quite enough to warrant inclusion).

https://soundcloud.com/zerosharpmusic/b ... it/s-EdUre

Any chance you could upload this mix to YouTube?

[Ender]

https://www.mixcloud.com/NTSRadio/board ... june-2019/

Going by the times at that link, does anyone know yet the track that starts around 1:29:10? It's one of my favorites in this mix tape, but no one seems to know it. It couldn't be a BoC original, could it? It doesn't quite sound like their style. I feel like I've heard it before, like it was in a movie or something...

[WaitingFor_22]

https://www.mixcloud.com/NTSRadio/boards-of-canada-societas-x-tape-warp-30-23rd-june-2019/

Going by the times at that link, does anyone know yet the track that starts around 1:29:10? It's one of my favorites in this mix tape, but no one seems to know it. It couldn't be a BoC original, could it? It doesn't quite sound like their style. I feel like I've heard it before, like it was in a movie or something...

It has yet to be found.
Going by the lyrics and the fact that searching for them gives nothing, I think this could be some sort of religious song ("the things that He says"). Boc have sampled religious songs before and even used one on this mix, so I think it's really possible. Also, there's lots of religious rock bands, and this is not particularly super dark punk.

[TheStatPow]

Is it just me or does "such a long time ago" sounds like Victrola?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY46wiorzeg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGLkH2PyRI4

[ross adey]

BoC being BoC, there seems to be a great deal more going on here than meets the eye (and ear).
Forgive my rambling, but while picking apart the first portion of the mix there were a couple of things that caught my attention;

The first track's title: 'Associations' could be a polysemic device that is connected to the following track's: 'This Flat Earth'.

If people hear a song they like and want to know the lyrics, what do they do? They search for them on Google.
The only thing is, if you search 'cOL - This Flat Earth' lyrics on Google, you won't find the lyrics. What you do find however, are the lyrics to Thomas Dolby's 'The Flat Earth' and a different pattern emerges. Coincidence? Possibly. But try searching 'dOL...' or 'bOL...' and you'll notice the lyrics don't immediately appear in the same way.

Also, cOL's album containing the fabled 'This Flat Earth' is not / no longer playable on Spotify. As you're probably aware, this happens frequently, so I searched the label JesusWarhol to see if I could stream/listen elsewhere but the song isn't even listed. Check for yourself:

http://jesuswarhol.com/JesusWarholRecords/coL.html

Taking the above into account, I listened closely to try and make out all the lyrics myself:

Am I still? Am I still?
Am I still breathing?
Am I still dreaming?

Am I still here?
I think I know in my head, but not my head that doesn't think at all
The place where my mind should fall

And my spirit knowing tells me to go

I've got to make it real
I've got to bring the shore(?)
Because I'm living here
The time where these words don't even think(?)
So of course you're not going to realise
All this in... Believe my eyes
I'm going to tell you that I...
I am part of something bigger than anything I'm representing here and now...

Oh baby, and we've seen good times now
But that's no reason,
No reason to push a ship across the edge off this flat earth
Because we're only living by and getting on by
Our weakest link's imagination

Furthermore, as the drum track begins, two male voices can be heard in conversation;
It's difficult to make out what's being said, but what I hear is:
Voice 1: "Can't stop... River... What Can I do for you?"
Voice 2: "Civilization... Striking similarities"

The faint voices continue under the guitar and at about 3:42, a high pitched sound - not dissimilar to a 50s ray gun noise - can be heard.

For context, here are the lyrics to Thomas Dolby's 'The Flat Earth':

The Earth can be any shape you want it
Any shape at all
Dark and cold or bright and warm
Long or thin or small
But it's home and all I ever had
And maybe why for me the Earth is flat
Friends have often asked me why
I'm sensitive about my height
I would look around and say
Hmm, I thought I was immune
All my life I have waited
to be given any word
It was screaming to be heard
Please remember...
The Earth can be any shape you want it
Any shape at all
Dark and cold or bright and warm
Long or thin or small
But it's home and all I ever had
and maybe why for me the Earth is flat
Turn the island to the storm tonight
Then when they spill the demon seed
Turn and face into the wind
All along you still believed
Believed you were immune
And if love is all you're missing
Look into your heart
Is anybody home?
Please remember ...
The Earth can be any shape you want it
Any in the world
But don't you point that raygun at me
I might just explode
There are stones buried in your soul
And only a fool would blame the death of rock and roll, uyeah
And in time you'll come to understand
The flat old Earth is in your gentle hands

The lyrics are more direct than cOL's; a sense of resignation/hopelessness in the writing. Perhaps this connection acts as a sort of admonition, who knows. In any case, it's sadly relatable in a contemporary sense even though the song was written in 1984...

I know this all seems like a massive reach and not actually saying a great deal, but hey... It's kept me entertained for the last couple of hours!

Happy diggin'.

[SamuraiDrifter]

Any chance you could upload this mix to YouTube?

Here it is!

A mix of confirmed and suspected BoC vignettes and originals, on YouTube.

I also fixed the volume issue from the last Soundcloud version (it was way too quiet).

phpBB [media]

[luminousdusk]

Any chance you could upload this mix to YouTube?

Here it is!

A mix of confirmed and suspected BoC vignettes and originals, on YouTube.

I also fixed the volume issue from the last Soundcloud version (it was way too quiet).

Excellent cheers, Good to be able to cast it now. I've had this on repeat for the last few days.
I did notice the volume was low but couldn't figure out why lol

[Valotonin]

Is it just me or does "such a long time ago" sounds like Victrola?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY46wiorzeg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGLkH2PyRI4

The vocal qualities and nuances are incredibly similar.
Is there a chance that the track heard is an early recording by this artist?

Also, somewhat unrelated, but the chord progression reminds me quite a lot of this:
https://youtu.be/sv6zD5B9GtE

Gosh I love this track

[Ender]

https://www.mixcloud.com/NTSRadio/boards-of-canada-societas-x-tape-warp-30-23rd-june-2019/

Going by the times at that link, does anyone know yet the track that starts around 1:29:10? It's one of my favorites in this mix tape, but no one seems to know it. It couldn't be a BoC original, could it? It doesn't quite sound like their style. I feel like I've heard it before, like it was in a movie or something...

It has yet to be found.
Going by the lyrics and the fact that searching for them gives nothing, I think this could be some sort of religious song ("the things that He says"). Boc have sampled religious songs before and even used one on this mix, so I think it's really possible. Also, there's lots of religious rock bands, and this is not particularly super dark punk.

Sorry? The track I'm referring to doesn't have any singing. If you look at that link, it starts at 1:29:10 (what you're checking may have different timestamps). It starts as a piano piece and changes over time.

[Valotonin]

Well if I was MDG I would come here to have the piss ripped out of me that's for sure

Hey, it isn't like that. I hope you didn't misinterpret.
Its playful humor, nothing else.

The fact that MDG is so illusive on the site these days means that people have a bit of fun describing it in terms of a summoning or a rare sasquatch sighting.