Your controversial BoC opinions.

[Skimming Stone]

The Beach at Redpoint is an insanely good track, 1969 sounds quite weak in comparison to me.

[drillkicker]

What drew me to Geogaddi when I first decided to listen to it was the short interlude tracks. Those have always been my favorite part of Boards of Canada. Ready Lets Go, Dandelion, Gyroscope, Energy Warning, I Saw Drones, Over the Horizon Radar, and Diving Station are amazing songs and some of my favorite BoC songs. Ataronchronon especially is an extremely beautiful one to me.

[clearcut]

What drew me to Geogaddi when I first decided to listen to it was the short interlude tracks. Those have always been my favorite part of Boards of Canada. Ready Lets Go, Dandelion, Gyroscope, Energy Warning, I Saw Drones, Over the Horizon Radar, and Diving Station are amazing songs and some of my favorite BoC songs. Ataronchronon especially is an extremely beautiful one to me.

smallest weird number - amazing boc interlude

[boredoms]

Gyroscope is a short interlude track? One of my favorites by BoC regardless though.

I admit 1969 is a bit lacking depth compared to most of Geogaddi but I think it's great. At first I adored it, then tired of it and found it a bit dull, and now I've come to love it again after hearing it on vinyl, which added a beautiful depth (somehow the "1969 in the sunshine" vocals sounded totally DIFFERENT from how they sounded on digital copy, as if they were even more robotic?).

[drillkicker]

@clearcut The Smallest Weird Number is great, too, but it isn't quite as memorable to me as those others I mentioned.

@boredoms Gyroscope seems like an interlude to me. It certainly is short, and it's just a small loop repeated for a minute or two. I don't often notice a difference between digital and vinyl sound quality, though. The only ones that actually seemed to sound significantly different as far as I can remember are Earth 2 and Exai (with the exceptions of record defects of course). I just like vinyl for other reasons.

[arvy]

Gyroscope the most worst boring piece of music @my mom

When I first heard it, I was like fuck something is wrong with my speakers, turn off that shit immediately

This was the first and maybe the last time I heard BOC in theatre, @ Sinister, complete bonkers

also Dandelion is the best track @ Geogaddi,

lol just kidding

[clearcut]

best track from geogaddi in my opinion?

from one source

[Aerial Boundaries]

I am not a fan of Gyroscope either as it happens. So that and 1969. Everything else is gold to me.

best track from geogaddi in my opinion?

from one source

I'm probably one of the few here who agrees judging from past conversations.

If you are interested in my take on it, search through my posts and you'll find one or two from the past couple of months.

[Najlepsiejszy]

I don't know if this one is controversial, but the single version of Aquarius is better than v2 (MHTRTC) or v3

[Aerial Boundaries]

I don't know if this one is controversial, but the single version of Aquarius is better than v2 (MHTRTC) or v3

I prefer the mastering on the single. It is more rough and open.

But I love the synth and "I'm listening" sample they used on the Peel Session.

[drillkicker]

I need to make a playlist of the three versions of Aquarius and decide which I like the best. I haven't given it much thought before.

[Jonse]

I don't know if this one is controversial, but the single version of Aquarius is better than v2 (MHTRTC) or v3

I have no idea but yeah, I semi-agree. My favorite is V3 but it's almost kind of impossible for me to put it against V1 anyways because of the difference in pitch and tempo. I feel like they're two different songs though they're clearly not. Maybe I like the original about as much as V3, but V3 is where I feel like the track became "complete" in a way with the background samples.

[Jonse]

Possibly controversial. I was always confused about the tracks that got axed from BoC Maxima to MHTRTC. Obviously part of it has to do with Hi Scores, but I also feel there were just a few...poor choices made, I guess.

Not sure how to say that without insulting them. They produced a fantastic record nevertheless and I agree with some of the changes they made that nobody else seems to agree with. Anyways, the ideal tracklisting for MHTRTC in my mind has always been something like this. It's barely different and only has to do with not re-releasing tracks:

1. Wildlife Analysis
2. Chinook
3. An Eagle in Your Mind
4. The Color of the Fire
5. Triangles & Rhombuses
6. Sixtyten
7. Orange Romeda (unless it had not yet been finished by the time Pete Standing Alone was)
8. Kaini Industries
9. Bocuma
10. Roygbiv
11. Rue the Whirl
12. Aquarius
13. Olson
14. Pete Standing Alone
15. Smokes Quantity (Whitewater on my playlist but that doesn't count like THS because it was not publicly available)
16. Open the Light
17. One Very Important Thought
18. Happy Cycling


For some reason this track listing just does it for me more. It's not anything like BoC Maxima where people might agree with me and more just MHTRTC with a few changes. I really don't know why exactly they chose to re-use Turquoise Hexagon Sun (at the very least, I do understand Smokes) - I suppose they just liked it THAT much. Apparently they never grew out of that considering how they did it with Dayvan Cowboy years later in the inverse way (even though Trans Canada almost registers less like its own EP and more like a maxi single for Dayvan to me).

[Aerial Boundaries]

Not including Whitewater was the only really bad move IMHO. Obviously it would have needed to be developed and brought up to the production standard of MHTRTC, but it really deserved to make it on there. It is such a classic track, that synth is one of the best they've ever used.

I wouldn't include Chinook, I don't think it quite fits the feel of the album. Also, putting it between Wildlife and Eagle completely breaks the flow for me. Those two tracks go so well together, they contrast each other perfectly in tempo.

Orange Romeda would need to be changed a little to fit, something about it isn't quite right for the album. Not sure if it is the percussion or the synth, or maybe the samples they used.

[Jonse]

I agree, and honestly there's this weird thing about MHTRTC to me where...how do I say this properly...it almost feels like a compilation album in terms of production, since ostensibly it is a collection of tracks that they made from '95 or so to '98. There were differences (like Smokes on MHTRTC compared to Twoism, as well as Seeya Later and all those tracks that got less wide and more flat when they finally were signed) and Turquoise Hexagon Sun is a little louder for sure, otherwise about the same in terms of sound I think.

I guess the Chinook thing is one that people won't agree on. Chinook fit BoC Maxima. I agree with you about putting it in between those two because there is a certain flow, and I suppose it's just that I like Chinook after Wildlife so much more, However, one thing I almost did was move the tracks (which I think would be more appropriate) and instead of coming after Chinook, I'd say put Color of the Fire before An Eagle in Your Mind in that case. However, I understand that some people just don't like Chinook a whole lot in general. I do think it could have fit on Hi Scores quite nicely but whatever.

And Orange Romeda I think is just EQ'd differently. I know exactly what you mean. Sound wise, era-wise it would go great with the rest of those songs, but it does feel as though it was just ripped and stuck in there (which it was - on a cassette I made of the same version of MHTRTC I just posted it no longer feels so much out of place).

Welp, yeah. At least we agree on Whitewater. Absolutely beautiful track. I would have preferred it over Open the Light, similar to where it was on Maxima, but then again when I made that track listing I didn't want to remove MHTRTC only tracks and replace them with others, just the ones that were already on something else.

[Aerial Boundaries]

I think every release of theirs is a compilation in the sense that when they decide on a theme and concept for an album, they pull together things that fit from both their past and current work. They even mentioned doing this with TH where they included a modified version of a track from their old tunes days. I'd just say their concept for MHTRTC was a little more loose and free than the others. They knew they wanted a certain sound and figured that their work after old tunes that they put together on Boc Maxima mostly had a cohesive feeling that fit with what they wanted for a proper label release. This is in contrast to everything afterwards which is ultimately done in the same sort of way, but with a lot more conceptual focus and restraint. They seem to be very good at limiting their output in just the way they want, and putting tracks together with just the right flow and narrative feeling.

I do like Chinook but it gives me more of a black operations, black and white very low frames per second film feeling than the warm colourful vibe of MHTRTC.

That may be what I'm on about yeah, Orange Romeda isn't EQ'd/mastered in the same way as MHTRTC so that would need to be changed. TBH I think the main thing though might be that it isn't nearly as minimal in composition as the album tracks. It uses more samples, chops things up, messes around, has swishy grainy percussion. It actually sounds more like some of their remix work to me I do love it no question though.

Hm that's a tough one. I like Open the Light quite a bit, though it is a tad overlong for what it is perhaps. It could have been only a little longer than Olson and still worked, and they could have fit Whitewater in as well. Best of both worlds. IDK, they said they probably view their music differently from their listeners, and I think that's a fair point. They obviously felt it wasn't right in some way for what they had in mind.

[Headphase]

Geogaddi for me goes like this:

Best tracks:
from one source
Ready lets go
Music is maths
Beware the friendly stranger
Gyroscope
Sunshine recorder
alpha and omega
dawn chorus
diving station
over the horizon radar (IMO One of the most beautiful songs i have ever heard)
devil in the details
a is to b...
corsair
julie and candy

Ok tracks:
Dandelion
1969 (the beat is amazing though)
energy warning
you could feel the sky (another amazing beat, but i hate the outro vocals/screaming)
in the annexe

Worst tracks:
Opening the mouth
Beach at redpoint
I saw drones (it is too short, it could have been longer or an outro to another song)
smallest weird number

Best tracks to dance to at a rave or at 3AM:
Magic window

[Skimming Stone]

Geogaddi for me goes like this:

Best tracks:
from one source
Ready lets go
Music is maths
Beware the friendly stranger
Gyroscope
Sunshine recorder
alpha and omega
dawn chorus
diving station
over the horizon radar (IMO One of the most beautiful songs i have ever heard)
devil in the details
a is to b...
corsair
julie and candy

Ok tracks:
Dandelion
1969 (the beat is amazing though)
energy warning
you could feel the sky (another amazing beat, but i hate the outro vocals/screaming)
in the annexe

Worst tracks:
Opening the mouth
Beach at redpoint
I saw drones (it is too short, it could have been longer or an outro to another song)
smallest weird number

Best tracks to dance to at a rave or at 3AM:
Magic window

Wow you literally put Beach at Redpoint and Music is Math at opposite ends of the spectrum to me

[Ectonaut]

Reach for the dead is a remake of Slow this bird down

[Jonse]

There's a lot of overlap for me. At the same time though, I would disagree so much with some of the "worst" choices. My top three tracks are almost certainly Julie and Candy (favorite BoC song, ever - period), You Could Feel The Sky and Opening the Mouth.