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Hear the new Boards Of Canada record - yours for just $4600
05.01.2013
07:35 am
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BOC fan art by Fel1x

Daft Punk aren’t the only stars of 90s electronica making a comeback this year. As you may have heard, Boards of Canada are set to return after an 8 year hiatus, with new album Tomorrow’s Harvest due to drop next month.

Billboard reports:

The influential electronic duo, comprising Scottish sibling producers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, announced their Warp Records effort will land this June—their first full length album since 2005’s critically-acclaimed Campfire Headphase and their first set of new works since 2006’s Trans Canada Highway EP.

Tomorrow’s Harvest will arrive June 7 in Australia (through Inertia), June 10 in the U.K. and Europe, and June 11 in North America.

Boards of Canada are the most enigmatic of acts. They’ve never dominated any charts—of their three previous studio albums, their sophomore set Geogaddi has the highest U.K. chart peak at No. 21. And they’re not road-hogs. In fact, they’ve only played publicly on a handful of occasions, and never in the past 10 years.

But their recordings-to-date have set the tone for low-key electronic music. Their return to the music world will be rejoiced by a global cult of followers.

Anticipation is very high indeed.

So high, in fact, that some enterprising tyke is currently selling a BOC promotional 12” on Ebay for a staggering four and a half grand (down from five grand yesterday).

When I found this record I was anticipating some sort of unreleased track, which excited me in an almost frightening way (its just music.. right?). So when I first played the record, needless to say, I was mystified, and in some ways disappointed, but that disappointment would soon disappear. What I got instead, the experience of calling out to the web and watching the internet and its many niche-communities rally to pick apart this puzzle, was something I still haven’t fully wrapped my head around, but I am at any rate incredibly thankful to have been a part of this ...thing. Now, as much as this record means to me, I’m just a college kid getting ready to graduate and move abroad and am in serious need of money, thus, as hard as it is to let this record go nothing will erase the experience of pursuing the answer this record made me ask, and moreover the satisfaction of having that question answered by the hard work of my fellow nerds (new album, yay!). My thanks to the highest bidder for helping me start out on my own, and to the web community at large for making these last two weeks so incredibly memorable. new album June 10!!! hurray!

If you have the dosh, you can be the talk of all your EDM friends.

EDIT: As it turns out, this record isn’t even the new album, it contains less than a minute’s worth of music and a string of numbers. Even better! Apparently there have only been two copies of this record pressed up, hence the high price (though I am suspicious of that claim, unless the record is actually an acetate?)

Of course, this may all be part of the current viral “mystery” marketing campaign for Tomorrow’s Harvest‘s upcoming release (edit: looks like it is) which has seen cryptic clues being left all over the web for fans to decipher and follow. I prefer to think of it as more proof the the Illuminati run music, but if you’re in a Scooby Doo-mood for solving mysteries with a groovy soundtrack, then hop on over to the Cosecha Transmisiones website and get stuck in.

In the meantime, here’s a teaser video for the upcoming album, somewhat reminiscent of Prince Of Darkness on very heavy downers:
 

 

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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05.01.2013
07:35 am
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Feeling good 4-evr, it’s another great SSION promo
08.02.2012
06:47 pm
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Hot on the heels of his last video opus, the magnificent “Earthquake” (which we posted about here), SSION, aka Cody Critcheloe, is back with another clip taken from last year’s excellent Bent long-player.

Both the music and the video styles are different this time round, with the slick dance-pop sounds of “Earthquake” and “My Love Grows In The Dark” eschewed in favor of a darker, electro-rock sound and a straight-to-camera performance. There’s hints of Suicide in here, and also 90s industrial music. SSION’s gender-bending edge remains intact though, with the particularly fine shortening of the Marshall amp logo to simply “Marsha”.  

As Cody mentioned in his exclusive DM interview from the start of the year, he plans to make a video for every song on Bent, and it looks like he’s going to make that happen. He has already been teasing his fans with still from the video for the track “Psy-Chic”, possibly my favorite on the album, and there’s an open casting call for folks to star in the video for “Luvvbazaar”. But for now, we’ll just have to do with this:

SSION “Feelz Good (4-Evr)”
 

 
As I have mentioned numerous times on here, SSION’s Bent was one of my favorite albums of last year, and I actually included “Feelz Good (4-Evr)” on my Dangerous Minds round up of the best music from 2011. Here it is again for those that missed it:
 

 

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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08.02.2012
06:47 pm
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‘Mirrorball’: Chris Cunningham, Spike, Jonze, Jonathan Glazer, Michel Gondry and co.

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Back in 1999, Channel 4 aired Mirrorball a TV series that showcased the best promo directing talent across the globe. Two series and one animation special were made, featuring the talents of Spike Jonze, Mike Mills, Michel Gondry, Jonathan Glazer, Jonas Akerlund and Chris Cunningham. Each program was dedicated to one director, with an interview, a selection of their work, and a specially filmed insert (from Gondry drumming to Glazer mucking around with actor Paul Kay - aka Dennis Pennis).  Mirrorball was an instant hit and has gone on to become a cult TV classic since the series was cancelled in 2001.

Inspired by Edinburgh Film Festival’s Mirrorball screenings, the offshoot TV series was a collaboration between the Festival’s David Smith and Blackwatch Media, under producer and director, Nicola Black. As Black explained to Dangerous Minds:

“It was a fantastic opportunity to bring together groundbreaking directors and treat their work seriously, for the first time. We wanted to reveal the process behind these incredible pieces of work, which used cutting edge technology and post production techniques to achieve startling and unforgettable visuals to tell brilliant stories.  You have to remember, this was way before any of these directors had made their names in movies.

Black started out as an intern working with Derek Jarman, before moving on to directing and producing. She set up her company in 1995, making an internationally acclaimed documentary on crime writer James Ellroy’s search for his Mother’s murderer. Since then, Black has made a variety of award-winning shows, animations and “hard-hitting” documentaries, and started the trend in “shock docs” with Designer Vaginas.

“Mirrorball was a great series to make, not only in terms of the breadth of creative work shown, but also by the fact it gave insight into the early works of film-makers like Spike Jonze, Mark Romanek, who went on to make One Hour Photo, Michel Gondry, who made Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Jonathan Glazer, who directed the brilliant Sexy Beast.”

There were many great highlights to choose from the Mirrorball series (including Jonze’s superb short film How They Got There, Gondry’s genius work with Massive Attack & Daft Punk, Glazer’s collaborations with Radiohead, Akerlund’s Smack My Bitch Up and Mills promos for Air),  but we’ve gone for a selection from Chris Cunningham’s work, whose promos for Aphex Twin (aka genius Richard David James) are amongst some of the most original and disturbing ever made. Enjoy!
 

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Bonus clips of Mirrorball after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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10.14.2010
06:59 pm
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