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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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Listen to Fucked Up’s ‘David Comes to Life’ in full
06.06.2011
11:23 am
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Hardcore heroes Fucked Up’s new album is released today. David Comes To Life is being touted in some quarters as a modern classic, a rock opera romance for the ages set in 80s Thatcherite Britain. So is it that good? You can make your own mind up by listening to it in full at this link. Or, if you like what you have already heard, you can just go ahead and buy it here. There is more info on the album at Davidcomestolife.com.

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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06.06.2011
11:23 am
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Record appreciation at Classic Album Sundays
01.19.2011
09:19 am
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This is an interesting concept - a group of people come together to listen to a particular album, in its entirety from start to finish, on a state of the art PA, with no talking or phones allowed. It’s pure appreciation of an album - its track list and running order, listened to in the format the artist intended. No skipping, shuffling or fast-forwarding. This kind of thing doesn’t really have a name yet, but “record club” (like “book club”) is probably a good place to start.

Classic Album Sundays is just such a group, put together by the well known DJ Cosmo, aka Colleen Murphy, who cut her teeth at David Mancuso’s legendary Loft parties in New York. From the BBC:

This monthly club in north London is run by Colleen Murphy and for her it is a strike against “‘download culture”, the sense that music has just become an endless compilation of random songs used as background noise.

“Everyone, stop multi-tasking, sit down, open your ears and do some heavy listening.”

The set album this month was Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. We sat in silence even as David Bowie’s record was turned over to side two. The seats were soft, someone had lit some incense. Some people closed their eyes, others nodded in rhythmic appreciation. There was a sense of being collectively submerged in Bowie’s music.

“You’re not even allowed to use the bathroom here, it’s too noisy,” says Ms Murphy.

This raises some interesting issues. Personally, I like having the freedom to skip and choose tracks to listen to, as I see fit. For me there are very few albums that are worth gluing your ears to from start to finish. That’s not to say they don’t exist, but the “album” is a superficial format imposed on music only in the last half-century. I find individual songs to be more important, something I guess I have picked up from dance and dj culture. Or maybe I just have a low boredom threshold.

Listen to an audio report from BBC News on Classic Album Sundays.

Posted by Niall O'Conghaile
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01.19.2011
09:19 am
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