The live-only tracks

I can appreciated BoC's stuff post-Geogaddi - I like TCH a lot - but much of it feels so carefully crafted and controlled, it's a bit off-putting. A bit stale. The new TH stuff feels the same to me. So today I've been going back and listening to a lot of their rocking live-only tracks. Remember when they could rock out with a funky jam? How about these gems...

Warp Lighthouse:

7:57: Funkyyyyyy!

Warp 10th:

32:45: perhaps the best unreleased track known to man

ATP:

First two tracks are two of my favorite of their minimal ones.

29:27 is another great funky jam...Goddamn!

C'mon BoC, let your hair down, release the funky jams. Enough of always going for the big feeling/big message.

(still hoping TH has some funky fresh jams on it)

I'd love to see these get a proper release. Same for tracks that we've heard bits of like Trails and Time Apple.

The old tunes era stuff doesn't interest me as much. They hadn't fully realized their voice yet. This is all MHTRTC and IABOITC era stuff - which is still my favorite time as far as their sound is concerned.

ATP track 7... I hope one day it's finds it's way out. It's one of my favourites of theirs. Along with Spiro. I'd also love a soundboard of that version of Aquarius.

  On 5/27/2013 at 3:15 PM, lumpenprol said:

 

Warp 10th:

32:45: perhaps the best unreleased track known to man

 

oh' this one makes me harppy

Spiro is (for me) their best track (yet)

Coincidently, I think they used my attempt at a remaster of track seven on the ATP recording.

I want echus

Spiro, XYZ, and the long Warp10 track are the ones I wish would get released

Trails!

[youtubehd]3b5Ij030tgA[/youtubehd]

  On 5/27/2013 at 4:13 PM, LOL Alzado said:

I'd love to see these get a proper release. Same for tracks that we've heard bits of like Trails and Time Apple.

 

The old tunes era stuff doesn't interest me as much. They hadn't fully realized their voice yet. This is all MHTRTC and IABOITC era stuff - which is still my favorite time as far as their sound is concerned.

100% agree with everything you wrote (though Time Apple feels more like a scribble to me, don't really care if they elaborated on it or not). Love love love Trails as well.

IABPOITC is definitely my favorite period of time of theirs. There are a couple of main qualities that make this period stand out to me:

1) Muscular. A lot of their work from this period is so strong and unapologetically rhythmic, like that last Warp10 track. Propulsive beats and basslines, evolving tunes. These days it feels like almost every track of theirs has to have this arpeggio/spiral/claustrophobic/works-equally-well-forwards-and-backwards structure. That's cool and all, but not every time. I miss when their tracks went from A to B to C, and had room to breath, which brings me to point #2

2) Confidence. In the IABPOITC period, they had the confidence to let a track breath and evolve (seemingly) effortlessly (though I'm sure quite a bit of thought was involved). Since Geogaddi, it's seemed they are going more for the wall-of-sound, put-a-detail-in-every-sonic-crevice approach. I like this when it's done well, like on Julie and Candy, Dawn Chorus, Beach at Redpoint. But often I long for a Kid For Today, or Echus (if that's indeed the name of the live track) - a track where it seems they took forever to find exactly the right rhythm and sound, as opposed to adding another break or decay effect or bird chirp.

I'm sounding a bit negative here, I'm still guardedly optimistic about TH, and ultimately I did really like TCH, but there is something very special about the unreleased live tracks that they've never really managed to recapture, imo (yet).

I don't like the wall of sound approach that they seem to be taking on a lot of tracks lately. Peacock Tail has a bassline and beat that crush it. Then there's the eastern vocal and all the sudden the track is overflowing with cacophonous noise. Same thing with the Warp 20 release 747. I liked it better when they kept it simpler.

agree about 747 for sure, I find the released version almost unlistenable and even a bit offensive, given that I really liked the minimalism of the flash game version.

My shameful admission about Peacock Tail is I've never really liked it that much, and especially not the intro, for some reason. To me it sounds too much like Bobby McFerrin or some other toothless music meant to soothe children. I like it better as it evolves, but it still feels like a poor man's version of Telephasic Workshop imo.

I know you like it (at least the intro), diffrn't strokes and all.

Funny thing about TCH is I'm not sure I LOVE any of the tracks taken singly. But I like the album as a whole quite a bit, I like the gentleness of it (makes it much more replay-able to me than Geogaddi, though objectively I may respect Geogaddi more). Geogaddi to me is maybe a little bit like their Confield, an album I respect, but it doesn't seem to be crafted for listenability, the ideas are too dense and maybe trying a bit too hard.

And if we're talking nostalgia factor, somehow Chromakey Dreamcoat really pokes my nostalgia button. And the crescendo of Satellite Anthem Icarus is lovely. Plus Pontiac Dream (especially the last bit). and Sherbet Head!! Ok, Campfire Headphase is pretty great. There's a reason I listen to it more than their other albums.

29:27 @ ATP might be my fave all-time BoC track I think.

If WATMM ever does a BoC cover compilation I want to try to recreate Spiro; obsessively attempt to recreate every timbre and sonic detail. I just love that track so much and I ache to hear it in higher fidelity so recreating it would help ease the pain.

when did people start calling that track Spiro, anyway? When was it confirmed?

  On 5/28/2013 at 6:28 AM, lumpenprol said:

when did people start calling that track Spiro, anyway? When was it confirmed?

The Warp20 set came with a record full of 1-2 second loops of various Warp tracks. One was a section of that live track and it's named Spiro.

This sample used to be on juno.co.uk back when it came out but I think it's sped up or something.

Probably my favorite of all the unreleased tracks.

SF370253-01-13-23.mp3Fetching info...

totally agree, 29:27 @ ATP (track 7) is brilliant:

LOUDER

also the 2nd half is ruined by the loud whining of people

"ow you splashed that right in my eye"

"blrublrublrublrublrublrublrublrublrur"

that's the track i was talking about

  On 5/27/2013 at 4:13 PM, LOL Alzado said:

I'd love to see these get a proper release. Same for tracks that we've heard bits of like Trails and Time Apple.

 

The old tunes era stuff doesn't interest me as much. They hadn't fully realized their voice yet. This is all MHTRTC and IABOITC era stuff - which is still my favorite time as far as their sound is concerned.

Totally agree as well.

And thanks for posting the collection of tracks here. I'm currently waking up to the tunes of atp1.0 and it's utter bliss!

Can we make a petition somewhere to have them release these tracks on the ep QUICKLY following the new album?

Have them release Hooper Bay and Play by Numbers too.

I would like a boxed set of their early stuff, that wasn't messed with, but just remastered for optimum sound quality.

In fact, I think it would make the most sense for them to pick a good producer, dump the original Old Tunes, live tunes & etc source files in his lap, and say "you do this, we can't be bothered." I just don't want them to muck anything up, a la 747. Just polish them and release them, and enjoy a huge pile of cash. Everyone wins.

didn,t TONX via ustream mention something about a boc- set just before the show started?