Tomorrow's Harvest Analysis Thread

digging the pads on this album. I can sense that it will grow on me with more listens. Sundown was nice

telepath is creepy as fuck

demonic vocals are cool. 666

Some looked up explainations and speculations on the meaning and etymology of the tracknames:

• Gemini - Latin word for "twins". The two *brothers* Castor and Pollux.
• Reach For The Dead - What the grim reaper does.
• White Cyclosa - A spider. Has a striking black and white pattern and rests in the center of an orb web with greyish "imitation spiders" it has created from prey remains. If the spider is disturbed, it vibrates its body, so that the black and white patches blur into grey, thus resembling the false spiders. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclosa
• Jacquard Causeway - JC initials. Jacquard: a loom for weaving figured fabrics. Causeway from Middle English cauceweye "raised road". "The great highway" is a title attributed to Christ. Many churches have names containing something like highway or causeway. This also reminds me of Trans Canada Highway.
• Telepath - Someone who can communicate between minds by some means other than sensory perception.
• Cold Earth - What happens after sundown. Also what we will be left with, after a global nuclear war.
• Transmission Ferox - Ferox: Latin for "fierce"
• Sick Times - ...
• Collapse - from Latin collapsus, past participle of collabi "fall together". Wave functions are collapsed in order to "split infinities".
• Palace Posy - Posy: A flower or bunch of flowers; a bouquet. http://forum.watmm.com/topic/79177-boc-truly-sells-out/?p=2017790
• Split Your Infinities - I think that's what many schizophrenics/mystical visionaries do. It's also interesting to see the word infinity in plural. Depending on perspective there may only be one infinity (10D omniverse). But perhaps different infinities are enclosed in different (6D) universes. I't reminds me way we navigate through the five dimensional probability space by making decisions.
• Uritual - Probably a madeup portmanteau word. Uri (Hebrew: אוּרִי) means something like "my light" or "illumination". Ritual: The prescribed order of a religious ceremony or a detailed method of procedure faithfully or regularly followed.
• Nothing Is Real - I think that's what many schizophrenics/mystical visionaries believe. This fits nicely with the idea of a holographic universe. As saakki mentions above, this has talk about Jesus.
• Sundown - What happens before the earth gets cold. Announcess darkness.
• New Seeds - They are needed before harvest can take place. Hope? Resurrection?
• Come To Dust - An invitation to death?
• Semena Mertvykh - As mentoined above, Семена Мертвых is Russian for "Seeds of the Dead"

General themes

• Death - Reach For The Dead, Come To Dust?, Semena Martvykh, Sundown?
• Time - Sick Times, Sundown (marks the evening), Cold Eart (if it refers to the glacial epoch), Tomorrows Harvest (points to the future)
• Planets/Stars - Gemini (a constellation), Cold Earth, Sundown
• Destruction - Collapse, Cold Earth?
• Harvest/Reaping/Planting - Reach for the dead, New Seeds, Semena Mertvykh

My conclusion is that the idea of death is predominat. This doesn't have to be something bad. New Seeds also implies hope or resurrection.
I think that the harvest may refer to the harvesting of souls. That's why Saturn as the Grim Reaper has a scythe.
Tomorrows Harvest may preshaddow the idea of a nuclear war (compare ROTD video) or a similar global cataclysm.

Here are my comments regarding Saturn as the grim reaper in the thread about the reach of the dead video:
http://forum.watmm.com/topic/79014-official-reach-for-the-dead-video-now-online/?p=2010763

Thank you for this Tok. Very interesting.

I dunno, I'm sure they had an idea for some larger meaning. Given the chopper fx on Cyclosa, it feels mostly to me like they were trying to create a soundtrack to a dystopian Carpenter-esque 80's flick.

But I suspect like many artists they just made a bunch of full tracks, selected out the best or most thematically consistent, then drew them together with a loose theme, and made interstitial tracks in keeping with that theme. I think that does a better job of explaining Palace Posy.

Still the only track I really enjoy is Sick Times. Well, I guess I like the stretch from Sick Times to Collapse (nice melody and effects on that) to Palace Posy. Will see if the rest opens up.

Split Your Infinities really sounds like Shpongle to me, quite new-agey-lysergic, which is something I've never associated with BoC before.

I really enjoy Split Your Infinities.

One of the synth sounds and pattern really reminds me of spacesynth artists like Laserdance

  On 6/6/2013 at 3:50 AM, Tok said:

 

• Split Your Infinities - I think that's what many schizophrenics/mystical visionaries do. It's also interesting to see the word infinity in plural. Depending on perspective there may only be one infinity (10D omniverse). But perhaps different infinities are enclosed in different (6D) universes. I't reminds me way we navigate through the five dimensional probability space by making decisions.

 

Well, don't forget it's also a play on "split infinitives".

I think they liked it because it's a cute play on split infinitives, and because the split echoes splitting the atom. Splitting an atom rends the basic matter of the universe, so it could be like the catalyst that creates different timelines or, like you say, multiverses. And splitting the atom certainly changed the course of humankind, splitting us into pre-bomb and post-bomb.

edit: btw I think it would have been better titled "split infinities", I don't think they needed to add "your" in there. Unless they wanted to make it clearly a recommendation to drop acid, or something. "Split your infinities, maaaaan"

it's turning back into the boc subforum...

I could hum new seeds melodies forever

moar adjectives pls

I'm not going to hear much more of this album until Tuesday anyway, and it's interesting to read what everyone thinks before I can buy the fucking thing.

It's a grower alright

  On 6/6/2013 at 4:33 AM, unteleportedman said:

It's a grower alright

This phrase does not make me think of BoC at all.

  On 6/6/2013 at 3:11 AM, cloud capture said:

around these parts a lot of the farmers let the corn die on the stalks until late autumn and then harvest all of them for seeds, this might be what boc are referencing with "seeds of the dead"? Maybe some kind of funeral dirge to the time and effort put into the agriculture just for these seeds to bring new life the next season. I'm just trying to find some positive meaning to the whole album, for some reason I am not finding it that dark anymore after multiple listens of the youtube transmission.

The first thing I thought of when I heard the name "seeds of the dead" was those creepy sterile seeds Monsanto produces. I'm getting a general feeling of agricultural/environmental collapse on this album. That's one of my main anxieties in life so maybe I'm just seeing my own reflection there, but others have mentioned it too. A lot of insecty noises on here, the buzzing on Uritual makes me think of the disappearing honeybees.

  On 6/5/2013 at 10:18 PM, MIXL2 said:

Yeh not for me, sorry for rambling.

 

I love this album and all I have to comment on it is:

 

Owl of Minerva.

Some of my rants:

http://forum.watmm.com/topic/79109-tomorrows-harvest-live-album-transmission-june-3rd/?p=2017160

http://www.reddit.com/r/boardsofcanada/comments/1fl9ox/live_album_transmission_discusion/cabrqpa

http://forum.watmm.com/topic/78671-100-suns/?p=1997622

Basic observations:

- Cautiously hopeful. It's not bleak and depressing but there's no immediate happy ending or resolution either.

- Regarding Minerva's Owl:

  Quote

 

The nineteenth-century idealist philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel famously noted that "the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk"—meaning that philosophy comes to understand a historical condition just as it passes away.^[13] Philosophy cannot be prescriptive because it understands only in hindsight.

“ One more word about giving instruction as to what the world ought to be. Philosophy in any case always comes on the scene too late to give it... When philosophy paints its gloomy picture then a form of life has grown old. It cannot be rejuvenated by the gloomy picture, but only understood. Only when the dusk starts to fall does the owl of Minerva spread its wings and fly.

^seems very, very fitting. Others made Bohemian Groove connections which probably plays into BoC's typically multilevel references. Also...

- I think most of us are on the same page regarding the dark vibe being deeper and more subtle on Tomorrow's Harvest: it's buried and ever-present. Geogaddi had dark, in fact often flat-out sinister moments, but they were just moments. Morbid curiosity, esoteric references, explorations into the occult. Geogaddi escapes from our reality into dark places but returns. Tomorrow's Harvest is light and hope shining through a very dim and desolate reality.

- The high desert of the American West, specifically and almost exclusively California and to a lesser extent the vast expanses of remote Russia. Both were key in Atomic development and were key areas in the Cold War. This whole region is quite obvious a huge interest to the brothers. For me, especially in the promos, I was ecstatic to see them focus on the high desert of California which historically is something of an odd dystopian American landscape (long list of reasons in spoiler)

- Music production has matured: I feel like Campfire was a big departure (it was actually not a big one at all, but within their discography it was) and it kind of weakened their sound. Like, it was BoC lite: less lo-fi, less odd, far more "chill-out." Here I think they've returned to their core sound but at the same time thrown out all of the expected aesthetic choices without abandoning them, which is quite a feat and a liberating one considering how many people they've influenced. Entire artists have arguably modeled their music completely after BoC, so for the brothers it must be nice to avoid relying on their own sound. They could of easily re-hashed MHTRTC and they didn't. It's more epic and complex than their previous work, which is saying a lot.

- Just something I thought today: this song by Ulver is very similar in tone, it's gorgeous but very somber. The vocals are very un-BoC, arguably not eveyone's taste but I think the lyrics make it work. It's literally human existence brutally and succinctly summed up. I know some here have heard it.

I've listened to this amazing album a number of times and would like to add what I think.

The brothers have said that the structure of the album is a palindrome; collapse being at the center.

The opening track Gemini touches on the brothers as a duo, as well as the two sides of the palindrome. Gemini is the third sign in astrology. It's also the sign that governs the release date of the album, starting 20 days before the release and ending 10 days after.

Castor and Pollux were brother from the same mother, but Castor was mortal and Pollux was divine.

The track titles, artwork and sounds deal with humanity, extinction and technology. The music reflects this in the synthetic and the sampled. The brothers said that allot of the songs started as jams. They have worked at mixing acoustic and electronic instruments, with some apprehension as to their complimentary characteristics, throughout their career.

In the vinyl (possibly the cd version too) there are two sleeves, on both sides there are pictures divided into 4 sections with some of those sections divided into 3 separate pictures. Roughly their shapes spell B.C.

Gemini- the first track is a 5 part medley, it's opening could be represented by the cover of the album. But it's ending seems to be signified by the first sleeve picture, that of a boot. It's only one boot, the other boot is not (yet) shown; but it works with Gemini as those brothers were the gods of travel.

The Gemini medley is referenced in some (or all) of the tracks in the album with little bits of it being referenced throughout I think.

--The panning in the album also works as a reference tool with sounds sometimes reaching ahead (to the right) and other times reaching back (to the left).--

Reach for the Dead- is accompanied by the photos next to the boot one. It features a silhouette of people in the distance, a palindromic photo of mountains and a lobsided (non-palindromic) photo of a stretch of highway.

White Cyclosa introduces technology. I can't describe every photo's use, but the three pictures in that corner definitely match up with the use of the helicopter blade in both the photo and some of the samples used.

Jaquard Causeway I have heard this references an old computer. The fourth photo section being what appears to be a horizontal strip (of road?) on the foreground is a most jaquardian pattern made up of dirt rocks and the shadows that they cast. In the distance is foliage with a large tree in the center. It is very similar to RftD's "road" photo in that on the left side (past) there is flat grass, on the right side (future) there is an elevating forest.

Telepath features the first overt photo of technology with satellite dishes. The VoiceOver is a robotic voice counting forward, its of an attempted hypnotism.

Cold Earth features the second photo of people, and is also, I think, the most "song-ish" since RftD. It features a more human (an childish) voice, counting backwards. The counting in this and the previous track is an example of what is going on throughout the album. Technology and humanity pushing and pulling against eachother, fading to tech, which refers to humanity which also fades.

Transmissiones Ferox's photo is of old support posts for a building. They can be taken to look like antennas, but having bolstering supports. The song is very technological.

Sick Times features a photo of a gas mask. It features a strong beat, that melts and fades to a technological smear to...

..Collapse. The centerpiece and the third piece of the trilogy uniting humanity and technology- death extinction, uselessness, nihilism. It's photo is of a field that has been either harvested, and/or decimated, depending on your point of view.

I'll interject here to add some more personal thoughts. I think the "harvest" in this album can be taken as the great harvest in the Bible. The Apocolypse and the Quickening or Rapture i think fits nicely.

I also think the advent of artificial intelligence is something that is pretty in the cards for our future as a species. I hadn't noticed that this album features lyrics about Jesus. But me being a Christian, I think that makes allot of sense. Jesus is the only being in the pantheon of religion that GIVES (supernaturally imputes) understanding and righteousness (to a species that doesn't know it's own origin). All other supposedly divine teachers/beings offer benefits for personal, individual, ultimately human, effort.

In the book of Revelation there is a portion that talks about the anti-Christ giving power to the image of the beast. For a while now I have held the belief that that image is actually an artificial intelligence. In the Old Testament both Jacob (heel-catcher) and Absalom are shown to erect a commemorative image.

Secular humanism fits nicely with 666 in that it denies a god, and sets man itself up as the one to be answered to. In coupling secular humanism with artificial intelligence what you can end up with is an artificial governance that conducts itself according to the bestial "natural" (non-divine) laws of nature. It's understandable that humans who conduct themselves on the basis of faith would be perceived as illogical to such a governance, just as they are perceived as illogical to the secular humanists of today.

I personally have experienced people being supernaturally healed by invoking the name of Jesus Christ. I have recieved a spirit, which I believe is th Holy Spirit. I believe that Jesus was the Word of God, and that He loved me and everybody who has ever existed. Anyways, back to the album.

P.s.-the unlock code for the promotion of this album was 6 sets of 6 numbers. 6 being the number of man- (you probably already know that ;)).

Palace Posy- Apocolypse. A jolly romp for the destruction of all flesh.. Wheeeee!! The photos for this are the most cumulatively technological.

Split your Infinites- two blurry photos of nondescript landscape and one of apartment blocks. One of these apartment blocks is "split" by a black-magic marker. (I love that line in Pulp Fiction, "a black-magic marker, an f'in felt pen!!") bringing the humanistic essence (and Uma Thurman) back to life. =)

Uritual- this is the most referential track I think, as far as panning. It's all about echoing the past (left speaker). It's also extremely technological and not song-ish. I love this track (and prefer boards' less formal songs). Anyways, the photo for it is of sky (on the right) and a techy bunch if metal (possibly an aircraft wing?) on the left.

Nothing is Real- another two-part "split" photo. This one is of mountains on the bottom and sky on the top. This is the track that features lyrics about Christ apparently, though I personally can't understand them. There are apparently four twin mountain ranges in the world that are named after Castor and Pollux. This photo is of at least two separate mountains. This track also features one of the most explicite audio references to Gemini as it seems to take the first bit of it and stretch it out/reverse it in the background.

Sundown- photos have a sunset in a lower section with a techy bunch overshadowing it to the right. Also two smaller photos of metal structures and gravel and desert.

New Seeds- I think this is the most tech sounding of all the tracks. Photos of tech, one of sun above. Also a photo of small weeds. Love the beautiful calming outro of this song!! The very end echoes the start of Gemini.

Come to Dust- more tech photos, the last of which features a metal structure featuring triangles pointing downward on the right, a house in the bottom left, and a black mass overshadowing the house to the left. I could expand on my view of the meaning of all these photos, but I think they make sense if the idea of left=past right=future is kept mind.

Semena Mertvykh- the back photo of the record is another palindromic photo (like the front photo) with the sun setting to the left side. A building is featured stretching to the left (past) with two metal towers to the right (future). It's sound heavily references the third and fifth part of Gemini.

Well, that's it for me! Art is so cool!! Jesus Loves You!!!

its a shame they decided to spoon feed their fanbase some fantasy narrative. its best when people can have natural reactions to music instead of being coerced into perceiving it a certain way

I don't think they coerced anyone, they don't force you to read their interviews. If you think it would be better if they just released the album with no art and garbled track names, then I can't argue with that, works well for Ae. But I don't think they were too pushy about it.

That said, no amount of subliminals/palindromes/whatever make up for boring music. First and foremost any album has to be judged on the music, not the concept behind it.

I find TH boring. Therefore I find the obsessing over meaning and hints to be kind of funny. It is possible the bros either a) forgot about the music a bit in an attempt to live up to their concept, or b) used their concept to try and paper over the shortcomings in the music.

Either way the album feels lightweight and kind of half baked to me, which means it can't support the lofty ideas the Bros seem to want it to contain...

I'll be a bit more greedy with the description and add that the inside of the case also features 16 photos; which refer to the roles of the more human and more technological halves of the album respectively.

  On 6/18/2013 at 8:05 AM, lumpenprol said:

I don't think they coerced anyone, they don't force you to read their interviews. If you think it would be better if they just released the album with no art and garbled track names, then I can't argue with that, works well for Ae. But I don't think they were too pushy about it.

 

That said, no amount of subliminals/palindromes/whatever make up for boring music. First and foremost any album has to be judged on the music, not the concept behind it.

 

I find TH boring. Therefore I find the obsessing over meaning and hints to be kind of funny. It is possible the bros either a) forgot about the music a bit in an attempt to live up to their concept, or b) used their concept to try and paper over the shortcomings in the music.

 

Either way the album feels lightweight and kind of half baked to me, which means it can't support the lofty ideas the Bros seem to want it to contain...

I agree. I don't feel all that negative about the music, but not overwhelmingly positive either. And I've given it enough listens to know where I stand on it.

Maybe they focused way too much on creating a thematic or cohesive album rather than a great one. I'm sure they made some tracks over the years that were BETTER and more developed than lots that ended up on the album, but didn't fit in with the concept. And I'm one of those people that doesn't care so much about the theme as much as I want to hear artists I like at their best, which I'm not getting here. I think the artists they've influenced have surpassed them on this one.

If it wasn't for the cover art, videos, track names, etc I think it would be very hard for me to know this is album's theme is apocalyptic. It's much too smooth, ethereal and spacey for that. I like it for the music but I find it a bit hard to get into the apocalyptic theme. The first time I was listening to TH it fitted perfectly the beautiful summer night and felt more relaxing than alarming. As I said before, for me Geogaddi is way darker than this and even that isn't that dark.

Relaxing? Hell no! It thought it was pure stress!

  On 6/6/2013 at 3:23 PM, Terpentintollwut said:

My plan is to listen to it on a big stereo system in a sunny room upstairs whilst perhaps indulging in a bit of sexytime with the lady.

Well they sure ruined that! The album is way more negative than I expected, I had hallucinations of red LEDs flashing aggressively on wooden oscilloscopes and dusty Geiger counters in some godforsaken radioactive broom closet, Telepath gave me a strong feeling of paranoia and felt like it was ten minutes long, all in all well done boys!

tomorrows harvest

a.k.a.

LIMITS TO GROWTH: THE SOUNDTRACK

loads of the song titles talk about agriculture failing. and all the songs are bleak. and one of them said it was a political album about an inevitable future stage or something, but they dont want to spell it out.

i dont think it has anything to do with nuclear war at all. its about the coming environmental catastrophe

Jacquard Causeway = Albert Jacquard the guy who wants to stop economic growth for environmental reasons. and Causeway as in a road = The Road like the cormac mcarthy book? Which was a really dismal story thats basically about life after a massive environmental collapse where theres almost no life left

New Seeds is a bit optimistic, if you look at the whole album like a story of environmental collapse, then New Seeds is about people actualy adapting and using new types of farming that dont do anymore damage? But then Come To Dust comes after and thats really bleak too. Maybe they go together as one phrase? "New Seeds Come to Dust" They are the only two track names that could work in a sentence like that

uritual = Ur Ritual? ur = origin or something like that i tink. not sure how that fits in with the main theme

Has anyone mentioned that "Split Your Infinitives" is a grammar reference, not a mathematical one? There's a bunch of linguistic stuff going on in this album, track titles in other languages, the whole Cosecha business etc

  On 6/21/2013 at 10:25 PM, fox said:

Has anyone mentioned that "Split Your Infinitives" is a grammar reference, not a mathematical one? There's a bunch of linguistic stuff going on in this album, track titles in other languages, the whole Cosecha business etc

it's split your infinities, not your infinitives.