TH palindromic structure

List anything you can find about the palindromic structure of TH -- I am hoping it's more than just a fun 'trick' in "Collapse," but has to do with the rest of the songs too.

Here's what I hear:

• "Collapse" has the same structure backwards and forwards (except that it has that honking sound at the beginning and the swelling noise at the end).
• Tracks 1-8 are around the same total length as tracks 10-17: 29:25 vs. 29:46.
• The arpeggiator in Gemini (obviously, by definition) plays a palindromic melody.
• The pad melodies in "Gemini" and "Semena Mertvykh" are not exactly the same, but their structure is similar in the four main notes.
• "Come to Dust" reprises "Reach for the Dead's" chord structure.
• "Telepath" and "Nothing is Real" both have the creepy voices in them. (Probably unrelated, but "Telepath" has no beats while its predecessor does, while "Nothing is Real" has beats while its successor doesn't.)
• I think the arpeggio in "Split Your Infinities" is also palindromic; can't tell if the one in "Transmisiones Ferox" is. At 1:58 of TF is a radio sweep that sounds like the one at the beginning of SYI. Both songs are in the same key, too.
• "Sick Times" and "Palace Posy" both feature choppy vocal samples.

did you steel my palindromic structure term? encey you son of a bitch.

worth monitoring this, maybe: http://www.reddit.com/r/boardsofcanada/comments/1fvjye/palindromic_sequence/

@ jules: I Lexington Steeled it motherfucker!

Other things I find interesting are that the cyclosa spider camouflages itself amongst the white/gray dead bodies it piles up across its web. One website called it the 'bridge of death' because it spans the web; and a causeway is a kind of bridge. Are BOC saying we should save the earth by turning dead people into food and architecture? If we're 'tomorrow's harvest,' that means we'll keep the next generation alive by letting them, kill and eat us.

No, but seriously, the other interesting thing is that the spider survives by playing dead. So I keep wanting to read a 'backwards-forwards,' 'dead-back to life' theme in the tracks, with its equal references to death and seeds. They talked about it being so nihilistic in the interview, but I wonder if the palindromic structure opens up room for an optimistic hearing of the album too?

God, I sound like a fucking dweeb ...

@ kaini: oh sweet

hey it is the boc subforum and the palindrome thing struck me right away too. i think this is great!

  On 6/7/2013 at 9:19 PM, encey said:

 

God, I sound like a fucking dweeb ...

Hey man, they started it. They laid the bait out for us, so of course we're gonna dork out. Anyway, I thought I was being a geek when I noticed the similarities between tracks and started to wonder if it was a nested structure, like (((((())))))). I thought it was too farfetched, but hey how about that.

I'm gonna wait for my digital files to listen to the tracks in reverse order. Funny how many people said the last track sounded like it should have been the opener.

bocpages has some good trivia on a few of the tracks too: http://bocpages.org/wiki/Category:Tomorrow%27s_Harvest_tracks

Encey.. you go girl

I don't care at all for this shit, just make an album that has a good build and flow, damn it. If they intentionally broke the good structure of the album for the sake of their palindrome idea that's pretty lame.

I feel the flow of the album is just so-so, and wish many of the tracks would have been longer...

i forgive you your trespasses, lead me not into temptasian.

  On 6/8/2013 at 5:00 AM, lumpenprol said:

I don't care at all for this shit, just make an album that has a good build and flow, damn it. If they intentionally broke the good structure of the album for the sake of their palindrome idea that's pretty lame.

 

I feel the flow of the album is just so-so, and wish many of the tracks would have been longer...

I'm a big fan of yours lumpy but you need to contain this negativity to a thread or two brother. just sayin.

ok!

  On 6/8/2013 at 5:09 AM, kaini said:

i forgive you your trespasses, lead me not into temptasian.

 

Asians are pretty tempting, I feel your pain

The tracklist played in reverse order is fantastic..... now i'll have 2 cd's for the car...

yes^

it is paced so it works both ways. it almost works better from back to front.

I guess I've missed something, but the reversed tracks themselves should be an option as well, right? A palindrome track, sounds similar when you play it reversed. Or should...

edit: not the entire tracklist, but the reverse of each individual track

i was talking track list

yeah yeah got that.

i'm missing reversed tracks discussion in this thread, is all im saying

ah yes. well it's been established that collapse, the albums centerpiece, works the same in reverse.

and warp officially posted rftd backwards, that has to be for a reason...

exactly...

discuss

(imalazybasterdzzzzzzzz)

Hahaha flashbacks to all the mugs playing Geogaddi backwards.

just a brainfart that occurred to me when szgealebay plorroty kicked in... the intro chords are the same as the intro chords of gemini.

anyone tried reversing all the tracks after collapse yet? that would put the intro to gemini and the outro to plzkrwhynini poroldinny in the same key. this seems much more logical than reordering tracks (bands spend HELLA time deciding running order) to me.

Think there's any chance that the cut up vocals that come in at 1:49 of "Sick Times" are the same source as those at the end of "Palace Posy"? Really hard to tell, but it would be another symmetry.

what ate the track time totals of tracks 1-8 and 10-17? are they equal?

not quite a palindrome, but Skinny Puppy's 'The PRocess' I remember being quite freaked out the first time I noticed that the album was basically a loop. The very end leads into track 1

  On 6/14/2013 at 2:33 AM, jules said:

what ate the track time totals of tracks 1-8 and 10-17? are they equal?

Read the OP!