Tomorrows Harvest - Today

it's definitely great as a whole piece no doubt. was really struck today listening on headphones just how much time and effort must've gone into so so so much subtle super quiet placement and shaping of the sounds on it. hard not to notice once you start to hear the underlying layering and touches within each little section and piece

Gets better with every listen, absolutely nae doot.

I don't know why I didn't like this back when it was released, it's very good.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Nothing is Real is top tier BoC and the feeling it gives me when I listen to it is indescribable. 

I have been listening to this often lately when I go walking.  Coming up over a hill and seeing miles of corn fields on a sunny day evokes so much emotion in the current world climate, especially during the ambient pieces.  And extra-special if I'm hiaf.

  On 8/31/2017 at 7:40 AM, Embers said:

I came across an interesting quote in my readings and saw the immediate applicability to the album. This quote was so powerful and the connections to the album so clear that I contemplated it for days and wrote up my thoughts. Or maybe I'm just severely autistic, eh, probably. You make up your own mind.

 

Marcus Manilius (fl. 1st century AD), a Roman poet and astrologer, said of the Gemini twins in his poem Astronomica,

 

 

 

Astronomica itself is a hexameter didactic poem.

 

The number 6 and associated symbolism (primarily, hexagons) is a recurring item in Boards of Canada's music.

 

Didactic refers to something that is "intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive." - Tomorrow's Harvest could be interpreted as didactic, commentating on how our current behaviours affect ourselves, our environment and inform our future (direct instruction / teaching), but also providing an opportunity for self-reflection, reparations and a path to salvation (moral instruction - "a more agreeable way of life", "banish the arms of war", "life of ease...in the arms of love").

 

 

 

Comments on phrases from the quote, as they relate to Tomorrow's Harvest

 

"...laborious callings..." - a direct reference to the album's title. A call to action. Work that must be performed soon. Something that must happen in the future. Something that must be faced in the future. Tomorrow's Harvest. Ties in with the sense of "something impending" oft used to described the album, even by the brother's themselves in an interview.

 

"...less laborious callings and a more agreeable way of life..." - the quote indicates that the Twins call for an easement in work, or hardship, and a better way of living. This ties back into the moral instruction of the album. The only way to prevent our future suffering is to better ourselves in the present, to unburden ourselves from potential hardship. We can change the future by changing the present, that we do not need to walk the path of self-destruction.

 

"...provided by varied song and voices of harmonious tone, slender pipes, the melodies inborn in strings and the words fitted thereto..." - a direct reference to the music.

After the trumpet vignette (which itself is a signal of the coming apocalypse, as said in the Bible's Book of Revelation), the body of the track Gemini fades in with strings.

slender pipes and melodies - woodwind, particularly flute-esque melodies, are a recurring theme in BoC's music.

words fitted thereto - the album heavily features both subtle and non-subtle samples of human spoken word, Gemini included.

 

"...the gloom of old age..." - the emphasis on the old age being a negative ties in with the moral instruction to change for the better, that something has changed or will [have to] change for the better. The transition from the old age to the new age, from darkness to light, that something is not the end but the beginning. This further ties in with the theme of cycles on the album. This is perhaps reflected in the track Gemini by the swirling, oscillating noise that backs the intense striking of chords. The album itself goes through 5 cycles of birth>death>rebirth and can be correlated to the 4 sides of the vinyl edition.

Side A: Gemini (the call for better living) > Jacquard Causeway (an uneasy, perhaps perilous time or journey)

Side B: Telepath (a new kind of life) > Collapse (destruction)

Side Palace Posy (a very indigenous beat in this track, almost tribal/primitive, represents the dawn of a new society) > Sundown (coming of darkness)

Side New Seeds (a new beginning, a new era, a new society) > Come To Dust (to die), followed by Semena Mertvykh ("Seeds of the Dead" - a new society emerges from the ashes) which cycles back onto the first track, Gemini.

 

"...unfading youth..." - BoC often touch on nostalgia, most often tied to sensory experiences that occurred in our youth, and directly ties in with BoC's style and sound. In the context of the quote, it implies a positive: direct instruction to be carefree, to live well and happily. However, on Tomorrow's Harvest, it is commentary that we are negatively tied to the past, and the moral instruction to better ourselves is to unhinge from the past and instead look forward to where we are headed. The duality of this interpretation, not only a reference to the duality of the Gemini twins, but also highlights the tension between where we currently are at, and where we should be. That tension is change, specifically and how society often oscillates (cycles) between change and resistance to change.

 

"...discover paths to the skies..." - reflective of the album's imagery, particularly the music video for "Reach for the Dead" which features scenes of flying through the sky, the air, the sign of Gemini. But also implies a level of technological sophistication, as a human requires understanding and invention of tools to fly. It is interpreted that technology may be our downfall, that it may outstrip our control, causing a catastrophic event. The album is littered with reference to understanding and technology, from the radioactive yellow on the vinyl (nuclear technologies requires understanding of matter), to the idea of a harvest (a human development that requires understanding of agriculture and associated technologies). Perhaps the idea is that which brings us so much ease and knowledge, that which identifies us as human - our ability to craft and use tools - can also undo us. Not an original idea for the album, but a common one used in all sorts of media that touches on catastrophic/apocalyptic failings of humans. 

 

"...complete a survey of the heavens with numbers and measurements..." - a call back to BoC's earlier work that was heavily laden with references to mathematical concepts (numbers and measurements). A meta-reference that BoC themselves have yet again changed their sound on Tomorrow's Harvest. It may be BoC saying they as people have changed ("We've become more nihilistic", as quoted in an interview), an implicit example that people can change. The idea of surveying and measurement also ties back into the previous line of thought of technological sophistication and building knowledge. But can also be abstracted into the idea of surveying and measuring how things are, to make an assessment and to make changes for the better.

 

"...outstrip the flight of the stars..." - still following the line of thought on technological sophistication.

 

"...nature yields to their genius, which it serves in all things." - commentary on the ubiquity and pervasiveness of technology in nature. That their genius (their technology, their ability to manipulate their surroundings with said technology) serves all things (complete control of nature). But when we are so in control of our environment, what do we do with all that power? That is the core question presented on Tomorrow's Harvest- and we can be destructive or fruitful. This is the ultimate moral consideration presented here.

 

"So many are the accomplishments of which the Twins are fruitful." - the ultimate direct instruction. We should use what control have for the better, to be fruitful, and for all to prosper without war, but in peace and love. To not live in the old age, but move into a new age. To live a more agreeable way of life.

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wild journey.

I've had a decent break from listening to BOC over the last few years but still have a TH playlist setup with just the ambient tracks from the album, I think theyre all the tracks they discussed in interviews making with older tech/without the regular computer to sequence and as a small ambient album its incredible.  The other tracks have grown on me quite a lot since its initial release but the ambient ones are quite special imo

Listened to it again just now. All I can say is: 

  On 8/30/2020 at 2:58 AM, Friendly Stranger said:

Couldn’t agree more, they really are next-level when it comes to this. You can tell how much they want this album to be absorbed as a whole. I’d say next to Geogaddi this is the album gets the most start-to-finish complete play throughs for me, personally.

No doubt this is why all their albums take a long time for them to put together. I think they put considerable care into creating an album that plays from beginning to end and perhaps have a theme or story attached to them. A long time ago they were called Concept Albums a phrase you don’t hear much nowadays, and a phrase that was sneered at, back in the day (concept = pretentious) As a huge Pink Floyd fan as a young teenager I was always down with albums like that. I could never understand how the NME would mock an album like Animals (or obviously DSOTM) just because it had a ‘concept’ attached to it. 

Anyway I played some of this to my 6 year old niece last Sunday and she loved it. Obviously she was naive to lots of what was going on but no doubt you could see her imagination whirling and spinning around. The funniest moment was when she turned into a space rocket and went for blast off during Telepath, and then did some ballet dance. Hah! Great stuff

  On 10/22/2020 at 8:31 PM, beerwolf said:

No doubt this is why all their albums take a long time for them to put together. I think they put considerable care into creating an album that plays from beginning to end and perhaps have a theme or story attached to them. A long time ago they were called Concept Albums a phrase you don’t hear much nowadays, and a phrase that was sneered at, back in the day (concept = pretentious) As a huge Pink Floyd fan as a young teenager I was always down with albums like that. I could never understand how the NME would mock an album like Animals (or obviously DSOTM) just because it had a ‘concept’ attached to it. 

Anyway I played some of this to my 6 year old niece last Sunday and she loved it. Obviously she was naive to lots of what was going on but no doubt you could see her imagination whirling and spinning around. The funniest moment was when she turned into a space rocket and went for blast off during Telepath, and then did some ballet dance. Hah! Great stuff

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Yea I think they definitely have a mountain of tunes they’re sitting on (and continuing to make), and could definitely arrange more albums if they wanted to, but they are very conscious about creating cohesive pieces of work centered around a common theme. Or as you said, concept albums. I view them through the lens of concept albums, even it’s not what they intended. I’m probably thinking about it too much.

That’s awesome about your niece. I play ‘softer’ BoC tunes for my daughter right now (Olson, 5-9-78, etc.) but will probably wait a bit to give her the full Tomorrow’s Harvest playthrough. Worried Jacquard Causeway for example might develop into paranoia/anxiety. She is only 16 months

  On 10/23/2020 at 1:59 AM, Friendly Stranger said:

That’s awesome about your niece. I play ‘softer’ BoC tunes for my daughter right now (Olson, 5-9-78, etc.) but will probably wait a bit to give her the full Tomorrow’s Harvest playthrough. Worried Jacquard Causeway for example might develop into paranoia/anxiety. She is only 16 months

wait until she's old enough to count, then give Aquarius a whirl. my son's reaction was "daddy, she's counting wrong!"

lololol

that line (string/s?) in the background of the first 20 seconds in Come To Dust, that sure seems like a sample... probably been mentioned before but just noticed it jump out at me

  On 1/20/2021 at 2:57 AM, auxien said:

that line (string/s?) in the background of the first 20 seconds in Come To Dust, that sure seems like a sample... probably been mentioned before but just noticed it jump out at me

 

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That is absolutely one of my fav boc tracks ever. Top tier all the way.

I tried reversing and slowing down Nothing Is Real just for fun, sounds very nice imo!

https://www.soundcloud.com/mixl2/nothing-is-real_reversed-wav 

  On 1/22/2021 at 3:50 PM, jules said:

That is absolutely one of my fav boc tracks ever. Top tier all the way.

*sigh* agreed.

guess i have to listen to this album again today. damn. 

just watched a trailer for a 1981 movie, reminded me of this thread.

Today is the greatest dust i ever become,

Can't wait for tomorrow i might be remnants in bong,

I'll burn my bonghit,

Or was that your infinities i split?

  On 2/5/2021 at 4:39 PM, Silent Member said:

just watched a trailer for a 1981 movie, reminded me of this thread.

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I want details...

I love this album so much. This is the definitive “grower” BOC album. Every year it’s better and I feel like I’m allowed to enter into deeper realms. The exquisite textural detail is just pure pleasure to me. 

Over the Edge, from 1979, not 1981, my bad. It was decent.

  On 8/31/2017 at 7:40 AM, Embers said:

I came across an interesting quote in my readings and saw the immediate applicability to the album. This quote was so powerful and the connections to the album so clear that I contemplated it for days and wrote up my thoughts. Or maybe I'm just severely autistic, eh, probably. You make up your own mind.

 

Marcus Manilius (fl. 1st century AD), a Roman poet and astrologer, said of the Gemini twins in his poem Astronomica,

 

 

 

Astronomica itself is a hexameter didactic poem.

 

The number 6 and associated symbolism (primarily, hexagons) is a recurring item in Boards of Canada's music.

 

Didactic refers to something that is "intended to teach, particularly in having moral instruction as an ulterior motive." - Tomorrow's Harvest could be interpreted as didactic, commentating on how our current behaviours affect ourselves, our environment and inform our future (direct instruction / teaching), but also providing an opportunity for self-reflection, reparations and a path to salvation (moral instruction - "a more agreeable way of life", "banish the arms of war", "life of ease...in the arms of love").

 

 

 

Comments on phrases from the quote, as they relate to Tomorrow's Harvest

 

"...laborious callings..." - a direct reference to the album's title. A call to action. Work that must be performed soon. Something that must happen in the future. Something that must be faced in the future. Tomorrow's Harvest. Ties in with the sense of "something impending" oft used to described the album, even by the brother's themselves in an interview.

 

"...less laborious callings and a more agreeable way of life..." - the quote indicates that the Twins call for an easement in work, or hardship, and a better way of living. This ties back into the moral instruction of the album. The only way to prevent our future suffering is to better ourselves in the present, to unburden ourselves from potential hardship. We can change the future by changing the present, that we do not need to walk the path of self-destruction.

 

"...provided by varied song and voices of harmonious tone, slender pipes, the melodies inborn in strings and the words fitted thereto..." - a direct reference to the music.

After the trumpet vignette (which itself is a signal of the coming apocalypse, as said in the Bible's Book of Revelation), the body of the track Gemini fades in with strings.

slender pipes and melodies - woodwind, particularly flute-esque melodies, are a recurring theme in BoC's music.

words fitted thereto - the album heavily features both subtle and non-subtle samples of human spoken word, Gemini included.

 

"...the gloom of old age..." - the emphasis on the old age being a negative ties in with the moral instruction to change for the better, that something has changed or will [have to] change for the better. The transition from the old age to the new age, from darkness to light, that something is not the end but the beginning. This further ties in with the theme of cycles on the album. This is perhaps reflected in the track Gemini by the swirling, oscillating noise that backs the intense striking of chords. The album itself goes through 5 cycles of birth>death>rebirth and can be correlated to the 4 sides of the vinyl edition.

Side A: Gemini (the call for better living) > Jacquard Causeway (an uneasy, perhaps perilous time or journey)

Side B: Telepath (a new kind of life) > Collapse (destruction)

Side Palace Posy (a very indigenous beat in this track, almost tribal/primitive, represents the dawn of a new society) > Sundown (coming of darkness)

Side New Seeds (a new beginning, a new era, a new society) > Come To Dust (to die), followed by Semena Mertvykh ("Seeds of the Dead" - a new society emerges from the ashes) which cycles back onto the first track, Gemini.

 

"...unfading youth..." - BoC often touch on nostalgia, most often tied to sensory experiences that occurred in our youth, and directly ties in with BoC's style and sound. In the context of the quote, it implies a positive: direct instruction to be carefree, to live well and happily. However, on Tomorrow's Harvest, it is commentary that we are negatively tied to the past, and the moral instruction to better ourselves is to unhinge from the past and instead look forward to where we are headed. The duality of this interpretation, not only a reference to the duality of the Gemini twins, but also highlights the tension between where we currently are at, and where we should be. That tension is change, specifically and how society often oscillates (cycles) between change and resistance to change.

 

"...discover paths to the skies..." - reflective of the album's imagery, particularly the music video for "Reach for the Dead" which features scenes of flying through the sky, the air, the sign of Gemini. But also implies a level of technological sophistication, as a human requires understanding and invention of tools to fly. It is interpreted that technology may be our downfall, that it may outstrip our control, causing a catastrophic event. The album is littered with reference to understanding and technology, from the radioactive yellow on the vinyl (nuclear technologies requires understanding of matter), to the idea of a harvest (a human development that requires understanding of agriculture and associated technologies). Perhaps the idea is that which brings us so much ease and knowledge, that which identifies us as human - our ability to craft and use tools - can also undo us. Not an original idea for the album, but a common one used in all sorts of media that touches on catastrophic/apocalyptic failings of humans. 

 

"...complete a survey of the heavens with numbers and measurements..." - a call back to BoC's earlier work that was heavily laden with references to mathematical concepts (numbers and measurements). A meta-reference that BoC themselves have yet again changed their sound on Tomorrow's Harvest. It may be BoC saying they as people have changed ("We've become more nihilistic", as quoted in an interview), an implicit example that people can change. The idea of surveying and measurement also ties back into the previous line of thought of technological sophistication and building knowledge. But can also be abstracted into the idea of surveying and measuring how things are, to make an assessment and to make changes for the better.

 

"...outstrip the flight of the stars..." - still following the line of thought on technological sophistication.

 

"...nature yields to their genius, which it serves in all things." - commentary on the ubiquity and pervasiveness of technology in nature. That their genius (their technology, their ability to manipulate their surroundings with said technology) serves all things (complete control of nature). But when we are so in control of our environment, what do we do with all that power? That is the core question presented on Tomorrow's Harvest- and we can be destructive or fruitful. This is the ultimate moral consideration presented here.

 

"So many are the accomplishments of which the Twins are fruitful." - the ultimate direct instruction. We should use what control have for the better, to be fruitful, and for all to prosper without war, but in peace and love. To not live in the old age, but move into a new age. To live a more agreeable way of life.

Expand  

 this post slaps. wild analysis.

https://shadowstar666.bandcamp.com/track/homicide-w-yung-smartrider

had a long drive today so had this on wicked loud.. was rlly nice on a rainy summer day

this is the best boards of canada album

sorry to offend

something is done and the smoke i will breathe AND i know my future