Jacquard Causeway - Revision history

Fredd-E at 20:10, 5 July 2026

2026-07-05T20:10:13Z

2600:8800:7187:B600:23AF:51D7:FEE5:592D: Add video + production notes

2026-06-21T21:39:16Z

Add video + production notes

Fredd-E: Reverted edits by 2600:8800:7187:B600:23AF:51D7:FEE5:592D (talk) to last revision by Fredd-E

2026-06-17T09:16:39Z

Reverted edits by 2600:8800:7187:B600:23AF:51D7:FEE5:592D (talk) to last revision by Fredd-E

2600:8800:7187:B600:23AF:51D7:FEE5:592D: Add video

2026-06-17T09:10:58Z

Add video

Fredd-E: Reverted edits by 2600:8800:7187:B600:23AF:51D7:FEE5:592D (talk) to last revision by 172.69.71.4

2026-06-14T11:05:01Z

Reverted edits by 2600:8800:7187:B600:23AF:51D7:FEE5:592D (talk) to last revision by 172.69.71.4

2600:8800:7187:B600:23AF:51D7:FEE5:592D: Add video

2026-06-09T22:13:35Z

Add video

172.69.71.4: WHAT?

2026-04-27T17:25:25Z

WHAT?

Fredd-E at 06:52, 5 April 2023

2023-04-05T06:52:11Z

172.68.86.30: /* Comments */

2023-04-05T06:15:10Z

‎Comments

172.68.86.30: /* Comments */

2023-04-05T06:14:33Z

‎Comments

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 | name=Jacquard Causeway
 | runtime=6:35
-| appearson=[[Tomorrow's Harvest|Tomorrow's Harvest]]}}
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 * A [[wikipedia:Causeway|causeway]] is a road or railway route across a broad body of water or wetland raised up on an embankment.
 * The way the track makes use of [[wikipedia:counterpoint|counterpoint]] for the melodies seems to be a nod to the counterpoint work of [[wikipedia:Steve Reich|Steve Reich]].  The way that Steve Reich structures his counterpoint pieces is nearly identical to Jacquard Causeway: an element, phrase, or melody is presented and played through once, at first at a higher volume than the rest.  Eventually, the new element decreases in volume, blending in with the rest, which effectively makes room for a new element.  Eventually, all the smaller, melodic enemies layered on top of each other create new, "unintended" melodies. For an example, see Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpoint - Slow" in the videos section below.
 == Videos ==

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 == Comments ==
 * So first of all, it's a difficult song because it feels like it's in 3/2 time (though it has been suggested that it is basically in 4/4 (double-time), with kick on 4.5, snare on 3. The 3/2 feel is just a lazy superimposed polyrhythm). This is far from common in electronic music. You have to relax the part of your brain that's used to 4/4 time and just let the electro-waltz flow through you.
-* Now, when you listen past the beat, you'll hear loops, but they're different by just a little bit on each measure, with new patterns coming into play as old ones leave. In many ways, it's very much like a loom, with the starts of new patterns entering into the threading as the completion of old patterns winds its way out. In the end, you've basically gone through a tapestry of music.  Technically speaking, the melodies were probably passed through an electronic delay that repeats every bar and fades out slowly over the course of many bars.
+* Now, when you listen past the beat, you'll hear loops, but they're different by just a little bit on each measure, with new patterns coming into play as old ones leave. In many ways, it's very much like a loom, with the start of new patterns entering into the threading as the completion of old patterns winds its way out. In the end, you've basically gone through a tapestry of music.  Technically speaking, the melodies were probably passed through an electronic delay that repeats every bar and fades out slowly over the course of many bars.
-* Certainly the Jacquard mentioned is the loom-maker; he's one of the first people to make a program of any kind, and a machine that could use arbitrary programs to affect actions in reality. That's an amazing step forward for humanity and certainly paved the way for the development of stored-program computers. Without this criticial insight in some way or another, we might have been stuck on analogue patch computation for a long time. I think it would have happened without Jacquard, for sure, but nevertheless he was first, and so we should know his name.
+* Certainly the Jacquard mentioned is the loom-maker; he's one of the first people to make a program of any kind, and a machine that could use arbitrary programs to affect actions in reality. That's an amazing step forward for humanity and certainly paved the way for the development of stored-program computers. Without this critical insight in some way or another, we might have been stuck on analog patch computation for a long time. I think it would have happened without Jacquard, for sure, but nevertheless, he was first, and so we should know his name.
-* The causeway is therefore his; and causeway is a perfect choice of words because the 'cause' at the beginning implies that there's a reason for it to exist, a starting point if you will, without saying anything about the end of it. They could have said "superhighway" ala the Information Superhighway that people sometimes call the Internet, but the Internet is merely an output of the causeway that we're on as a species: the progress of technological development. Also, it sounds better; BoC doesn't like to hit you with a hammer, subtlety is their game.
+* The causeway is therefore his; and the causeway is a perfect choice of words because the 'cause' at the beginning implies that there's a reason for it to exist, a starting point if you will, without saying anything about the end of it. They could have said "superhighway" ala the Information Superhighway that people sometimes call the Internet, but the Internet is merely an output of the causeway we're on as a species: the progress of technological development. Also, it sounds better; BoC doesn't like to hit you with a hammer, subtlety is their game.
 I think the song weaves the themes of technological development like a loom.
-* Early in the song, it's a simple synth rhythm (that really harkens back to A Few Old Tunes style simplicity); this is the loom, and the barest indication of possibilities. As the song proceeds, new layers come in, some hopeful, some melancholic, some that sound almost weary, like a person burdened by a load. They fit together rhythmically like clockwork, different periods lining up with each other at common denominations, furthering the automation theme.
+* Early in the song, it's a simple synth rhythm (that really harkens back to ''[[A Few Old Tunes]]'' style simplicity); this is the loom, and the barest indication of possibilities. As the song proceeds, new layers come in, some hopeful, some melancholic, some that sound almost weary, like a person burdened by a load. They fit together rhythmically like clockwork, with different periods lining up with each other at common denominations, furthering the automation theme.
 * At around 3:50 or so we start to pick up on some newer-style BoC themes, particular musical keys we've heard before in their work. A sense of contentment and ease comes over the song, reducing the tension from before. If we extend the historical metaphor, could this be an age when technology was reducing work with no obvious downsides, a "golden age"?
 * Eventually, the beat dies away, and we're left with one of the most hopeful sounds on the entire album. In my view, this is BoC's comment on the promise of technology, not necessarily on the reality of it (as the album certainly gets darker from there).
-* Narratively, this track implies a thawing of the earth after a nuclear ice age as presented in [[White Cyclosa]], and the beginnings of a new civilisation, who perhaps later evolve or mutate due to the environmental radiation, notably with psionic powers, as presented in [[Telepath]].
+* Narratively, this track implies a thawing of the earth after a nuclear ice age as presented in "[[White Cyclosa]]", and the beginnings of a new civilization, who perhaps later evolve or mutate due to the environmental radiation, notably with psionic powers, as presented in "[[Telepath]]".
 == Samples / Lyrics ==
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 == Trivia ==
 * The title likely refers to the Jacquard loom, a loom created in the early 19th century that used punchcards to control the loom's individual strings.  As such, it is an extremely early example of binary programming.  These cards would later be the inspiration for IBM's early mainframe punchcards.
-* The initials of the title, "JC" ,could be a reference to Jesus Christ, an initialism in the same style of "Satanic" from the track SATellite ANthem ICarus.
+* The initials of the title, "JC" , could be a reference to Jesus Christ, an initialism in the same style of "Satanic" from the track SATellite ANthem ICarus.
 * Jacquard may also refer to [[wikipedia:Albert Jacquard|Albert Jacquard]], a geneticist well known for defending the concept of 'degrowth'. 'Degrowthists' aim to maximize happiness and well-being through non-consumptive means—sharing work, consuming less, while devoting more time to art, music, family, culture and community. Jacquard also took a strong stand against commercial use of the human genome in the 1990s.
 * [[wikipedia:Giant's_Causeway|Giant's Causeway]] is the name of an irish coastline consisting of hexagonal basalt columns.
 * A [[wikipedia:Causeway|causeway]] is a road or railway route across a broad body of water or wetland raised up on an embankment.
-* The way the track makes use of [[wikipedia:counterpoint|counterpoint]] for the melodies seems to be a nod to the counterpoint work of [[wikipedia:Steve Reich|Steve Reich]].  The way that Steve Reich structures his counterpoint pieces is nearly identical to Jacquard Causeway: an element, phrase, or melody is presented and played through once, at first at a higher volume than the the rest.  Eventually the new element decreases in volume, blending in with the rest, which effectively makes room for a new element.  Eventually all the smaller, melodic enemies layered on top of each other create new, "unintended" melodies. For an example, see Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpoint - Slow" in the videos section below.
+* The way the track makes use of [[wikipedia:counterpoint|counterpoint]] for the melodies seems to be a nod to the counterpoint work of [[wikipedia:Steve Reich|Steve Reich]].  The way that Steve Reich structures his counterpoint pieces is nearly identical to Jacquard Causeway: an element, phrase, or melody is presented and played through once, at first at a higher volume than the rest.  Eventually, the new element decreases in volume, blending in with the rest, which effectively makes room for a new element.  Eventually, all the smaller, melodic enemies layered on top of each other create new, "unintended" melodies. For an example, see Steve Reich's "Electric Counterpoint - Slow" in the videos section below.
-* May reference p. 105 of "Ten Thousand Saints" by Eleanor Henderson (2011) because of a bumping between two lines of two words "Birkenjacque's" and "Kramaro" (e.g.. Cause-mo Kramar) [http://i.imgur.com/SdrXgAD.jpg scan]
+* May reference p. 105 of "Ten Thousand Saints" by Eleanor Henderson (2011) because of bumping between two lines of two words "Birkenjacque's" and "Kramaro" (e.g.. Cause-mo Kramar) [http://i.imgur.com/SdrXgAD.jpg scan]
 == Videos ==