Revision as of 15:10, 24 August 2017

"(With) a grain of salt", (or "a pinch of salt") is an idiom of the English language, which means to view something with skepticism, or to not take it literally. [1]

Future Releases Theories

2016

BoC began 2016 by breaking their silence after "Tomorrow's Harvest" by releasing two new remixes one month apart from each other, Mr Mistake by NEVERMEN and Sisters by Odd Nosdam. The latter was accompanied by a video ^[2] which was formally released on February 22nd. This led to some speculation that some new material could be in the works.

After a few months passed, they recaptured the attention of their fanbase with an innocuous post to their generally dormant social media accounts on June 6th, 2016, linking to an existing fan made video for "Macquarie Ridge". A month later, on July 7th they retweeted another fan video of the "Broken Drum by Beck" remix that had been posted to Twitter on July 2nd.

They tweeted once again, this time a Youtube link to "Peacock Tail" on July 31st. The last post raised some uncertainty as to whether they would continue posting in a 6/6, 7/7, 8/8 type frequency.

Around this same time, ASCAP entries for a release entitled "Harvest Ritual" and Untitled (Machinedrum reconstruction) were discovered ^[3], but quickly disappeared after they were noticed and the former subsequently waved off ^[4] as an old Tomorrow's Harvest related entry by someone ^[5] making their first (and still only) post on the Twoism (messageboard). After 8/8 came and went, the next known date of interest was 8/22 (the 20th anniversary of the system date on the Cosecha-transmisiones console) but this date also passed without incident.

With 8/8 and 22/8 eliminated as possibilities, what's the next date that would make sense for them to make another appearance out from the ether?

They finally posted a fan video for "Nothing Is Real" on August 24th which didn't seem to follow any type of previously speculated upon date related logic.

They posted again on October 14th, this time for the song "Left Side Drive".

Over the span of the few months described above, they had begun liking various fan posts on Twitter, seemingly at random, many of the fan posts including pleas for new material or involving the liking of tweets that included their own music. This activity slowed down as time went on, briefly peaking at 49 likes before dropping back down to 48 likes, before going up to 49 likes again in February 2017 - the original 49th liked post was deleted by its author, so keeping the tally set to 49 likes seemed important to them at this stage.

They posted a new fan video for "Open the Light" on December 8th, alongside a simultaneous heavy revamp of their Youtube channel playlists, which had been in need of some upkeep as by that time, as there were multiple broken or delisted videos from over the years. What was interesting about the "Open the Light" post is that it wasn't cross-posted to Facebook, the same as "Peacock Tail" back on July 31st. I feel that these omissions from their Facebook account weren't an accident but rather, those 2 entries were only relevant to a pattern that they were establishing at their Twitter account, but more on that in the Posting Details section.

Rather than a new release announcement at the end of the year, the Youtube video channel revamp seems to have joined the campaign midway to serve as a map of sorts, providing vague hints to assist in navigating the numeric trails being blazed at both their Facebook and Twitter accounts for those who were trying to pay attention. I'll go into more detail on that as the timeline continues to progress.

After the playlist revamp and the "Open the Light" posting on December 8th, they went silent for the rest of 2016.

2017

BoC returned to Twitter on March 28th, 2017 with a posting of the "Dayvan Cowboy" video. Shortly before this (sometime within the several hours prior to the Dayvan Cowboy post) they deleted an old tweet from March 11th, 2012.

On June 7th, 2017 they announced that a new run of their green t-shirts had been released for sale. They liked a fan's post about the topic from the same day.

They announced the release of a picture disc for their Nevermen remix for Mr. Mistake on June 17th. They retweeted the same information about the release from an online publication on the same day as their own post. The picture disc will be released July 21st.

Posting Details

Twitter

Now that the events have been summarized, it's time to get to the details. As described above, each social media network account seems to have its own unique pattern, but the same crucial end points. Twitter is the most plentiful (and therefore easiest to pick out a method to the madness) so it's best start to start there with a list of the dates and posts so far:

2016

6/6 - Macquarie Ridge

7/7 - Retweet of Broken Drum from 7/2 - 12:19PM ET (original tweet)

31/7 - Peacock Tail (2005) - 2:25PM ATZ

24/8 - Nothing is Real (2013) - 12:57PM UTC

14/10 - Left Side Drive (2006) - 3:11AM MT

8/12 - Open the Light (1998) - 8:57AM UTC

2017

28/3 - Dayvan Cowboy (2005) - 12:56 MT

7/6 - Green T-Shirt announcement*

17/6 - Mr. Mistake Picture Disc Announcement

- There was a Like related to t-shirt announcement on same date (June 7th)

- A retweet of the picture disc announcement accompanied their own tweet (June 17th)

- The main pattern to follow for 2016 involved multiplying the date and month together for the posts when both numbers are divisible by 4. We add up to 24 in other even numbered months. We subtract down to 24 in odd numbered months, the odd months are also preceded by a retweet. For 2017, we may be multiplying in odd numbered months instead.

- "Macquarie Ridge" is unique (for now).

- The other hint to multiply is when the timestamp ends in :57. The timestamp on the Cosecha console was 2:57 - potential nod to the number 70 2x(5x7)

- The multiplication steps for 2016 included a number from the previous multiplication based step, and carries over the number to the next step (ie. 24 - 8 - 8 - 12) meaning that the month of the current tweet will be part of the subsequent tweet's date. ie. August 24th means the 8 carries to December, giving us December 8th, etc.

- The still photo for the Peacock Tail video (NBC Peacock logo) was first debuted on May 22nd, 1956 (5/22) - the tweet was posted at 2:25 AZT (or, New Brunswick, Canada time) - add 522 and 225 together to get 747.

- Based on the rules above, omitting any retweets, the main numeric pattern for 2016 should be read like this:

6/6 - 0

31/7 - 24

24/8 - 192

14/10 - 24

8/12 - 96

These are the posts for 2017 so far which are unrelated to the Mr. Mistake vinyl release. I believe that 2017 may like a mirror of 2016, but in actuality, the 2016 numbers are divisible by 6, the 2017 numbers are divisible by 7.

28/3 - 84

7/6 - 42

We can speculate that the sum of all relevant posts in 2017 at Twitter will add up to 140 (again, omitting anything specific to Mr. Mistake), since 140 seems to keep popping up all over:

28x3 = 84

7x6 = 42

?11+3? = 14

84 + 42 + 14 = 140

Additionally, the top 2 songs listed on their Soundcloud account (Palace Posy and Split Your Infinities) are playlist entries 14 and 126 at Youtube:

14 - Palace Posy

126 - Split Your Infinities

Same as above:

14 + 126 = 140

If we break Palace Posy down to 3+11 = 14, and "split infinities" and we say that 12+6 = 18, 32 is the overall sum provided by the Nothing is Real post (8+24). This ultimately gives us 18+14 (break 12+6 down to 9+9 instead) and 14 (11+3)

September 9th and November 3rd? Note that there is a 55 day gap between these dates. This is the same length of time between the Left Side Drive and Open the Light postings on Twitter last year. (October 14th -> December 8th)

Lastly, note that September and November are the only months last year where nothing was posted to their social media accounts, once they got started in June.

Broken Drum

All recent Twitter posts have specifically been part of this assumed large pattern, or have been related to promotion of a remix or physical release of some kind. That initial Broken Drum post didn't seem to make much sense in the scheme of things when it first came about, other than being a red herring that initially hinted toward a potentially more straightforward series of posts such as 6/6 7/7, 8/8, etc.

Going back to 2016, the Broken Drum retweet set up its own sub-pattern starting in July 2016. The original posting date (7/7) is obfuscated on Twitter because it's a retweet, but it was mentioned on the Twoism (messageboard) ^[6] on the day that it was first posted. This means that there were posts on 7/7, 31/7, and 24/8 - the commonality is that the posts were separated by 24 days each. The retweet approach seems as if it was intentional, to separate it from the main pattern and hide the existence of the smaller pattern.

Reflecting back, this odd post was likely a subtle hint that the number 7 or even 14 (7+7 given the retweet date, or 7x2 given the original date) would be important down the road, just not right then.

Multiplication chain progression

Following the logic described previously, the multiplication related posts chain together like this. Think of it as a mirror, we stopped at 48 last year and now we're picking up at 84: If we follow last year's logic, we would pick up the 3 from March and use it as the date next time around.

24 x 8 | 8 x 12 < > 28 x 3 | ? 3 x 11 ?

Facebook

Much of the chatter from Twitter is omitted, so it seems to be setting up a separate but similar goal.

6/6 = 12

24/8 = 32

14/10 = 140

17/6 = 23

?9/9? = 18

If we add all entries except Left Side Drive (multiply) the sum is currently 207. If 9/9 (18) is the next update, this number gets bumped to 225. It's also interesting because 23 is the reverse of 32, and 9/9 is the visual reverse of 6/6.

Noteworthy 225s in the sequence:

Macquarie Ridge (posted to FB at 22:05 using Macquarie Ridge's time zone)

Peacock Tail (Twitter - NBC logo first used 5/22/56, posted to FB at 2:25pm in New Brunswick, Canada time)

Mr. Mistake vinyl (posted to FB at 12:25pm GMT)

While we're at it, lets figure out the timestamps on the two remaining FB posts which don't have 225s hidden in them:

Nothing is Real (12+58 GMT) = 70

Left Side Drive (5x14 EST) = 70

I feel that these entries in particular were the only ones crossposted to Facebook from Twitter, because they ultimately carry all the raw data needed to hash out the solution. See the Twitter section for more information.

YouTube

Their approach to their YouTube playlist structure has been thoughtful and at times playful. Try subtracting the numbers of some of the entries from the overall number (145) to se what type of "companion" you end up with (for example, 72 and 73 are "SATellite ANthem ICarus" and "XYZ", interesting after they spelled out L-M-N-O-P with their first few social media posts) You can also add some of the duplicate song values together to see where you end up. They might ask you to do something like "Split Your Infinities" when you find a third instance in the list of the first 2 songs that you added together, for example.

Example of a playlist easter egg:

• 7 ("Dayvan Cowboy") [1]

• 47 ("Dayvan Cowboy") [2]

• 74 ("A Is To B As B Is To C") [3]

In the end, it's impressive to witness the care that went into assembling these playlists as a companion to what they have been establishing at their Twitter and Facebook accounts. It provides information that leads one to speculate on future posts. The only drawback to the playlist assembly is that due to the number of repeats, and the proximity of some of those repeats to each other, it detracts a bit from being able to appreciate the playlists at face value. The playlist construction definitely prioritizes the subliminal/easter egg aspects over providing a good flow for the everyday casual listener.

Playlist entries 24 ("New Seeds") [4] and 42 ( "csch" [5] are interesting as the first represents "Seeds" and the latter represents "Harvest" - this lines up with the fact that noteworthy entries incremented by 24 last year, and 21/42/84 in 2017.

Video 146 "Echus" was added to the video playlist on April 3rd, 2017 (3+4=7). Echus appears elsewhere in the playlist at position 140 with a different video. The new video ends in a plane crash and has a description of "8/10/84" - presumably when the crash took place. It should be noted that "146" could be read as 14x6=84 (posted one week after the Dayvan Cowboy tweet, which was March 28th (28x3=84)

Playlist entries 85 and 43 are worth noting, as they are both "Beware the Friendly Stranger" - subtract them from each other to reach 42. Aphex Twin had a countdown running that was meant to end on July 6th (6x7=42) before it was altered to finish at a later date toward the end of the countdown (apparently now ending July 20th, as of this writing)

Over the Horizon Radar Theory

A particular section of the YouTube video playlist is slightly suspicious. If we add together the current number of tweets and likes at their Twitter account and correlate that to a numbered playlist entry, we see a possible roadmap to future posts. Over the past few months (since the playlist re-order) that number was holding steady at 79 - "Over the Horizon Radar" until June 7th 2017.

• 

  YouTube Video Playlist Entries 78 - 84

Wikipedia says:

Over-the-horizon radar, or OTH (sometimes called beyond the horizon, or BTH), is a type of radar system with the ability to detect targets at very long ranges, typically hundreds to thousands of kilometres, beyond the radar horizon, which is the distance limit for ordinary radar.

The sum briefly dropped to 78 "Hey Saturday Sun" on March 28th, 2017 when they opted to delete a tweet from March 11th, 2012. The deletion of this tweet is interesting for a couple of reasons - first of all, it is the only post that has been deleted thus far. If we think of 2017 as somewhat of a reverse of last years sequence (even though its actually 6s vs 7s), perhaps this means November 3rd (opposite of March 11th) is a relevant date down the road.

The drop to 78 ("Hey Saturday Sun") is worth noting for another reason as well. You can isolate either 3 letter word and the remaining characters in the song title add up to 11:

Hey/Saturday Sun (3/11)

Hey Saturday/Sun (11/3)

The deleted tweet was soon replaced with a tweet of the official "Dayvan Cowboy" video, bringing the sum back to 79.

The Mr. Mistake picture disc was announced on June 17th. If we look at the playlist entries of each tweet in 2016, ignoring Peacock Tail (not in the playlist) and Nothing is Real from 24/8, we have the following:

Video 6 - Left Side Drive (14/10/16)

Video 1 - Open the Light (8/12/16)

Video 7 - Dayvan Cowboy (28/3/17)

(6/17)

These are the entries from 2017, and correlating the sum of tweets and likes at the time that they were posted in relation to the video playlist. We currently stand at 34 tweets and 50 likes. Note that the overall count incremented by 2 on two separate occasions - June 7th and June 17th. In the case of June 7th, they liked a fan's post that was in response to their initial June 7th posting, and June 17th, one tweet was a retweet, one was their own tweet about the same topic (the Mr. Mistake picture disc). I feel that this is what they were hinting at with the repeating Twoism videos - 80 and 81 are a pair, and 82 and 83 are a pair.

March 28th (28x3) = 84 - entry 79 "Over The Horizon Radar"

June 7th (7x6) = 42 - entry 80 "Korona"

June 7th (7x6) = 42 - entry 81 - Twoism Sunset

June 17th - entry 82 "Twoism"

June 17th - entry 83 "Tears from the Compound Eye"

July 5th? - entry 84 "Ready Lets Go"

Presumably, their next tweet will be the final goal. When this will happen is the big question at this point. If we treat 2017 as a proper reversal of how we counted things in 2016, the campaign began on 6/6/16 - if we visually reverse the first post of the campaign starting with the year, that could be 19/9 (think of the sample from Tomorrow's Harvest Track 7, Transmisiones Ferox, 19-9-9-9...) or even just 9/9. The SoundCloud account's listing for Tomorrow's Harvest has the album's tracks sorted in the following order - 11-10-17-2-14 (Remember that Track 14, Sundown is an audio "companion" to Transmisiones Ferox) - this could indicate October 11th or November 10th as potential dates as well. (10 and 11 being Palace Posy and Split Your Infinities)

Ignoring the more in your face possibilities of October 11th or November 10th, a more subtle solution could be looking up the playlist entries for the top two tracks, Palace Posy and Split Your Infinities - they are 14 and 126 respectively. Sure enough, both are divisible by 7 and add up to 140 (the same as the Left Side Drive post, when multiplied instead of added):

Video 14 (Palace Posy) - (11 + 3)

Video 126 (Split Your Infinities) - (12 + 6) or (9 + 9)

What's interesting here is that when broken down like this, we can add the top number (14) to the bottom number (18) and we get 32, which is the sum of the Nothing is Real post (8/24 = 32 when added together rather than multiplied)

SoundCloud

In April 2017, they updated their official SoundCloud page with most of their official content, as separate lists of tracks and a list of albums. The number of total songs is 69, but should be 70, because there is a "broken" track. On April 17th (4+17=21) followers received a notification that a Geogaddi playlist had been created. Later that day, the playlist was deleted. No other albums have a "playlist" per se, so this was unique. Examining the tracklist of Geogaddi further, it showed that track 21 (You Could Feel the Sky) was not present, but had Aphex Twin's Jynweythek Ylow in it's place. Additionally, Geogaddi was published to Soundcloud as being released in 2007 rather than 2002.

We pair these two mistakes together (2007 rather than 2002, track 21 replaced with an Aphex Twin track) and we end up with the release date of the Mr. Mistake vinyl (7/21)

The Aphex Twin track he remained in place of You Could Feel the Sky since April. Since then, Tomorrow's Harvest was added as an album. In the case of this album, take note of the sequence of the first few tracks under the "All" view - 10-11-2-17-14

Putting 10 and 11 out front is slightly suspicious since we seem to be working in iterations of 7 this year and counting down from 84, and they happen to add up to 21. However, when we cross reference these entries to the Youtube video playlist instead (the same as we did to hash out the date of the Mr. Mistake announcement using tweets) these two songs are entries are 14 and 126 which add up to 140, a recurring number buried in the sequence.

This means that we may be counting down like this: 84 -> 42 -> 14 instead of assuming 21 as the final entry. This makes November 3rd an interesting date, especially considering the March 11th tweet (opposite date) which was wiped out on the first day of proceedings of the 2017 pattern.

References

1. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grain_of_salt
2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzjoArxwW2E
3. ↑ http://www.twoism.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13437
4. ↑ http://www.twoism.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=13437&p=264601#p264601
5. ↑ http://www.twoism.org/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=4155
6. ↑ http://www.twoism.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=263668#p263668