Difference between revisions of "Reach For The Dead"

Revision as of 06:50, 5 April 2023

Reach For The Dead
Running time	4:47
Appears on	Tomorrow's Harvest

Comments

donacidae: "I've transcribed "Reach For The Dead" so you can all enjoy playing on the piano / guitar / whatever. http://bit.ly/12zkS0g" ^[1]

A recurring motif throughout the song shares melodic similarities with the theme in the movie Zombie, albeit much slower. This may be intentional, as the score for the film was done by Fabio Frizzi and the band has specifically cited his work among others as influences towards the sound and production of Tomorrow's Harvest.

At the end of the official music video, the Sun is seen splitting into three distinct Suns, creating a 'trinity' of Suns.
- Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon by the United States Army at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project in the New Mexico desert. In the video, we see sweeping images of desert landscapes, and abandoned, dilapidated residential structures with implied meaning of a post-nuclear landscape. Overall, this fits with themes of technological sophistication, apocalypse, and self-destruction revisited on the album.
- Trinity may also refer to the Christian concept of God as three entities: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Indeed, prayer or ritual is a way in which the living practice communication with the dead, implying they are reaching for the dead. In Christianity, a prayer is often started with performing the Sign of the Cross on oneself and conjuring God as the Holy Trinity; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In some Indigenous North American cultures, deceased ancestors are viewed as venerated peoples, sometimes Gods or in communication with God. This implies ancestor worship, which ties into the themes and aesthetics of the album, with tracks such as Uritual, New Seeds (planted by ancestors), and Semena Mertvykh (seeds of the dead).
- The process of the Sun itself is a massive fusion reaction, which can be viewed as a reversal of a fission reaction, typical of nuclear bombs. The idea of reversal is a theme Boards of Canada have explored across their discography.
- Initially, the Sun only splits into two Suns, perhaps again referring to the Twins, or Gemini, or Boards of Canada themselves. The third Sun fades in soon after between the two, which may be symbolic of the creation of new matter via fusion reactions, a typical process of a sun. If taken to represent humans in general, the appearance of the third Sun may symbolically represent a barrier between the two 'Suns' or humans, of their impending calamity if they do not work together for fruitful accomplishments.

Samples / Lyrics

At 03:23, a male voice says "Listen" or possibly "Risen."
- If the sample is "Risen", that would play into the Christianity motifs in the music video, especially around the Holy Trinity, where Jesus, as God on Earth, rose from the dead. Indeed, the whole album thematically deals with cycles. This may be of civilisation, each risen from the dead of previous civilisations. For example, the final two tracks on the album imply this, Come To Dust immediately followed by Semena Mertvykh (seeds of the dead).

Trivia

"Reach For The Dead" was released as a single in anticipation of the Tomorrow's Harvest release. It was given in advance as an MP3 download to those who pre-ordered Tomorrow's Harvest. ^[2] It was also part of the viral marketing campaign. The "Reach For The Dead" video was originally aired in Tokyo, and the following day, the full song was played on BBC Radio 1 followed by its reveal on the official Boards of Canada website.

Videos

Audio

Artwork

External links

References

[1] ttp://www.twoism.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10648

[2] ttps://bleep.com/release/43515-boards-of-canada-tomorrows-harvest#description

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@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 * At the end of the official music video, the Sun is seen splitting into three distinct Suns, creating a 'trinity' of Suns.
-** Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon by the United States Army at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project in the New Mexico desert. In the video, we see sweeping images of desert landscapes, and abandoned, dilapidated residential structures with implied meaning of a post-nuclear landscape. Overall, this fits with themes of technological sophistication, apocalypse, and self-destruction revisted on the album.
+** Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon by the United States Army at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project in the New Mexico desert. In the video, we see sweeping images of desert landscapes, and abandoned, dilapidated residential structures with implied meaning of a post-nuclear landscape. Overall, this fits with themes of technological sophistication, apocalypse, and self-destruction revisited on the album.
 ** Trinity may also refer to the Christian concept of God as three entities: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Indeed, prayer or ritual is a way in which the living practice communication with the dead, implying they are ''reaching for the dead''. In Christianity, a prayer is often started with performing the Sign of the Cross on oneself and conjuring God as the Holy Trinity; the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In some Indigenous North American cultures, deceased ancestors are viewed as venerated peoples, sometimes Gods or in communication with God. This implies ancestor worship, which ties into the themes and aesthetics of the album, with tracks such as [[Uritual]], [[New Seeds]] (planted by ancestors), and [[Semena Mertvykh]] (seeds of the dead).
 ** The process of the Sun itself is a massive fusion reaction, which can be viewed as a ''reversal'' of a fission reaction, typical of nuclear bombs. The idea of reversal is a theme Boards of Canada have explored across their discography.