Revision as of 03:17, 6 April 2023

Comments

• Skytree observed the following:
  • "Gemini": track one
  • "Gemini": May 21 - June 20
  • Dredging up of the subconscious mind.
  • This past weekend saw the last of three eclipses of 2013 (until the Fall), ending in "Gemini".
  • Music Has The Right To Children: "Aquarius". Both "Aquarius" and "Gemini" are air signs.
  • Much of BoC's video imagery involves flying through the air.
  • -- end transmission -- ^[1]
• I read a review (sorry, someone else needs to edit this post to properly cite the reference) noting that Gemini is twins, and suggesting that separation (or invisible, maybe inevitable) connections might be recurring Tomorrow's Harvest theme. (e.g., "Split Your Infinities", Last Rites Of Spring/"Twin gods of death at the end of the tunnel", Beckett's Ghost Trio, Virgil's Aeneid, & Dante's Divine Comedy)
  • Many others' comments focus on palindromes, suggesting cycles in the tracks' sequence.
• The track, and therefore the album begins with a short trumpet vignette. In the Bible, the Book of Revelation says that the end of times - the apocalypse - would be heralded by seven angels sounding seven trumpets. This fits in with the themes and motifs of the album, in particular the apocalypse, as the trumpet vignette is immediately followed by seven distinct chords.
• Narratively, this track may be heralding an impending apocalypse, which is presented by "Reach For The Dead".
• Embers observed the following quote: "From the Twins come less laborious callings and a more agreeable way of life, provided by varied song and voices of harmonious tone, slender pipes, the melodies inborn in strings and the words fitted thereto: those so endowed find even work a pleasure. They would banish the arms of war, the trumpet's call, and the gloom of old age: theirs is a life of ease and unfading youth spent in the arms of love. They also discover paths to the skies, complete a survey of the heavens with numbers and measurements, and outstrip the flight of the stars: nature yields to their genius, which it serves in all things. So many are the accomplishments of which the Twins are fruitful." - 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 its 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 behaviors affect ourselves, and 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").
  • Specific sub-quotes can be said to refer to the Boards of Canada's themselves, imagery of flying or other representations of air, cycles, technological sophistication, destruction, life, death, apocalypse, etc.
    • "...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 C: Palace Posy (a very indigenous beat in this track, almost tribal/primitive, represents the dawn of a new society) > Sundown (coming of darkness)
      • Side D: 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 we 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.

Samples / Lyrics

At 2:52 you can hear in the left channel the words "Does anybody copy me?" followed by "Roger" at 2:55. It becomes more recognizable and played 25% slower.

Trivia

• Gemini was an American spaceflight program from 1962-1966. [1]

• Gemini is a subcritical nuclear test project run by The National Nuclear Security Agency (NNSA). The NNSA runs the U.S. nuclear warhead program. [2]

• Gemini (♊) is also the third astrological sign in the Zodiac. Gemini were twin brothers, and therefore, could be a symbolic reference to the Sandison brothers themselves, even though they are not identical.

• Gemini can be also a direct reference to Gemini Films, a film production, and distributor. [3] The duo already made a small reference to them, when they sampled the ending of the 1982 adult film titled "A Brief Affair" [4] on One Very Important Thought. [5]

• In Ancient Greek mythology Gemini are Castor and Pollux[6], twin gods who are associated with Venus in its role as the morning and the evening star, and whose attestation dates back to an earlier reconstructed Indo-European myth of the Divine Twins,[7] who are descendants of the Sky-God Dyēus and brothers/consorts/rescuers to the Dawn. They are responsible for carrying the sun through the sky each day and are said to rescue mortals from peril in battle and at sea.

Videos

External links

References

1. ↑ http://www.twoism.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=198078#198078