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Statements from Hexagon Sun

Revision as of 08:13, 31 July 2007 by Moebius (talk | contribs) (Aug 2001: linkified)

From time to time, certain trusted representatives of Hexagon Sun post comments on various message boards. Since the band themselves remain fairly reclusive, these statements can provide intriguing insights into the workings of the band.

Aug 2001

  • From: Warp message board
  • From: Goderich
  • Link: Copied in a post to IDM-l on 04 Sep 2001

... the entire BOC back-catalogue is included in the recording and publishing schedules with Warp Music/EMI, and therefore is copyright protected by those parties. According to the band, the older compilations being circulated at the moment are quite likely to be re-released in the near future complete with their original artwork. Keep your eyes peeled at www.boardsofcanada.com for more news about this.

Peace and all the best to you,
Goderich, Hexagon Sun, Aug 2001 ...

16 Apr 2004

Note: The topic was asking about what instruments/equipment used to produce their unique sound. At some point, cob made a comment. Shortly thereafter, possibly after libelous comments from other users, the thread was deleted. Some report that the original topic was strictly gear related and that the offensive comments were in another (also deleted) thread.
In the gear comment, it is suggested that the Yamaha CS80 was the bands "secret weapon", but that cob indicated it was not. It has also been suggested that user mosca posted specific information on equipment that the band had purchased from him (or his store), which led to the deletion.
Some comments from those who read the thread: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

16 Apr 2004

Note: Joyrex addresses the issue of the deleted thread (see previous entry) and publicly acknowledges cob as a representative of the band. cob chimes in with a comment himself, affirming Joyrex's statement. [6]

15 Feb 2005

OK The reason it was jumped on was this: Warp and BOC have been in talks for a long while about putting out a box set of old tracks from these tapes and others, with new packaging and art, to be released sometime after the forthcoming record. The tapes were private comps given out to close friends a few years ago, long before the band imagined there would be this kind of interest, and long before the likes of Soulseek etc existed.

The tracks are out there now, nothing can be done about that, they've been circulating for a while and fans have them, so the decision was taken to at least consider tidying them up and repackaging them with decent exclusive artwork & more rarities. BOC never wanted these tracks presented this way, mislabelled and as poor-quality MP3 files.

There's no 'hype', these comps were never listed on any old discogs as they were never intended for mass release in the first place.

Now the intention is still to get round to scheduling a release of these tunes and other rare comps, but unscrupulous people like 'prince murat' are obviously stealing the thunder of the proposed releases, whilst trying to make a tidy profit in the process (a starting price of $799 speaks volumes about 'prince murat's true intentions. who is trying to profit from hype here? if any money is going to be involved, surely the artist who wrote those tracks should be receiving the royalties, and not this person? there's no difference between this kind of profiteering and someone trying to sell a bootleg CDR of Beck's new album months prior to release.)

Anyway, now you know, we hope the intervention hasn't caused too much negative feeling, after all the concern that Warp and BOC have is that basically it's going to spoil the impact of a nice release that hopefully will be enjoyed by the fans.

-mark, hs

Note: Part of the infamous Old Tunes saga.

19 Apr 2006

BOC didn't produce ringtones for MTV's website. That would be ridiculous. When a band has a recording/publishing deal there are a lot of things done with their music that the band has no knowledge of, such as synchronisation on gardening programmes etc.

17 May 2006

QUOTE(lumpenGriff @ May 16 2006, 11:09 PM)

I think that's a bit too cynical a take on things, and not the whole story. I think there's a strong libertarian streak running through all of BoC's work. But, unlike 60s hippies who naively felt that bucking authority and running free into the woods would lead to peace and love, BoC - with the hindsight of people who saw what the 70's wrought - realize that dark and dangerous things lurk in the woods. But you should go in anyway. I think BoC see themselves as guardians/proponents of the mysterious, which means everything shadowy and inchoate - the "pagan" world. A place where beauty and madness aren't that far from each other, and blissful communal living and brainwashed cultism are only a hair apart. I think at the time they made IABPOITC and Geogaddi they (or perhaps just Mike) were in a very dark spot, where they felt that a person like David Koresh, however delusional, was in fact an example of a truly "free thinker," and therefore worthy of some respect or re-evaluation. It's a radical and perhaps foolish stance, to say "however crazy he may have been, at least Koresh wasn't a conformist." In other words: madness may be preferable to conformity. But in todays world of government intruding ever more into our daily lives, this view makes as much sense as ever.

Basically I think their stance was anti-politically-correct. PCism says that it values multiple viewpoints, when in fact it is very narrow-minded. I think BoC were saying in their own way, that truly free thinking incorporates madness and mystery, where everything isn't spelled out in excruciatingly literal academic terms. I think they want to shake you up by confronting you with "cultlike" music. Whether they believe it or not is sort of beside the point; they are interested in your reaction. Most people probably don't get it or are afraid of it, instead of recognizing and appreciating the pull in the core of their being towards cultlike behavior (BoC worship being one example). BoC are not "safe." They are not just there to repackage nostalgic, sepia-toned images of your childhood. Or rather, they are there to preserve all of your childhood, including the parts you might rather forget: listening to adults argue; being betrayed by your first friend, blind puppy-love, humiliation. They want you to be both seduced and frightened by their music, and to recognize the fact that you are being seduced, and be frightened by your own reaction. They are masterful psychological manipulators; they make Aphex Twin's in-your-face antics seem childish by comparison.

IMO.

finally a good understanding of what BOC do.

1 Nov 2006

It's not a performance. We don't know what it is.

Note: The 'appearance' turned out to be a showing of the "Dayvan Cowboy" video.

16 Apr 2007

the voice in 'gyroscope' comes from a genuine number station recording, but not from the conet project. the recording was made by sean booth on a shortwave radio and gifted to BOC for use in the track.

17 Apr 2007

QUOTE(ishishiba @ Apr 17 2007, 12:09 AM)

the site has changes since i saw their name listed. it used to have a massive list alphabetically of artists using reaktor, some had interviews, some didnt. BOC were listed, but minus an interview. nowadays only those artists with interviews seem to be listed.

software companies like NI often send freebie copies of their wares to artists, and then publish those artists' names on lists for promotional purposes.

Note: NI is Native Instruments, producers of the popular Reaktor music studio software package.

28 May 2007

BOC didn't sample Basinski for that track at all. Also, 'Roygbiv' was written from scratch, as is nearly everything else BOC have released. The only samples used in Boards' tracks are typically speech/vocal samples. (The exceptions are 'Aquarius' and 'Nlogax', where the former was actually a re-creation on the groove from 'Hair'.)

Note: Some users had noted a similarity between "Marquerie Ridge" and William Basinski's Disintegration Tapes works.

19 Jul 2007

All the music Boards of Canada have ever written or recorded, from way back in the beginning, has been written by Mike and Marcus alone. Early works have not been released so far purely because they didn't want to, for artistic reasons.

23 Jul 2007

I can confirm that there is a new major release by the band coming up. The announcement will appear first on the official website nearer the time. Re: the previous question by Smoothlab, see my previous post, that is why the amendment was made!

Note: Smoothlab's question was regarding Chris Horne's credit on the original release of Twoism. hex_official's previous post is that of 19 Jul 2007, above.