Eno Test & Parson
| Eno Test | |
|---|---|
| Running time | 4:38 |
| Appears on | P2P networks |
| Parson | |
|---|---|
| Running time | 5:12 |
| Appears on | P2P networks |
"Eno Test" and "Parson" are two tracks often misattributed to Boards of Canada. The tracks are sometimes credited to "Marumari & Boards of Canada". "Eno Test" also goes by the name "Stry Craty Bya", which is the name of a track from Acid Memories, an album that has never been released to the public.
Discovery[edit]
The songs were discovered on various P2P networks. They are among the earliest mislabeled tracks; "Eno Test" was first mentioned on idm-l on May 14, 2000, with "Parson" first mentioned in another post (in conjunction with "Eno Test") on Jan 12, 2001. They were included on the earliest archived copy of DavidAC's BoC pages, dated August 2002.
Unclear origin[edit]
It is commonly believed that both tracks are the work of Marumari alone. However, nowhere in Marumari's discography do any tracks with these names appear.
After previewing tracks from available Marumari albums, they do not appear to be any of the tracks on the following Marumari works:
- Story of the Heavens (1999) (MP3 previews)
- Ballad of the Round Ball (1999) (MP3 previews)
- The Wolves Hollow (2000) (MP3 previews)
- Supermogadon (2001) (MP3 previews)
- The Remixes (2002) (MP3 previews)
- VA - Carpark eMusic Sampler (MP3 previews)
Possible origin[edit]
The track "Eno Test" is listed on http://www.bradleysalmanac.com/tradelist.htm as part of a 3 disc Stereolab bootleg named B-Sides Collected. It is listed as the 15th track on the second disc and credited as "Eno Test (with Marumari)." While this could just be a fan compilation it could actually be the original source. If anyone has this bootleg, they could confirm the origin of the track.
The main melody of "Eno Test" is sampled from the song "But If" by Brian Eno on the album "The Drop" (1997)
The identity of Eno Test[edit]
The lack of appearance in any Marumari albums frustrated the search for the actual identity of this tune. However, previous searches could not account for the presence of it on compilations. On May 1st, 2002, a compilation album was released through Toast and Jam Recordings called "We Bore". Track 3, credited to Marumari, is called "Submarine Tactics".
"Eno Test" can take the form of two differently structured cuts of "Submarine Tactics" that diverge near the 3:30 mark. The two versions are linked below.
On 19 March 2020, Marumari confirmed that he made the tune known as Stry Craty Bya/Eno Test "back in the Napster days".
Sufficient information now exists to build a historical narrative of this track: Marumari created it circa 2000, likely named it "Eno Test", and never gave it an official release. The track wound up on file sharing networks and bootleg audio discs, where it gained a life of its own. It's unknown where the two versions of the track came from, it can only be assumed that they were created and released into the world concurrently. The track spread and was given different names, including "Stry Craty Bya". It was only when the compilation "We Bore" was being created that the track was given the name "Submarine Tactics" by its creator, which is the closest thing it has to an official, sanctioned identity.