Very good analysis. There were some companies in the 70's that made tons of stock intros for radio and TV. I stumbled on some back in the 80's on "Carts" which were tiny multitrack tapes used in radio at the time. Many of those used this progression and I wish I had digitized them. They were done by a company that is out of business but this company did the theme for "Inside Out" and "Thinkabout."
Damn.. smart man. Very interesting to see someone talk about the actual compositions. Everyone obsesses over what samples they use and what vintage gear they use (myself included), but no one talks about the actual compositions because they sound so simple. But watching you analyze and break them down actually reveals that there's a lot more going on beneath the warm analog keys and tape manipulation. Brilliant. They're deceiving simple. It's funny how all of the best musicians and athletes in the world do that. They make it sound / look sooooo much easier
It's nice to see someone looking so deeply into the technical aspects of BOC's music. This makes a change from the average emotional reflections that you mostly read/hear (not that there's anything wrong in that.) You have a very relaxing voice also; you could read out a dictionary and I would probably be put into a trance - in a good way. I hope you do more of this kind of thing and perhaps link the technical aspects to some of your own emotions- you know, to see if we listeners share any.
I always wondered about their chord progressions. They always have that common mellow and breathtaking feel in every song but I just couldn't put my finger on what it was. Thanks for posting this up!
Been listening to BOC for years and this is the first video I’ve seen looking into the theory of their compositions. Great video. Would love to see more.
Never thought that Kaini Industries actually would work as a piano only solo performance. Would be great if you uploaded a video of a performance of this track from start to finish!
The BOC "sound" comes from old educational films from the 1970's that were shown in Canadian schools, made by The National Film Board of Canada. The Brothers went to school in Calgary, Alberta for a little while and saw the old projector films. Great video, now I'll be hearing this every time I put on Geogaddi.
yea! IV, iii, I thats kinda their theme, huh? also shows up in Everything You Do Is A Balloon, they just add another 8th note in between the 4 and 3 i think.
This is great! So there is someone out there besides me that notices random patterns in this music. I've been a fan of BOC since discovering them in 2006. Now that you've mentioned this particular fragment, I can also hear it in tracks such as "84 Pontiac Dream," "Buckie High," and I think that "Satellite Anthem Icarus" might have it.
What an awesome video. I am actually writing a research paper for one of my Theory classes exploring the connections between Disasterpiece's 'Fez' soundtrack compositional styles and some of BoC's compositional styles. Specifically in the use of nostalgia, subliminal message, distortion choices and beat samples. After watching this video, i then started looking for the fragments in the 'Fez' soundtrack and found them there also. I would LOVE to be able to use these comparisons to strengthen the paper, but I need to find the 70s/80s tv samples to back of the 'whistful, innocent' qualities in order to back up the comparisons. I've spend hours combing through tv intros, but I remember these progressions being more prevalent in the moments before, and after commercial breaks. Can anyone help me out with finding some of these examples of melodic fragments in other media? like tv? thanks!
@@purple7filth lol i linked it in a reply and i guess it didn't go through. the vid is t itled Uuh and I found it by searching for Sheol Boundary. c2KTVlOj8jA
You know, Gary Numan/Tubeway Army had a tendency to do this same sort of thing. Not quite as much, but if you listen to Replicas, TPP, Telekon, it's all over the place.
What about in Everything You Do is a Balloon? Isn't the simple three-note main reoccurring riff in that track a variation of f e c, or am I wrong? It would be wonderful if anybody out there can affirm this with/for me, as Everything You Do is a Balloon was my introduction to Boards of Canada around 6 months ago and (along with MHtRtC & Geogaddi) has changed music for me forever, and I'm now fascinated with this recurrent melody discovery.
BoC made a huge impact on me when in my earlier days. Aphex Twin, Boc, Autechre, Plaid, anything from Warp Records.. Yeah I was a quirky teenager. In a way I love what you're doing in this video, explaining what went down. But in the same time it completely destroys the mystery of their sound, the dark brooding atmosphere their chord progressions created. Well, I guess everything is just repeating patterns when you break it down. I remember the first time I heard Everything You Do Is A Balloon. Wow. And that's still some good shit- And there's still nothing that even comes near that sound. Well- the last similar thing I've listened to must be Burial. Bloody good too. Well, I should stop rambling now... Thanks for a great vid.
When I was younger I felt like an outcast because I had no friends who likes any of those artist's. Being online really helped me cope with that an in finding people who liked similar music. I am 21 now!
What's interesting is the way you have understood this music from a technical perspective. I wonder if when they were creating it was more from an instinctual perspective ie...they didn't create it thinking about key moreover about how it sounded to the ear. Like an emotional instinct. Thoughts??
Ben Morris I honestly highly doubt it; BoC has all kinds of hidden mysteries in song names, and time signatures. Which means they must be pretty adept at theory too. This isn't an incredibly hard concept to grasp, but certainly interesting! It's really cool actually how much thought goes into their music.
Some artists favor a particular set of notes. Sean Booth (I believe, though it might have been someone else) made a comment regarding Tomorrow's Harvest "being good, but sadly not having any of Mike's beautiful melodies", which means it's probably safe to say he was the more melodic side of the band and this was the range he felt the most comfortable in. I doubt it was done intentionally for any reason perhaps other than imitating the videos they watched that influenced the band's name and theme.
BoC seldom steps outside 4/4 and 4/8 time though, and when they do, they seem to have some sort of aversion to odd time signatures. Sunshine Recorder is 10/4, The Devil is in the Details is in 12/4 with a few changes...I think it's more apt to say they've got a lot of polyrhythm going on in their songs.
This guy here has been steadily making some BoC tutorials: /user/harmsolidsnake Also I have a small collection of sheet music that outlines some tunes. If you'd like to see that, message me.
You should really do some BOC piano covers and upload them on RUclips. You would make a lot of people very happy...including yourself, I hope. You sounded a tad depressed..I hope you're fine my friend. Thank you for this insight and beautiful video.
Not disagreeing with the guys here but it may be an unintentional habit. When I start to work on a song I play a C chord pretty much as soon as my fingers touch the keys then work from there. I don't write every song in that note but It's just how I start, It's a habit. You find most musicians play the same riffs when warming up just to get the fingers and the brain working but if you like the sound then you just go with it.
Not disagreeing with the guys here but it may be an unintentional habit.² I have released 5 albums and I've noticed that 4 of my musics repeats a B-A-G-E pattern. The first one was totally intentional, but the other ones weren't. I also noticed that, even though I didn't realized I repeated that sequence, I attributed a meaning that made perfect sense with what I wanted to say in my music, specially because it's all instrumental.
@@neptuneful5115 that's awesome. I don't know if you saw my other response but I went to your SoundCloud and those jazz interpretations are amazing, to say the least
If you like this music, and want to form a band like this, hit me up. BoC is my favorite band of all time (tied with one other). I'm looking for the Michael to my Marcus, the Kai to my Dom, the Sean to my Rob, the Martin to my Alan and the John to my Lou. If you get all the above references, we'll get on well. I can send some of my music and you can do the same. Realizing the power of a duo. xxx
Well that's, uuh, weird. Must have taken a while to make that. Whitney Houston avatar, possible anagram of an account name, comments disabled. Which twoismer are you?
Everyone is saying you sound high, but I hear just an all too familiar bit of depression and exhaustion. I hope you're doing ok and are active enough to see any caring comments. You have great talent on the piano and make great jazz covers, stay well!
A fascinating insight but sadly also proof that this beautiful melodic element (and one could argue that it is compositional genius as it entirely encapsulates the BOC sound) is COMPLETELY MISSING from Tomomrrow's Harvest. Which I'd argue is a parody album.
OK, No offense, but this what happens when left brain music geeks break things down or try to wrap around it.... But the true creators, that are all mostly right brain, we are all just channeling from where ever and doing whatever we want--- and there is zero thought put in that is of this lengthy dissertation ... and before anyone is asking or making comments: YES , I make music Secondculture.bandcamp.com No people on this level of left brain thinking will ever do anything unique... IT NEVER comes from this place
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
This is some actual insight into their composition. And it holds true. Don't have to be high.
Very good analysis. There were some companies in the 70's that made tons of stock intros for radio and TV. I stumbled on some back in the 80's on "Carts" which were tiny multitrack tapes used in radio at the time. Many of those used this progression and I wish I had digitized them. They were done by a company that is out of business but this company did the theme for "Inside Out" and "Thinkabout."
holy shit
Any idea what that company is? I know the Inside Out theme is from a track in the De Wolfe production library...
I’d really like to know as well.
@ Is it this Inside Out:
www.dewolfemusic.com/search.php?id=16277944&code=nS32km
How'd you know it was in there? If this isn't it, can you link to it?
@@alphanumeric1529 ruclips.net/video/UwQ0nZY6ycg/видео.html. ruclips.net/video/zvLzVTpnb5I/видео.html
Damn.. smart man. Very interesting to see someone talk about the actual compositions. Everyone obsesses over what samples they use and what vintage gear they use (myself included), but no one talks about the actual compositions because they sound so simple. But watching you analyze and break them down actually reveals that there's a lot more going on beneath the warm analog keys and tape manipulation. Brilliant.
They're deceiving simple. It's funny how all of the best musicians and athletes in the world do that. They make it sound / look sooooo much easier
I just want to listen to you play as many of their songs on piano as possible. What a beautiful perspective.
+Wonder Spunion I mean this! You should make some videos of their songs on piano ;)
thanks for the amazing video i often come back to it, lovely cover too, i'll definitely be waiting for any of your uploads
It's nice to see someone looking so deeply into the technical aspects of BOC's music. This makes a change from the average emotional reflections that you mostly read/hear (not that there's anything wrong in that.) You have a very relaxing voice also; you could read out a dictionary and I would probably be put into a trance - in a good way. I hope you do more of this kind of thing and perhaps link the technical aspects to some of your own emotions- you know, to see if we listeners share any.
We’ve Started Up.
did you film this on video camcorder? that is a classic boc fan
I always wondered about their chord progressions. They always have that common mellow and breathtaking feel in every song but I just couldn't put my finger on what it was. Thanks for posting this up!
It would be amazing to watch you do any cover's of these songs!
My favorite instance of this is on "I saw drones", if you reverse it the entire melody is made up of the 4-3-1 motif
I Saw Drones is entirely composed of this motif when played backwards ;)
revolvingGlasshouse they DEFINITELY tried that ;)
Would like to see more like this please
Been listening to BOC for years and this is the first video I’ve seen looking into the theory of their compositions. Great video. Would love to see more.
Never thought that Kaini Industries actually would work as a piano only solo performance. Would be great if you uploaded a video of a performance of this track from start to finish!
good to see leonard cohen talking about Boc
anyone has some piano BoC sheets to share ?
Great video. This 1-3-4 fragment also can be heard in Triangles and Rhombuses from MHTRTT.
its also in the hook of Nothing is Real :O whoa didn't notice that before
The BOC "sound" comes from old educational films from the 1970's that were shown in Canadian schools, made by The National Film Board of Canada. The Brothers went to school in Calgary, Alberta for a little while and saw the old projector films.
Great video, now I'll be hearing this every time I put on Geogaddi.
Robert Keith oh, I'm suddenly getting why all their music sounds so familiar to me.
yea! IV, iii, I
thats kinda their theme, huh? also shows up in Everything You Do Is A Balloon, they just add another 8th note in between the 4 and 3 i think.
This is great! So there is someone out there besides me that notices random patterns in this music. I've been a fan of BOC since discovering them in 2006. Now that you've mentioned this particular fragment, I can also hear it in tracks such as "84 Pontiac Dream," "Buckie High," and I think that "Satellite Anthem Icarus" might have it.
Buckie High is a great example -- it's in both the bass and the melody, in fact the bass is nothing BUT this motif repeated.
What an awesome video. I am actually writing a research paper for one of my Theory classes exploring the connections between Disasterpiece's 'Fez' soundtrack compositional styles and some of BoC's compositional styles. Specifically in the use of nostalgia, subliminal message, distortion choices and beat samples. After watching this video, i then started looking for the fragments in the 'Fez' soundtrack and found them there also. I would LOVE to be able to use these comparisons to strengthen the paper, but I need to find the 70s/80s tv samples to back of the 'whistful, innocent' qualities in order to back up the comparisons. I've spend hours combing through tv intros, but I remember these progressions being more prevalent in the moments before, and after commercial breaks. Can anyone help me out with finding some of these examples of melodic fragments in other media? like tv? thanks!
It's great when you're happy with your 4th, third and roots.
still relevant
This was and excellent unpacking of boc tracks via these 3 notes.
Thank you much for your insight and study of a great group!
I enjoyed watching and listening to this analysis. Also laughed a lot at the very odd remix done by Sheol Boundary.
Uhm, Sheol Boundary, you say? Hmm...
Fantastic analysis of the BOC sound - thanx for taking the time to share this :-)
IDK when but the reupload of the Sheol Boundary video went missing? I remember watching it recently, like 1 or 2 months ago.
There's a new reupload, search for it again :)
@thefwopah
What do I search for it? If you have the link could you post it? YT allows links to videos on the site usually.
@@purple7filth lol i linked it in a reply and i guess it didn't go through. the vid is t itled Uuh and I found it by searching for Sheol Boundary. c2KTVlOj8jA
Great analysis. Thanks for taking the time to make this video! Cheers
Great voice for narration.
the inspector gadget melody!
You know, Gary Numan/Tubeway Army had a tendency to do this same sort of thing. Not quite as much, but if you listen to Replicas, TPP, Telekon, it's all over the place.
Your Jazz covers are SOOOOOOOO good!
What about in Everything You Do is a Balloon? Isn't the simple three-note main reoccurring riff in that track a variation of f e c, or am I wrong? It would be wonderful if anybody out there can affirm this with/for me, as Everything You Do is a Balloon was my introduction to Boards of Canada around 6 months ago and (along with MHtRtC & Geogaddi) has changed music for me forever, and I'm now fascinated with this recurrent melody discovery.
Ahhh BOC4Life - great insightful video brother.
BoC made a huge impact on me when in my earlier days. Aphex Twin, Boc, Autechre, Plaid, anything from Warp Records.. Yeah I was a quirky teenager. In a way I love what you're doing in this video, explaining what went down. But in the same time it completely destroys the mystery of their sound, the dark brooding atmosphere their chord progressions created. Well, I guess everything is just repeating patterns when you break it down.
I remember the first time I heard Everything You Do Is A Balloon. Wow. And that's still some good shit- And there's still nothing that even comes near that sound. Well- the last similar thing I've listened to must be Burial. Bloody good too. Well, I should stop rambling now... Thanks for a great vid.
When I was younger I felt like an outcast because I had no friends who likes any of those artist's. Being online really helped me cope with that an in finding people who liked similar music. I am 21 now!
Interesting analysis. Thanks for sharing your observations and thoughts.
Cool to know Steven Wright is a boc fan too
K billy throwback!
I didn't know Buffalo Bill played piano.
Jame Gumb
oh my god that made me laugh so hard. thank you.
i didnt know bufffalo bill liked boc either
He's amazing at it too
It puts the lotion on the skin
Great video. Another clear example unless I missed it here is Nothing Is Real
What's interesting is the way you have understood this music from a technical perspective. I wonder if when they were creating it was more from an instinctual perspective ie...they didn't create it thinking about key moreover about how it sounded to the ear. Like an emotional instinct. Thoughts??
i guess both ways
Ben Morris I honestly highly doubt it; BoC has all kinds of hidden mysteries in song names, and time signatures. Which means they must be pretty adept at theory too. This isn't an incredibly hard concept to grasp, but certainly interesting! It's really cool actually how much thought goes into their music.
An instinct for creativity well nutured with a depth of interlect behind it :)
Some artists favor a particular set of notes.
Sean Booth (I believe, though it might have been someone else) made a comment regarding Tomorrow's Harvest "being good, but sadly not having any of Mike's beautiful melodies", which means it's probably safe to say he was the more melodic side of the band and this was the range he felt the most comfortable in. I doubt it was done intentionally for any reason perhaps other than imitating the videos they watched that influenced the band's name and theme.
BoC seldom steps outside 4/4 and 4/8 time though, and when they do, they seem to have some sort of aversion to odd time signatures. Sunshine Recorder is 10/4, The Devil is in the Details is in 12/4 with a few changes...I think it's more apt to say they've got a lot of polyrhythm going on in their songs.
Very insightful - thank you for this!
Really interesting. Thanks for this!
Just noticed this phrase in Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
I would like to see some sheet music.
It puts the lotion on its skin or it gets the hose again
synthmalicious Glad I’m not the only one who thinks he sound like Jame Gumm!
You should post videos of you playing each track all the way through. Well, as best you can with just a piano.
That was amazing! You're really good at piano!
Cool to see BOC's stuff analysed.
sometimes I think you were Sheol Boundary all along
Thanks so much for this!!
These are arpeggios of add4 chords right? The unplayed 5th is implied. Just one clue to why their melodies are so beautiful.
That's certainly one way to think of it.
i wouldnt even think about it as add4, just as a sus4 going to major resolution
Boards of canada is so badass
I subscribed immediately after listening sometime talk about music (and BOC for that matter!) like that...
Absolutely Genius !
Very insightful and inspiring
I wonder if it was an artefact of a particular old-ass sequencer, which later became adopted as a kind of motif.
any chance you might consider doing some tutorials for the tunes man, you play em really well! and great analysis!
farewell fire too
Steven Wright teaches the BOC piano ladies and gentlemen. Show your damn face Steven. Nice tutorial bro.
Beautiful.
This guy here has been steadily making some BoC tutorials: /user/harmsolidsnake
Also I have a small collection of sheet music that outlines some tunes. If you'd like to see that, message me.
Neptuneful can i have the sheet music ill pay you
Thanks for sharing this!
Thanks this is really cool!
wonderful thank you
I like this video but also the way you pronounce Pee Cocktail :-)
a piano cover of peacock tail would probably make me cry
holy shit i almost cried when he played it
you play open the light awesomely
you should do a series of mhtrtc tracks, that'd be lovely
Thanks for this !
Sick video dude! Thanks
Please tell me how high you are
This dude makes his case for the how a melodic motif turns up often in Boards of Canada music with multiple examples. Yeah, must be high.
Not at all, honestly.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Is it in the end of Happy Cycling?
You should really do some BOC piano covers and upload them on RUclips. You would make a lot of people very happy...including yourself, I hope. You sounded a tad depressed..I hope you're fine my friend. Thank you for this insight and beautiful video.
Great stuff
Nice catch! I'm wondering whether Sandison and Eoin are aware of this. Was it intentional? Was it just one of the brothers?
Of course it's intentional. It's boards of canada.
Not disagreeing with the guys here but it may be an unintentional habit. When I start to work on a song I play a C chord pretty much as soon as my fingers touch the keys then work from there. I don't write every song in that note but It's just how I start, It's a habit. You find most musicians play the same riffs when warming up just to get the fingers and the brain working but if you like the sound then you just go with it.
Not disagreeing with the guys here but it may be an unintentional habit.² I have released 5 albums and I've noticed that 4 of my musics repeats a B-A-G-E pattern. The first one was totally intentional, but the other ones weren't. I also noticed that, even though I didn't realized I repeated that sequence, I attributed a meaning that made perfect sense with what I wanted to say in my music, specially because it's all instrumental.
Red Moss
do you have these covers of BoC done on piano on your SoundCloud?
Great analysis. Did you have any more planned?
@@alexbladwin1030 maybe part 2 ? 😁
@@greenvelvet Could be worth doing. A bigger priority is to do more jazz covers but I don't currently have a band on hand
@@neptuneful5115 that's awesome. I don't know if you saw my other response but I went to your SoundCloud and those jazz interpretations are amazing, to say the least
the pattern! :o good work!
Uuh
thx 4 the advice, man. ill try it out in my tunes to get closer to the boars of canada sound :)
If you like this music, and want to form a band like this, hit me up. BoC is my favorite band of all time (tied with one other). I'm looking for the Michael to my Marcus, the Kai to my Dom, the Sean to my Rob, the Martin to my Alan and the John to my Lou. If you get all the above references, we'll get on well. I can send some of my music and you can do the same. Realizing the power of a duo. xxx
This is the gayest thing I've ever read on the internet.
Wow make a red moss pianl cover!!!!!
Well that's, uuh, weird. Must have taken a while to make that. Whitney Houston avatar, possible anagram of an account name, comments disabled. Which twoismer are you?
So the original comment by Sheol was removed?
and kaini industries
Very interesting
Everyone is saying you sound high, but I hear just an all too familiar bit of depression and exhaustion. I hope you're doing ok and are active enough to see any caring comments. You have great talent on the piano and make great jazz covers, stay well!
Sweet of you to say. No, I'm fine and was fine at the time. I still have some ideas for a followup but don't want to over-promise.
Wassup Ice Poseidon Cx
This guy talks like xander from the real bros of simi valley
Danger man!
Far out man
In this video you don't seem very good with words, but I think we all know exactly what you're trying to say.
A fascinating insight but sadly also proof that this beautiful melodic element (and one could argue that it is compositional genius as it entirely encapsulates the BOC sound) is COMPLETELY MISSING from Tomomrrow's Harvest. Which I'd argue is a parody album.
lol
OK, No offense, but this what happens when left brain music geeks break things down or try to wrap around it....
But the true creators, that are all mostly right brain, we are all just channeling from where ever and doing whatever we want--- and there is zero thought put in that is of this lengthy dissertation ...
and before anyone is asking or making comments: YES , I make music
Secondculture.bandcamp.com
No people on this level of left brain thinking will ever do anything unique...
IT NEVER comes from this place
Total ENFJ comment
You sound like Terry davis
Excellent, thanks pal