The Most Mysterious Electronic Album Ever Made | A Deep Dive Into Geogaddi (Boards of Canada)
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- Опубликовано: 11 июн 2024
- Boards Of Canada's Geogaddi still amazes listeners almost 20 years after its release, with its 23 haunting tracks filled with hidden codes and dark secrets. This video explores the core themes and theories of Geogaddi, track by track.
This video was in the back of my mind for a very long time but I finally decided to make it! With the overwhelming amount of findings and theories surrounding this album I obviously couldn't share them all, so feel free to tell me what I might have missed in the comments below, or even share yours!
Also this video took a lot of work, and is obviously gonna get copyrighted (since I don't own any rights to the songs I show in this video), so if you enjoy this video, please feel free to leave a like and subscribe. It means a lot :)
*WARNING: From 9:11 to 9:19 there is flashing and fast moving imagery (you'll be able to skip this part of the video in the chapters if you need to)
Extra Links:
- Boc Pages website: bocpages.org
- Transcript of the murder of Candace Newmaker: www.ratbags.com/rsoles/commen...
- If you wanna read more on David Koresh and the Dividians:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_K...
- Geogaddi (reverse version): • Boards Of Canada - Geo...
- All the Geogaddi fan-made videos: • Boards Of Canada - Geo...
- If you wanna support Boards Of Canada: bleep.com/release/4625-boards...
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0:00 Intro
1:26 Geogaddi
2:47 The Album Cover
3:57 Ready Lets Go
5:50 Music Is Math
7:59 Beware The Friendly Stranger
9:11 Gyroscope *WARNING (contains flashing imagery)
9:19 Gyroscope (without flashing imagery)
10:56 Dandelion
12:47 Sunshine Recorder
14:06 In The Annexe
15:36 Julie And Candy
18:04 The Smallest Weird Number
20:00 1969
23:14 Energy Warning
24:01 The Beach At Redpoint
25:01 Opening The Mouth
26:54 Alpha And Omega
29:52 I Saw Drones
31:08 The Devil Is In The Details
33:30 A Is To B As B Is To C
34:50 Over The Horizon Radar
35:44 Dawn Chorus
36:56 Diving Station
38:12 You Could Feel The Sky
42:30 Corsair
43:58 Magic Window
46:16 Outro 
Видеоклипы
Geogaddi feels like being home alone when you were too little for that yet.
Strangely or me there never was too little to stay home i was chilling making pizzas playing cod after school at home when my parents were gone lol i was like 8 or 7
@@FallingFeeling212
I was around 6 when I started staying alone. After school the bus would drop me off and for an hour or two I was completely alone before my mom got home from work. For some reason I developed a phobia of things with eyes staring at me when I was alone. Any pictures, toys, and even logos (I remember I had a shampoo bottle with a little fish that stared at me) I had to turn away from being able to look at me. This was before the PS3 came out and before I had any video games so I didn't have anything to distract me.
@@FallingFeeling212 That's exactly how some childhood friends of mine would spend their week nights.
@@facade5050 But I can relate more to your story, being home alone as a little kid is really bizarre and a beautiful comparison to this album. I listened to this once at like 3am when I was in a hotel in a small town. But I was a grownup already hah, was the closest I could get to that trippy scary hazy feeling you described.
@@RenegadeShepard69
For real bro, I probably listened to this album at around the same time as you (3am) 2 years ago and it just brought me back to that weird eerie feeling I had. The weirdest part of all is that it made me think about what my thinking process was like when I was little. There was no adult rationalization, just raw feeling. Odd. It's a very evocative album.
Geogaddi gives me that feeling of being a child staring into an eerie forest in the evening in summertime from a safe distance in your backyard.
Exactly!
This is eerily on point
Accurate
this too accurate
absolutely!
Little known fact - BoC fans go to the beach at Redooint and bury or scatter artefacts there. There’s been instances of BoC related memorabilia being found there.
@yolomorgannwg7713 ... yes
Cool. I will go there soon
That's amazing, I'd love to go there someday and hide some yellow balls 🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡
An interesting fact that no one seems to have mentioned in the comment section: The japanese version of the album has a bonus track called "From one Source all Things Depend", which is a soft track with kids talking about God in the background.
It does feel ironic considering the dark nature of the album, and it changes the album length (probably unintentionally).
A Pendulum and Boards of Canada fan? Hell yeah, dude, let's high five over how both bands have left us starving for new releases for almost the entirety of the 2010s
...
i would laugh if it didn't hurt so bad
I believe this track serves a purpose. The first time i listened to it, i broke in tears. I NEVER cry. So weird.
@@kidkangaroo5213 I mean... if you listen to BoC you have to listen to every band ever. BoC is a deep rabbit hole.
This is why I love music. It doesn't have to be this complex, but It can be. The idea that two guys decided to structure an album from the ground up so all these little secrets and "coincidences" can be discovered by someone who looks deep enough into it is so interesting. This album is made with such impressive intent. So exited to be going down this rabbit hole.
Yes, they tapped into that great omnipotent, omnipresent, disembodied intelligence, the Karmic System; Karma.. through time and situations, it's alive.. 😮
I found out a couple years ago, that:
Television was actually began as an experiment into the spirit world, the idea being that it is incredibly rare to encounter a spirit powerful enough to manipulate things such as tables, chairs, slam doors etc, but the majority CAN influence things such as photons, electrons..
ruclips.net/video/BpbAqgS-ZmM/видео.htmlsi=G4CTu6L37IGzs5MQ
And also, sinister spirits supposedly lurk on the tops of doorways, waiting for an unsuspecting individual to walk under so that they can drop, attach themselves to the person's soul, who most likely felt nothing more than a slight chill in the air.. to influence the person's thought's, feelings and ultimately actions, to live again..
Supposedly though, one way to ward off against these spirits is to simply make the top of the doorway arched not flat, so the spirit (called a mojo) slides right off; must be an ancient belief as it's why church and some home doorways look like that!
ruclips.net/video/Hi52NgNajTQ/видео.htmlsi=lkfpNbm7sAEp7tRT
After doing some research "Julie and Candy" most likely refers to two characters from the Summer of '72, an adult movie BoC have sampled a bunch of times. I almost get the feeling the song is supposed to be like happening across a movie you're not supposed to see as a kid, since childhood experiences are a big part of the influence of BoC's sound.
When have they used this sample? Love to hear some examples. Huge fan here
@@droan999 song sixtyniner and p.c. and niagra and probly some others i forgot
Do you have a link for this? I love finding lost samples and definitely nothing else
@@clark985 do you possibly have a link to it? Love to listen through it
@@droan999 ruclips.net/video/3JPPFG-Np4M/видео.html
ruclips.net/video/BCj-uAFVHoQ/видео.html
I've always held "Gyroscope" very close to my soul, and here's why.
Before ever hearing the album, I actually had a very odd dream, some would describe it as an "astral projection" experience, but whatever--a strange, powerful dream. In the dream, I was living with a family in England (I live in the u.s.), and I had to sleep in the daughters bedroom last night because she was taking over the guest bedroom I was previously sleeping in (I was in this experience for several weeks, and all of it was as though I was completely awake, the family even somewhat acknowledging my existence there, but then just as quickly forgetting it when our interractions ended, almost as though I was an apparition in their home). The daughter was having weird experiences from her bedroom, and surely enough, when I slept in it, I did too. I won't go into full detail, as it is not all important here (but if you're interested, I might elaborate in the comments), but one of the main things that happened was the bathroom started to emmitt this colored light, sort of green but sort of shifting, that poured through the room--very vibrant, very bright, but soft and yet threatening at the same time. With the light that poured out in a water like fashion, floating throughout the room, it also seemed to warp that side of the room visually, almost like an intimately close heatwave would, but the most memorable aspect of this part of the experience, was that it carried this sound with it. A song, that sounded exactly like Gyroscope (which I had never heard at the time), and not just the song, but the frequency was very powerful, like a sub-bass freq that rattled my bones as it engulfed me. I remember the experience so perfectly even to this day. When I walked into the bathroom, things only got weirder...later on, I heard Geogaddi, and drew instant connection to Gyroscope, as it sounded just like what I heard in that experience...it was 2 years later upon coming across the notes of his interview that it was revealed to me he had also dreamt of the experience, and recreated it exactly...when I found that out, it shook me to my absolute core. The freaky part was certainly not hearing a song that I heard exactly, but later finding out it was also from a dream, for him too. This album holds weight.
Gyroscope is my probably favourite BOC song
chills …
elaborate pls, this shit is fascinating
Please elaborate. Very interesting. You have a link to him saying that about the song?
Got any info on that interview?
I believe Magic Window is the key track. What could be considered a magic window? Maybe a mirror? A mirror reverses. You see yourself. You consider yourself, and what you have just been listening to. Yes, there are things deliberately put in there for you to find, but was it designed to be spooky, unsettling, evil, or was it merely toying with perception? The world we see and experience is fundamentally shaped by ourselves. For example, the children's screams can be interpreted as agonised if that's what our mind brings to it. If it doesn't, it isn't. Nothing is only one thing. The ying contains the yang. The past within the present. Someone once said to me that the most important thing in a piece of art is the frame, as without it you can't know where the art stops and the rest of the world begins. BoC are playing with us, and Magic Window invites us to consider what we bring to the music as a listener, and what we bring to the world as a participant.
Maybe! :D
Wow. Please write a book. Holy shit.
I think its supposed to be death and the magic window is heaven
“Magic Window” was the longest running children’s TV program in history.
“Magic Window” is also a slang term for “television”.
I think the Magic Window listens to us.
Geogaddi and Replica by Oneohtrix Point Never are the only albums that make me feel a huge ominous feeling but at the same time it's strangely comforting.
Masterpieces of our era imho.
I personally think r plus seven is a more powerful album but you make a very good point
Don't know about the second one. have to check that out. im glad, that i discover things from time to time, that are completely new to me. Even they aren't new. There is so much music out there and it's great.
Yeah
Replica is a beautiful album
I recall when Replica first released, I went to Brooklyn to visit a friend of mine who was always turning me onto the music coming out of their at the time. I used to head out to see him all the time taking the Chinatown bus out of Philadelphia, and this time I arrived in Chinatown in Manhattan in the early evening and made my way over to his apartment. I brought with me a few grams of DMT as a middle man between two groups of people.. anyway he put that album on and we laid on the floor looking out of the apartment window at the evening skyline and I will never forget hearing that first song Andro for the first time deep in the grasp of a DMT trip. I can still see the entire bus ride flash before my eyes in seconds as the reality of my circumstances came bounding forth before being rent and giving way to the overwhelming pull of the gravity of that unconscious flood. I was in tears and cannot hear that song now without immediately being taken back to that moment. Those were some exciting times with his and James Ferraro new music coming out that was blowing our minds.
I've been listening to this album for over 5 years and it's still probably the best thing I've ever heard.
12 for me, same....
14 for me abd it still blows my mind with stuff I didn’t know
I feel that Geogaddi is essentially a sort of eerie, surreal audio Rorschach test for the listener. There is clearly a lot of detail put into the album, but I'm not sure how concrete it's supposed to be for us, or maybe it's not even so concrete to Boards of Canada themselves. Even if it did have a more exact meaning, they seem pretty secretive about it all, so I feel they probably want it to stay mysterious and open to interpretation.
Fun video bud!!! Keep at it. Cool observations and research here.
I am absolutely of this camp. I think Boards of Canada made a bunch of vocal samples in the studio based around simple building blocks, color and numbers and mapped them across the keyboard, maybe within some of their drum group programs on the Akai S1000 and the samples started to work their way into their songs.
There are several samplers, like the Ensoniq Mirage that have stock samples of people counting, that could have spurred the idea, just by running a sequence into what is automatically burned into a newly formatted sample disk…
I believe there is a tremendous amount of intentional free association happening within most of their work and they have given themselves the freedom to create their own language around the experimental process of building associative structures based on the vocal content of the selected sample.
yeah, this album is in a way just a very rhythmic and organized sound collage piece. Drum beats with layers of drones, backmasked sounds, vocals, synths and keys that float over them
Like Richard D. James has said, electronic music is abstract by nature, it's not for talking about, it's for listening.
@@nge1301 Perfectly said
After reading through a lot and hearing a lot of theories, this one makes the most sense thus far. Nice take and really like this interpretation of the album.
just watched this entire video in one go. this is probably the most comprehensive deep dive into geogaddi i've seen and you were super thorough. i don't know what exactly i should say to motivate you to make more deep dive videos in this fashion, but please continue to do so. this was a great watch. excellent quality.
I had the most insane visual experience on LSD while listening to this album somewhere in 2018, alone in my room, on about 600ug. I had the album cover on full screen on a large 52 inch HD television and the music on full blast. The hexagon became a bright glowing radiating light that opened into a portal and became a deep hole ' inside ' the television. I was looking into a large deep tunnel inside the LSD world, and could really see the enormous depth of it, at the end i saw a bubbeling chasm full of gigantic creatures / entities forming out of an ocean of geometric shapes. It was the most beautiful and profound visual experience i have ever had on LSD, and i will never forget it.. i literally couldn't believe my eyes and to this day i still believe it was one of those spiritual special experiences gifted to me by the amazing wonder that the acid world really truly is.. The music accompanied the whole thing perfectly, no, it WAS the music, it was the combination of both the visual and the music that became this wild brain trip. It was as if i had listened it again for the first time (i listen to Boards from 1999 now), and i am convinced Boards created this music especially to trip on, at least in my opinion.. it is the best music out there and the soundtrack to my life. Thank you Boards of Canada, and Thom thanks for a great video! Learned a ton that i didn't know yet about these legendary musicians!
Where u alone in that trip?
@@YoussefHesham-jw2oj I was, i love to trip by myself. You'll be diving even deeper into yourself, and have more focus on what is actually going on in the trip etc. Imo, for the best visuals you really need to sit still without distractions, focus and let it unfold before you.
@@XpRnz And u really haven't seen any demonic faces out of the artwork?
The story of "Julie and candy" is the same story represented by petscop in the "quitters room". For some reason, seeing all these connections in these pieces of artwork that I adore, made me cry. Just so many ways that these people represent this tragedy, and each one is so unique and heart wrenching.
Ready Lets Go also sounds like the Garalina Intro
Julie and Candy are two characters from the adult film "Summer of '72," which they sampled in Sixtyniner and Niagara.
The Candace Newmaker thing is just a sad coincidence.
I love this album and boards of Canada as a whole, my dad used to play it all the time when I was little. Good memories.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on Tomorrow's Harvest
On all BoC albums, honestly.
I like the words this guy says.
Palace Posy (Apocalypse) is my favorite song in it.
He did it!
Not my favorite, though
Jacquard Causeway changed my life
it makes my heart happy to see such young newer listeners...young relative to my 40 years, that is. thanks for this content! excited to dig in with you
Some ommited things:
70 in BoC works is a nod for their Music70 label ;)
Same with the number "Sixtyten" in Aquarius and well... "Sixtyten" on the previous album
There's an actual link between refferencing the David Koresh and 1969...
1969 marks the ban of the usage of CS gas towards the foreginers.
The same gas was used in the Waco Massacre, which led to the death of Koresh.
There are even the two other Branch Davidian related tracks in form of the Amo Bishop Roden (The 1969's quote is most likely about the Amo) and In a Beautiful Place out in the country, which is speculated to use the ABR's invitation slogan.
Yellow on Alpha and Omega appears in the exact centerpiece of the whole album! Another golden ratio
I saw Drones may be the refference to the therm of synesthesia (seeing sounds, hearing colors, etc)
“A beautiful place” from Sunshine Recorder refers to “In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country”, the EP they put out before Geogaddi.
“Julie” and “Candy” are actually the names of two characters in the adult film “Summer of '72”, dialogue of which was sampled in Sixtyniner, Niagara, P:C:, and Sir Prancelot Brainfire.
The indistinct samples in A is to B as B is to C are from some weird Christian kids CD called “Make a Joyful Noise!”
It’s saying “it must be a musical computer!”
From 1:40 in this video:
ruclips.net/video/XlF6dcgMqig/видео.html
Also the two gods are not Satan and God, it's The Horned God (even referenced in the song You Could Feel The Sky with the Lyrics "A God With Horns, A God With Hooves") and the Mother Goddess. The two main gods in Celtic paganism (BoC are from the Scottish Highlands where a lot of this culture is preserved, compared to many areas which dont emphasize/keep around their Celtic roots/traditions in the UK)
Good vid for the non obscure detail though, so good for a flip through.
The "In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country" EP has a cropped image of David Koresh's eye in the artwork too.
One piece of advice for anyone who's new to BoC. Geogaddi is a masterpiece, but it might not be the best starting point for getting into the group. It's can be a bit like jumping into the deep end without learning to swim first. If you feel yourself completely bouncing off this record on first try, consider giving Music Has The Right To Children a spin or two, as it's a much more accessible starting point.
I disagree, MHTRTC has alot of glitchy drum tracks that might overwhelm or bore listeners, Geogaddi is a way better starting point. Although I started with MHTRTC but I was fairly used to weird music by then.
I started with whatever stuff "user" (its not spelled like that) used in Star Trek Acid Party (at least half dozen tracks are used for calm, but trippy interludes).
for a starting point, i actually think tomorrow's harvest is the best place... it's masterful but probably the most recognizable/approachable for people who listen to electro but not necessarily the super arty stuff. it's jammy and has the most modern, least occult feel (even though it is still super arty and extremely dark subject matter)
Second this. I started with MHTRTC, then The Campfire Headphase, then Tomorrow's Harvest and only then I could really grasp Geogaddi. A masterpiece.
I made the mistake of starting with Geogaddi cuz A is to B as B is to C was in a game Vinesauce Vinny played
This is brilliant, so thorough. Fantastic work.
I quick note on Julie and Candy; BoC have sampled the old adult film ‘Summer of 72’ in the track Sixtyniner (from their debut EP Twoism) among other tracks and they also seem to have taken segments of melody from it for other tracks. Two of the characters from that ? Julie and Candy.
I think that this is the more realistic theory.
I really believe they were bidding the earth farewell on this album. Really...so much happened around this time. It is when the world finally sort of lost itself permanently and gave in to technology.
Could you explain a bit more? Interested to hear your thoughts.
@@TwentyTwenty90 Not sure if it was coming into adulthood type mind changes, but everything got more and more restricted in the world after my 2004-2005 BoC experience. So many life changing events around then, but mostly things like the Patriot Act and endless war that I grew into, turning eighteen years old in 2005. Aside from the uprising of the cell phone and mobile internet movement between 2007 and 2013, nothing of value happened for me. I completed college in 2008 and the economy crashed. Hope that makes sense.
@@TwentyTwenty90 Also, I was experimenting with DXM and had just started smoking weed around this time. Suppose that should be mentioned. I did not try mushrooms until 2019, weirdly enough.
@@MatthewStout I was really vibing with your thoughts, and had to chuckle when you mentioned weed and DXM. although I can relate to that strange feeling in the 2000's and into the 2010's, I'm a bit younger than you but when I started to really use DXM starting in 2012 after a failed relationship, living in the woods with my parents, I can definitely see the 'world-coming-ungluedness' in that time, echoing your sentiment. just a few days ago I listened to geogaddi while on a 2nd plateua trip, now married and secure in my sanity and being, it still threw me for quiet a loop. tbh in the past, once gyroscope came on, I was out, even though MHTRTC is my favorite DXM album of all time. I still remember the experience of a full body and soul massage going through telephasic workshop, feeling like a new man at the end of it. Geogaddi though, Jesus Christ... sorry for the ramble, lol. If you don't mind me asking, how did your experimentation go? I see some people (myself included) swear by it as part of their development, others think its literally satanic. hope you're doing well now, in any case.
This is the only piece of music that actually still scares me and that I find unsettling. Haha.
You Could Feel the Sky, to me, is easily the darkest track sound-wise. That initial bass kick and rip is so jarring, especially coming after something like Diving Station.
The whole album is a trip.
i think its interesting gyroscope played during a very important scene in "sinister". its one of my fav horror movies and the boc track fits the ambience / scene really well.
That’s how I found Boc
Ive known BOC since early 2000s it blew my mind. Yeah haha i noticed it it made the film cooler
Geogaddi is basically a musical ARG and I love it with a passion.
In the beginning I was ready to call bs on all the satan/dark stuff as this album has always been very comforting to me, now I’m nearing the end and uh… There’s really no debating it now, holy shit.
Great analysis, I thoroughly enjoyed this presentation.
Ok so I was driving a lot today and listening to boc and I kind of unpacked the info I took in here and I’ve changed my mind. This is off the top of my head so bare with me:
A few things came up first, the darkness thing didn’t vibe with hearing recently (forget where) that boc claim 1 that they spend a lot of time in nature and seclusion 2 that they’re “not really religious” and 3 that music is basically magick and can practically manipulate people it’s so powerful.
Now let’s go back to the name, it’s more simple, Geo meaning earth, yes, and Gaddi representing surrealism. No smoke or mirrors here it’s literally just representing earth/nature based surrealism/psychedelia, and this can represent their entire works beyond this particular album. Some happy lads in the woods on acid making their own world through their art/music. Boom done. This is where my comfort within the albums world probably stems from, I can relate, plus I’ve listened to it tripping in nature alone a bunch.
Now who is the god of earth? PAN, the other horned god from pagans in the distant past. Also, Wicca and pagans are not dark/evil, no matter what hardcore Christians will tell you… actually I’ve never met a pagan or Wiccan that wasn’t totally “down to earth” (pun intended 😅). It’s more beautiful and powerful than dark really.
The number 666 is representative of perfection (9 in numerology) and is the number of humanity at a higher vibration within the larger system of creation and earthbound life. Lucifer also can be correlated here as the most brightest shining star more than the bamboozling devil that later got wrapped up in all this bs, but again don’t ask the Christians search for yourself. Esotericism, the occult, theosophy, etc has examples of this. Dodge the highjack. The cauldron also connects to this from the Gaelic/Celtic lore, from a place of reverence for the earth and nature not some “satanic” malarkey. Yes it’s ritualistic, but not bad/evil…
I’ll stop there for now as to not blather out more paragraphs, but I’ll continue the conversation if anyone else is interested. I think that’s the meat of it at the moment without spiraling down all of the connected paths buts there’s a lot more to it.
Thought provoking to say the least, again I appreciate your post. Thanks again! 🫡
@@TheManFromNowheres Bravo, I must say that I agree with your take on this. After hearing Geogaddi for years and having my own impressions of it, then seeing this video and like you, being pretty convinced with what was uncovered. Yet I just couldn’t perceive this sense of ‘evil’ from the record because that’s not what I get from it at all. Is it just archaic yes, without bounds, like unrestricted in expression without having to be filtered or watered down so people won’t be offended, or to fit in a box of ‘accepted’ reality. I think this is quite a good analogy. The track The Devil Is In The Details has positive affirmations in it, the ‘we love you’ sample in A Is to B As B Is to C, be it reversed, (reverse doesn’t equal opposite) the warm yet mysterious feeling of The Beach At Redpoint, The Orgasmic voices in Dawn Chorus, The intro track Ready Let’s Go is a sense of pure wonder and exhilaration. Another analogy is that it’s a similar feeling that’s experienced from psychedelics and even parallels with some paranormal experiences, sometimes appearing extremely weird, out of place, absurd, unfitting, uncany, even unnerving at times… but that's not negative or evil, it just is. And I can hear some tracks that have a supposed 'dark' meaning such as 1969 and hear it in a beautiful way. Anyway, I just wanted to add this because I felt your explanations were spot on. I love Geogaddi as with all of their albums and I think it’s important to listen to it with no pre-conceived ideas about it.
Yes but the alpha and the omega too.
I dont think they are into satanist.
Its observations of all
I remember when I got this album as a Christmas gift years and years ago from my parents. I was blown away and obsessed and frequently terrified by it. I'd go onto the twoism boards constantly and read theories and listen to found sound clips people found. One of my all time favourite albums. I recently moved, took 400 CD's out of their cases, and put them on spindles, discarding the jewel cases. Geogaddi is one of only 4 that I retained the case for. It's so cool to see people still breaking this album down and analyzing it. It's still disturbing to me, but I'll forever be mystified by it.
It's the gift that keeps on giving 😉
Gotta say, you must have pretty cool parents 👌
The ultimate proof that Magic Window is pure silence is that the side of the vinyl with magic window is just a blank smooth vynil surface with a drawing representing a mom, a dad, and two daughters
What is surprising me here is to discover the fact that despite being fond of their music since the end of the 90s it never once in over 20 years occurred to me to consider approaching their work from any other perspective than the ineffable intangible of simply listening to it. Thank you for introducing me to a side of an album more intimately familiar to me than my own body that I didn't even suspect.
It's quite interesting that Geogaddi actually shows a ritual though the audio.
I remember myself being a lonely child living in suburbia. I entertained myself only with music and endless walkings. Once in winter I left for a very long walk in a forest with BOC in my earbuds. In the one moment I became so tired I lied down the snow so I could see the sky high above and woods surrounding me. The view and "Dawn Chorus" instantly repeating in my ears made me feel so calm and warm even it was frozen outside. After coming home I felt asleep.
I also performed similar little rituals listening to BOC during my youth. It helped me to recover emotionally. So it seems like I got their message but in a very specific way.
I think ultimately for me, the album’s darkness signifies the sad failure of utopian thinking (from much of the counterculture / hippies) in the 1960s. The Manson family cult killings (in 1969, of course) are seen by some as kind of a watershed moment, where the hippie dream really starts to sour and American life (and life in other countries, consequently) really starts to become more ruthlessly capitalistic (there’s some great writing on this - all I can think of to hand are Thomas Pynchon’s novels ‘Vineland’ and ‘Inherent Vice’ though at the moment). So in 'Geogaddi' you get all these references to the darkness that follows in its wake - new agey therapies that amount to little more than child abuse, for example, and exploitative cults built up by and egomaniacal individuals like David Koresh. I've loved this album for about 10 years, and there are some of the little details you bring up here that I'd never really clocked before. Really nice overview.
That's what I see too. A lot of this album (as well as A beautiful place in the country) has a lot of links with cults/sects/new age movements. The music itself feels like being high on LSD on a hot, sunny summer day. Trippy, ecstatic, yet a weird sense of worry or uneasiness. It is very synesthetic, the music itself suggests colours/images. Also, the cover with all the humanoid shapes holding hands around a globe with trees reflects the ideals of unity across races and genders which is often taken as a basic premise for these famous cults which led to terrible horrors (Jonestown, Waco massacre, the Rajneeshi commune in Oregon, the solar temple, and so many others). This tension is present across the whole album -- optimism/ecstasy/desire for a beautiful world, for order, and how these can turn into something scary, a horrifying, feverish nightmare
@@roxanenoel8747 funnily enough, the more I listen to The Campfire Headphase (even though it struck me as more "chill-out" at first), the more I hear this sort of mood in the underbelly of that album too
Exactly how I feel about this album as well not to mention all the references and samples from the incredible string band within
you had me at thomas pynchon, homie
You might be onto something there
About 6 mos after this album came out, I spent maybe 2 straight mos of only listening to this, forwards and backwards, trying to understand the narrative, reading all the online theories. It was such a wonderful experience and I remember having horrifying nightmares, where I was listening to Corsair backwards and suddenly the hoofed/horned god would appear outside my window. Totally freaky! I would never trade that experience and this rains my favorite album today. I do think corsair would refer to a ship that we may be on as we “take my hand” might refer to a Charon like character. The flute reference you mentioned harkens back to the beginning of Music Has the Rights to Children where it sounds like a horn - even before Geogaddi came out I imagined it would be played by some nymph with horns/hooves.
Loose fur. What color was his fur?
"Coarse hair is that with the widest diameter of hair strands"
@@Mr-pm3jp dark grayish black to my memory.
@@benmorrow1701 That makes me sad. I'll adopt him. I bet he's sweet. I'll name him bearbear and put a pink bow on his head and take pictures. #SoCute!
@@Mr-pm3jp haha! I’ll reach out if I can manifest him into existence. #workingonit
Hey, thanks so much for highlighting my Gyroscope vid. Superb album analysis! Hope to see more deep dives!
To add to it, a lot of the album was influenced by 9/11 (the last 5 months of its development were post). So the title “You Could Feel The Sky” and “Corsair” can take on meaning from there. There’s other aeronautical references in general like the gyroscope and drones.
It’s funny for such a hell shaped album it’s quite filled with the elements of water and air.
Goose down. Loose fur. "Coarse hair is that with the widest diameter of hair strands"
The Past inside the Present
Alpha and Omega,
Yin and Yang
Duality/Balance.
Honestly, this is one of my favorite youtube videos.
I've been getting into BOC recently, and I can't say I expected any of this. Learning about this album feels like learning the story of Marathon.
Considering how dense their albums are it's no wonder it takes them 10 years or more to come out with a new one :D
It’s good to know that a new generation of BOC fans are taking this music seriously. I got my copy of Geogaddi a week before it’s U.K. release and was given a promo poster at the shop as they had been sent more than they had space to display, I still have it on my wall. I saw them play some of the tracks at the incredible Warp records lighthouse party at the chainstore, canary buoy wharfe, London October 2000. If you look there are some recordings on YT.
In the U.K. various BOC tracks have been used as background music for BBC television programmes quite regularly.
Yo! I was at the lighthouse do as well, it was, shall we say a challenging event. Haha! But as you say, great seeing a new generation of fans for the brothers.
Wow. This is easily my favorite album of all time, and even having known about some of this stuff beforehand, I was still surprised with just how much deep symbolism there was on this album. And honestly, the fact they were able to include so much of it and still have it sound amazing only makes me love this album even more. Great video. Have subscribed.
Interesting. Never heard of this before. Thanks for making this.
In for a treat
You Should Listen to their Other Albums Too.
...you've never heard of Boards of Canada before now???
i remember as a kid I was going on a road trip to big bear CA and it was like 1:00 am and we were on the road and everyone was asleep except my dad who had boards of Canada on (the color of the fire from music has the right to children) and though it was not geogaddi it had a similar vibe and I woke up and I saw the trees and mountains on the forest highway and they looked like giants and it was a weird memory I remembered when I was watching this video super eerie
Yeah that definitely happened
Also, cool thing to mention is that the song “ Gyroscope” is featured in the horror film “Sinister”, a pretty decent horror movie from recent times.
Children are the future. They just haven't gotten there yet.
Thank you for making this, there are very few videos out there that take a deep dive and talk about BOC in such detail. Would definitely love to see you talk about their other albums!
I absolutely love this video. Realising how much were done during the video production is astonishing.
I've been listening to Geogaddi for like three years, have read some of the theories beneath it but never dug this down the rabbit hole. Amazing job!
sheesh, nice video. I've loved this album for a few years and always knew it had some darker secrets (despite feeling very warm to me), but this is mental learning about the innerworkings of these songs. cool stuff man
It's crazy how relevant this album is today. Thinking specifically about Energy Warning & short wave radio sampling in it during this current time.
Great analysis btw. I love BoC.
just wanted to note, that the "be careful" line in Music in Math is more likely "purple" as I'm pretty sure they put all the primary colors in the album in different ways, but thank you for the video!
But purple isn’t a primary color
Okay, wait:
Orange (Aquarius)
Purple (Music is Math)
Yellow (Alpha and Omega)
I think those are their mentions of colors in the lyrics. Red Moss and The Beach at Redpoint both have Red in the title.
@@connor48880 ah yeah my bad, I meant all the roygbiv colors
also roygbiv is their most famous song!
@@connor48880 yes!
@@connor48880 also Turquoise Hexagon Sun, It's Too Orangey, Whitewater
Dude you did a stellar job covering all this stuff. Really great video, hats off
Thanks for the massive effort in your breakdown and analysis. I love this album and now I will hear it with new eyes
I think the best description of Geogaddi I heard was simply "cold war paranoia".
I love this, we definitely need more long form content/reviews on BOC music.
I'd love to see a video like this on MHTRTC or IABPOITC
This is why Geogaddi is my favorite album of all time. So much thought and underlying messages were put in this album it's insane. The eerie and unsettling sound this album contains brings out the most emotion than any other piece of music.
Got this album when it came out, i didn't find any of it eerie at all. It's a masterpiece of electronica.
That was pretty great dude! Hope you do more of those in the future. The vaporwave scene has a bunch of crazy albums to explore, for example.
My favourite album!! Geogaddi changed my life. I will write more things here when I have time to watch this video. It looks great. Thanks mate!
I saw drones. In music, a long sustained note or chord is also called a drone. And "saw" can also refer to the "saw-wave" used in synthesizers. So maybe it has something to do with a saw wave drone? I'm a synth-head, so it's the first thing I thought about reading the title, but it's probably nonsense. btw nice minilogue you have there
GREAT video my dude! Great album by one of my favorite bands of all time so as soon as I saw it in my recommended it was an instant click, you're about to blow up!
HERE BEFORE 1k subs!
This album is an extremely dense work, glad someone make a video talking about it, thank you, it's interesting hearing some different points of view
I'm always excited whenever someone makes a video about BoC, and you did an excellent job in doing so.
nice stratosphere pfp. u must have incredible taste in music, do u have a spotify ?
@@janitoroflunacy Rarely use it, not much into streaming.
Watching a video about BoC with a duster pfp and my bloody valentine username. I like your style dude
@@tmanmatt213 I appreciate that :)
One night in 2003, I heard Music Has The Right To Children for the first time, and became an instant fan of BOC.
Until now, I had no idea what I had gotten myself into.
The line "A beautiful place" also is a reference to "A beautiful place out in the country, which stems from a branch dividian associated person stating "come out and live in a religious community in a beautiful place out in the country"
Great video about one of my favorite albums ever. I’d definitely like to see you dissect more electronic albums. I think if you keep releasing cool content like this you’ll be up in the 100k subs territory in no time.
[Edit: I think I'm gonna use this comment for my review, lol]
This album is incredibly interesting, I keep coming back for more. Its structure is killer, the opening duo of Ready Lets Go into Music Is Math blows my mind every time and can instantly transport me to the twisted world of Geogaddi. To me, it's an amalgamation of childhood fears, being exposed to a terror you can't fully grasp or understand, but one that is still present, like the music. The meaning to the album isn't explicit, but we have a damn good idea of what it could mean, and this video goes to show exactly that. The album itself feels like it has two main parts, or takes place across two periods of time, a double-album, if you will. The first half of the record to me goes from Ready Lets Go to Opening the Mouth, the second from Alpha and Omega to Magic Window, and I think this video summarized that pretty well, it starts off with invisible evils that you can't really put a finger on, and on the second half, it starts to get more and more clear, "invoking the ground god" [however, still maintaining obscurity]. On the second half, everything that was present in the album still is, the nostalgic soundscapes, the beats, the eerieness, however, the evil is more present, while still obscured. The killer structure presents itself in how every song feels like it's building towards a great climax [as mentioned in the video], and I feel that it escalates and escalates, similar to how in murder mysteries when you get closer and closer to finding out who the killer is, and finally, it reaches a climax with You Could Feel The Sky. To me, it feels like everything, the childlike innocence of Dandelion, the psychedelic trips of 1969 and Dawn Chorus, the comforting sounds of Over the Horizon Radar, the cold invisible horror of Gyroscope and The Beach At Redpoint, and the hypnosis of The Devil Is In The Details, all build towards You Could Feel The Sky, with Corsair and Magic Window helping to come down from the unique world that is Geogaddi. This is adds to the greatness of the album even more, as even after 20 tracks, the highest point was STILL yet to come. Geogaddi is indeed like a mystery, except one that never gets solved. This is why I keep returning to this album. It's a whole-ass experience, and one that is incredibly interesting every time, no other record has made me feel this way. So, so good. BoC are great, and while I love their other albums to death, they never made anything else on the level of Geogaddi.
I’ve never dived into boards of Canada though I like a lot of experimental music. I never search for boards of Canada on any platforms either, but bam this video showed up in my feed and 40 minutes later I’m so glad it did. Not only do I want to dive into their discography, but I also want to dive into all the future content of this creator. Is the RUclips algorithm finally doing its job again? Subscribed
I watched this video extremely attentively and was on edge the whole time. My dad introduced me to this album about a year ago but not even he knew the depths of it and this is just incredible. Amazing job
Hey man this was a super fun/interesting video. Geogaddi is my favorite BOC album but I've never delved into the meaning behind it. Great work!
Great video man, it's always a good time to hear some BoC theories. Can't wait for more!
Literal masterpiece of a video. Such a fantastic channel
this album is honestly terrifying
Dudeeeee, you've just took all of those Geogaddi trivia and put it into as much comprehensive and friendly way as it's only possible!
It's been like a 2-3 months since I got into BoC, but I have to say, that this one album already created its own place in my heart, as it's just a solid piece of interesting music.
And 1969 has to be my fav BoC track in general!
Thank you for a such deep analysis of Geogaddi!
I never suspected about hidden meaning lurked inside this album. For me it was just one of the best ambient/electronic music albums full of melancholic tracks.
Man, listening boards of canada since 2008, I was 15 when I started listening them. Thanks for this video, I can't believe Geogaddi is now 20 years old.
Geogaddi is one of my favorite albums, this is a great video!
Amazing deep dive. 10/10. Do another one of their albums please. Can’t believe you only have 600 subs
Thanks TT, for all your time and effort exploring this sonic monument. Appreciated. D from Scotland .
This was super interesting. I’ve been interested in Board of Canada for a year or two, but this video really makes me want to dig deeper and get more into them. No idea all of the crazy things going on in this album and I’ve listened like six times
1969 is also the year of peak hippy and woodstock festival - not just the satanic bible. Also it's pronounced Branch Davidian I as in igloo, not as in divide
Not just peak hippy but a kind of end to the vibe in the form of the Altamont and Manson killings
Plus, appart from the title, the Satanic Bible is far from being a scary read. It's basically a manifesto for individualism, self improvement, self indulgence, and free thinking. No human sacrifices or demon sumonning, there.
@@redjakOfficial hence why many culture's concensus is that "the devil is in the details".
Thanks for taking the time to make this
Great video, I had not heard of this album before, but I'm a huge fan of ambient deep dives! I can't believe the amount of details in this album lol
I always thought that 1969 referred to the Manson cult murders which took place in summer (August) 1969, i.e. 1969 in the sunshine.
Your presentation is awesome man! Keep them
videos coming!
The cover mean is obviosly not related to satan but the oposite. In the back there is the sun wich is the source. Those humanoid seems like they are holding hands and those trees are with the people in harmony.
Very cool video. Absolutely love this album and have and will play it many more times, but even I learned some new stuff about this album. Good stuff, man. :)
Love this video so far! Hopefully your RUclips career takes off!
Wow! First time on RUclips that a video kept me watching💯
i just discovered you're channel a couple of days ago with the deep dive into Daniel Johnston's classic hi, how are you album. i love boards of Canada and been listening to them ever since I discovered music has the right to children way back in early 2004. I don't find them very mysterious but I loved your theories about geogaddi. the Beatles and others used backwards masking on some of their albums. keep up the great work!!!!
Dude, you should do more of this deep dive stuff. I'm really digging your content so far. 😊👌❤
ok this channel needs to blow up now. great fucking work, dude.
Thank u for this video!👏🏻
I would like to see a review about another Boards of canada albums.
Best review of Geogaddi ever! Thank You.
congratulations on your research. this album deserves such a review. greetings from Mexico. I recommend you analyze godspeed you black emperor lift your skinny fists like antennas to heaven album.
Your channel is SOOO underrated. I can't believe that you only have 31 subscribers
Excellent work.👌🏻
Thank you for
making this video.🙏🏻
Dude this video is awesome, nice work!!
This review was great, dude! Geogaddi is one of the best electronic albums ever!
To me, the kids in the background on "Beware the Friendly Stranger" sound like kids playing on a school playground, those kinds of shouts, not ones of fear or pain. And the friendly stranger is a creep watching them, perhaps. A bit dark but that's what I always got from the song.
Personally, this is their best album.
Very well done my guy. Would love to hear your unraveling of some of their other albums
Great video. Not listened to Geogaddi in years, and I was thinking maybe a lot of these points and suggestions would be tenuous at best, but shit man - this is deep stuff. More exploration for me, of some music I've always loved. ♥