SIDE A:
- Spoiler: show
- -A01: Mellow, somewhat uneventful ambient electronica that matches the description of Catalog 3 given by Piero Scaruffi, though it could also fit right in on Acid Memories or Closes Vol. 1 (which have been described as "even less imposing"). It's significantly shorter than anything on Catalog 3 or Acid Memories, though, so if either of those are the source it's been truncated. Probably a leftover from a session back in those days, though if I had to place it as being on any of the 5 pre-Twoism albums I'd guess either one of the "Drone" tracks from Catalog or one of Closes' extended tracks such as "Fonec" or "Trillions".
-A02: "She is P" from A Few Old Tunes.
-A04: A strange little ditty that sounds like it was recorded on the spot while other people were having a conversation in the same room. It has a very abrupt ending, like maybe there's more conversation after this version ends. Matches up time-wise with "Close1" from Closes Vol. 1, which in turn has lead to much speculation that they are one and the same. Personally, I think this could also possibly be Remmy Kid from Play By Numbers (times don't match exactly, but this may be the case for multiple tracks as I will explain later). It also matches the "Guitars meet Electronics" and "Embryonic" descriptions tagged to Acid Memories by Richard Southern, but seems too short to be from there.
-A05: "Finity" from A Few Old Tunes.
-A06: Now here's an interesting one. Out of all the speculation of R35TT tracks being from the five pre-Twoism albums, this is by far the most likely. It matches up time-wise with "5D" from Closes Vol. 1 (the MP3 length is only 4:57 but the remaining time is absorbed by a fade into the next song). From what I can hear it seems like a previous measure just repeats itself at the end, so reconstructing "5D" should be pretty easy for an individual who knows what they're doing. This also was one of the many Achilles' heels of a fake Closes that I came across at one point, since they had the 4:57 R35TT version. However, the most convincing bit of evidence comes in the form of an upload of this one as "5D" on Youtube that the band themselves have in their official video playlist. This didn't happen for any other upload claiming to be from the 5 mystery albums. The track also shares samples with "Dave (I'm A Real Traditionalist)" (the "Chicken Fingers" lady) and Seven Forty Seven (the choral sample used throughout the song), giving the impression that this track is some sort of strange transitional fossil, which may be the case for other songs from the 5 mystery albums.
-A07: Noisy, fuzzy, shoegaze-y track reminiscent of the Play By Numbers sound. Features loud, distorted guitars. Sounds like nothing that BoC ever released officially, being closest to the sample of "Wouldn't You Like To Be Free?". If I had to take a guess, I'd mark this one as being a cut down "Echelon", but no hard evidence exists to support this theory.
-A08: I've seen all kinds of speculation surrounding this one. It shares a percussion loop with June 9th (except faster) and for some reason (a completely erroneous one, from what I can tell) people like to label it as "Infinite Lines Of Colourful Sevens" from Play By Numbers. If this is the case (which I doubt), it's definitely been cut down by nearly 3 minutes. At one point I slowed the track down from 151.7 bpm to 123 bpm to match the June 9th tempo, but it was still about 30 seconds short of matching "Infinite Lines" time-wise (and sounded like arse, though that may be my fault). Times vaguely match up with "Echo The Sun" from Acid Memories, which seems like a somewhat more reasonable (though just as likely to be incorrect) guess.
-A09: Very pretty, sweeping electronic track. Matches "Godever" from Closes on a time level, and doesn't sound like it had the end truncated (though the long fade at the beginning could indicate that there was more before the R35TT version starts). If this is the case, I could also reasonably accept this as a cut down version of any Acid Memories track that isn't "Duffy" (we have a sample from this one that doesn't match any R35TT tracks), possibly "Stry Craty Bya". The lack of the guitars that were said to be present on Acid Memories may indicate otherwise, possibly a truncated version of one of Closes' longer compositions such as "Found The Way".
-A10: Another track with guitars on, but this time much more on the mellow side. Reminiscent of an embryonic The Campfire Headphase track. My best guess for this one is a partial "Petina" from Acid Memories, though like A09 it could be any other Acid Memories track, or possibly an outtake from the Play By Numbers sessions. Then again, most of what I've speculated thus far is just plausible enough to *possibly* be true, though when and if the 5 mystery albums do get released I won't be surprised if I was wrong about a lot of these and they just turn out to be figurative table scraps.
-A11: "Blueberry", the short musical vignette from the end of "Sixtyten" and "Twoism" (the song, not the album).
-A12: I want to call this one part of "Geiser" or "Point Hope" from Hooper Bay, but have my doubts for a couple of reasons. It's a somewhat more complex composition than most of the R35TT, sounding closest to a Twoism outtake, but it lacks a feature that was said to have been introduced on Hooper Bay, that being the sampled kids' voices. Maybe there's one in a truncated part of the song, or maybe this isn't from Hooper Bay at all, since if my suspicions are correct so far the only kid's voice that *might* be on Hooper Bay is the "Louder!" at around 30 seconds in from This unknown track from the ATP set which may or may not be Noatak. Or maybe I'm just going insane and drawing connections that aren't there.
-A14: Another possible "Godever" from Closes (indeed, it was distributed as such before the rest of the R35TT leaked), though this one doesn't have a definite end like A09 and instead just fades out, leaving the impression that there may be more hidden after this version ends. Could also be one of Catalog 3's shorter songs ("Stowed Under", "Press") or one of Closes' longer songs ("Trillions", "Eye/Ear"), or could just be a scrap.
-A15: "I Will Get It Tattooed" from A Few Old Tunes. I quite like how it was included here, since it can be looped without hearing the end of "Blockbusters" and the beginning of "The Way You Show" (WIGGY DIGGY DOO) repeatedly. I have done this many, many times.
SIDE B:
- Spoiler: show
- -B01: The synths on this track sound vaguely similar to those on A06/maybe-5D, and the time matches up perfectly with "Focus On The Spiral" from Closes. This one actually kind of makes sense, does it not? It's also my completely subjective opinion that this song just sounds like it goes with the title "Focus On The Spiral".
-B03: "The House Of Abin'Adab" from A Few Old Tunes. The length of this track also matches up with Close2 from Closes (obv.), though that may or may not be a mere coincidence.
-B04: The second most likely candidate for a pre-Twoism release, right behind A06. This is a strummy, shoegaze-y song that sounds just like a Play By Numbers track. Specifically, many people (including myself) have speculated that this is actually "Numerator". Others have compared this one to an extremely early "Dayvan Cowboy", right down to having some of the same chords. A (most likely fake) track entitled "Numerator" sprung up on Youtube a while back which was just this but with an out of key synth line on top of it. Still, this is one of the tracks I'd be the least surprised to find out was actually what everyone thought it was. The only other catch is that this is about 10 seconds off time-wise, though that may be explained by the fade-out at the end being cut off by the beginning of B05. This still begs the question of whether the "Original Numerator" from Closes was an early/extended cut of the Play By Numbers song or a completely unrelated composition that happens to share its title.
-B05: Features a sample from Donkey Kong, which would be helpful in pinpointing the date if Boards supposedly released anything before it. Unfortunately, it isn't particularly helpful in trying to connect all the unknown tracks to the 5 mystery albums. The drums sound like they were recorded live rather than produced with a machine or samples, giving the impression that this may be an Acid Memories or Catalog 3 track (They supposedly had six members back then, you see, and it's been rumored that one of them was a drummer). I think it may be closer to Acid Memories, but as with all my previous AM speculation it could really be anything besides "Duffy". For no particular reason, I'm going to guess "Helter Skater". Then again, as with all previous R35TT speculation period it could be something else entirely.
-B06: An extremely short snippet of some droning (vocal?) samples. I've seen this one passed off as "Helios Sound", though by that logic it could also be "Ithcus Sound". That fade out at the end also means that a full version could be much longer, possibly one of Catalog 3's more uneventful tracks (such as "Breach Tones" or "Line Two").
-B07: One of my favorites out of all the R35TT tracks. It reminds me of some of the more lush, watery cave environments in Pikmin 2. The compositions here also seem a bit more complex than most of what's going on on the rest of the R35TT, bringing this one closer to the Twoism era. My best shot for this one would be part of "Seward Leaf" from Hooper Bay, though the absence of any sampled kids' voices makes it hard to pin on Hooper Bay for sure..
-B08: A short, spooky track that evokes the imagery of the creepy baby with "3"s in its eyes from the Play By Numbers cover at least for me. It's the same length as "Remmy Kid" from said album, and is a somewhat more likely candidate than A04 as far as being Remmy Kid goes. This may also represent the more electronic side of PBN that Richard Southern described along with "Infinite Lines of Colourful Sevens".
-B10: A reversed version of "The Smallest Weird Number" from Geogaddi. This is the R35TT track that made it farthest into the future as far as Boards' releases go, which indicates one of two things. Either this tape was released significantly later than the projected 1995 (which means that this tape could be full of MHTRTC and Geogaddi outtakes) or "The Smallest Weird Number" really was just that old. After all, an iteration of "Kid For Today" appeared as early as BoC Maxima.
-B12: Another mellow, droning track a la A01, but this time with a percussion beat added in the background. I speculate that this may be another one of the "Drone" tracks from Catalog 3 ("Line Two", "Drone 18", "Drone 2", "Visual Drone 12")
-B13: "Davie Addison" from A Few Old Tunes. This version is 4 seconds shorter than the AFOT version, which means there may be some leeway when matching times between the R35TT and other releases.
-B14: This one features electronic compositions, someone strumming an acoustic guitar, and possibly someone drumming live. It also has a definite end, but is started off during a crossfade with "Davie Addison" indicating that the beginning could have been cut. Sounds extremely close to how "Acid Memories" was described, indicating that if this is actually from said EP it could be pretty much anything besides "Duffy". I like to think of it as "Growing Hand" for no particular reason.
-B16: It's another one with a considerable amount of previous speculation already attached to it, this time because its running time matches up almost perfectly with Catalog 3's "Powerline". That's the only bit of possible evidence to go on here, since there was never any real description for what the songs on Catalog 3 that weren't ("lengthy tracks of rather uneventful ambient electronica"). As such, the previous tracks that I speculated may be from Catalog 3 were chosen on the grounds that "They sound a bit like maybe-Powerline".
-B18: "It's Too Orangey", the musical vignette at the end of "Basefree" from Twoism
-B20: This strange collection of tracks ends with a cheerful little electronic ditty, dominated by a repeating bouncy sample in both ears with a quiet, synthesized line in the left one. This one is sometimes passed around as "Close3" from Closes on the grounds that they're both roughly 27 seconds long. This begs the question of whether or not the 4 "Close#" tracks actually had anything in common besides being short transitional pieces (and possibly not even that). Still, it's a nice finisher for the tape.
Well, there's my 2 cents (though it was really more like a roll of pennies) on this whole matter. I was originally going to write something for every track, but then got pretty burnt out from talking about the ones I did and decided against it. What do you guys think? Could any of this be correct or am I just a raving lunatic?
Its been discussed a lot, but I personally think that R35TT is a completely unsanctioned compromise compilation made by someone close to the band with the best bits of all their pre-Twoism releases, including some stuff from the OT tapes, and maybe even some material completely unrelated to that. Its well accomplished on a few fronts - its a mystery, which their back catalog and overall mystique has thrived on since the beginning, and it also keeps the material on it anonymous so it doesn't break the trust of the Sandisons, or somehow devalue the handful of copies of each of those releases that are out there among friends and family. No one knows what it is specifically, but its great material in general and a cut above what's found on most of the OT cassettes, imo.
