A lot has happened since this topic was last posted in. Thus I feel it is time for me to update my 'Favorite BoC Tracks' list. This is the most honest and distilled list I have made yet and would almost fit on an 80:00 minute disc. Following in order of chronological release/creation...
<b>5.9.78</b> - An enveloping, mysteriously nostalgic melody... The drums are very simple, but I've come to accept this and even embrace it. BoC haven't officially released much material that can match the richness of this layered melody.
<b>Buckie High</b> - Exudes an incredible warmth and nostalgia that only the lo-fi, sketchy production of the 'Old Tunes' can conjure for me. Of all the Old Tunes this is definately my favorite track... An incredible, laid-back vibe that literally melts off the speakers and into your brain, lulling you into trance of psychadelic nostalgia...
<b>Whitewater</b> - Tracks like this provide me with the hope that much of the older work BoC doesn't want us to hear (this track included as it was never officially released) must be among their rawest and most personal material; that's how I've always felt about much of the 'Old Tunes'. The rich, layered quality of the melody and breathe-like persussive elements make this one of BoC's most beautiful tracks and it is a shame that more people can't hear it.
<b>Hell Interface remix of 'Trapped' by Colonel Abrams</b> - This track is very different than any of BoC's other material... For stark example, I could imagine dancing my ass off at a rave to this. The drums are so fucking funky, proving that, as I said before, BoC can push for the glitchy IDM programming <i>when they feel like it</i>, and moreover do it better than most other competing artists in the process! Not <i>technically</i> their best remix, but definately my personal favorite.
<b>An Eagle In Your Mind</b> - The apex of their use of hip-hop inspired beats and breaks. Compositionally this may be the most perfect BoC track ever created; where most tracks can only aspire to be this perfect, 'An Eagle In Your Mind' can't really get any better than it is now... The fluid, degraded synth drone, the complex, evolving percussion, the chooped-vocal samples and the untouchable production; 'An Eagle In Your Mind' has it all! A masterpiece.
<b>Telephasic Workshop</b> - I've been listening to this track for years and it never ceases to amaze me... It's just perfect, and probably one of BoCs best stand-alone tracks. What I mean by this is I find that many BoC tracks are weakened when taken out of the context of their respective albums, which is why I love IABPOITC as the sum of it's parts rather than for it's individual tracks.
The chopped vocals and bassy, unconventional percussion are just too damn good to be true... I actually feel like a better person while I'm listening to this track... Not many pieces of music can ever do that.
I should also mention that this track sounds fucking ACE at 45 rpm and anyone with the vinyl should give this a try!
<b>Orange Romeda</b> - Spectacularily underrated BoC track; the fact that it was exclusively relegated to an obscure Warp compilation hasn't helped with that. This track is all about the gradual build-up of percussion to the point where it breaks at the 03:40 mark. This is one of the most delicious beats BoC have ever produced and the grainy melody and unusual vocal samples integrate flawlessly.
<b>Live @ Warp10 Track 07</b> - One of BoC's longer tracks... Some of their best percussion ever and their most tactful use of vocoded vocals... In 'Beautiful Place' and '1969' I found the vocoded vocals to be a bit in-your-face at times... I would gouge a hole in the sole of my foot with a broken wine glass just to hear this track in full, album quality pressed to vinyl!
<b>Live @ Lighthouse Track 03</b> - The qualities that attracted me to 'Telephasic Workshop' apply here as well, although I feel that this track is superior in almost every respect. That amazing layered flute melody and those sliced & diced vocal samples; it's just quintessential stuff! Somewhere in Hexagon Sun, the DAT master of this track is lying around in full quality, probably never to be publicly released... What wouldn't I give to hear this pressed to high-quality vinyl without the incessant crowd banter...
<b>Poppy Seed (Reprise)</b> - Such a joyous, innocent melody. This track bottles and distills the fascination, simplicity and terror of being a kid in the modern world... I can't honestly say how much inspiration BoC drew from the 'Slag Boom Van Loon' source material, but judging from their other remixes, I would guess only rudimentary melodic-structure... The spirit of this track is entirely original.
<b>Dawn Chorus</b> - Understading and appreciating Geogaddi has been a long and difficult journey for me... I didn't initially like this track at all, but now it one of my all-time favorites... It encapsulates the obtuse, paranoid beauty that pervades Geogaddi; it is truly unlike anything else I have ever heard... Can BoC ever top this?
<b>Satellite Anthem Icarus</b> - BoC's production is taking a turn for the better on the TCH albums... Dense layers of partial melodies coagulate to form one of BoC's most spellbindingly lovely tracks to date... Psychadelic without being alienating like much of Geogaddi was. The minute and a half (before that wierd little reversed melody that starts at 05:33) is like watching something amazing beautiful fly away from you... I wish I could live in that moment.
<b>Peacock Tail</b> - This track treads the dangerously narrow path between uncompromising, raw beauty and cheesy, coffee-lounge new-age... Luckily it stays in the former category. One of the only tracks to move me to tears upon the first (and a few susequent) listen(s). I get the feeling that many artists have done tracks like this before; but where BoC <i>really</i> set themselves apart from the pack is the amazingly dense, chaotic cacophony that starts to become audible at the 03:00 minute mark and by 04:00 sounds like a crowd of people at some outdoor gathering. A truly amazing (and original) climax to this gorgeous track.
<b>Sherbet Head</b> - It's like BoC's aesthetic for finding beauty in aged and destroyed things has become fully realized here. As with all of BoC's best material I just want to live in the fuzzy, nostalgic world this track creates in my head.
<b>Tears From The Compound Eye</b> - My favorite track off The Campfire Headphase. A truly inspirational track depressed and crumbling under the weight of it's own distincly <i>human</i> beauty... My only wish is that the introductory melody (do doooo, de do doooo) had been reintroduced sometime after the 02:00 minute mark (when the main melody shifts) to mesh with and augment the new melody. It sounds so good in my head seriously! I think I need to make my own remix of this track someday and do just that...
<b>Macquarie Ridge</b> - This track helped me weather and navigate the incredibly difficult period directly after my former boyfriend cheated on me. It is an incredibly beautiful track with some of the best use of 'ethereal vocals' I have ever heard; Eno material included! The harp that chimes in (completely undegraded or processed) halfway through the track borders on cheesy, but is introduced in such an honest, uncompromised way that I just can't fault it... A crime that people outside Japan weren't given many legal options when it came to hearing this track.
<b>Skyliner</b> - In terms of compositional evolution, this would fall somewhere between Geogaddi and The Campfire Headphase... 'Skyliner' is the result of years perfecting their sound and aesthetic. It has almost everything a good BoC track needs (aside from curious, warped vocal samples; THEN it might've been perfect); richly degraded layers of melody, complex, groovy percussion, wicked breaks and buildups/breakdowns leading to a resolved and worthwhile climax.
If this track is indeed inspired by the Japanese sky-train that it shares it's name with, then it certainly captures the essence of travelling at high velocities, gracefully unencumbered.
<b>Heard From Telegraph Lines</b> - It's as though BoC are somehow inately aware of types of sounds and melodies I want to hear in my head... As though they burrowed into my brain, figured out the exact type of sound and melody to produce a maximally effective emotional response, and birthed this track for <i>me</i>... I can't think of a more beautiful track by any artist...
It's brief length is one of the greatest crimes of modern times. I believe BoC have robbed us of perhaps the most beautiful composition of all time by not extending this track to 07:00 (at least). At this point it sounds like more of an idea that a completed track...
I have been listening to music for many years now and when I trace back my musical journey from the first ever LP I bought (Michael Jackson's 'Thriller') to now I am amazed at how I have essentially been led down a long and winding teleological path toward BoC. Had I taken a different route early on I might still be searching unknowingly for them...
I love when the song shifts into ominous territory halfway through.
