Broken Drum - Beck (Boards of Canada Remix)

[pianoforte]

OK, don't know how I missed them, but somehow I never bothered listening to either the Broken Drum remix or Last Walk Around Mirror Lake.

Holy unicorns, these are amazing...!

[A_Northern_Soul]

^ should tide you over 'til TH lands.... :)

[In_The_Annexe]

^ should tide you over 'til TH lands....

haha that's why I've been posting them as of late, I think these tracks deserve some recognition. they really are special.

I figured if Harvest is out soon, we should be listening to as many obscure Boards of Canada tracks as we can.

if anyone is still interested, check out my other thread, where you can hear a very rare track, put together and mixed by Helios, basically he used some of the samples of their old site and put it together. I thought it was phenomenal.

[2020k]

I've never heard "Last Walk Around Mirror Lake" - it's beautiful! Just found it.

The "Broken Drum" remix will probably indefinitely be my favorite BoC remix, followed by "Poppy Seed". They are brilliant pieces, for sure.

[Dmitrii]

Beck, in an interview with Clash Magazine from early 2005, mentioned that he had the group Boards Of Canada remix a song. They remixed "Outerspace," and according to Beck.com, the remix was to be titled "Blank Space." However, since "Outerspace" changed names to "Broken Drum," this remix is no longer called "Blank Space." It is just simply "Broken Drum (Boards Of Canada remix)."
Taken from http://whiskeyclone.net/ghost/songinfo. ... ersionID=2

[Waterbagel]

Just picked up Geurolito. Definitely my favorite remix by them by far!

[Berselius]

They just retweeted this tweet of the remix:

https://twitter.com/_cguetta/status/749276211549904896

[Twister]

They just retweeted this tweet of the remix:

https://twitter.com/_cguetta/status/749276211549904896

this is the most active I've seen them on twitter

[Opothecary]

Macquarie RIdge on 6/6, Broken Drum on 7/7...guess we'll see if 8/8 brings up something interesting, but if A is to B as B is to C is any indication, this little game won't have a payoff until at least 10/10

[North by North]

Macquarie RIdge on 6/6, Broken Drum on 7/7...guess we'll see if 8/8 brings up something interesting, but if A is to B as B is to C is any indication, this little game won't have a payoff until at least 10/10

Very interesting indeed.

[ParticleGhost]

i may have said this in another thread already, but i love the little song that plays throughout the remix when reversed.

[adecentman]

i may have said this in another thread already, but i love the little song that plays throughout the remix when reversed.

Wow! Never listened to this one in reverse before; this one's gotta be up there with their most interesting reversed tracks. The arrangement is so lush and abstract played forward, but in reverse it becomes clear that the track is mostly comprised of relatively unprocessed guitar, bass, keyboard, and piano! Amazing!

Guess now is a good as time as any to point out a piece of gear BoC own, as its featured prominently in this track and 'Spectrum': The Yamaha PSS-460/470 is a nifty little 2-operator FM synth with a decent amount of tweakability; apparently circuit benders really dig it.

As far as I'm concerned it's one of those synths living wonderfully in the grey area between toy and instrument--picked one up at Goodwill for $12 in 2009 and its been a good friend to me ever since.
Anyway, you can hear it played in reverse and with some heavy EQ/reamping in the very beginning of the Broken Drum remix, and when you reverse the track, you get a whole lot of sections where the arrangement is mostly based around the sounds coming out of the PSS. Mostly, it appears they're using the built in drum machine (it can make 4 different FM drum sounds, seems they're using the hi-hat the most) and the auto-accompaniment feature (which is funny in itself because the auto-accompaniment is one of the least tweakable features of the synth; counterintuitive for a band we tend to associate with layers and layers of processing, abstraction, sonic alienation etc.).

As mentioned before, the synth is also a key part of the arrangement on 'Spectrum' from a few old tunes; it opens the track with a combination of its built in drum machine+chordal noodling from the brothers, seemingly chopped up and resequenced on a sampler. A few years ago it dawned on me when playing my PSS where they got the name for the track:


Anyway, this just goes to show that it's the man not the machine, and who cares if its digital or analog as long as the interface feels right
Mexi, I'll have you know that the only synthesizer used on 'Sweet Boys II' is the PSS 460. Oh, such sweet nostalgia for the days when you could only afford a $12 synthesizer and had to figure out how to make it sing...

[re-phaelam-ed]

i may have said this in another thread already, but i love the little song that plays throughout the remix when reversed.

Wow! Never listened to this one in reverse before; this one's gotta be up there with their most interesting reversed tracks. The arrangement is so lush and abstract played forward, but in reverse it becomes clear that the track is mostly comprised of relatively unprocessed guitar, bass, keyboard, and piano! Amazing!

Guess now is a good as time as any to point out a piece of gear BoC own, as its featured prominently in this track and 'Spectrum': The Yamaha PSS-460/470 is a nifty little 2-operator FM synth with a decent amount of tweakability; apparently circuit benders really dig it.

As far as I'm concerned it's one of those synths living wonderfully in the grey area between toy and instrument--picked one up at Goodwill for $12 in 2009 and its been a good friend to me ever since.
Anyway, you can hear it played in reverse and with some heavy EQ/reamping in the very beginning of the Broken Drum remix, and when you reverse the track, you get a whole lot of sections where the arrangement is mostly based around the sounds coming out of the PSS. Mostly, it appears they're using the built in drum machine (it can make 4 different FM drum sounds, seems they're using the hi-hat the most) and the auto-accompaniment feature (which is funny in itself because the auto-accompaniment is one of the least tweakable features of the synth; counterintuitive for a band we tend to associate with layers and layers of processing, abstraction, sonic alienation etc.).

As mentioned before, the synth is also a key part of the arrangement on 'Spectrum' from a few old tunes; it opens the track with a combination of its built in drum machine+chordal noodling from the brothers, seemingly chopped up and resequenced on a sampler. A few years ago it dawned on me when playing my PSS where they got the name for the track:


Anyway, this just goes to show that it's the man not the machine, and who cares if its digital or analog as long as the interface feels right
Mexi, I'll have you know that the only synthesizer used on 'Sweet Boys II' is the PSS 460. Oh, such sweet nostalgia for the days when you could only afford a $12 synthesizer and had to figure out how to make it sing...

where, if ever, has it been mentioned one of these was used? or is this just conjecture?
as much as i believe, and many others believe, an SH101 was used at times....many times. it, to the best of my recollection, has never actually been mentioned to have been used.
all i can recall them ever talking about was a couple live instruments....a recorder, drums, guitar, friends voice...and some vintage audio gear....like Drawmer compressors and Rotel hi-fi. and in a photo you can see the backs of either an akai s1000, 2000 or 3000.

i dont think it really matters. the tool is only as good as it user. i.e.: AFX - Cheeta ms800, Ae - Casio SK1

[adecentman]

where, if ever, has it been mentioned one of these was used? or is this just conjecture?
as much as i believe, and many others believe, an SH101 was used at times....many times. it, to the best of my recollection, has never actually been mentioned to have been used.
all i can recall them ever talking about was a couple live instruments....a recorder, drums, guitar, friends voice...and some vintage audio gear....like Drawmer compressors and Rotel hi-fi. and in a photo you can see the backs of either an akai s1000, 2000 or 3000.

i dont think it really matters. the tool is only as good as it user. i.e.: AFX - Cheeta ms800, Ae - Casio SK1

I suppose it's only a theory, but as a PSS460 owner/enthusiast, I can pretty much say without a doubt in my mind that the synth was used on the two tracks above; if my PSS wasn't currently in storage halfway across America I'd put together a little demo video to back up my claims, but alas you'll have to take my word for it for the time being unless someone else on the forum owns one : )

[ParticleGhost]

You're absolutely correct! have a listen at 4:27

phpBB [media]

And another thing, it also could've been used for the main line in Forest Moon, just a little speculation though.

[adecentman]

You very well could be onto something with the melody from Forest Moon as well--has quite a similar sound to the 'Koto' tone on the PSS. Wonderful thing about the PSS is that all of the presets are just simple FM programs that become quite malleable when you tweak the sliders, so it would be possible for them to achieve the subtle changes in tone that occur in the Forest Moon melody (or it could just be something totally different )

Ultimately it seems likes the bros are relatively down with the FM synthesis; there's a few synth tones in Turquoise Hexagon Sun that scream DX7, and Orange Romeda/Sunshine Recorder have some pretty FM-y stuff going on. Anyone who gives FM a bad rap hasn't spent enough time mucking about with it : )

[re-phaelam-ed]

where, if ever, has it been mentioned one of these was used? or is this just conjecture?
as much as i believe, and many others believe, an SH101 was used at times....many times. it, to the best of my recollection, has never actually been mentioned to have been used.
all i can recall them ever talking about was a couple live instruments....a recorder, drums, guitar, friends voice...and some vintage audio gear....like Drawmer compressors and Rotel hi-fi. and in a photo you can see the backs of either an akai s1000, 2000 or 3000.

i dont think it really matters. the tool is only as good as it user. i.e.: AFX - Cheeta ms800, Ae - Casio SK1

I suppose it's only a theory, but as a PSS460 owner/enthusiast, I can pretty much say without a doubt in my mind that the synth was used on the two tracks above; if my PSS wasn't currently in storage halfway across America I'd put together a little demo video to back up my claims, but alas you'll have to take my word for it for the time being unless someone else on the forum owns one : )

i dont doubt...i just dont think we can make claims like that. i find, if you werk hard enough, you can get a LOT of similar sounds out of a lot of diff synths.
I've always said i THINK they use a 101...never said they did. even though it SURE sounds like it. but that can't be verified without hearing from them.
point and case...i did this little loops with a VST they my buddy SWEARS i did with my 101. to this day he refuses to believe i did it with a VST. bottom line....i used a freakin plugin. you can hear what you wanna hear.

[ParticleGhost]

Yeah on second thought, i take back the forest moon speculation, lol