02. Reach For The Dead (4:47)

[mechanismj]

This song is so fucking mammoth and get's better with every listen.

[realspiel]

We are not far of the anniversary of this, desperately hoping for a glimpse and some sort of decent live stream from Tokyo, on tenter hooks, a coming together of fellow mad bocers, it was an experience to be savoured, and this song is just amazing, those poly Moog style pads at the end are spine chillingly out of this world, thank you Boc.

[polarbear]

[irv]

This song is so fucking mammoth and get's better with every listen.

Agreed! As if I wasn't stoked about an album already, hearing this for the first time really got me excited. In the top three tracks off TH I reckon, possibly best. There's so much feeling in and atmosphere in it.

[petrichor]

I think it's been brought up before but I'm interested in those three suns at the end of the RFTD video.

It was mentioned by somebody else that they don't fully resemble the sun-dogs / parhelion phenomena, which is true, but then again I see BOC as filtering reality through culture & myth more than accurate representation.

The sun-dog phenomena is fairly meaningless nowadays & is easily explained but historically the phenomena was taken as an omen from the heavens, sometimes interpreted as gods blessing and sometimes as gods fury. Really it was just nature doing it's thing but humanity tends to dramatise natural phenomena and place them within the experience of human life rather than accept the insignificance of humanity to the universe.

In the context of the album or song it could be read as symbolising a change or dialogue with nature or indeed the cosmos? I've no idea... I measured the diameters of the suns at the end of the video and realised the space between them is equal to two diameters, making seven in total. Maybe just coincidence, but in numerology and in other religious symbolism 7 can mean the end of a cycle or new beginning, seeking of understanding, the relationship between the human & divine, as well as a load of other stuff.

I don't know what to make of the flying sequence over the lake, but the mirroring of the sky suggests again the heaven & earth dualism - "as above, so below" kinda thing.







mad rant over!

[ryanhewitt]

interesting! without a doubt, the suns in the video are clearly sundogs. good work!

probably nothing but wikipedia says 'Sundogs are commonly made by the refraction of light from plate-shaped hexagonal ice crystals in high and cold cirrus clouds'

also, why have I never seen or heard of this before? there's a picture of one at stone henge, which is only about an hour away from me. crazy.

I always thought the suns at the end represented 2 becoming 1 (or in this case 1 becoming 2), which kinda synced with the palindrome idea - which fits in a little bit with what you're saying above.

I also agree, there is more to be said about the RFTD video, probably a lot of metaphorical answers in there regarding TH

[Archrival]

Its the Holy Trinity. Three Substances In One Person.

[auzzie4life010]

Such a brilliant track. I never tire of hearing it.

[green calx]

I can hear explosions in this one

[Negamuse]

Has anyone ever suggested that the multiple suns in the sandy sky at the end is a pun - sandy suns?

[Down10]

The three suns look to me like an ellipsis. The first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry for 'ellipsis' may offer some insight:

Ellipsis (plural ellipses; from the Ancient Greek: ἔλλειψις, élleipsis, "omission" or "falling short") is a series of dots that usually indicates an intentional omission of a word, sentence, or whole section from a text without altering its original meaning. Depending on their context and placement in a sentence, ellipses can also indicate an unfinished thought, a slight pause, and nervous or awkward silence. Aposiopesis is the use of an ellipsis to trail off into silence—for example: "But I thought he was . . ." When placed at the beginning or end of a sentence, the ellipsis can also inspire a feeling of melancholy or longing.

In context, it could mean that there was something omitted from the 'story' of TH, or that the story may continue in the future. It does fit into the symmetry of the album.

However, I don't know what the large floating frame around the sun is meant to symbolize.

[arvy]

I was thinking, Reach For The Dead has the most abrupt second track from the all BoC albums. The MHRTCH and Geogaddi first two tracks flow very well, really almost like a long one track. THC also, except maybe the first moments of acoustic guitar, but Reach For The Dead really starts abruptly, it's almost like we're being put in the middle of story and we are not allowed to know, what was just after the Gemini...

[Fireal420]

I was thinking, Reach For The Dead has the most abrupt second track from the all BoC albums. The MHRTCH and Geogaddi first two tracks flow very well, really almost like a long one track. THC also, except maybe the first moments of acoustic guitar, but Reach For The Dead really starts abruptly, it's almost like we're being put in the middle of story and we are not allowed to know, what was just after the Gemini...

maybe that just fits the theory that there is an alternative track listing.

[Negamuse]

I dunno, I know the start's a bit sudden but I still think it flows really well from Gemini. Gemini kind of flies around through a few things, and RFTD is where it chooses to land. Every BoC album has a really strong track 1-track 2 punch to it and this is the same.

[arvy]

I dunno, I know the start's a bit sudden but I still think it flows really well from Gemini. Gemini kind of flies around through a few things, and RFTD is where it chooses to land. Every BoC album has a really strong track 1-track 2 punch to it and this is the same.

It flows well, but it gives an impression of some parts being cut off and then sticked together

I was thinking, Reach For The Dead has the most abrupt second track from the all BoC albums. The MHRTCH and Geogaddi first two tracks flow very well, really almost like a long one track. THC also, except maybe the first moments of acoustic guitar, but Reach For The Dead really starts abruptly, it's almost like we're being put in the middle of story and we are not allowed to know, what was just after the Gemini...

maybe that just fits the theory that there is an alternative track listing.

nah, I more to the alternative album theory *blows mind*

[mc10101]

Classic thru and thru, and particularly special as its beautiful video signalled the imminent release of TH (mind you most of us would have heard Semena Mertvykh first).
Unlike some, I don't think its too short either - its graceful, stately, and perfectly judged (check DJ Food's 'extended' version to hear how longer isn't necessarily better!)

(3:25 "listen". . .?)

[Little Cloud]

Has anyone yet mentioned the vocal sample at 3:25? Sounds like "listen" or something thereabouts.

I was playing the album on headphones last night (something I rarely do these days) and to me it sounds like a female voice saying "Please come through", (Images of people holding hands, sat around a table in a dimly lit room obviously came to mind), then of course the bass and drums kick back in and the whole thing takes on a much heavier darker otherworldly vibe! Hearing it in that context for the first time sent a massive shiver down my spine!

[AlexP]

Long time looker here! Usually, I enjoy reading more than writing, but I'd like to share my understanding of the theme in Reach for the Dead (and partially of the whole album).

A few facts about the clip:
- "[brothers] did not want any people in it and that we [Neil Krug, David Myrick and Colin Stoye] needed to create a vibe that felt both abandoned and post-apocalyptic" (from here).
- The clip shows an abandoned gas station in Yermo, California.
- The clip features other abandoned buildings and homes ("God Bless Out Home") and deserts (don't know if all of them are also in California).

More facts:
- Listening party was held at abandoned Lake Dolores Waterpark, Newberry Springs, Southern California.
- Marcus said that "if you look again at the San Francisco [which is in California] skyline on the cover it's actually a ghost of the city. You're looking straight through it."

A few (my subjective) observations in the song:
- From the beginning, to ~3:45, "noisy" sound is rhythmically repeated. This is a sound of a falling seeds.
- From about ~3:30 starts a piece that sound like water drops filling up a vessel.

Known by relatively few outside US, "California facing one of the most severe droughts on record". Some believe that "20th century may have been a wet anomaly", meaning that people leaving there just got lucky in term of habitable climate.

I think that the message of Reach for the Dead is that long-term drought of California is coming back. As of today, it's not clear how things will unveil, but my guess is that if drought intensifies, either the water must be supplied from outside of the state, or the people would have to move out from (most of) California, hence the message of the song.

Note that this was not a well known issue back in May of 2013, so, if my guess is correct, the brothers are really ahead of the time. I wonder what books (scientific publications?) they've read.

[maxd98]

Alright Alex that's the best theory I've heard. Thanks.

[green calx]

if you keep on listening to these noises, like I don't know, drops of acid scorching the sand, or radio noise, just keep on following them, and some weird shit will happen, like another layer. this is to all songs on TH, you follow particular sound sequence and something cool appears from your headphones