Strange Soup/The Thrift Store Tape Discussion

[SonnyJim]

I would like to believe this but that zoom with the clouds can be done with software easily, a zoom out would be evidence for sure..
I was going to say after listening to last it is clear that the 4226/dbz/random stranger did not make the thrift shop tape, to my ears all the tracks that are from the thrift vid are just sampled and redone with some filters to mess with certain frequencies, there's nothing that shows they have access to the original mixes of the tracks.

This is not definitive I only listened to it once and somehow it seems there could be more to this story and maybe it really is BOC gamejacking their own game. The original stuff made by 4226 is cool and hopefully we hear more of it.

[Eliotsworld1985]

I would love to know about this software you speak of that can recreate a vhs camera zoom-in and video all together. I get your critical thinking and being skeptical. Nothing wrong with that. I imagin there would be digital artifacts. I would love to recreate exactly what they did. Just let me know what to look up.

[Magic Orange]

A final message

[SonnyJim]

All good video editing software can do it, if you search sony vegas zoom tutorial or same for adobe after effects. There are plug ins that can do it as well that would include the shaking etc to make it more realistic. It's true what you say if it had just been ripped zoom in would show the low resolution. Unless it was made smaller to start with. Just went to look again and the vid is gone. I have a ripped copy of it in mp4 if anyone wants to see. And a copy of the tracklist.

Not saying definitively that it is the case that it's not real I haven't spent enough time on it and would need to compare to the original thrift tape. The pink tiger chicks dancing is legit new footage and to me proves that random stranger is indeed 4226/dbz.

[Magic Orange]

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[Sky and Trails]

It got pretty pessimistic in these last several posts...

Maybe we're not asking the right question.
Why is there such division in this community over this music? It seems to come from different modes of thinking. On one hand, a bunch of us really love this. Some of us believe it's BoC and some of us don't care, we just want more of it, and NOW.
On the other hand, there are those who seem hell bent against this music.

I suspect that it is a fine line to walk - there's the possibility that, by thinking something IS BoC, you might be wrong, and then what? Embarrassed for a wrong guess about a band who none of us knows personally?

Screw it, and enjoy being wrong because, if you're wrong, you've found a talented artist.

Please don't lock down this thread.

And whoever is making this music, whether BoC or someone else, COME HANG OUT WITH ME! Send me more music. Send me a post card. Email me. Just don't go away. The music speaks for itself.

[Orbited insanitarium]

It got pretty pessimistic in these last several posts...

Maybe we're not asking the right question.
Why is there such division in this community over this music? It seems to come from different modes of thinking. On one hand, a bunch of us really love this. Some of us believe it's BoC and some of us don't care, we just want more of it, and NOW.
On the other hand, there are those who seem hell bent against this music.

I suspect that it is a fine line to walk - there's the possibility that, by thinking something IS BoC, you might be wrong, and then what? Embarrassed for a wrong guess about a band who none of us knows personally?

Screw it, and enjoy being wrong because, if you're wrong, you've found a talented artist.

Please don't lock down this thread.

And whoever is making this music, whether BoC or someone else, COME HANG OUT WITH ME! Send me more music. Send me a post card. Email me. Just don't go away. The music speaks for itself.

You are one of the more concise and balanced posters in this thread Mr Trails , I respect and agree with your points, this is admirable from you.

[Sky and Trails]

Thanks, Oribited. You are a beacon of optimism, by the way. I always look to your words to be the calming voice folks need.

The best thing to come out of this forum, for me personally, has been this music by people I will likely never meet.
But it is worth remembering that these people are amongst us, share our interests and love for good music. They are not coming here to be enemies - I hope it's clear that I'm addressing anyone who thinks that anyone else making this music is, for some reason, laughing at all of us.

I can't imagine creating a piece of art, showing it to a group of like-minded people, then having those people say that I'm sitting at home laughing because I passed off a fake. It's hostile thinking.

I love you all, I really do.
Some of you, I love more than others.

I think that all it would take is for BoC, or some source this forum trusts, to do ANYTHING that connects all of this together, for the entire forum to go nuts out of excitement.

[Orbited insanitarium]

Thanks, Oribited. You are a beacon of optimism, by the way. I always look to your words to be the calming voice folks need.

Here's the thing: Aye, the first and original tape may have had different versions of BoC tracks on it, but as far as I know, everything since then has been self-composed. Aside from a few similar beat loops or samples here and there, it may be judged as a sound-alike, I'd still differ from the norm to say the music has quite a few original traits.

So that got me thinking about this division, do you think the dislike is towards the music? I think not, maybe towards the longevity of the ARG? Perhaps. And the division seems to stem towards those interested enough to follow along with it. We just can't all be of the same ilk. (that's a ruddy good thing even though it seems like there is a lot of negativity towards the whole kaboodle.)

It's really not for me to put forward my thoughts in a quite endless discussion of who made it all, we shall never agree completely until the creator steps out of the shadows. I've always noted that I'm firmly in a casual listener camp that just doesn't mind not knowing. I'm finding this music quite evocative. That's enough for me. And it tis my bottom line.

G'way and have my analysis, have it large but don't rip into it! I have finally spoke my mind here and in these written words is where I'll leave it!! Smooches x

(oh crikey, submit)

[Quadrivium]

What about last years 'leak'? Haven't read much discussion on this one. The same people could very well be behind the thrift store tapes.

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[Frindia]

I listened to all of the VHS/Randomstranger tunes constantly for the last week on repeat and I have come to the conclusion that these are definitely intended as a gift - regardless of who it is. I apologize for going back and forth, but I felt a ton of psychological stress during the easter egg hunt. There was a lot of time invested in solving this that I guess I burned myself out and upon seeing some of the response about the possible AI influence, I closed the book so I would not (as some have stated previously) feel stupid and mocked. I have otherwise been super optimistic about this entire thing since the very beginning so I hope none of my words hurt anyones feelings.

I have also been adding some of the tunes in to my gaming clips and can not get enough of them. Kudos to the creator, and hopefully we get to see a Sequoia Films rendition of the tracks soon. Much love everyone.

[April 7th]

I've been asking around about AI music and it now seems unlikely that the Thrift Store Tape could have been created that way. This is a response I got from the Artificial Intelligence Music youtube channel.

"Unfortunately, the software I use does not allow you to use your own music to train the AI models, so something like you are suggesting is not possible (at the moment). I do know that there are a lot of music composers that are working with the Mubert team to create music and then train the models on said music. I don't think they allow any copyrighted music to be used to train on. Something like you suggest has been done before, see here: https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3dzpj/ ... sic-review but I'm not sure that the software used to do that is freely available."

The mystery continues.

[Eliotsworld1985]

Exactly what I been saying. I've tried to find AI programs for music the same way DallE2 or Mid journey works and Can't do so.

[SonnyJim]

@Eliotsworld1985 Apologies I stand corrected. I watched the vid again with the zoom of the sky and then I saw there is the SP (short play at the start of VHS videos) so and checked it against the the thrift shop video posted by Dan Fingerman and THE ZOOM BIT IS CUT OUT OF THE ORIGINAL THRIFT SHOP VIDEO!
So that only leaves two options either Dan or the original poster chopped that part out and is 4226 or 4226/Random stranger did actually make the thrift shop vid.

That would require quite a lot of foresight. There is a lot of mastermind stuff going on with all this and some amatuerness which maybe even part of the grand plan. Some great tunes some which totally sound like they could be BOC

[SonnyJim]

I've loaded the video to youtube I think it was titled "Last"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NikLPlyO5nQ

It contained this text in the description I haven't been able to find any codes so far not saying there isn't any.

01.Gravity
02.Strange Soup
03.Firefleyez
04.Lunardreamz
05.Untitles II
06.Eastern Seaboard
07.Cyto-Sine
08.Tilt-a-Whirl
09.Colleyedoscope
10.Bye 4 Now

The day was near, the end is here. A sultry sea, this ship I steer.

[SonnyJim]

Note that track two is strange soup..

[Eliotsworld1985]

@SonnyJim: All good. There's certainly nothing wrong with exercising critical thinking and being skeptical. I just don't want to write it off so quickly and assume it's an AI and editing software. Someone mentioned locking the thread down and that would really suck because that, I feel would really hinder anymore future clues if they should come up and we'll certainly never figure out the truth.

[Sky and Trails]

I like the way things are going.

Orbited, you make great points, and you're level headed. I like your approach - a listener not much concerned with whether or not something is or isn't something or other. That's exactly the approach I think we need to have toward this stuff.

Frindia, you have been ON IT! I wish I would have been there to see it all unfold!

So, what we have now is some great music, an ARG or two or three that may have ended (I have no clue on that part of this) and right now it seems like, at least for me, the thought is, "What happens next?"

Perhaps, the artist will come out. Clayton is here now, so there's that bit of hope and optimism that we actually CAN meet the artists behind some of this great music coming out.

I think there is a connection to Dan Fingerman. His other videos show lots of things that point to him being VERY capable of making such music, and he originally posted the thing. BUT, will he commit to answering whether or not he was involved?

And then, recently I had this thought: "Instead of saying 'BoC vibes', how about just calling it 'BoC', whatever it is, if it sounds like it's in the same vein?"

I'm going to go ahead and do this.

For the sake of example, see the next sentence. "Tycho? Yeah, totally Boards of Canada, man." "That one track by that artist that I can't find any info on? That's Boards of Canada. I don't care if YOU found the artist name and it's 'The Beatles', I'm telling you that it's totally Boards of Canada."

VHS Tape and Random Tunes? It's Boards of Canada. It ticks the boxes that I need ticked, it satisfies the insatiable thirst for new and interesting music...the ARG component seems right up a lot of people's alley, which is great. I suck at them but I am amazed by their complexity and the spirit of adventure they bring out of everyone (not everyone, just the cool people here).

I think the next step is to wait for something. Just a little bit longer...

[karpeggi]

Were/are there any hints in the "Last" video? It was up so briefly I didn't have a chance to look closely

[SonnyJim]

Were/are there any hints in the "Last" video? It was up so briefly I didn't have a chance to look closely

@karpeggi there is some backwards vocals, other than that besides the end clips there doesn't seem to be any hidden stuff. Musically there is some interesting stuff going on

@Sky and Trails. I don't think Dan Fingerman is the artist, the thing with the original tape being loaded up and then all of it being taken down it fits the MO of 4226. After watching the random tunes vid on magic orange channel I saw all the bits that I missed with the stormy clouds etc so for sure it's 4226 who has has made the original tape unless they somehow got the original footage of the sky. I saw your comment about the audio quality being higher. it's all very curious.

The thing is it's a lot of work to make all this and quite skillful musically. Random tunes seems to have a bunch of loops and samples that are taken from BOC albums and then arranged to sound like they are the actual synth sounds, there is a lot of original stuff mixed in with harmonies and drum tracks with rhythms taken from BOC albums as well.


Who has time to just make this sort of thing and then just take it down? The more it goes on the more I think it is actually BOC just messing with us