Strange Soup/The Thrift Store Tape Discussion

[Frindia]

Holy shit! You beat me to it. Thank you! I would've been up all night trying to figure this out.

You helped me tremendously so thank you! What an appropriate Pi Day!

[Orbited insanitarium]

Well what can I say? This is a grand day! I've got myself some new (or random ) tunes to enjoy before sleep. Thank you both so much for cracking the code!!

Off to listen... toodle-pip.

[Frindia]

20 8 9 19 3 8 1 14 14 5 12 19 5 12 6 4 5 19 20 18 21 3 20 thischannelselfdestruct



Going to ride the wave until it's gone. Love how there are elements from the original VHS tracks and reiterations of boc tracks sprinkled throughout. R35TT reminiscing.

Edit: I would like to add how SEEK played a major role in this. I remember in one of the hint videos from the previous ARG titled 19 5 5 11 iirc. In this video, there was a lady sleeping on the couch and behind her, you could see a random stranger breaking in through the window. Mind=blown more times today than I can count. This was fun.

[Electronaldmcdonald2]

Amazing! I would have been stuck on that forever. More awesome tunes! I’ve nearly worn out all the old rips from last time

[Sky and Trails]

Holy shit, this is amazing to see!

And everyone feels confident that this is not BOC?

Part of me still feels this is a way of parting out old stuff to fans, but another part of me says that someone else out there (in here) has discovered the secret sauce and ran with it. Kudos!

[Sky and Trails]

The only thing I could surmise was ML 2 KM would mean 'miles to kilometers' but I'm new to this one.

I'm not on the Discord, but does anyone know if there is a relationship between this stuff and the people on the Discord server? Seems that some pretty prime stuff comes from that direction sometimes.

Also, I miss you all. Work has blocked this domain and work has been busy, so I get very little time to check in.

[Frindia]

does anyone know if there is a relationship between this stuff and the people on the Discord server?

This is a good question. I have not seen anything on there mentioning this new set of tunes.

The top right corner of Random Tunes has some dates on it. If true, these tracks go back to the 80s. They may have been re-worked.

Track 4. Library rehearsal 1988
Track 8. rehearsal tapes Live 1988
Track 11. X-mas week Live Rehearsal
Track 14. After school library 1988
Track 17. Live rehearsal 1988
Track 21. X-mas Gathering Home Recording

[Eliotsworld1985]

Going to leave this review right here. Might be pretty long so bare with me. Listening to this album gave me chills. My hairs stood straight up . As I lay there and listen with full attention, it dawned on me that it could be in the realm of possibility that these are tapes that were found at the Edinburgh library in Scotland. If any of you recall, I believe it was Mike Sandison that used to work there and the brothers did record some material there. Correct me if I'm wrong. Now, I'm not claiming this is at all the case, but after all, it's not like we're talking about quantum physics. So many of the tracks on here have been clearly modeled from existing tracks of their's. at 34:35 into the album there's the live rehearsal track with the piano, bass and drums. Then at 35:57 there is this synth that slides right in and my stomach dropped because not only is it the same synth heard in the track 'Skimming Stones' from one of the 35RTT, but it also is the same melody. I think this could very well be the origins of that particular track. I think many of these tracks could be the origins of their music. The last track certainly sounds like the brothers sitting around at home during the holidays gathered around the living room with Mike on acoustic and Marc on piano or vise versa. You can hear a voice that is clearly Scottish saying something along the lines of "Shut the door". Sure I thinks it's unlikely, but how can anyone really know? No one from Warp, that MGD guy or whatever his name is has confirmed any of this stuff to be fake as of yet. You'd think we'd know by now. Just my two cents.

[Frindia]

this could very well be the origins of that particular track. I think many of these tracks could be the origins of their music.

Excellent review. I don't believe it is out of the realm of possibilities either.

[Biznasty]

And everyone feels confident that this is not BOC? !

We debunked it day one...

[Sky and Trails]

Then who is it?

From my perspective, given everything I've read about the band, seen on this forum, and listened to from the band, this stuff sounds like early tapes.

I've read where the band made music in the 80s, had a band, incorporated christ., keep a massive archive of everything they've ever recorded, etc.
It fits in the realm of possibility that this stuff is them.

But if it isn't! Please tell me who it is.

If it's debunked, then someone is doing really well with some decent equipment. I don't see how any of this is software-only, DAW music. It sounds like someone was a HUGE fan of using triggers. But that also tracks with the band's live performances of which there are at least some recordings.

I'm not really a fan of the ARG aspect of this stuff, but it fits the BOC aesthetic, which is totally fan-created at this point, and great nonetheless, but this music sounds like tape recordings.
There were repeats, but it was the titles and dates that made me think these were different iterations of their music.

Biznasty, I'm just going to ramble forever, so please tell me more.

I really liked the first track or two on this newest thing. There were a couple of other moments that stood out but I'm only 2 listenings into it.

[Sky and Trails]

...and I saw the ml2km thing. Sorry for being slow on that. It was just the end of the YouTube channel name (https://www.youtube.com/@surefredin-ml2km)
I'm not sure why they write it "sUre Fred in" unless it's an anagram with two words starting with F and U, or U and F, respectively.

Also, has anyone stacked the actual video footage? I worked with the audio and it was okay, but the -12 pitch still didn't bring out that very beginning of the hidden audio.

One more thing: the 'will self destruct' message is familiar. It seems to appear in code in the description.

[Orbited insanitarium]

And everyone feels confident that this is not BOC? !

We debunked it day one...

Not necessarily, as it was new and exciting for some of us, I think more things came to light as time went on and people made up their own minds, but having a gut instinct from day one probably rings more true.

One more thing: the 'will self destruct' message is familiar. It seems to appear in code in the description.

Ah yes fella, the creator wiped all traces of the ARG and had us all rabidly saving.
This time, I think Random Tunes will disappear when it's circulated the community enough.

[Electronaldmcdonald2]

For me personally, there’s two possibilities:
1. BOC, maybe inspired by Aphex Twin putting all his unreleased music on soundcloud, decide to take all their demos and early versions of tracks spanning their career, add a load of VHS related samples and turned them into audio/visual mixes. They then made an ARG to lead people to them. Starting with the hokey, but enjoyable, premise that someone found a VHS tape in a thrift store etc…

2. Someone devoted hundreds of hours of their life recreating and deconstructing BOC tracks to make them sound like early versions and demos. Going as far as writing a load of proto-shoegaze guitar music to include based on comments made by BOC in interviews about their earliest music. Then they made visuals for the lot and created an ARG with loads of BOC related imagery.

[Frindia]

I'm not sure why they write it "sUre Fred in" unless it's an anagram with two words starting with F and U, or U and F.

s U r e F r e d i n

inferred us, under serif, dune ferris, ferris nude (I used all of my critical thinking skills on the ARG itself) the ferris wheel in Seek? Wheeltower? Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself.

For me personally, there’s two possibilities:
1. BOC, maybe inspired by Aphex Twin putting all his unreleased music on soundcloud, decide to take all their demos and early versions of tracks spanning their career, add a load of VHS related samples and turned them into audio/visual mixes. They then made an ARG to lead people to them. Starting with the hokey, but enjoyable, premise that someone found a VHS tape in a thrift store etc…

2. Someone devoted hundreds of hours of their life recreating and deconstructing BOC tracks to make them sound like early versions and demos. Going as far as writing a load of proto-shoegaze guitar music to include based on comments made by BOC in interviews about their earliest music. Then they made visuals for the lot and created an ARG with loads of BOC related imagery.

This. I was in bed listening to these tracks last night and I thought of the same 2 possibilities. Funnily enough, it definitely is leaning heavily on one side or the other which makes this more confusing. I'm curious if this was the end of the new ARG or if there is more to be found. I 100% believe now that there are at least 14 "tapes" considering the foreshadow of RANDOMSTRANGER in SEEK, but I'm not certain what to do next. Genesis assisted with leading us but I can't help but wonder if we are missing something else now. I remember feeling this way last time, too.

As for the tracks, superb. You have to not want to like them to not like them imo. I find them warm, clever, nostalgic, friendly, familiar, and completely feel in my gut that these are early origins. Can't help that. I also wondered at one point if this was Clocolan or Cult 48 for no real reason. Saw a couple of videos and was like "hmm, this is similar to the VHS stuff" but that was really my only reasoning. I can't help but smirk as I listen to some of these tracks pondering if this could actually be the real deal of some sorts. Cynical or not, the aesthetic fits like sky and trails said and totally seems like a fan service-y thing they could do. I said this before, but there are so many people that I have talked to that missed the TH ARG. Could it be this is a special under-the-radar way of distributing early workings for ones that missed out in 2013? Everyone always says "they won't do another ARG for LP5 blah blah blah" which may be true, but this almost feels like some sort of an appetizer before the big meal.. All so interesting, to say the least.

[Electronaldmcdonald2]

I thought Sure Fred In might have been a what3words map location. But it's not.

The track listing featured on the YouTube video image for random tunes 2 is intriguing,

4 8 11 14 17 21

It's almost an arithmetic sequence apart from the last number would be 22.

Also, only 4 of the tracks have dates, 1988 is this significant? Am I losing my mind to paranoia?!

[richempire]

Also, just another slight detail but has no one yet noticed that the track which starts at 16:31 has the same beat as Oirectine?

[Frindia]

Like a mix of Oirectine with some Concourse thrown in there

[Frindia]

red moss @ 22:30?

[richempire]

Also, track which starts at 25:01 strangely reminds me of "Statue of liberty" from Old Tunes vol.2. Continuing our ride down into this rabbit hole.