BoC Apocrypha - The Ultimate Compendium of Bogus Boards

Everything related to our favorite Scottish duo.

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Sherbet Head
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Tired of downloading an album claiming to be one of the infamous pre-Twoism ones only to find out it's fake? Sick of being unable to figure out whether that one track claiming to be BoC is real or not? Had enough of these hoaxers passing around obviously bogus tracks claiming them to be the real deal?

If so, then I've got the compilation for you!

With "BoC Apocrypha", I tried to compile examples from just about every era of BoC fakes out there. From the old days of Limewire and Soulseek to the current hoaxes that end up on Youtube, it's all here. I even wrote up some detailed liner notes that explain where they came from and who actually made them and whatnot!

They sound even less believable back-to-back than they do on their own. Some of these tracks are even up to 18 years old as of me writing this, they're old enough to buy cigarettes! Hopefully this should put an end to people trying to pass these off as legitimate compositions from the Sandison brothers, or at least give the people a good idea of what to look out for if they decided to hunt down actual unreleased tracks.

Link: https://mega.nz/#!iGwynJpR!Fa8ZjCwZudp89U4h3h2eUBHgIu64Q_XAFnWxM4rNJ-c
Tracklist:
Code: Select all
1. Eno Test
2. Parson
3. Floatee
4. Samflower
5. Lavender Trapezoids
6. "Growing Hand"
7. "Petina"
8. High Tide '77
9. "Focus On The Spiral"
10. "Close2"
11. "Numerator Original" (w/ Butter Beard)
12. "Found The Way"
13. Halifax
14. Chameleon
15. "Numerator"
16. "Remmy Kid"
17. Rain Bird
18. "Nothing Is Real Demo"
19. Birthday Tape
20. Sandrail
21. Helios Sound?
22. Close3?
23. Focus On The Spiral?
24. Magic Timeline
25. LV Nuova
26. Research and Development
27. All Rise
28. "Seward Leaf (excerpt)"
29. "Circle (excerpt)"
30. "Hell Interface - How Will I Know?"


Slightly more lengthy description from the included liner notes:
Spoiler: show
Whenever you have a musician or band with a large enough following, there's going to be groups of people who get interested in the stuff that they never released. However, some folks end up taking it a step too far. From The Beatles to Pink Floyd, from Jimi Hendrix to Madonna, there exists a special group of jerks willing to take unrelated material (or sometimes even make their own) and pass it around as if it were an actual unreleased track from their artist of choice.

While Boards Of Canada don't really fit into the same category as any of the above artists, they ended up accidentally creating some of the perfect conditions for hoaxers to flourish. They have five whole albums from before Twoism which never saw a release outside their friends and family, they've talked about an extensive back catalogue of unreleased tracks in interviews (Geogaddi was created from a selection of about 90 songs!), they hardly ever show themselves outside Hexagon Sun, and they typically go silent for many years in between album releases.

For reference, as of March 2018 there are only 3 full albums and a few short snippets of legitimate unreleased material from BoC available on the internet. They are Old Tunes volumes 1 and 2, the Random 35 Tracks Tape, and a few short (under 1 minute) clips of the pre-Twoism albums from the earliest version of their website (hosted on EHX). All of these can currently be found on https://rareboc.ax.lt/, along with explanations of where they came from. Anything else you see purported to be BoC is almost certainly bunk. Also, anything from these albums (with the possible exception of a few R35TT tracks) that you see with a different title claiming to be from the pre-Twoism releases is also bunk.

There's hours upon hours of bogus BoC that either has been or currently is in circulation. Given their reclusive nature and extensive back catalogue of unreleased songs, it's only natural that some folks would want to jump the gun and fill the gaps in themselves. They end up wasting everyone's time and energy, pissing off the seasoned collectors who've long since grown used to finding mislabeled mp3s masquerading as material from Mike & Marcus, and sometimes even fooling people who either don't know any better or just really want them to be real. Sometimes the material that the hoaxers choose to use isn't even close to the quality standards that BoC keep up, and this ends up damaging their reputation in the eyes of people who don't know any better.

And that's why this collection exists. At one point I found a bootleg Syd Barrett box set known as "Have You Got It Yet?", and the last disc of said box set was used to compile all the spurious Syd tracks known to exist at the time and expose them for all to see along with notes on where they came from and whatnot. I thought it was a brilliant idea, so I did the same for BoC and compiled all the choice cuts from my collection of fakes (there's way too much stuff out there to put it all on one album). To quote the liner notes from said disc:

"The “Apocrypha” are various books that weren’t considered authentic enough to make it into the Bible. Some were obviously spurious, others seemed legit but parts were bogus, others just didn’t fit in."

So, if you see anyone trying to pass off any tracks that appear in this collection as the real deal you can point to this and say "Hey! That's not real!". From the somewhat believable to the obvious bullshit, it's all here. All the ugly ducklings in their own special pond. I've done my best to figure out the actual origins of everything here so that you can get a general idea of the lengths people will go to in order to fool the BoC fanbase and get themselves some undeserved attention, be sure to keep these origin stories in mind and see if any supposed "new/unreleased tracks" that pop up claiming to be BoC have similar ones!
If The Campfire Headphase was a butterfly, would Acid Memories be the caterpillar?
Spoiler: show
Unfortunately I have no clue lmao. But while you're here, go ahead and check out some of my tunes! You might dig 'em and stuff!

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Eagle Minded
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Nice one!! :D
Mexicola wrote:Marcus had that beard and longer hair waaaaay back.

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Sherbet Head
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Thanks a lot!
Suck my BUTT

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Eagle Minded
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I haven't even heard like 75% of these so this is great lol. What's the story behind the Nothing Is Real demo? It actually sounds really nice, I would have been fooled by it

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Eagle Minded
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Nottoolate wrote:I haven't even heard like 75% of these so this is great lol. What's the story behind the Nothing Is Real demo? It actually sounds really nice, I would have been fooled by it

We found it on this weird Russian MP3 site!
Mexicola wrote:Marcus had that beard and longer hair waaaaay back.

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Friendly Stranger
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Jango9 wrote:Hopefully this should put an end to people trying to pass these off as legitimate compositions from the Sandison brothers,

So where did [soulseek FOTS and closes] come from? How did they end up on Soulseek? Are these the real deal or what? Nobody seems to know for sure, which is why I've included them here.


How does this make any sense? Is this a collection of debunked fakes or not? Don't just throw in an unconfirmed fake for a bit of variety, c'mon.

Anyway, here's a couple of things worth mentioning on the topic of this FOTS
1. Someone on this forum once said (as noted in the .txt for this compilation) that this FOTS (and the other two tracks? maybe just one of the three? I can't remember...) was part of a collection of tracks on soulseek that also included tracks from R25TT before that collection leaked, however he also said this was just his recollection and he couldn't confirm it because he no longer had these files. If it really was known for a fact that this track was part of a collection like that, that would strongly suggest it was genuine, but annoyingly it can't be confirmed at this point.
2. "Close3" (iirc) samples Close Encounters of the Third Kind. If I'm not mistaken, the Tomorrow's Harvest ARG also referenced this film, which is either a nod towards an existing BOC track/sample (like much of the ARG was) or just a random reference.

(which also contains a track that's almost certainly "5D" from Closes)


Sorry, your sceptical project has derailed into wishful thinking here.

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Sherbet Head
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Gates Of Horn And Ivory wrote:How does this make any sense? Is this a collection of debunked fakes or not? Don't just throw in an unconfirmed fake for a bit of variety, c'mon.

Yikes, that actually is quite the contradiction lmao. Still reasonably certain those ones are indeed fake, but when you put it like that I do kinda wish I'd used those spots for something else. Guess we'll find out for sure when/if they eventually decide to rerelease Closes.

(which also contains a track that's almost certainly "5D" from Closes)

Sorry, your sceptical project has derailed into wishful thinking here.

There's an upload of Audiotrack A06 under the title "5D" that the band themselves added to one of their official youtube playlists. Also, if you count the part of the song that continues fading out into the start of A07 then the length matches up exactly with the one listed on the old website. Thought about going into more detail on that in the text file but didn't wanna go on too long of a tangent, once again we'll find out for sure if we ever hear the real Closes in full.

Anyway, here's a couple of things worth mentioning own the topic of this FOTS
1. Someone on this forum once said (as noted in the .txt for this compilation) that this FOTS (and the other two tracks? maybe just one of the three? I can't remember...) was part of a collection of tracks on soulseek that also included tracks from R25TT before that collection leaked, however he also said this was just his recollection and he couldn't confirm it because he no longer had these files. If it really was known for a fact that this track was part of a collection like that, that would strongly suggest it was genuine, but annoyingly it can't be confirmed at this point.
2. "Close3" (iirc) samples Close Encounters of the Third Kind. If I'm not mistaken, the Tomorrow's Harvest ARG also referenced this film, which is either a nod towards an existing BOC track/sample (like much of the ARG was) or just a random reference.

I wish Twoism let you edit posts after 15 minutes so I could update the text file a bit along with the link in the OP. Might just do that update anyways, post it on pastebin and link that in a reply later.

Thanks for your brutal honesty, I'll try to keep what you said in mind if I ever end up doing anything like this again!
If The Campfire Headphase was a butterfly, would Acid Memories be the caterpillar?
Spoiler: show
Unfortunately I have no clue lmao. But while you're here, go ahead and check out some of my tunes! You might dig 'em and stuff!

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Friendly Stranger
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Wait was Helios Sound, Close3 and 23. Focus On The Spiral all confirmed as fakes already? For FOTS at least, I want to believe it's real, just because it sounds so damn good. If it's a fake I'd like to shake the hand of the person who made it, one of the most convincing fakes I've seen.

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Eagle Minded
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Juggle wrote:Wait was Helios Sound, Close3 and 23. Focus On The Spiral all confirmed as fakes already? For FOTS at least, I want to believe it's real, just because it sounds so damn good. If it's a fake I'd like to shake the hand of the person who made it, one of the most convincing fakes I've seen.


I’m a believer that those tracks are legit. I’d possibly throw Sandrail and Found The Way into the mix as potential not-fakes.
preparation for a dive.

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Eagle Minded
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tonx wrote:
Juggle wrote:Wait was Helios Sound, Close3 and 23. Focus On The Spiral all confirmed as fakes already? For FOTS at least, I want to believe it's real, just because it sounds so damn good. If it's a fake I'd like to shake the hand of the person who made it, one of the most convincing fakes I've seen.


I’m a believer that those tracks are legit. I’d possibly throw Sandrail and Found The Way into the mix as potential not-fakes.

I'm almost certain that Found the Way track was made by Ciaran Byrne. I also believe he made the Northwest Territories track on Covert that many thought was BoC for a little while (he also appeared on other Touched compilations). His style is very early BoC-like, but also quite distinctive in its own right. Listen to a few of his tracks and you'll see...
phpBB [media]

New Seed
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Listening to it now, there's actually some pretty good tunes on here. FOTS and Growing Hand are currently my favorites.

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Dayvan Cowboy
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There's nothing more funny than how the fake acid memories starts. It's just Kaini Industries. I love how the fakers used a track that anyone with even a marginal interest in Boc knows.
Warning: This numerology post is not to be taken 2 seriously.

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Happy Cycler
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Nice job.

I had never heard that Birthday Tape track before. I have seen the name floating around for years but never cared to listen to it. It was pretty good, actually. Most of these are laughable though.

No fake Boards of Canada collection is complete without Treeline. Make sure you get that one in there.

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Sherbet Head
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scraps47 wrote:Listening to it now, there's actually some pretty good tunes on here. FOTS and Growing Hand are currently my favorites.

Which FOTS? The one with the farm animals or the one that sounds kinda legit?

Echelon wrote:There's nothing more funny than how the fake acid memories starts. It's just Kaini Industries. I love how the fakers used a track that anyone with even a marginal interest in Boc knows.

You got that right haha. It kinda crosses over from being funny into being frustrating when you see people doing all kinds of crazy mental gymnastics to convince themselves that Duffy and Kaini Industries are the same song though (especially since Duffy is the only Acid Memories track where we actually have a decent idea of what it sounds like)

mechanismj wrote:Nice job.

I had never heard that Birthday Tape track before. I have seen the name floating around for years but never cared to listen to it. It was pretty good, actually. Most of these are laughable though.

No fake Boards of Canada collection is complete without Treeline. Make sure you get that one in there.

Glad ya like! Treeline is actually missing from my fake BoC folder, think you could get me pointed in the right direction on that one?
If The Campfire Headphase was a butterfly, would Acid Memories be the caterpillar?
Spoiler: show
Unfortunately I have no clue lmao. But while you're here, go ahead and check out some of my tunes! You might dig 'em and stuff!

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Dayvan Cowboy
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Jango9 wrote:
Echelon wrote:There's nothing more funny than how the fake acid memories starts. It's just Kaini Industries. I love how the fakers used a track that anyone with even a marginal interest in Boc knows.

You got that right haha. It kinda crosses over from being funny into being frustrating when you see people doing all kinds of crazy mental gymnastics to convince themselves that Duffy and Kaini Industries are the same song though (especially since Duffy is the only Acid Memories track where we actually have a decent idea of what it sounds like)


Are there seriously people out there who think that? Are these like the flat earth theory BOC fans? :P
Warning: This numerology post is not to be taken 2 seriously.

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New Seed
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I think you mean aBoCrypha.

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I meant the FOTS on Apocrypha, though at the minute I don't quite have the tracklisting on me. If I did, I'd say what track number I'm referring to.

By the way Jango, I found a fake on Soulseek the other day for one of their early releases (might be the one you're talking about with Kaini Duffy), and 4 of the tracks were BOC tracks from official releases. It even had 1969!

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Sherbet Head
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Omikron wrote:I'm almost certain that Found the Way track was made by Ciaran Byrne. I also believe he made the Northwest Territories track on Covert that many thought was BoC for a little while (he also appeared on other Touched compilations). His style is very early BoC-like, but also quite distinctive in its own right. Listen to a few of his tracks and you'll see...
phpBB [media]

This is just BOC but better. . . .
Image

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Sherbet Head
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Echelon wrote:Are there seriously people out there who think that? Are these like the flat earth theory BOC fans? :P

Pretty much yeah lmao, I've talked to some unbelievably stubborn folks who insist on uploading that same damn AM fake every couple of years.

yhntx wrote:I think you mean aBoCrypha.

Dammit, I wish I'd thought of that sooner!

scraps47 wrote:I meant the FOTS on Apocrypha, though at the minute I don't quite have the tracklisting on me. If I did, I'd say what track number I'm referring to.

By the way Jango, I found a fake on Soulseek the other day for one of their early releases (might be the one you're talking about with Kaini Duffy), and 4 of the tracks were BOC tracks from official releases. It even had 1969!

There's two tracks by the name "Focus On The Spiral" on Apocrypha. Is it the one with the bombastic drum beat right at the start or the other one?
Also yeah, that sounds like the usual Acid Memories fake to me. If memory serves the other two tracks are "Submarine Tactics" by Marumari (often mislabeled as "Eno Test", gotta add that to the updated text file) and "Weissenssee" by Autechre.
If The Campfire Headphase was a butterfly, would Acid Memories be the caterpillar?
Spoiler: show
Unfortunately I have no clue lmao. But while you're here, go ahead and check out some of my tunes! You might dig 'em and stuff!

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