GENERAL NEW RELEASE SPECULATION TOPIC PART II

[♄ope keeper]

Me too (and also "Blind Worship"), except the release day...

(white eyes, guns, "rulers" of the world, but seriously I hope there can only be a better one)

Mike: "I imagine all the religions practiced in the world today are amalgams of various ancient religions. That's why extreme fundamentalism in religion is absurd. Modern rituals and teachings cannot be the original words of God. Everything has been adjusted, mixed, and edited over the ages to suit the regimes of those times."

Marcus: "It's in human nature to pursue spiritual or fantastic things, for whatever reason, that's why we like art and escapism, isn't it? Humans like to feel there's a purpose, even if there isn't one!"

Mike: "In a world where people watch execution videos for entertainment, I think we can safely say nothing is sacred anymore."

What interview is this from?

Sure...

https://bocpages.org/wiki/We%27re_making_music_that_has_its_own_universe_and_time (2002)

https://bocpages.org/wiki/We%27ve_Become_a_Lot_More_Nihilistic_over_the_Years (2013)

https://bocpages.org/wiki/The_Great_Escape (2005)

[Den]

Thank you!

[synthonic]

besides the symmetry you can divide the message in squares of 3x3. the 2nd , 4th and 6th square have the same shape. It is an X. (in other words every three vertical lines you see the same shape.

I'm not saying there is something hidden but this means that the dots are not random.

Yep, to go down the rabbit hole on this a 3x3 grid is a great way to represent an octal number. Now I don't pretend to be a mathematician but I've long been fascinated by number systems based on numbers other than 10. Apologies if I have gotten anything wrong!

If each column is a 3 bit binary representation of an octal (3 bits is apparently a standard way of representing octal) you get:

111 010 010 | 101 010 101 | 110 101 100 | 101 010 101 | 111 011 111 | 101 010 101 | 111 001 011

That in standard numerals (but still in octal):

722 | 525 | 654 | 525 | 737 | 525 | 713

Those are octal numbers, where the first digit is x8x8 (x64), the second is x8 and the third is x1 (just as in decimal where the first is x10x10 (100), second is x10 and third is x1). If we convert them to decimal we get:

466 | 341 | 428 | 341 | 479 | 341 | 459

Of course you could read each 3x3 block horizontally instead and get a bunch of different numbers, but the repeating number (octal 525, decimal 341) stays the same:

Binary: 100 111 100 | 101 010 101 | 111 100 010 | 101 010 101 | 101 111 111 | 101 010 101 | 100 101 111
Octal: 474 | 525 | 742 | 525 | 577 | 525 | 457
Decimal: 316 | 341 | 482 | 341 | 383 | 341 | 303

When I saw the dots the first thing that came to mind was a machine readable code, of the type that used to appear on cheques, school exams, and many other places. Those usually had more rows than this one, but it still strongly resembles them. It wouldn't be standard for a machine-readable code to be read as 3 dots horizontally, then down to the next 3, down again to the next 3, then up and across to the next block - the dots would more likely be read vertically, allowing a continuous scan. What is common in machine-readable codes is repeating the whole string once or more just in case something happens to obfuscate it (the paper is ripped, burned, stained, badly printed, etc). And for the Warp one we get the same sequence twice.

Another interesting thing is that there is no 0. all of the octal numerals is used except 0. 1 through 7 each appear at least once. So we have 7 numbers composed of 7 octal numerals.

Just for fun here is what you get if you add the three decimal numbers in each block:

16 | 8 | 14 | 8 | 20 | 8 | 18

What it means, if anything, is a mystery though!

[ASYMPTOTE]

hmmm

[Negamuse]

besides the symmetry you can divide the message in squares of 3x3. the 2nd , 4th and 6th square have the same shape. It is an X. (in other words every three vertical lines you see the same shape.

I'm not saying there is something hidden but this means that the dots are not random.

Yep, to go down the rabbit hole on this a 3x3 grid is a great way to represent an octal number. Now I don't pretend to be a mathematician but I've long been fascinated by number systems based on numbers other than 10. Apologies if I have gotten anything wrong!

If each column is a 3 bit binary representation of an octal (3 bits is apparently a standard way of representing octal) you get:

111 010 010 | 101 010 101 | 110 101 100 | 101 010 101 | 111 011 111 | 101 010 101 | 111 001 011

That in standard numerals (but still in octal):

722 | 525 | 654 | 525 | 737 | 525 | 713

Those are octal numbers, where the first digit is x8x8 (x64), the second is x8 and the third is x1 (just as in decimal where the first is x10x10 (100), second is x10 and third is x1). If we convert them to decimal we get:

466 | 341 | 428 | 341 | 479 | 341 | 459

Of course you could read each 3x3 block horizontally instead and get a bunch of different numbers, but the repeating number (octal 525, decimal 341) stays the same:

Binary: 100 111 100 | 101 010 101 | 111 100 010 | 101 010 101 | 101 111 111 | 101 010 101 | 100 101 111
Octal: 474 | 525 | 742 | 525 | 577 | 525 | 457
Decimal: 316 | 341 | 482 | 341 | 383 | 341 | 303

When I saw the dots the first thing that came to mind was a machine readable code, of the type that used to appear on cheques, school exams, and many other places. Those usually had more rows than this one, but it still strongly resembles them. It wouldn't be standard for a machine-readable code to be read as 3 dots horizontally, then down to the next 3, down again to the next 3, then up and across to the next block - the dots would more likely be read vertically, allowing a continuous scan. What is common in machine-readable codes is repeating the whole string once or more just in case something happens to obfuscate it (the paper is ripped, burned, stained, badly printed, etc). And for the Warp one we get the same sequence twice.

Another interesting thing is that there is no 0. all of the octal numerals is used except 0. 1 through 7 each appear at least once. So we have 7 numbers composed of 7 octal numerals.

Just for fun here is what you get if you add the three decimal numbers in each block:

16 | 8 | 14 | 8 | 20 | 8 | 18

What it means, if anything, is a mystery though!

This is pretty close to what I thought it was. I reckoned if it was anything it was the bottom 3 bits of a 5 bit Baudot code (which does use octal!) like you'd get on an old ticker tape or punch card for programming old computers. Normally there's three rows, a row of smaller alignment holes and another two rows making up the 5

If you look up the Baudot code alphabet you can see that without the lost two bits it's really difficult to know what it originally meant, but like, there's only so many options, if you're that way inclined.

I'm not saying it is this, cos I don't actually think it's anything. But if it were a thing, that's a thing it could be. Could also be the numbers you decoded already! But yeah could be this

[Wildfire]

The weird thing with entering your email into boardsofcanada.com is that there was no confirmation and no way of removing your email from the list, they should fix this as it is probably breakling a few laws in quite a few countries.

There's something to this. I don't buy that BOC would do any email harvesting without complying with GDPR. Something is odd there, any ideas?

[Wildfire]

Just for fun here is what you get if you add the three decimal numbers in each block:

16 | 8 | 14 | 8 | 20 | 8 | 18

What it means, if anything, is a mystery though!

And here we are with 7 again.

[IronMark]

I have a theory that the new song on Tape 05 might be Trillions from Closes Vol 1.

I'm not married to this theory and it's probably wrong but I was just mulling over the symbolism of the VHS tapes in this rollout. Namely, the fans have low quality, barely discernable copies of the tape while BoC have the real thing. Plus the fact that '05' could correspond with the 5 pre-Twoism albums. From those 5 albums, Trillions is the only track that has a similar length to the song in Tape 05.

I've had a feeling through this whole thing that the BoCset is coming and I can't shake the fact that the new song sounds quite old school.

But like I say, I'm just musing and probably wrong.

[fractalz42]

besides the symmetry you can divide the message in squares of 3x3. the 2nd , 4th and 6th square have the same shape. It is an X. (in other words every three vertical lines you see the same shape.

I'm not saying there is something hidden but this means that the dots are not random.

Yep, to go down the rabbit hole on this a 3x3 grid is a great way to represent an octal number. Now I don't pretend to be a mathematician but I've long been fascinated by number systems based on numbers other than 10. Apologies if I have gotten anything wrong!

If each column is a 3 bit binary representation of an octal (3 bits is apparently a standard way of representing octal) you get:

111 010 010 | 101 010 101 | 110 101 100 | 101 010 101 | 111 011 111 | 101 010 101 | 111 001 011

That in standard numerals (but still in octal):

722 | 525 | 654 | 525 | 737 | 525 | 713

Those are octal numbers, where the first digit is x8x8 (x64), the second is x8 and the third is x1 (just as in decimal where the first is x10x10 (100), second is x10 and third is x1). If we convert them to decimal we get:

466 | 341 | 428 | 341 | 479 | 341 | 459

Of course you could read each 3x3 block horizontally instead and get a bunch of different numbers, but the repeating number (octal 525, decimal 341) stays the same:

Binary: 100 111 100 | 101 010 101 | 111 100 010 | 101 010 101 | 101 111 111 | 101 010 101 | 100 101 111
Octal: 474 | 525 | 742 | 525 | 577 | 525 | 457
Decimal: 316 | 341 | 482 | 341 | 383 | 341 | 303

When I saw the dots the first thing that came to mind was a machine readable code, of the type that used to appear on cheques, school exams, and many other places. Those usually had more rows than this one, but it still strongly resembles them. It wouldn't be standard for a machine-readable code to be read as 3 dots horizontally, then down to the next 3, down again to the next 3, then up and across to the next block - the dots would more likely be read vertically, allowing a continuous scan. What is common in machine-readable codes is repeating the whole string once or more just in case something happens to obfuscate it (the paper is ripped, burned, stained, badly printed, etc). And for the Warp one we get the same sequence twice.

Another interesting thing is that there is no 0. all of the octal numerals is used except 0. 1 through 7 each appear at least once. So we have 7 numbers composed of 7 octal numerals.

Just for fun here is what you get if you add the three decimal numbers in each block:

16 | 8 | 14 | 8 | 20 | 8 | 18

What it means, if anything, is a mystery though!

I went down a similar route. I am not sure how to decode the 4 unique 9 bit blocks. I wasnt sure if it was worth continuing, someone said this is not related to the new album.

[chorus]

Just for fun here is what you get if you add the three decimal numbers in each block:

16 | 8 | 14 | 8 | 20 | 8 | 18

What it means, if anything, is a mystery though!

And here we are with 7 again.

Divine perfection, spiritual completeness, and the finished work of God. 7 is the bridge between the material and the divine, representing humanity’s internal quest for truth. It symbolizes the soul’s withdrawal from the noise of the world to find wisdom in silence.

https://www.worldnumerology.com/numerology-single-digit-numbers/numerology-meaning-of-7/
https://study.com/academy/lesson/number-seven-symbolism-facts-numerology.html

I find the seed of life especially interesting...

[Den]

I agree that the sound of tape 05 is channeling something from their older work. People are talking about how it’s evoking TH for them, and I hear that in the sense that it sounds ‘cinematic’ harmonically and there is the VHS connection related to the tapes themselves and the tape sound of Semena Mertvykh, but more than anything this sounds like something entirely new. While it most likely will, I’m not even sure that this is going to reflect the sound of the new album. I have no idea what to expect.

[Wildfire]

I have a theory that the new song on Tape 05 might be Trillions from Closes Vol 1.

I'm not married to this theory and it's probably wrong but I was just mulling over the symbolism of the VHS tapes in this rollout. Namely, the fans have low quality, barely discernable copies of the tape while BoC have the real thing. Plus the fact that '05' could correspond with the 5 pre-Twoism albums. From those 5 albums, Trillions is the only track that has a similar length to the song in Tape 05.

I've had a feeling through this whole thing that the BoCset is coming and I can't shake the fact that the new song sounds quite old school.

But like I say, I'm just musing and probably wrong.

I am tentatively with you on this, my very first comment after I heard tape05 was that this sounds like old material. I'd been listening to the albums a lot recently on my monitors and this just doesn't have the studio polish of any of the albums. But then you could argue tracks like Semena Mertvykh don't either. But still, as we are all doing nothing but speculating at this stage, I do wonder if we are about to get an archive of the world as told through an archive of their own work. Also the image of the Pentlands in the snow on the new homepage. It's all got a very 'return to roots' vibe about it.

[synthonic]

besides the symmetry you can divide the message in squares of 3x3. the 2nd , 4th and 6th square have the same shape. It is an X. (in other words every three vertical lines you see the same shape.

I'm not saying there is something hidden but this means that the dots are not random.

Yep, to go down the rabbit hole on this a 3x3 grid is a great way to represent an octal number. Now I don't pretend to be a mathematician but I've long been fascinated by number systems based on numbers other than 10. Apologies if I have gotten anything wrong!

If each column is a 3 bit binary representation of an octal (3 bits is apparently a standard way of representing octal) you get:

111 010 010 | 101 010 101 | 110 101 100 | 101 010 101 | 111 011 111 | 101 010 101 | 111 001 011

That in standard numerals (but still in octal):

722 | 525 | 654 | 525 | 737 | 525 | 713

Those are octal numbers, where the first digit is x8x8 (x64), the second is x8 and the third is x1 (just as in decimal where the first is x10x10 (100), second is x10 and third is x1). If we convert them to decimal we get:

466 | 341 | 428 | 341 | 479 | 341 | 459

Of course you could read each 3x3 block horizontally instead and get a bunch of different numbers, but the repeating number (octal 525, decimal 341) stays the same:

Binary: 100 111 100 | 101 010 101 | 111 100 010 | 101 010 101 | 101 111 111 | 101 010 101 | 100 101 111
Octal: 474 | 525 | 742 | 525 | 577 | 525 | 457
Decimal: 316 | 341 | 482 | 341 | 383 | 341 | 303

When I saw the dots the first thing that came to mind was a machine readable code, of the type that used to appear on cheques, school exams, and many other places. Those usually had more rows than this one, but it still strongly resembles them. It wouldn't be standard for a machine-readable code to be read as 3 dots horizontally, then down to the next 3, down again to the next 3, then up and across to the next block - the dots would more likely be read vertically, allowing a continuous scan. What is common in machine-readable codes is repeating the whole string once or more just in case something happens to obfuscate it (the paper is ripped, burned, stained, badly printed, etc). And for the Warp one we get the same sequence twice.

Another interesting thing is that there is no 0. all of the octal numerals is used except 0. 1 through 7 each appear at least once. So we have 7 numbers composed of 7 octal numerals.

Just for fun here is what you get if you add the three decimal numbers in each block:

16 | 8 | 14 | 8 | 20 | 8 | 18

What it means, if anything, is a mystery though!

Just to put this to bed, I decided to go trawling and came across ads for Warp's WXAXRXP sessions: https://wxaxrxp.net/ So yep, definitely 3x3 blocks with the 2nd block repeating every other block but just a cute way of representing those letters, nothing more I basically never look at Warp's site, don't get their newsletter, so had no idea!

[Den]

That Semena Mertvykh has a similar sound quality distinct from the rest of TH is what makes me think maybe this will be on the album, but the Tape 05 music also feels inseparable from the video to me right now, and the video feels like its own complete work - like an invocation to whatever comes next. Semena Mertvykh just scored the album announcement itself.

[IronMark]

I have a theory that the new song on Tape 05 might be Trillions from Closes Vol 1.

I'm not married to this theory and it's probably wrong but I was just mulling over the symbolism of the VHS tapes in this rollout. Namely, the fans have low quality, barely discernable copies of the tape while BoC have the real thing. Plus the fact that '05' could correspond with the 5 pre-Twoism albums. From those 5 albums, Trillions is the only track that has a similar length to the song in Tape 05.

I've had a feeling through this whole thing that the BoCset is coming and I can't shake the fact that the new song sounds quite old school.

But like I say, I'm just musing and probably wrong.

I am tentatively with you on this, my very first comment after I heard tape05 was that this sounds like old material. I'd been listening to the albums a lot recently on my monitors and this just doesn't have the studio polish of any of the albums. But then you could argue tracks like Semena Mertvykh don't either. But still, as we are all doing nothing but speculating at this stage, I do wonder if we are about to get an archive of the world as told through an archive of their own work. Also the image of the Pentlands in the snow on the new homepage. It's all got a very 'return to roots' vibe about it.

I really like the gorgeous music of the song itself but it does sound very basic by BoC's standards from a production aspect, there don't appear to be a ton of layers and textures to unlock with the production. Of course that could just be a deliberate artistic style for one song on a new album or it could be indicative that this is from the past. Hopefully with the start of a new week there'll be some new information to mull over tomorrow.

[hexagonFox]

Id like to think/believe what I'm seeing in the video is:

A camera rolling slowly backwards on a dolly, while spinning/Rotating.
Shooting at 7 Large Lcd hexagon panels on a stage. (Think, Radioheads live use of large screens during performances)
Sometimes it looks like the image is being projected from the hexagons.
Imagine its a stage backdrop.

https://www.bescan-led.com/hexagon-led-display-product/

Imagine 7 of these.
And/or imagine it's not a performance, maybe these appear at the listing party or installed somewhere.

"Hexagonal LED screens are the ideal solution for a variety of creative design purposes such as retail advertising, exhibitions, stage backdrops, DJ booths, events and bars.

Each hexagon is capable of functioning independently, displaying clear images or videos, or they can be combined to create captivating patterns and showcase creative content."

Ok now come back to reality .

best,
Fox

[hexagonFox]

Id like to think/believe what I'm seeing in the video is:

A camera rolling slowly backwards on a dolly, while spinning/Rotating.
Shooting at 7 Large Lcd hexagon panels on a stage. (Think, Radioheads live use of large screens during performances)
Sometimes it looks like the image is being projected from the hexagons.
Imagine its a stage backdrop.

https://www.bescan-led.com/hexagon-led-display-product/

Imagine 7 of these.
And/or imagine it's not a performance, maybe these appear at the listing party or installed somewhere.

"Hexagonal LED screens are the ideal solution for a variety of creative design purposes such as retail advertising, exhibitions, stage backdrops, DJ booths, events and bars.

Each hexagon is capable of functioning independently, displaying clear images or videos, or they can be combined to create captivating patterns and showcase creative content."

Ok now come back to reality .

best,
Fox

oops
https://youtu.be/LkYV1mPZo0Q?si=FtqLZLQC8aA5EJGM

[magrathea_ultima]

Question: why is all this rare old stuff coming out in droves suddenly… any possible ties with the BoC / Warp contractual obligations done?

BoCset?

Something more sinister like a musical testament?

Speculation galore

[Negamuse]

I reckon it's more like, the people who originally had the stuff either weren't online enough to really think to share it, and/or were more into "preserve the secrecy" of what they were given, possibly by the band or people close to them. As that stuff passes to their kids, a generation later, it comes out.

[rossisdead]

I am tentatively with you on this, my very first comment after I heard tape05 was that this sounds like old material. I'd been listening to the albums a lot recently on my monitors and this just doesn't have the studio polish of any of the albums. But then you could argue tracks like Semena Mertvykh don't either. But still, as we are all doing nothing but speculating at this stage, I do wonder if we are about to get an archive of the world as told through an archive of their own work. Also the image of the Pentlands in the snow on the new homepage. It's all got a very 'return to roots' vibe about it.

Tape 05 sounds plenty polished to me, just YouTube adding its own flavor of low bitrate audio compression on top of it. The Dayvan Cowboy video on YouTube has the same kind of muddiness which isn't there in the flac version.