01. / 02. Introit / Prophecy At 1420 MHz

[rd1994]

I just discovered a new "sound" in Prophecy (by which I mean I never noticed it before) at 4:10 when that ending synth comes in there is a wooden clicking sound - it kinda like "dit dit da da dit dit" I know I make it sound like morse code but its not really like that LOL I just had no idea how else to explain it

[TaoTapeTao]

I just discovered a new "sound" in Prophecy (by which I mean I never noticed it before) at 4:10 when that ending synth comes in there is a wooden clicking sound - it kinda like "dit dit da da dit dit" I know I make it sound like morse code but its not really like that LOL I just had no idea how else to explain it

I believe you may be talking about the ADSR Envelope on the Synth or Sample instrument that is playing

[rd1994]

I just discovered a new "sound" in Prophecy (by which I mean I never noticed it before) at 4:10 when that ending synth comes in there is a wooden clicking sound - it kinda like "dit dit da da dit dit" I know I make it sound like morse code but its not really like that LOL I just had no idea how else to explain it

I believe you may be talking about the ADSR Envelope on the Synth or Sample instrument that is playing

I could be wrong but I don't think it is. The rhythm of that clicking isn't the same rhythm as the notes that are being played. By no means am I claiming to be an expert though and again the pitch of it changes of that "clicking" but not in unison with the actual synth

again its really hard to put into words (especially if you're not a native speaker like me)

[noveltywave]

I would really like to dive deeper into what the title of this track means in relation to the rest of the album that follows, and of course how the vocal sample (a lecture) could be interpreted as a prophecy. And why is it “at” and not “from”?

[747Music]

I would really like to dive deeper into what the title of this track means in relation to the rest of the album that follows, and of course how the vocal sample (a lecture) could be interpreted as a prophecy. And why is it “at” and not “from”?

You tune into radio stations at frequencies, not from frequencies. In terms of recording broadcasts, "at" is a current running source frequency. "from" is more just towards referencing it's origin or the source at the time of recording. To further my reply to you on the last page, they mean to state this as something that is absolute. It is 'at' that frequency.


As for the prophetic message, I think they mean to show that we have a spiritual sense in an instinctive resonant reaction, but it's important to recognize the reality of nothingness. It's where we came from. It's where we're headed. The idea of God being the ultimate resonance kinda says that God and spirituality are largely instinctively recognizable, but the idea has been mutilated into a pursuit for power, "in a sense, the religion of the modern world." If we can embrace the reality of nothingness, we can gain back our inner child and live our lives how we want to. No longer bound to the twisted power-hunger trip that is the religions of the world. I think the album continues on to basically show the process of realizing this, processing the realization, and then entirely freeing oneself from such enslavement to corrupted religious interpretation.


The bulk of the middle of the album is showing the insanity of corrupted religious zealotry and a journey through spirituality. I think it also goes over the effects of these things. These two sentences are oversimplified, of course.

I think Deep Time is a way of considering how this all matters in the grand scheme of things. For example, how will people look at things, let's say, a billion years from now? Will some views/things happening today be tolerated then? What behaviours will we have moved past? Will we have learned lessons by then from our experience as a species? What may we wish we had changed sooner?

All Reason Departs talks about a great battle, the law of thelema, and a crowned and conquering child. I think this is a battle within each of us to decide who we allow to control our thoughts. I think the crowned and conquering child is the child in each of us. I think the law of thelema is the end goal/the result of the child winning and being crowned. "Do as you will"

I think The Process plays vocals that sound nonsensical, but talk about odd things like magic. I think this is the process of the mind rejecting corrupt religious interpretation/mind-control. The second half is a gorgeous piano melody with sounds of a child. I think that's the peace of being reunited with the child within and finding comfort there - all as a result of refusing religious nonsense. The child being heard is our own inner child.

Then Arena Americanada, this is the great war against purging the corruption from ourselves. That allows a crowned and conquering child, your inner child, control of your mind. Your inner child is now crowned as victor. The second half of the song sure sounds like we got a victory.

You Retreat In Time and Space is the results of the mind now being allowed to embrace the inner child and see life the way you saw it as a kid, before all the nonsense of a twisted world changed you. I wasn't able to go, but I understand the live shows showed old camera footage that was likely from their own childhood while this song played.

The title of the last track, I See Through Platonia, acts as another statement of absolution in their resolve regarding the album and it's message. I think the heart-beat is their own. So as to say that this is on their heart and meant in all sincerity. Perhaps they'd like people to be happier, to be able to embrace their inner child. Perhaps they thought this album may help do that. Maybe there is no lesson for us. Maybe the whole album is just Mike's brain in first person, instead. Maybe both. I dunno.


I kinda think the message of this album is, in a sentence: Free your mind from the religions of the world, and you can free your inner child and better appreciate the precious, limited time we have.

That's my ranting possibility of a guess. I could easily be waaaaaaay off.

[Wildfire]

I absolutely love this take 747Music, it's given me great food for thought, great job.

[Cupz]

Free your mind from the religions of the world, and you can free your inner child and better appreciate the precious, limited time we have.

I love this. Especially true when power is also a religion.

[747Music]

Free your mind from the religions of the world, and you can free your inner child and better appreciate the precious, limited time we have.

I love this. Especially true when power is also a religion.

It sure is a religion, among many other things that may not get written down on travel papers on the line next to Religion:_________.

As for the album title.
Inferno is a word often used symbolically for complete and permanent destruction. The use of Inferno as the album title may have multiple implications.
1) Complete and permanent destruction would carry the end result of nothingness. Nothing escapes the inferno, so spend your time accordingly. Embrace nothingness and be free from chasing so-called religious lies.
2) Give corrupt religion and this worlds mind-control the inferno treatment. Kill it from yourself in the manner of a cleansing fire in order to free yourself and be yourself.
3) They looked into the fire and this albums content is what they saw. Many ancient cultures used fire quite a lot in all sorts of religious practices. This included prophesying by looking into the fire and cleansing by passing through the fire, amongst other things. Chaz and Sauce, *clears throat* excuse me... Mike and Marcus certainly come across as fellas who stare into fire on a regular basis. They have had a good grasp on the campfire headphase for many decades, after all.
4) The Colour of the Fire, 1986 Summer Fire, Sir Prancealot Brainfire, Farewell Fire, The Campfire Headphase... They like fire. We've seen the photos by the fire. They talk of outdoor parties with a campfire going. Big fire for Redmoon party. Perhaps they feel it's an important part of what shapes them. Inferno is perhaps also a statement of personal representation.

might be none of those. might be all. might be some.

[Redd Panderson]

Seeing the similarity between that video and the one for Prophecy (and the fan New Seeds cover + video // the Tape 05 video) makes me think of how the promotional material for Inferno seems to have leaned into the fan mythos for the band: "After 13 years of silence from the compound..."

It seems consistent with the "feedback" idea of plugging the output back into the input and getting something exaggerated out.

Maybe there is no lesson for us. Maybe the whole album is just Mike's brain in first person, instead. Maybe both. I dunno.

All this is giving me a place to land my own unfettered musings about Inferno, Giraud's Mirror, and what those things could say about Boards of Canada's discography.

Considering the circular radial motif of their albums (and possibly the structure of their full discography) and themes alongside the themes of Giraud's Mirror and its blue rose, it struck me that a record is a circle (Tomorrow's Harvest plays with this best with its concentric pairs of tracks). It's like an eye that shows us something while looking back at us, reflecting ourselves. Not just an LP, but a recording--a VHS tape, a sample, a photograph, a text...

...or a primordial radio signal. The hydrogen atom. It doesn't just evoke the beginnings of the universe, but the very stuff of which its made. Inferno involves both suffering and the medium in which we live.

For the voices in the record, Prophecy at 1420MHz is at the beginning of their universe (the album), and they live out their lives in there thinking it's the real world, but then the needle comes up. Maybe our lives aren't so different! The record isn't just an eye; it's a window that gives us a peek into the world of the record and the people inside it, charged with the demonic aspect of a recording that uncannily represents, but ultimately is not, reality. It's also a mirror that reflects back something of ourselves--what we take as "reality" is really just electrical representations in our brain, prone to bias and the limits of human sensory perception and memory. Ultimately, all our musings about "what the music means" tell us more about ourselves, perhaps, than whatever the band's intentions are. Boards of Canada's music is an invitation to reflect, and reflection can lead to insight but also to madness!

The 7 tessellated hexagons of the promo VHS tape represent all of this in my view: the radial pattern of people sitting around a campfire, an atomic blast, the nine rings of Inferno, a loop, radio waves, hydrogen atoms, an eye, a window or mirror that offers a view into reality, the record's grooves. All the universe is a record, and we, too, are trapped inside. Along this line of thinking, to some extent all the apparent referential material in Boards of Canada must ultimately lead in a circle back to itself: it can hypnotize those who dig into it but ultimately doesn't lead anywhere more definitive than the record itself.

In this way, I believe the intention is that asking "what does Inferno mean?" is as meaningful as asking "what is the meaning of life?" or "why is the sky blue?" It just is. The question is more important than the answer; the question is open to possibility and invites engagement, the answer shuts down mystery, seems to discourage one from journeying, and even leads to dogma.

This isn't nihilistic. It's an affirmation that the meaning of art--and life--is largely something personal that happens between the subject and the object, and that experience in the act of listening can be neither done for you nor ultimately reduced down to words. In an information vacuum (like the mystery of BOC), people will attempt to seduce you with answers in order to have power and control over you. But becoming a self-actualized person involves growing to a place where you can put your locus of control within yourself and to trust yourself, just as you were saying, 747Music.

Final thought: I think it's interesting that Giraud's Mirror has a kind of high fidelity jostling sound that pairs well with the record crackles. If the crackles are the media knocking, that sound is the world from inside the record knocking back. It's the place where the veil between realities is the thinnest.

I could edit this down to be more clear and concise, but my head's not in that place right now, so there's my own ranting possibility of a guess!

[747Music]

"...a view into reality, the record's grooves. All the universe is a record, and we, too, are trapped inside."

This may be my favourite quote for a while.

Genuinely interesting conclusions you got there.
I understand what you are saying. It's the very nature of interpretation. It's also a flaw in interpretation in depending entirely on who interprets. Because we have unique experiences in life, it can shape each persons interpretations to be something unique. Because of this effect, it can act like a Rorschach test, but with greater scope and complexity.

Didn't they already thank us for participating in MBI's mass behavioural initiative at the beginning of the live album shows?