Boreal Network - DOS Image OUT NOW On Retronym!

[BrandNewRetro]

RTN006 - Boreal Network - DOS Image



Following his awesome work on the collaboration with GABRIEL, Cole Johnson of Boreal Network follows up with this offering, a full-length release which is captivating from start to finish.

Dos Image is tinged with the distant blips, beeps and whirs echoing around the arcades of yesteryear, conjuring up majestically fuzzy and warm imagery. Cole's fascination with educational PC game diskettes and the vast landscapes of Minnesota really shine through - both natural and synthetic textures are explored here, combining perfectly for your listening pleasure.

Available right now for free download!

Many thanks goes to Cole who allowed us to put out this truly awesome release Enjoy all!

[turquoise70]

holy shit

more like thank YOU for releasing it

look

i hope twoism listens to this and goes WOW NICE

i cranked up the GENESIS for this one

don't ask me why it's called DOS Image

if you have to ask

you need to drink and smoke more pot and live in the suburbs of minneapolis in 1990

if you still don't dig it, i just can't help you. come to my basement and have a Goldeneye party with me. we can bring sleeping bags. we can eat popcorn. we can jump on Matt's trampoline. we can play Myst. we can do anything, it's 72 degrees and 80% humidity, the stars are out, the ghosts are in the graveyard, and life just seems to be blossoming blossoming blossoming blossoming blossoming blossoming

[Cupz]

AWEZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Took you long enough!

[ArtOfTheGroove]

Just DLed this, but it's 3am here so I won't get into it until tomorrow - looking forward to it from what I've heard online.

[Aesthetics]

Downloaded and a few songs in, sounds rephresing! Seems like it's a theme for a vintage game to me.
You should consider sending a demo to Namco or any similar gamestudios. I'm not really into it anymore but I guess there are still some 2D platform games being made?

[isawdrones]

second tune was great!

[Joebot Kill]

cole!!! i was a sega kid too! i fucking love boreal network.

[CoBoC]

Holy EXPLETIVE.
Thank you for more great music!

I'm gonna have to play Genesis tonight. Light Crusader, Chakan, Pulseman... oh yeah.

EDIT: After listing to this all day, I'm gonna say Crescendaleon is the best track on here. I just love the melody that never stops, the 80s drum beat, and the xylophone in the background.

[turquoise70]

Ae - I have been told once before that DOS Image works quite well as background music for old games if you turn down the sound while you're playing

joebot - heck yeah, genesis was so badass! i loved nintendo (track 4 is an earthbound homage) but sega was totally the bad boy all the lil' white kids wanted to be

special thanks:

hendrik for the clapsnare in track 8
lena for helping name track titles 9, 10, 11 and 12
len carlson for being such an awesome voice actor
lisa lougheed for not suing me
youtube for videos of christian the lion
computers for being big beige boxes with IBM on them

[jakestott]

Listening now

Hitops 88 for the motherfuckin win!

[747Music]

Awesome work. Seriously send this album to a video-game company. You'll get a bite for sure.

[Twoism-ist]

Hitops 88 is a fucking blast... I feel like blasting away enemies in Contra Hard Corps right about now.

[Beacon]

I am really enjoying this.

[ninetyoneplus]

Very nice. The subtle pitch bends in Iron Ranger are badass. Sounds a bit like that Lithium Enchantment album that came out on AH a while back.

[IanRedpoint]

Very nice. The subtle pitch bends in Iron Ranger are badass.

Damn right. Iron Ranger is ace. It's all good but that one really grabbed me on a first listen. I'm more of a SNES guy, but I can definitely hear the Sega vibe running through these tunes. Makes me wish I was still writing games so I could road-test this properly.

[jonnyjj74]

Great work, one of the best electronic releases i've heard this year. I'm with Aesthetics on this one, it sounds refreshing to me. I generally don't like any music that try to incorporate any 8-bit or SNES sounds or style into the music...it usually comes off sounding like a novelty. But these songs have a lot of interesting ideas and details rolling around in them.

[BrandNewRetro]

This album brings off vibes of nostalgia more than an album has for a long time. I think Cole and I grew up in a similar time period, particularly with the mass Goldeneye sessions...good times I have an afixiation with the DOS Image track, hating to make BoC comparisions (not that it really sounds like it) but it's got that wonderful sense of the distant hazy memories like 84 Pontiac Dream has for me, I love it! Iron Rangers and Arrowheads and Crescendaleon are incrediblely uplifting too, amazing work all round. I wish I could make games (the days of Games Factory have long gone ), I'd so use this album as the soundtrack!

[turquoise70]

Thanks again for the kind replies guys i'm really pleased this is having a positive impact, being that it's a little bit of a departure from my more chilled out stuff.

Chakan

THE FOREVER MAN

Great work, one of the best electronic releases i've heard this year. I'm with Aesthetics on this one, it sounds refreshing to me. I generally don't like any music that try to incorporate any 8-bit or SNES sounds or style into the music...it usually comes off sounding like a novelty. But these songs have a lot of interesting ideas and details rolling around in them.

wow dude, thank you much!! yeah, i think the thing was, i didn't really start out with a solidified concept when i began writing tunes for dos image, i was really getting into the electro house scene and stuff like danger and college and adeyhawke and shook and power glove, so it started out aiming sortof towards that, then i got the notion to incorporate a bunch of videogame themes but, a little bit more subtlely than straight up sampling a genesis song or throwing punch/explosion sounds on top of the track. mind you this all wasn't a cognitive process, i was just doing my thing, the analysis all comes after the fact and i can't guarantee i know for sure what i'm talking about.

[turquoise70]

I think Cole and I grew up in a similar time period, particularly with the mass Goldeneye sessions...good times

that game was a nuclear force in the videogame world. i don't think there was a single sleepover from 1997 to 2000 that didn't involve goldeneye. at least ONE of your four friends had to have a 64. ah shit, who's gonna borrow me their controller...

I have an afixiation with the DOS Image track

when i wrote that tune and found the voice sample for the beginning part, i knew that was gonna be the title-bearing flagship track, so to speak. it really drove at the heart of the album i think, i think there's something really personal and human about that track especially with the bit from the group therapy lady talking about loneliness vs aloneness, where most of the other stuff is more impersonal and oriented outwards, it's more introspective and melancholy. videogames could bring people into your world, or they could isolate you. well, that's the corny after-the-fact 'artiste' explanation. the honest explanation is, i like quotes about self-separation and aloneness and existential alienation and it's all self indulgent psychoanalysis :p

[BrandNewRetro]

I think Cole and I grew up in a similar time period, particularly with the mass Goldeneye sessions...good times

that game was a nuclear force in the videogame world. i don't think there was a single sleepover from 1997 to 2000 that didn't involve goldeneye. at least ONE of your four friends had to have a 64. ah shit, who's gonna borrow me their controller...

I have an afixiation with the DOS Image track

when i wrote that tune and found the voice sample for the beginning part, i knew that was gonna be the title-bearing flagship track, so to speak. it really drove at the heart of the album i think, i think there's something really personal and human about that track especially with the bit from the group therapy lady talking about loneliness vs aloneness, where most of the other stuff is more impersonal and oriented outwards, it's more introspective and melancholy. videogames could bring people into your world, or they could isolate you. well, that's the corny after-the-fact 'artiste' explanation. the honest explanation is, i like quotes about self-separation and aloneness and existential alienation and it's all self indulgent psychoanalysis :p

That sums up DOS Image perfectly!