Boards of Canada at the Warp Lighthouse Party, 1999.
Boards of Canada, an electronic band from Scotland, are well known for their unique style of music as well as their backlog of rare and highly sought after "early albums" that were made with limited presses and distributed mainly among friends and family.
A few of these releases were eventually made public online such as Boc Maxima and Old Tunes (Volumes 1 and 2) but the rest of their previous work has yet to be heard by the public.
Cover art for the releases have mostly come from an archive of the old BOC website, where there was a section dedicated to their discography.
Limited-Release Albums[]
Catalog 3 cover art.
- Catalog 3 (1987) - Catalog 3 is the earliest known release by the band according to their old website,[1] though the title could imply that there may have been two prior releases. It's listed as having 8 tracks, mainly lengthy tracks of "rather uneventful ambient electronica".[2] Though it was repressed in CD format, it still hasn't been heard outside of the band's friends and family.
Art associated with Acid Memories.
- Acid Memories (1989) - Acid Memories is the band's second known release and is regarded as "less imposing"[3] than their previous album. There is some controversy regarding the cassette artwork which features the band's name. According to the band, they hadn't officially called themselves Boards of Canada until 1994. Other than a short 27 second snippet of the track "Duffy", the album hasn't been heard by the public.
Closes Vol. 1 cover art.
- Closes Vol. 1 (1992) - Closes Vol. 1 is the third album by the band but was released under the name b.o.c..[4] It also hasn't been heard outside of family or friends and no known samples exist. There are rips claiming to be Closes floating around on P2P networks like Soulseek for a long time, but it's mostly assumed to be fake. It was originally released as a cassette in 1992 and was reissued onto CD in 1997.
Play by Numbers cover art.
- Play by Numbers (1994) - Play by Numbers is the fourth known release by the band and has been described as having a more strumming shoegaze sound similar to My Bloody Valentine. Unlike almost all of the rest, it's an EP, five songs lasting 26 minutes. It's also said that when this was made, Boards was a trio. A one minute excerpt of the track "Wouldn't You Like To Be Free?" is the only legitimate sample from the album.
Harper Bay cover art.
- Hooper Bay (1994) - Hooper Bay is the fifth known release by the band and is also the first to use their trademark samples of children's voices, which is something they used through Geogaddi.[5] Like many of the previous albums, many purported fakes have been passed around the internet through peer to peer sites and often have mislabeled tracks by the band múm or are tracks from either volume of Old Tunes. The only legitimate sample is a 39 second snippet from "Circle" (which was posted on the now-defunct EHX website[6] in the early 90s).
Random 35 Tracks Tape[]
Fanart often assoicated with the Random 35 Track Tape.
In 2004, an album named "random 35 tracks tape - rarities and best of (not old tunes v1 or v2)" leaked on P2P file sharing network Soulseek, causing much drama at the time on fan forums like WATMM and twoism. None of the songs on the tape have been confirmed real or fake, and Hexagon Sun member MDG has said that it is not known who compiled the tracks, calling it "a mystery, just a mixture". Boards of Canada have not made any statements regarding the tape. It has often been referred to as "Closes Volume 2" and "A few Old Tunes Vol. 3".
References[]
- ↑ The Wayback Machine archive of the Catalog 3 page on Boards of Canada's old website. Retrieved 09 Jun '13.
- ↑ An online Boards of Canada biography. Retrieved 09 Jun '13.
- ↑ An online Boards of Canada biography. Retrieved 09 Jun '13.
- ↑ discogs.com page on b.o.c.'s Closes Vol. 1. Retrieved 09 Jun '13.
- ↑ bocpages.org article on Hooper Bay. Retrieved 09 Jun '13.
- ↑ bocpages.org article on now-defunct EHX website. Retrieved 09 Jun '13.