For me Tomorrow’s harvest is their best album, more synthy than the others and some of the drum programming is fantastic
Im taking the Caledonian Sleeper train this week up to Fort William then driving up to the Western Isles… If i spot them I will let you all know.
If anyone has been fortunate enough to visit Cullen (where the brothers are from) you might kind of get a sense of where their music comes from. Their stuff is oddly really fitting for that part of the world.
I only recently realised they hailed from there. I holidayed up that way a couple of years ago - lovely part of the world. And for those Scots on the forum who have never been it’s def worth checking out. Veering off topic but there’s some lovely warmer micro climates that way and cracking beaches - all on your doorstep.
The Caledonian sleeper forks off to either the Highlands or Aberdeen. Maybe i should replan my route
Because theyre essentially misanthropes in the eyes of the music industry. They dont award just good music, needs to be a complete package. Why didnt Burial win for Untrue?
Ha! You wont go wrong with either to be honest. I was genuinely stunned by the beaches though. Even at Lossiemouth with fighter jets doing manoeuvres above, the beach was lovely. I might have been ridiculously lucky weather wise but either way it was brilliant. West coast is great too though - be prepared for some odd accents. Folks in Oban honestly sound like a continental European speaking English to me
In any case, get the BoC tapes on and enjoy the scenery. The journey will be great.
least favourite of mine. still waiting for it to grow on me, 8 years later- always feels like a BOC-by-numbers excercise. took a fair few years for campfire headphase to make sense to me tho (couldnt come to terms with the use of guitars) so there’s hope yet that i’ll have a change of heart
Don’t! You’re going to the best side of Scotland
Im going through the Highlands and then off to Luskentyre Beach. I will try and write a few BOC type tracks when i get there
Agree 100%. I actually didn’t like it on first listen, thought they had gone for too much of a cinematic, almost Vangelis vibe. But after a few listens it just took over me and I could hardly listen to anything else. As well as what you’ve said, the way it is mixed sounds very 3D. I found that I’d hear something new in it every time I listened, and love the way the texture of the voice recordings blend into the other sounds. The voices at times are almost subliminal.
With BOC I like how there is a definite influence from the 70’s and 80’s information films and synth sounds from the past with a modern edge. Sort of reminds me of the synth music you hear when walking around Disney Epcot. 70’s but futuristic. I think electronic music is always striving for the next thing when there is a wealth of styles not explored fully from the past, things move too quickly or are branded out of date.
no will to derail but any other Scottish elektronauts in here? hi, hullo.
also love them, think Tomorrow’s Harvest is my overall favourite record but it’s close.
Happy to let them take as long as they need.
Top view of my laptop, you could recognize some very familiar imagery for BoC fans
Speaking of their best work I must say Geogaddi either because it was the very first BoC work I ever heard and thus one of the most archaic, esoteric IMO. It was like a journey with the Shackleton mission to Antarctica to me…
Grew up in Glasgow. Now in London but massively miss it.
You didn’t ask for it, but… so many great spots: Glencoe, up the Bealach na Bà and down into Applecross, Ullapool, Torridon and my personal favourite, Glenfinnan (just watch out for the Potterites).
That new remix has grown on me. They seem to give themselves a bit more freedom in their remixes and allow themselves to have a bit more fun with it. If I can let go of the notion of BoC as this mystical entity that only makes serious and cryptic music, it’s actually a pretty cool remix.
I went to exactly where that photo was taken a couple of years ago - everyone waits for the steam train to come round the viaduct. Can’t remember exactly where it was but we’d been out to the beach at Morar and were heading back to Fort William. Is it Genfinnan?
Scotland is always in the back of my head as a place to move to one day. I grew up near the North Yorkshire Moors and used to go out walking there all the time, so I have a definite attachment to moorlands/highlands.
Yeah, Glenfinnan.
Where Bonnie Prince Charlie landed after he came back from exile - hence the monument. 4th longest Loch in Scotland. Has a monster. Some friends live up there so I go fairly regularly. In recent years you get a lot of Harry Potter fans, but they tend to get the steam train there and bugger off again. So it’s still quiet most of the time.
Did I read somewhere once that they lived in a commune in the middle of nowhere or was that just a rumour? They seem like the kind of guys who are content with making just enough money to continue doing what they love while keeping themselves to themselves, like a certain other fella from Cornwall, who I believe has also “retired” to the highlands…
Anywhere near Pickering? Spent an idyllic week there (and the surrounds) while staying with family friends in my early teens (mid ‘80s.)
Attracting the attention of said friends’ daughter might have put a further shine on the week.
Been up that way a lot but was over the west side - near Easingwold.