The album by means of which Boards of Canada became recognized by a much wider
public. Unlike the previous Skam releases, this was a joint release by Skam
and Warp. Future releases by BoC would appear on the Warp label (aside from
the re-release of "Hi Scores" in Oct 2002).
On the title of this album, and of some of its tracks, BoC said in an interview:
"Our titles are always cryptic references which the listener might understand or might not.
Some of them are personal, so the listener is unlikely to know what it refers to.
Music Has the Right to Children is a statement of
our intention to affect the audience using sound.
"The Color Of The Fire" was a reference to a
friend's psychedelic experience.
"Kaini Industries" is a company that was set up
in Canada ( by coincidence in the month Mike was born), to create employment
for a settlement of Cree Indians. "Olson" is
the surname of a family we know, and
"Smokes Quantity" is the nickname of a friend of ours.
kaini industries
(In fact, the company was called "Kainai Industries" Ltd. It was located on
the Blood Reserve. There was also a Kainai Cooperative Enterprises. "Kainai"
means "many chiefs", and the Kainai are also known as the Blood Nation. More
about this at link1
and link2.) [DC]
[Simon Wilkinson] suggests that this might be a recording from a native American ceremony,
including what sounds like someone with a drum - see also comments on "Pete Standing Alone".
wildlife analysis: BoC cite the films of the
National Film Boards of Canada as a big influence on them when they were younger,
musically, and in other ways. Perhaps this explains the love of and respect for nature that seems to come
across in the music, and the interest in native American people and their way of life. For example,
see the comments on hooper bay; "Chinook" (next); "Pete Standing Alone"
and "Kaini Industries" in music has the right to children.
When slowed this track down by a factor of 3 or 4, the background behind the
melody seems to be composed of the droning of aeroplane engines, as you might hear when out
on the hills with aircraft passing high overhead. Or it may just be a similar sound. [DC]
an eagle in your mind: comments from Northern Exposure interview:
"On some tracks, we get people we know to record their voices making weird phonetic sounds.
We chop it all up and use the plosive and fricative sounds for percussion and so on.
All of the percussion on "An Eagle in Your Mind" was done with my girlfriend's voice."
See lyrics page for attempts at the words. Something about "holts, close to the
sea, fallen boulders, a safe place for cubs". [DC] compares the comments on otters with those here:
http://whales.gn.apc.org/wildlife.shtml.
"[Otters] occupy holts in small caves, amongst moss-covered boulders in woodland close to the sea, or in stream banks."
See also the description at
http://www.shetlandtoday.co.uk/magazine/index.asp?stories/dratsies.php~main:
"When otters are ashore they usually shelter in holts. These underground burrows and caverns are typically
10 to 20 metres long but have been recorded up to 50 metres. The animals can dig their own holts and will
line them with bedding. Boulders and man-made structures are also used as shelter from time to time.
Most holts are close to the sea, the exception being the natal holts in which the cubs are born.
These may be up to a kilometre away from the shore."
telephasic workshop: perhaps a reference to
telophase, a part of cell division; the idea of a biological "workshop" [DC].
Perhaps also a reference to the "Children's Television Workshop",
who make "Sesame Street" (which BoC have sampled).
Telephasic: Tele: Of the mind, phasic: synchronized. This might be the meaning behind "Telephasic Workshop"; a meditative environment in which two or more individuals attempt to share a telepathic vision or idea. [Skytree]
[Ken Stewart] - a possible reference (which seems more plausible
than either of the above) to the BBC's "Radiophonic Workshop",
where interesting music and sound effects were produced for various TV programmes
like Dr Who. It is located at Maida Vale where, incidentally, BoC recorded their Peel Session.
As Ken suggests, the "radio-" part of "radiophonic" becomes "tele-" (from "television",
as opposed to radio; also sounds like "telly"); while "-phonic" becomes "-phasic".
In greek, "tele" means "from afar", "at a distance", and "phonic" means
"relating to, or having the nature of sound, especially speech sounds"
(Greek "φωνη", meaning "sound", properly, "sound of the voice"),
while "phasic" means "relating to the production of speech" (from Greek verb φημι, "to speak").
So "telephasic" is "speaking at a distance", but the word is also a kind
of analogue, in its construction, to the word "radiophonic" (→"telly-phasic").
rue the whirl: [Ken Stewart] -
this might be a distortion of the phrase "rule the world". See the French language
interview (on the links page) for more on this; the studio
window was open when BoC listened to this track; the birdsong they heard outside
went so well with the music that they recorded it and added it to the track.
[Goatmancods] - suggests that "rue the whirl" might express regret over
how quickly childhood passes by in the whirl of time.
sixtyten is 70. You'll hear this in
aquarius too. A reference to Music70, BoC's
own label. See comments on the smallest weird number in geogaddi.
[Daniel Pursglove] - writing "sixty-ten" for "seventy" imitates
the French counting system (where 70 is "soixante-dix", literally "sixty-ten").
Of course, French is widely used in Canada.
roygbiv: "Roy G. Biv" is a common mnemonic
for the order of the colours of the rainbow, like 'Richard of York
gave battle in vain'. [DC]
pete standing alone refers to an actual person, an Native American Indian named Pete Standing Alone, who in the film, Circle of the Sun (1960) is our guide to his life as a typical young member of the Blood Tribe. He talks about his regular life and thoughts while he attends the traditional Sun Dance ritual which is part of his people's struggle to keep their heritage alive. He appeared in 7 films made by the National Film Boards of Canada. [Joyrex]
bocuma was called "boc maxima" on the album of
the same name. To a suggestion that the (new) track title was a
reference to Bochum Welt, BoC commented: "Sorry, I'm afraid not ... It's an
abbreviation/crossover of BOC Maxima and Documa, an obscure reference to 80's video culture".
turquoise hexagon sun:
a reference to the Hexagon Sun "collective" of musicians and artists who work at BoC's
Hexagon Sun Studio in the east of Scotland.
[Evan Snyder] gave me this interesting link -
http://jonathanclark.com/diary/flare/ -
on the subject on lens flares. The number of blades making up the shutter of the camera
influences the shape of the lens flare produced, so that a six-bladed shutter, for example, would
produce a hexagonal sun flare effect. Evan suggests the possibility that the name was inspired
by a documentary, or even one of Hexagon Sun's own films, with special meaning to BoC,
featuring a prominent turquoise hexagonal sun flare. An intriguing possibility, and
a very interesting link. (You can also find photos fitting this description at
WarpRecords - go to Artists, BoC, and look at the Gallery photos).
Not specifically in relation to
this track, but in a wider sense (Hexagon Sun, the kaleidoscopic images on Geogaddi, etc),
here are comments from the NME Interview:
"What's the significance of hexagons to you?"
"Marcus: "The hexagon theme represents that whole idea of being able to see reality for what it is,
the raw maths or patterns that make everything. We've always been interested in science and maths.
Sometimes music or art or drugs can pull back the curtain for you and reveal the Wizard of Oz,
so to speak, busy pushing the levers and pressing buttons. That's what maths is, the wizard.
It sounds like nonsense but I'm sure a lot of people know what I'm talking about."
The normal version of this album has 17 tracks,
but the American release featured the bonus track "happy cycling". Since
this track does not appear on all versions of this album, but does appear on
the peel session, it will be discussed then.
Geogaddi: a combination of various words. Marcus:
"It can have several meanings. We have our own definite idea of it, a combination of words
that describe an idea we had at the time of writing it, but we want listeners to make
their own minds up.
[Some have made attempts to analyze this title as a simple combination of roots.
But, probably, only the "geo-" part is meaningful, in relation to the
theme of 'math and geometry' (see interview comments, below). As is noted on
the miscellaneous page, the rest of the title is almost certainly from 'Koeeaddi there',
a song title by the Incredible String Band. As for where the ISB got *that*
title, there are various conflicting stories, one being that the title was
generated randomly. See the miscellaneous page for more on this.]
Regarding the cover itself, [Brian Cypher] observes that if the image is inverted, then the cover
becomes predominantly turquoise. This might perhaps reflect what BoC hoped to accomplish
with Geogaddi, as being in some respects the "inverse" of "Music ..." as respects the
overall mood of the album, and so on.
Mike Sandison: "Usually, our titles are self-explanatory, but this record's title
is a composite that has more than one meaning. We have a meaning we understand from it,
but it's up to listeners to choose their own meaning. I suppose the nature thing
has an indirect effect on us while we're writing, because we're out here in the
country most of the time. We're both heavily interested in science, too,
which crosses over into nature and probably comes through in the music.
Interviewer: "Does "Music Is Math" have anything to do with the mathematics and
geometry that run through nature and, consequently, art, music and architecture?"
Mike Sandison: "We've been interested in these things for a while, but on this album,
we thought it'd be fun to put it in as a theme. The golden mean is nothing new
in architecture and music. All through history, there have been guys like
Mozart who got into the Masonic knowledge and were fascinated by this stuff.
On Geogaddi, there's a vague theme of math and geometry and how they
relate to religious iconography.
See also comments on the miscellaneous page, under art allusions.
On the sound - Mike: "I would say 'Music Has The Right...' is a record for outdoors on a
cold, blue-skied day, while 'Geogaddi' is a record for some sort of trial-by-fire, a
claustrophobic, twisting journey that takes you into some pretty dark experiences
before you reach the open air again. It has a kind of narrative. That's why we
ended it with 'Corsair', it's like the light at the end of the tunnel.
Marcus: "Our influences while creating Geogaddi involved much darker material,
so I think this comes through in the album.
From the OOR interview:
"The theme with Geogaddi is a kind of confusion, as though you're going through
a kind of 'Alice in Wonderland' adventure, but with a damaged mind"
Please read the interviews for more. It's always better
to read such quotes in their proper context.
There is a definitive air of something dark and menacing hiding
just beneath the surface of this album as a whole, and the attention to detail is quite
remarkable, as should be evident by the number of comments it is possible
to make about it (and these are probably only scratching the surface).
In some ways, the structure of the first few tracks is similar to those on "music...":
ready lets go gives us a brief and gentle introduction.
Like "an eagle in your mind", the second track music is math
gives us a track which starts relatively simply, then gradually becomes more complex
and distorted. "the colour of the fire" gives way to the menacing crackling of a
fire in beware the friendly stranger.
The message in music is math, "the past inside the present":
probably referring to BoC drawing inspiration from nostalgia about their childhood.
Others: A book
by Elizabeth Rosner, called 'the speed of light', ends with the line:
"We could live in two places at once -- carry the past inside the present. We could travel faster than the speed of light."
[My grateful thanks to the webmaster of
http://www.curtsmithzerodisc.com/ for this info]
[Micah] comments that the track is reminiscent of a slowed-down version of Sixtyniner, which might also
add another level of meaning to 'the past inside the present'.
[Nathan E.] sent me the
link for the following interesting deterrent sign:
http://www.antiqueweird.com/frndstrn.jpg.
According to another email, this is from the Psychedelics Encyclopedia (published 1977, author Peter G. Stafford).
A correspondent has pointed out something very interesting. The 'Friendly Stranger' is
mentioned, as the name of a bar, in "The Illuminatus! Trilogy". It's in the chapter
entitled "the second trip, or chokmah":
"Then I met Mao Tsu-hsi. It was April 30, Walpurgasnacht (pause for thunder on the
soundtrack), and I was rapping with some of the crowd at the Friendly Stranger.
H.P.Lovecraft (the rock group, not the writer) was conducting services in the back room,
pounding away at the door to Acid Land in the gallant effort, new and striking that year,
to break in on waves of sound without any chemical skeleton key at all ...
The significance of this book in connection with BoC is mentioned elsewhere on this page.
gyroscope imitates or samples "numbers stations",
shortwave radio stations, presumably used for espionage, which broadcast strings
of numbers using a sampled voice, sometimes that of a child.
[doctorvee]. There are a some very interesting articles on numbers stations; these two deserve
mention:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station
http://www.salon.com/people/feature/1999/09/16/numbers/
Mike and Marcus have admitted to having an interest in shortwave radios in their
formative years, and stated that some of their really early (i.e. pre-BoC) music
was made by chopping up recorded shortwave transmissions. They have never
explicitly mentioned these so-called "numbers stations", but those who have
heard such transmissions can testify to similar qualities in some of their music:
grainy synthetic transmissions that swing between perky, simple tunes or
mysterious noises, and children's voices, or even sheer aural terror.
If any of the above sparks an interest in this topic, you might like to
have a look on the Web for information on the "Conet Project" 4xCD set.
See the lyrics page for the a suggested film source.
Comments on Gyroscope from the HMV Interview:
HMV.com: "Can you recall one standout moment during the process of recording this
record that was completely fulfilling from a creative standpoint?"
Marcus: "Yeah for me it would be the track Gyroscope. I dreamed the sound of it, and although
I've recreated dreamt songs before, I managed to do that one so quickly that the end result
was 99% like my dream. It spooks me to listen to it now."
Play dandelion in reverse, and a richer melody will
become evident. The "dandelion" of the track is apparently a deep-sea creature,
perhaps an anemone. Attempts to bring one to the surface resulted in its
disintegration because of pressure changes. The narration describes attempts
to make a device to bring one to the surface intact. [Oscar Bartos]
sunshine recorder: the Campbell-Stokes
sunshine recorder
consists of a glass globe which focuses sunlight onto a card behind, leaving a record
(in burnmarks) of sunshine throughout the day. [DC]
in the annexe: [Plaster] tells me that the
original title of the diary of Anne Frank was "The Annexe", named after the house
in which she lived, "The Secret Annexe" - see here.
He also mentions that The Annex is a neighbourhood in Toronto, Canada -
see here.
UPDATE: [Jae] sent me this informative link
about the neighbourhood in Toronto.
julie and candy: comments from the HMV interview:
The best way I'd describe it is that our sound sources are
almost always something like a real instrument or an analog synth, and our recording
techniques and processes are a bit unorthodox. We don't like using digital things or
computer effects so we get sounds by doing things like running whole parts through
a really bad tape recorder or something like that. Like the intro on 'Julie and Candy'
for example, we just played the melody on a couple of whistles and then we bounced
it back and forward between the internal mics of two tape-decks until the sound started
disappearing into hell. Like when you look at an image reflected within two mirrors forever,
in the distance it gets darker and greener and murkier.
From the Northern Exposure interview:
"Most of "Julie and Candy" was actually made up of recorders and flutes."
the smallest weird number is 70. As in Music70, BoC's own label.
A "weird number" is a number that is "abundant" but not "semi-perfect". Meaning? Take all the "proper
divisors" of 70 (i.e. all the divisors of 70 except for 70 itself). They are 1, 2, 5, 7, 10, 14, 35.
When the proper divisors add up to more than the original number, the original
number is said to be abundant. For 70: 1+2+5+7+10+14+35 = 74 > 70, so
70 is "abundant".
Now, if there was some SUBSET of these numbers 1, 2, 5, 7, 10, 14, 35 which added up
to 70, then 70 would be said to be "semi-perfect" (or "psuedo-perfect") But there isn't.
Try it. You can make 71 by missing out the 1 and the 2, or you can make 69 by missing
out the 5, but you can't make 70. I hope that explanation is clear.
The first few weird numbers are:
70, 836, 4030, 5830, 7192, 7912, 9272, 10430, 10570, 10792.
You can find a
longer list of weird numbers
in the "online encyclopedia of integer sequences", from which my shorter listing was taken.
This explanation of weird numbers by [DC].
the beach at redpoint: Redpoint is a little
village on the west of the Scottish mainland, where Red Point juts out into the sea,
between Loch Torridon and Loch Gairloch; it is almost, but not quite, as far
north as the northern tip of the Isle of Skye to the west.
1969: See interview comments for Dawn Chorus, below.
Also, from the OOR interview:
'"1969 in the sunshine" (from: 1969). What memory is that? Woodstock? A yellowed
picture of your parents? A collective memory that fits your music?'
'Mike: In that song it refers to a specific period in the history of a religious group,
and at the same time the period in general, the hopefulness of a forward-thinking
generation that wasn't aware of what was coming in their collective future.'
opening the mouth: an Egyptian ritual [Sindawe].
"As the focus for offerings, the tomb was known as the "ka house"; statues of
the deceased within the tomb are often called "ka statues" for the same reason.
Statues of the deceased placed in the tomb serve as physical repositories for the dead
person's spirit. Through the ritual of "opening the mouth," the statue was made an actual
living being, able to receive offerings and live eternally as a physical container
for the deceased's spirit (or "ka"). For these reasons, statues ideally were made of stone or
other durable materials such as hardwood or metal."
[DC] was reading the book "how to read Egyptian hieroglyphics"
(collier+manley), and found the following on p126: "The front cover shows a detail of an inscribed ritual
tool used in the rite of 'opening the mouth' - an obscure ceremony designed to breathe
life into an embalmed corpse, a statue or an inscribed image."
alpha and omega are the first and last letters
of the Greek alphabet.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God,
"who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. - Rev 1:8
He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!"
Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. - Rev 21:6
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End - Rev 22:13. These Bible refs, by [DC]
The super-bomb in the film "beneath the planet of the apes", guarded by a strange cult that
worships the bomb, is described as a "doomsday weapon",
and it has capital Greek letters Alpha and Omega inscribed on one of its fins
(this is specifically mentioned in the film). [DC]
I saw drones: as is remarked away back in the
catalog 3 comments, this might be a reference to
the condition synaesthesia,
a sort of "crossing" of senses, where an auditory
stimulus can cause a visual sensation. There are some synaesthetic artists,
inspired to paint an impression of what they see when hear a piece of music,
for example. In view of the fact that there is also a catalog 3 track called
"visual drone 12", this is the view favoured by [DC].
[Gremmy] has given another explanation: that "I saw drones" was a remark made
by a someone in a war zone. Pictures of "drones".
Since then, other have noted that the remark was made by a Lebanese man who saw Israeli drones;
the incident occurred in connection with the Qana Massacre; the following is from an interview with
journalist Rob Fisk: You can read the
whole interview
online.
the devil is in the details is a quotation
whose source and precise words are debatable. If you are interested,
you can read a discussion of this
topic and its history. [DC]
Comment from NME interview:
"'The Devil Is In The Details' has a riff that was designed to imitate a specific well-known equation, but in musical terms."
a is to be as b is to c often written a:b::b:c.
[DC] notes that this
is just a mathematical statement that the ratio of a to b is the same as the ratio
of b to c: a/b = b/c. If you take a rectangle whose dimensions are
in the so-called golden ratio,
e.g. a × b, where a = 1.618... and b = 1, then remove a 1x1 square from it, the remaining
rectangle has dimensions b × c, where b = 1 and c = 0.618..., and you will indeed find
that "a is to b as b is to c": 1.618/1.000 = 1.000/0.618.
The above are rough figures. To be precise, the golden ratio φ is 1.618033989... —
in fact, it is (1+√5)/2 —
and if you use these exact numbers, then the relationship is perfect:
φ/1 = 1/(1-φ), exactly.
See interview quotes at head of Geogaddi comments on the use of the golden
ratio in art and music. The golden ratio is also the limit of the ratio
of consecutive Fibonacci numbers (a series where each number is the sum of
the two previous numbers: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144,...).
That is, the sequence of fractions 2/1, 3/2, 5/3, 8/5, 13/8, 21/13, ...
tends towards the golden ratio φ.
These numbers all crop up in many places in nature. A simple example is
the number of spirals seen in the composite flower of a sunflower plant;
the number of spirals in one direction will be one fibonacci number,
the number in the opposite direction, a different fibonacci number.
So also in the cones of conifers, phyllotaxis (arrangement of leaves
on stems), and related spirals occur in shells and elsewhere. Dr Math
explains.
A correspondent has said that he thinks the Steve Miller song "fly like an eagle" is used in
this track, that the same sounds occur in the first part of the song. To add to that:
in what it probably just one of those odd coincidences, that the album of the same name
(from which the song is taken) ends with a track called "The Window".
over the horizon radar is another track that reveals
a more complex melody when played in reverse. Its title refers to a real
technology:
"A radar system that makes use of the
atmospheric reflection and refraction phenomena to extend its range of
detection beyond line of sight. Over-the-horizon radars may be either
forward scatter or back scatter systems."
dawn chorus - aside from the bird-song variety that all are familiar with,
there is an electromagnetic phenomenon of the same
name, which occurs when the sun breaks over the horizon during a period of
sunspot activity or of solar flares. At such times, those with the proper equipment
can hear sounds that have been described as being like whistling, or like hundreds
of birds singing at once; some have even reported hearing human voices. [anon]
You might like to read the description of the effect at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_chorus_(electromagnetic).
That article also has links to WAV files of the Dawn Chorus from NASA's site.
[J] pointed out something interesting: BoC have remixed Meat Beat Manifesto, and the
MBM album "Actual Sounds and Voices" contains a very Geogaddi-sounding track called
"The Tweek" (track 6). He pointed out that the beginning of the track sounds rather
like the beginning of A:B::B:C, and that "a little way through the track, a conversation starts.
The two men are discussing radio disturbances/anomalies", and that these are illustrated with pertinent
audio samples. "At the end, there is a pause and they begin to play an extended sample of a dawn chorus"
that sounds rather like chirping tree-frogs in the summer. One of the men then comments:
"The dawn chorus on the other hand is not at all well understood, and there is no theory to explain it."
(Actual dawn chorus samples can be heard by following the Wikipedia link given above.)
Comments from the Northern Exposure interview:
"How do you create your drum patterns?"
"Sandison: It's a mixture of live performance and step sequencing. Sometimes, we make up sounds
and then program them tightly in a really synthetic way. Other times, we want it to sound really rough,
so we'll just jam on the drums live. For instance, "Dawn Chorus" is a single-take jammed beat that I played,
while "1969" has a live beat all the way through mixed with other beat tracks."
you could feel the sky: full of hidden depths.
It captures very well that air of hidden menace that runs right through the album.
[BIBIO] has made very perceptive observations on this track, and some others:
- If you take the section of "you could feel the sky
where the reversed speech "a god with horns" occurs, and reverse it, then the
reversed section of track (normal speed) contains crackling fire sounds,
as though some sinister ritual is taking place. However, slow down the reversed section
by a factor of 3, and new and disturbing details will become apparent.
The sibilant S at end of "horns" is resolved as a woman's screams, and a tolling church
bell can be heard in the background. (This has been confirmed - try it yourself if you can).
[BIBIO] observes that the acoustics might be those of a forest.
- On colours: [BIBIO] notes that the "yellow" in "alpha and omega
seems to repeat continuously at a lower volume; that "music is math
has a faint voice which could be saying "purple", and that playing the end section at
half-speed results in what sounds like "red" being repeated. With the "orange" in "aquarius",
they might be trying to cover the range of rainbow colours.
- Repeated allusions to flying (in this and other albums): an aeroplane drone in
an eagle in your mind;
corsair as a type of plane;
comments about going to high altitudes for inspiration;
kid for today possibly containing a looped
aeroplane drone throughout the track;
an interview picture of BoC in an airfield with planes ("the secret life of Boards of Canada" photo).
Also the interactive scenes on the BoC website: the introductory scene is of aeroplane contrails,
and many of the other interactive scenes are flight simulators. Chinook is a kind of helicopter,
among other things.
(Credit to [BIBIO] for all of the points in that list.)
[SapaInca] thinks that "a God with Horns" rather then refering to the devil could refer to the Wiccan God. He found that whilst searching Wikipedia about Shamanic rituals and such: "It is commonly understood that Wiccans worship two deities, the Goddess and the God sometimes known as the Horned God".
There's some more text about that "Horned God" on Wikipedia right over here and information about Wicca can be found here.
[Leo B] pointed out that the second occurrence of the phrase is at 2:16 in the track.
216 = 6×6×6. Given all the other references of this kind (such as the album
length of 66'06" (666), it is at least plausible that this is no coincidence). However, see below
on whether the time IS 66'06".
From the Spanish language Mondosonoro interview (see the links page), which
BoC say that they were really pleased
with the beat in this track, which sounds like a taut tope being pulled across the hull of
a wooden ship.
corsair: a pirate, especially a privateer of
the Barbary coast - [DC], who, after the first few listens,
believes he could hear a voice; a child's voice counting as in Gyroscope
(most strongly at 2'11, as follows: 2'11 "one", 2'13 "two", 2'15 "three, 2'17 "four" ...),
almost as a sort of faint "echo" of sunshine recorder the start of the album.
(Since writing that, another correspondent has expressed agreement that there is a voice here:
that it sounds like a voice vocodered with a white noise
source - which would produce just such a kind of "speaking static" -
and then filtered).
magic window: yes, despite persistent rumours to the contrary,
it really is absolutely empty. It's easy enough for anyone who disagrees to
check by ripping to WAV. And the vinyl version of the track ought to be a giveaway ....
The 3xLP vinyl version of Geogaddi devotes the final side of vinyl to this
track. There is no groove on that side, just a basic outline picture of a family:
parents and two children. It's a bit similar to the plaque on the Pioneer space
probe, an image that appeared briefly on an older version of the BoC website.
Where the speed (33rpm or 45rmp) would usually appear, instead we have the
cryptic "162.225 MHz". This is a frequency used by the military or coastguard
[Robert Frost]. [Ken Stewart] also pointed out that it is a frequency
used in the UK for (licensed) private mobile radion services, as listed
here.
While the "magic window" is a completely empty
track, that is not to say that the title does not have some hidden
significance. You might like to take a look at the entry
for the topic "magic window" in this glossary,
or search for some combination of "magic window" and the name (Thomas E.) "Bearden".
It also brings the play time of the album up to 66'06" (maybe - see next).
As for that question of the total play-length of the album. Since it's been contested,
[DC] decided to settle the question once and for all, in detail.
Some players show 66'04", some (like mine) show 66'06". Rip all the tracks to WAV. Each track on a CD
has a play time equal to a multiple of 1/75th of a second, call this a frame; each track is
made of a whole number of frames. The frames per track are:
[1] 4427 [2] 24109 [3] 2822 [4] 16124 [5] 5645 [6] 27953 [7] 6160 [8] 24775
[9] 5788 [10] 19535 [11] 2646 [12] 19394 [13] 5367 [14] 31694 [15] 2039 [16] 17504
[17] 7554 [18] 5143 [19] 17662 [20] 6503 [21] 23568 [22] 12902 [23] 7986.
The total of frames is: 297300, which is exactly 3964 seconds, which is 66 minutes
and FOUR seconds precisely.
The variations may come about from some CD players rounding track times
to the nearest second before adding. A curious footnote to all of this is
that when you rip the album as WAV files, the total file size is about 666 MB (666.8MB)
(thanks to [Jeremy Pulley] for pointing that out about the file size).
This is a nice coincidence, but it comes naturally out of the maths:
the total file size in MB of 66'04" of audio is:
(4x44100x3964)/(1024x1024) = 666.86MB
Not counting WAV headers, which are negligible in size, and make no difference to the figures just given). [DC]
[Nick Potter] has pointed out some interesting things about this blank tack, and the cryptic
frequency: 150-160 KHz (not MHz) is among the ranges given for Bearden's "Magic Windows"
(see this list, specifically,
the bottom half of the listing, which mentions Bearden's book "Excalibur Briefing" - you'll find the
discussion of magic window frequencies there). Another interesting possible reference is that
"Magic Window" is the name of an American educational magazine for children - see
this page for more
information. Since BoC often combine several meanings and references in their titles, it might
be a reference to any of these.
It is of interest that the music70 website lists the track as "magic window fnord". Those familiar
with "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" will recognize the reference. [Nick Potter]
submitted the following observation: in the novel, "fnord" is a word that
people in general have been trained not to see - instead, it merely induces a vague
feeling of anxiety in the reader. The music70 listing may therefore have a slightly
deeper meaning than being a simple reference to the novel; it may be a jokey
suggestion that the track is indeed present, but that we have simply been programmed not to hear it.
There are a few possible marine associations in this album: the words to "dandelion",
"over the horizon radar", "diving station", the pirate connotations of "corsair".
Possible Biblical allusions; [quiller] sent me the following notes on these. If you take some
track lengths, you can find correspondences in the book of Revelation:
5. Dandelion
[1:15.266] |
Rev 1:15
LINK |
Ref to "many waters" [underwater], "furnace" [volcanoes]. |
6. Sunshine Recorder
[6:12.706] |
Rev 6:12
LINK |
Track 6 - "sixth seal"; "the SUN became black as sackcloth". |
9. The Smallest Weird Number
[1:17.173] |
Rev 1:17
LINK |
"I am the first and the last" - the Alpha and Omega. |
13. Opening the Mouth
[1:11.560] |
Rev 1:11
LINK |
"Write about what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches".
Geogaddi opened with performances in six churches around the world. |
14. Alpha and Omega
[7:02.586] |
Rev 7:2-3
LINK |
Possible connection between Revelation 7:2-3 and the Branch Davidians.
This commentary,
explains their interpretation (see paragraph 7). |
18. Over The Horizon Radar
[1:08.573] |
Rev 1:8
LINK |
" 'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God,
who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." |
21. You Could Feel The Sky
[5:14.239] |
Rev 5:14
LINK |
"And the four living creatures said 'Amen!' and the elders fell down and worshiped".
End of chapter 5, which mentions the "root (or Branch) of David"
(Branch Davidians), and the Lamb with seven HORNS - cf. lyrics. |
There are 22 non-silent tracks on the album,
just as there are 22 chapters in the book of Revelation. [DC]
Still not convinced?
What about the length of the album - 66'6"
(see Revelation 13:18)?
[TC] suggested a possible link between Revelation 13:18 (the verse that mentions 666),
and the release dates in Japan (Feb 13, 2002), and the UK (Feb 18, 2002), the 66 full minutes of
the album to the 66 books of the Bible in the usual canon, and Feb 2002 (2/2) to the 22 chapters of Revelation.
Feb 13 to Feb 18 inclusive - the "6 days of creation", followed by a "resting" on
"the seventh day", Feb 19 (the US release date). He acknowledges that this is all very
speculative, as with many of the other allusions listed above, but it's worth including;
as with everything on the page, readers can weight these things up for themselves.
That leaves only the bonus track, from one source all things depend. The normal
version of this album has 23 tracks, but the Japanese release features this extra one.
[DC] explains that its title comes from a work called the
Corpus Hermeticum,
attributed to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus ("Thrice-Greatest Hermes"), and cites
the relevant quotation, from book 10, section 14:
From One Source all things depend; but the Source is
from the One and Only. Three then are they: God the Father and the Good,
the Cosmos, and Man. God doth contain the Cosmos; the Cosmos containeth Man.
The Cosmos is the offspring of God; and Man, as it were, is the offspring of the Cosmos.
