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Boards of Canada conspiracy theory
 

Id Lab from Preston, UK on 2001-03-16 20:32 [#00001090]



I've been speaking to people with a theory. We all love
BOC's music, but there could be reasons not to trust them.
The theory centres around their Hexagon Sun cult - I heard
about this when the album came out, and thought it was
probably some harmless eccentricity. Now, however, links
have been suggested with the Branch Davidian, of David
Koresh fame. Seems far fetched, I know - but Koresh's face
appears on the 'Beautiful Place...' EP, and the only vocal
on the record seems to say 'an Adventist community in a
beautiful place in the country'. Apparently some of the
other track titles relate to the cult, and subliminal
messages are hidden within the music. And why did they feel
the need to put the anti-censorship message on the end of
what is apparently a completely inoffensive album? Does
anyone know any more?


 

hedtwin from manchester on 2001-03-16 20:39 [#00001092]



REally? That is pretty freaky. I am afraid to listen to them
now!


 

Ramalpha84 from a place on 2001-03-17 03:24 [#00001097]



I personally do not like BOC, I've heard ROYGBIV and a
couple more tracks, ROYGBIV was the only one I liked.

What's this about a cult?

 

think from lincoln,ne on 2001-03-17 05:12 [#00001099]



I ONLY HAVE "IN A BEAUTIFUL PLACE......." ANDM NEED TO GET
THE OTHER B.O.C., WHERES ROYGBIV? RED ORANGE YELLOW GREEN
BLUE INDIGO VIOLET, GET IT R.O.Y.G.B.I.V. THE COLORS OF THE
RAINBOW.........THANKS..


 

think from lincoln,ne on 2001-03-17 05:13 [#00001100]



THIS "CULT" KINDA SOUNDS LIKE A RUMOR OR SOMEBODYS FUNNY
IDEA. I READ THE ARTICLE IN XLR8R MAGAZINE, ADN ISNT CULTS
ONLY SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN TO OZZY ORBORNE :9)


 

ded zero from kenosha wi on 2001-03-17 07:55 [#00001104]



it is a bit freaky

 

hedtwin from Manchester, England. on 2001-03-17 11:47 [#00001106]



Cool though!!

 

Phobiazero from Sweden on 2001-03-18 11:25 [#00001115]



BoC is an excellent duo with amazing tracks!

 

Scary Bear on 2001-03-18 12:35 [#00001116]



But hey it doesn't mean shit if U think about it, tons of
artists use some pretty dark stuff in their lyrics. I am in
a boarding house where everyone ignores coz they heard me
playing Come to Daddy and they think that I am some sort of
satanist! The Prodigy put that speech by Hitler about Butter
and guns in the inside of the booklet.

That parental advisory thing is pretty strange though.

 

Id Lab from Preston, UK on 2001-03-18 17:02 [#00001118]



What parental advisory? They put a sticker on BOC?

Phobiazero: I agree that they make beautiful music. But if
there really are subliminal messages in it, that will only
strengthen them. It may be that whoever came up with this
theory got the whole thing the wrong way round, and they're
putting out an anti-cult message. (Like Alabama 3's
Presleyterian Church of Elvis the Divine, except more
subtle.) I'm going to see whether I can extract any speech
from the music, and update you if I find anything.


 

Id Lab from Preston, UK on 2001-03-18 21:21 [#00001131]



I've just been trying to analyse 'Telephasic Workshop' -
there are obviously obscured vocals on it, but I can't make
out any sense. However, some points which might suggest the
subliminal message theory:

The scrambled vocals are on the left channel. This means
they are interpreted by the right brain, which is more
creative and more susceptible to suggestion.

The use of the phrase 'I Love You' in at least two tracks on
the album reinforces the good feeling about the music, and
any message hidden in it. This recalls the 'love-bombing'
tactics employed by cults...


 

think from lincoln,ne on 2001-03-18 22:21 [#00001138]



S. BEAR-------the prodigy did what? where? please inform
me........thanks......


 

Ramalpha84 on 2001-03-18 22:24 [#00001140]



Try swappining the channels:) If only it were that easy. I
reckon they did put some weird stuff in there to make people
buy their stuff but my mind is too strong to be affected by
it, hence the reason why I'm the only person in the world
who doesn't like BOC.


 

Francizek Peotrivich from Perth, Scotland on 2001-03-18 22:39 [#00001141]



Mmmm...Sounds like their taking the piss to me or mabye im
just scared.


 

Ross on 2001-03-19 02:41 [#00001151]



I tried reversing the vocal at the end of happy cycling once
and all i could hear was layers of echo onto the speech, so
it was still tough to decipher it. BOC has admitted to
putting little things in their songs, even subliminal, i
think it adds to the mystery..and the scariness of it all, i
usually can only pick up certain words, like 'authority' or
such


 

Ross on 2001-03-19 02:43 [#00001152]



but in a way this is freaking me out

 

Ross on 2001-03-19 02:45 [#00001153]



there are a couple moments on Music has the right to..with
backwards speech, Id lab..if you can analyze that, you may
be able to find something


 

tune|FX from york,ON on 2001-03-19 03:37 [#00001156]



I just have found this interview with BoC members:
http://xlr8r.com/issue/current/story1/index.html. They do not speak about any evil. But find
out for yourself...


 

Ross on 2001-03-19 07:56 [#00001164]



Ive read that interview before and it's very nice..shows
them to be great guys, im still confused however..


 

hexane on 2001-03-19 11:19 [#00001171]



With such beautiful music coming from BoC, I’m finding it
a little hard to believe that there is anything sinister
about it. sure, its dark at times. and its cool to have a
little bit of mystery surrounding it but I doubt there are
evil intentions involved.

and how do we know this cult is evil anyway?


 

Scary Bear on 2001-03-19 14:18 [#00001172]



THINK: Sorry about the late reply dude...

Anyhow you want to know about that bit I put in about the
Prodigy. Well you will probably find The Fat of the Land
quite easily, not hard to get hold of like AFX. Anyway, the
Prodigy based most of their artwork on Hitler and a very
famous quote of his which is written on the inside of the
booklet. I ave not yet figured out what the crab on the
front cover has to do with it all!! To be perfectly honest I
don't care but if they had put a Nazi sign or something the
CD might not have sold as well! But anyhow I do know this is
not some sort of cult that the Prodigy are following and
they have not done the same thing at all in any of their
other releases.


 

Id Lab from Preston, UK on 2001-03-19 18:55 [#00001173]



I had a go with the reversing, but the only word I could get
out was 'Why?'. It's all chopped up, whichever way you play
it.

More research, though: Kaini Industries is a guy who makes
fonts. I e-mailed him, and he says he doesn't know why BOC
named a song after him, but it's something to do with the
Cree Indians in Canada.

And if you're interested in subliminal messages, there's a
fascinating site at:
http://www.mohammedi.freeserve.co.uk/subliminals.html.

 

Id Lab from Preston, UK on 2001-03-19 19:05 [#00001175]



I haven't seen the Prodigy booklet, but I know Hitler made a
famously belligerent statement about guns being more
important than butter to the war effort. There was a
satirical collage made at the time, entitled 'Hurrah! Die
Butter ist Alle!' or some such (meaning 'The butter is all
gone') showing a family tucking into platefuls of weaponry.
As for the Prodigy, the quote ties in with the album title;
but as their politics seem to be all pro-freedom, I expect
it was ironic. As well as an attempt to stir up controversy,
like 'Smack My Bitch Up'.


 

Id Lab from Preston, UK on 2001-03-19 19:14 [#00001176]



Some quotes from the XLR8R article linked above:

"I think you actually manipulate people with music, and that
is definitely what we are trying to do. People go on about
hypnotizing people with music, or subliminal messages, and
we have dabbled in that intentionally. Sometimes that’s
just a bit of a private joke, just to see what we can sneak
into the tracks."

"Its almost like bait," Sandison joins in. "You disguise a
track as a nice big juicy worm, and then put a hook inside
it!"

"I really like the idea of planting bombs. I’m not a
bomber, but I like the idea of planting bombs of some kind,
of doing things that in five, ten, or twenty years time will
be able to reveal something about our music, that will make
people completely re-examine what we’ve done, and see it
in a completely different light."

What kind of a 'different light', I wonder?

 

Id Lab from Preston, UK on 2001-03-19 21:48 [#00001184]



Sorry to be monopolisig this topic, but I forgot to say who
Amo Bishop Roden (a track on the latest EP) is. She was a
member of the Branch Davidian who escaped the Waco fire
http://vcdh.virginia.edu/pmc/text-only/issue.500/10.3faubio
because she disagreed with Koresh on religious matters - see
n.txt for more details than you could ever want on her life.


 

Ross on 2001-03-19 22:12 [#00001188]



Id lab, could you tell me more about this branch, i dont
fully understand their philosophies/ideologies..but now that
you brought amo bishop up, i do believe there is more than
meets the eye about boc, even though it's just music and
it's good music, it's kinda weird to now know about these
things..there was after all, a song on music has..called
turquoise hexagon sun


 

Klynt from San Mateo, California on 2001-03-19 22:22 [#00001190]



they do seem suspicious, but i think it's because they know
they're too damn crafty. I'll have to listen a little more
carefully.
I have played Rick James's 'Street Songs'
backwords and heard some weird things.
Mainly slang terms for drugs, and prostitution.

 

Joyrex from joyrex.com on 2001-03-19 22:52 [#00001191]



On "In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country" the vocals
are:

"Come live in a religious community in a beautful place out
in the country"

You are right about the Koresh connections though. "Amo
Bishop Roden" is the name of one of the Davidian leader's
wives.

A Zoetrope is a small toy you spin that has slats in it to
create a moving picture when you spin it.

I don't know the connection with Kid For Today.

Kanini Industries is a industrial plant in Canada that
through their philantropic work, helped out the Cree
indians.

ROYGBIV is the visible colour spectrum: Red, Orange, Yellow,
Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.

Smoke's Quantity is named after one of Mike and Marcus'
friends.

The Color Of The Fire is named after a friend's psychadelic
experience.

Odd too is the drawing of the man with the rainbow going
through him: it represents the chakras, or energy centers of
the body.

There are tons more BoC connections/references.

 

think from lincoln,ne on 2001-03-19 23:08 [#00001199]



S. BEAR----thanks.....prodigy could never be a cult.....they
are rad.......yeah i liked them on ttherir self titled
album, when they were just repeditive
techno......................thanks........


 

Ramalpha84 on 2001-03-20 09:33 [#00001223]



What about the voices in Autechre's Under BOAC? I don't
think they're into anything weird but the voices are
interesting. All I can make out are, "Yes, that will work"
and "(bla bla bla)...optional?" I reckon they didn't ditort
vocals, they just made sounds that sound like voices. That
would be DAMN COOL!!!


 

Torley Wong from Vernon, BC, Canada / WWW.TORLEY.COM on 2001-03-20 12:54 [#00001231]



interesting.

thanks for filling in those factoids, Joyrex!

 

Torley Wong from Vernon, BC, Canada / WWW.TORLEY.COM on 2001-03-20 13:22 [#00001233]



a lot of these deeper meanings are fascinating, and even
some of the subliminal stuff is neat as long as you don't
really read into it too seriously and obsess over it! 8-D

here's another great site i used to frequent related to the
topic:

http://www.reversespeech.com/whatsnew.shtml

you peeps are gonna love the audio examples on this! some of
it seems like coincidence, but this one time a few years
back i played House of Pain's "Jump Around" backwards and
discovered the loaded drug references... i was floored.

stigma of a simple term aside, i think there's a very strong
"New Age" ambience to Boards of Canada's work as there is a
lot of ambient music (pioneers like Brian Eno come to mind)
and this ties it in closer with spirituality. the sort of
meditative introspectiveness and other big words you could
jam in one after another here. it's quite likely the boys
have an interest in the occult and paranormal a la Chris
Carter and THE X-FILES (and heck, he has declared numerous
times he doesn't believe in aliens), but most actively
recruiting cult members are more open and direct when it
comes to their beliefs... just like the proud members of any
religion/faith/cult/[insert equivalent term here].

subliminal messages have become a real trumped-up cliche.
i'm sure you remember the whole Battlefield Earth
controversy a little while back involving a Scientologist
"conspiracy".

but i'll make like Mulder now and say... "the truth is out
there." :))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Id Lab: thanks for that Prodigy quote, i haven't heard it in
awhile. correct me if i'm wrong but i think the whole "guns
before butter" infamousity was actually coined by Goering --
Hitler's minister of propaganda.


 

Earface from England on 2001-03-20 18:08 [#00001241]



Hello. With regards to the Prodigy: Fat of The Land is an
absolutely dire piece of shite if you compare it to their
second album, Music for the Jilted Generation. MJG was
released after, and as a response to, the Criminal Justice
Bill, as is Autechre's Anti EP. By the time if the Fat of
the Land album I think the'd all grown far to commercial.
Any how, check out some of the MJG's tracks; Their Law,
Voodoo People, Break and Enter, Poision. Cheers


 

Torley Wong from Vernon, BC, Canada / WWW.TORLEY.COM on 2001-03-20 21:45 [#00001253]



Earface: i like different tracks off of all three Prodge
albums myself :). i won't deny that Fat of the Land made
them commercial successes in the ears of people who had
never really gotten into electronic music before, but to me
in some way, the first Experience album reflected a lot of
rave commerciality too (remember that whole controversy with
the picture of Keith Flint with a gun to his head in the
wrong context?).

but of course, the intro of MJG makes it clear they went
back into the underground, only to emerge again a few years
later. production-wise, "Smack My Bitch Up" is raw and
rocks. maybe some of the perception is psychological and
based on how you fondly remember Prodigy through the
years... but those are excellent tracks you cite, i agree!

......Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned???

 

analogue polymath from people's republic of hull on 2001-03-20 23:44 [#00001259]



"guns will make us powerful, butter will only make us fat"
was, i think, said by either heinrich himmler or joseph
goebels, not hitler himself. this kind of sentiment has
been expressed by revolutionaries of many political views,
and i think it's quite reasonable for the prodigy to quote
it without painting themselves as jackbooted nazis.

same thing goes for BOC. whoever they allude to or sample
in their music, why would you assume that they approved?
the simple act of taking someone's words and placing them in
a new context should make the listener think about those
words in new ways. it's called ambiguity, which is what all
great art is built around.


 

The Ironist from Chicago on 2001-03-22 14:54 [#00001327]



I always thought the vocal on the EP was:

"Let's build an inter-religious community in a beautiful
place..."


 

Id Lab on 2001-03-22 21:32 [#00001333]



Inter-religious? Nice.
It's not clear whether BOC are pro or anti the Branch
Davidian.

For those who don't know, the Branch Davidian is a sect of
the Seventh Day Adventist church. They are basically
Christian; their prophet David Koresh believed that the
world was ending in 1995. He led one faction of the sect,
the other was (and is) led by Amo Bishop Roden. In 1993,
Koresh and most of his followers were beseiged by the police
in their house near Waco, Texas, for firearms and child
abuse offences. In the ensuing gunfight, the house burnt
down and most (75-80) of the inhabitants died. It is
debatable whether Koresh or the police started the fire. The
sect seem not to use such coercive tactics as the Family or
the Scientologists, but do exercise strong control over
their followers. The Internet is full of information on
them.

(I put 'Cult Information' into the MSN search engine, and
what was the top match? Aphex Twin FAQ! At least it wasn't
BOC, or I'd be scared.)


 

Torley Wong from Vernon, BC, Canada / WWW.TORLEY.COM on 2001-03-23 00:29 [#00001342]



analogue polymath: yes, i think you're right re: the "guns
and butter" quote. i don't have the Prodigy CD on hand with
me but i believe the source is properly cited in the liner
notes.

and i agree with you, great art is best left up to personal,
*subjective* interpretation. it's likely, *really* likely
that BoC do have an interest in the religious extreme/occult
but they're simply commenting and weaving "sonic sculptures"
around it as observers, not necessarily as participants.
like i said before, like what Chris Carter does with "The
X-Files".

bottom line: you don't have to believe in something to
express it artistically. for example, i've seen more than
enough of my share of atheists playing Christian figures
like pastors, priests, and popes on TV/in movies in my
time!

somewhat related...

Id Lab: thanks for the accurate recap, it's been awhile
since that tragedy happened. one thing real Christians (and
sometimes i don't like this umbrella label since it covers
so many diverse denominations with conflicting beliefs)
don't do, however, is exercise strong control over others.
that sort of behavior is generally considered cultlike and
downright oppressive. as i'm sure you know, humility and
freedom of choice are generally agreed to be two main tenets
of Biblical Christianity.


 

Id Lab on 2001-03-23 21:36 [#00001379]



I'm using 'Christian' to describe a religion that believes
in Christ as the Son of God and uses the Bible as a
religious text. I acknowledge that's a loose definition, and
mean no disrespect to mainstream Christians. Unfortunately,
the Bible has been interpreted in many different ways.

BOC are not explicitly trying to convert anyone to anything;
but the question of the subliminal messages remains. What we
need to know is:
-What are the messages?
-Do BOC believe they will affect people?

That quote about planting bombs is what makes me think they
are trying to actually have an effect, rather than just
obliquely comment on the Davidians.

Info on Davidians:
http://www.fountain.btinternet.co.uk/koresh/index.html

Compare the photo on this page to the one on the Beautiful
Place sleeve (the one of part of a man's face with glasses).


Any idea about the other photos on the sleeve? Meaningful or
just decorative?



 

tune|fx on 2001-03-23 22:44 [#00001382]



haha, \"cult information\"... :-) It is really ridiculous,
since Phobiazero explained me that swedish folks use the
word \'cult\' as english use \'cool\'. Dont be so scared.
:)



 

Id Lab on 2001-03-23 23:27 [#00001384]



OK, ther reversed speech at the end of Happy Cycling is at
least partly intelligible. It's two different English male
voices, and this is what I can work out:
Voice 1: "......was incredible. Anyway, it was about the
time...... The idea of it"
This cuts straight into voice 2: "It is absolutely.....
extraordinary and, er, what was terribly important was that
anybody could write a song about a woman's legs, yes of
course backwards, but there's got to be some kind of genius
about creating.... on second thoughts there's got to
be........ do could be totally experimental..... frightfully
good chaps"

Any additions or corrections?

This seems harmless enough, and it might even be about
putting reversed lyrics into songs itself. The word
"backwards" is not clear, though. The clearest word is
"genius", so that's probably the point they want to get
across...

Thanks to whoever put the file 'happy backwards' in reach of
Audiogalaxy. The copy of Happy Cycling I have is on a mix
cd, and the voices are obscured.


 

Torley Wong from Vernon, BC, Canada / WWW.TORLEY.COM on 2001-03-24 00:13 [#00001401]



Id Lab: as an unorthodox, nondenomational Christian, i
appreciate your accurate stance on the matter. i've always
believed one of the beauties of religion and faith in
general is that like great art, it's up to subjective
interpretation by the individual, and that's a beautiful
thing (most of the time, anyway). what holds meaning for one
may not hold meaning for another.

BTW, some of this Boards of Canada interpretationschtuffs
makes a *LOT* more sense if you've actually seen the
sometimes-surreal nature films put out by the award-winning
Canadian Film Board. if some of them were cut and spliced
up, they'd make excellent Intelligent Dance Music videos.
scour the Net for more info if you're curious, there's
plenty.


 

hexane from back of a truck, travelling south-west on 2001-03-25 11:53 [#00001465]



to collide the topics of speech reversal and the prodigy,
there is a backwards voice in 'full throttle' which to no
surprise says "we're going in full throttle" or something of
the like. there is another reversed speech in 'experience'
but i have yet to check it out. anyone?


 

alan flifton from outer mongolia on 2001-03-26 11:59 [#00001533]



oh nice one id lab!

now i cant listen to BOC cos im paranoid of getting brain
washed, thanks a million!.
:P

 

tune|fx from somewhere between europe and canada on 2001-03-26 16:55 [#00001539]



you are all insane... They say in the interview that they
have a message, but it is not important for them to
interpret it for the listener. You can imagine what you want
when you are enjoying BoC.


 

Phobiazero from Sweden on 2001-03-26 18:58 [#00001542]



I agree.

 

Ross from Canada on 2001-03-27 01:39 [#00001573]



I listened to all of music has the right..
last night..it's incredible, im not scared to listen to
them, i now feel like earlier posts have stated they're
giving commentary or references to things, not necessarily
being a part of them.


 

alan flifton from outer mongolia on 2001-03-27 09:24 [#00001611]



ahem, that was in fact a joke, sheesh!.

I like the fact that beatiful place... has a davidian theme
to it but i think the lyric should be... Come out and live
in a religious community in a beautiful place out in country
where i can shag all your wives and then have a gun fight
with the police and then we can have a massive fire.
But that would have been too long to put in i guess, and
maybe in bad taste. Hey maybe they did put that in but you
just cant hear it!.......yet.
If that offended anybody im sorry, but you should lighten
up.


 

Ross from Canada on 2001-03-28 01:44 [#00001681]



i found that quite funny actually.

 

me(?) from wherever you go, there you are on 2001-03-28 23:12 [#00001774]



another 'culty' influence BOC allude to is Robert Anton
Wilson. He cowrote the Illuminatus! Trilogy with Robert Shea
which is probably his most notable work. RAW has quite a
back catalogue of spiritual-cult-paranoid-conspiracy books
that all come highly recommended, or check out
www.rawilson.com
In regards to BOC, in aquarius the number 23 is last to be
stated which is very specific to a certain cult following,
let alone on the peel sessions version it is stated 5 times
which adds another connection to the 23 conspiracy
(2+3=5).

thats one thing i luv about life, all the connections that
can be made. cheers


 

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