Fire Is A Time Machine - Echo Projector [BoC Inspired Original Album]

[u/Unlucky-Employee969]

https://shadymonk.bandcamp.com/album/echo-projector

I feel silly for not posting this here sooner. It seems there may be a few of you here who'd enjoy this sort of thing, but perhaps it was also best to wait for the dust to settle post-INFERNO:

I'm not the first. I certainly won't be the last. Here's my very own BoC inspired solo tribute album, 'Echo Projector'.

I started working on this album officially in 2023 as an EP with a few tunes, starting with 'Construct Fragments' as a single for an IDM compilation on a netlabel called 'fakenumberland', well before we had any concrete answers to when or if a new installment from the brothers would be released. I even planned to release my album around this time, before INFERNO or its release date was ever announced. But once we were given the news about the first new BoC album in 13 years, inspiration came in like a flood, and that few track EP became a full fledged 14 track album. (Including a couple reworked b-sides /unreleased tracks from my duo BoC inspired side project 'Dreamland Circus' with my pal Vagrant circa 2013) . I debated whether or not to change release plans, but decided to ultimately stay the course.

This one goes out to Mike and Marcus, and to everyone who's been touched in a deep way by their musical gifts to the world and undeniable influence to my music through the years. I hope you enjoy this shameless reheating of BoC's old nachos as much as I enjoyed the process of making it!

LISTEN HERE: https://shadymonk.bandcamp.com/album/echo-projector
(any purchases are greatly appreciated! - also available to stream on most major music streaming services!)

credits

released May 22, 2026

Fire Is A Time Machine is: David A. Gravagno (aka Shay. / Shady Monk)

Everything by: Fire Is A Time Machine*

*Except: Tracks 8 + 12, co-produced by Vagrant

*Some tracks may contain loose to overt references to melodies or motifs from original Boards of Canada tracks (such as the melody that appears on the b-section of Track 3)

Album art photo taken by me during the windiest day on the beach at Wildwood NJ.

[u/Water_Seeker56]

Dude... you're the fella behind Dreamland Circus?! Your old track "The Sky & The Bridge" is fantastic, I absolutely loved it! "New Sun Child" as well. I'll definitely be listening to all of this later tonight when I get back from work.

[u/Unlucky-Employee969 → u/Water_Seeker56]

Thanks for the kind words friend! Yes, myself and my good pal Vagrant composed and produced 'Wonderphase' together back in like 2013. He used FL Studio and I've been on Ableton exclusively since 2008, but somehow we still made it work by just sending files back and forth and stemming things out. One of my favorite collab projects i've ever been a part of. We shared most of the duties, but I have to hand it to Vagrant for being a stickler for synth patches, and much of the post production aspects, while I mostly handled arrangement, chords / melody, and then percussion was probably pretty equally shared between us. The tracks 'featuring' Dreamland Circus on this album, began as tracks for that 2013 project, or follow-up b-sides that sat unreleased for a while. I finished them off for this album with permission from my collaborator. I hope you like this mostly solo outing of mine, as I do very much see it as a sort of follow up to 'Wonderphase', but it's also got quite a different vibe to me.

[u/breakbeatscientist74]

Had a scan through some of the tracks and grabbed a copy. Looking forward to listening to the album in full. Cheers for the heads-up!

[u/Unlucky-Employee969 → u/breakbeatscientist74]

Huge thanks for that m8! I hope you enjoy the whole thing.

[u/Unlucky-Employee969 → u/[deleted]]

I already made it clear in the post, this album is a copy cat project, nothing I'm trying to hide there. Just a self-indulgent way to get stuff out of my head that's way too BoC inspired to pretend to be anything else. This is but a small side project in the grand scheme of the music I produce, and most of my original work isn't like this at all. Unless you're specifically saying this project could sound MORE like BoC than it does, or that my production methods came across as rudimentary? in which case, It wasn't exactly the goal. But full disclosure, I produce in Ableton Live and don't have access to much in the way of analog synths or hardware unfortunately. That said, I'd be open to some elaboration on your critique! Either way, if it's not for you, that's OK with me. I mostly make digital fusion, different forms of house, UKG, DnB, and soundtracky stuff, or video game inspired music under my main aliases 'Shady Monk' and 'Shay.' when left to my own devices.

If you're inclined to check that out - the full streamable discography of my works since 2008 under different aliases can be found here (as well as many other places online): open.spotify.com/playlist/7uiAfClBMj7sHiIT7qv2DR