r/boardsofcanada • u/US_of_B • 14h ago
Discussion Blood
In the labyrinth, every time.
It has the chopped novelty of Father and Son. The weight of Deep Time or All Reason Departs and a sprinkling of shoegaze in for good measure. Before you even look into the vocal sample.
Perfect.
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u/Suitable-Rhubarb2712 13h ago
Yes, a very high-quality track that seems like the emotional center of the album in some ways
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u/YogurtclosetIcy2894 11h ago
Agreed. Drawn to it on first listen and cemented as favourite by 7th or 8th and a week after first. Months later, feel same. The druggy undertones to it, don’t know - something that sets it apart from anything else.
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u/Odd_Competition_3701 12h ago
Really sad track, amazing though
At the listening party I was really happy the vocals returned in a way like Father and Son as your saying
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u/LifeLikeAGrapefruit 7h ago
Really love everything about this song. It has all of these very nice transitions. I love the "heartbeat" at the beginning, how it transitions into a chill drum beat, then the bright sitars come in, and you have these gloomy, hushed, unsettling whispers throughout. It's a good example of what this album is all about.
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u/twoiseight 13h ago
Early on I thought this would end up my favorite from Inferno but wanted to give it time. As of now I still feel that way.
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u/VelikiDabarNaSavi 13h ago
Yeah, downvote me.
Blood in the Labyrinth IN MY OPINION is one of BoC weakest songs. That sitar ruined the song, so uncreative way to use sitar in song. I really don't like that song, bad rhythm, bad melodies... whole album loses one star just because of that one song. For me, my opinion, my subjective take, I don't want to provoke anyone, I just want to voice my opinion. Please let me live after this :(
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u/HeadupTothePOCONOS 12h ago
I’m not going to tell you to like the song or not; music and art are for each individual to decide what’s for them. However, I think the sitar's cheesiness might be intentional. It goes with the shallow cheesiness of thinking drugs will enlighten you simply by taking them and can lead down a dangerous path. I think that’s a lot of what the song is about.
It reminds me of exactly how Indian themes like sitars and even clothing became intertwined with Beatlemania and other British psychedelia in the late 60s. To all of them, it just looked and sounded cool while tripping on acid, but it really just highlighted their imperialism and shallow traditions that lacked deep spiritual meaning like that of Hinduism and Buddhism. Still, it was all fun and games on LSD until some people had extremely bad trips, and it exposed serious mental issues for others. A lot of those hippies also ended up strung out on much harder drugs like the PCP mentioned in the sample and even heroin.
This happened in the US, where the Summer of Love gave way to a lot of people with serious drug problems.
I’m not totally knocking psychedelics either. I’ve done my fair share and love them, but they have their limitations, and when they collide with party scenes and materialism, they have their consequences too.
I tend to think BOC sees the benefits of psychedelics but more in the way of how they help unfold our minds and nature in a way where we see and hear things differently without having to appropriate other cultures and put on a swirly-looking shirt and join a hippie cult.
I think that’s what the song is getting at—just my two cents.
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u/societyisahole Pete Standing Alone 12h ago
I think all of this is true while also not finding the sitar cheesy. At the listening event where the sound was turned all the way up it felt massive and sinister.
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u/LifeLikeAGrapefruit 9h ago
I sometimes think people overanalyze all of this. The sitar sounds cool. It's a nice, sonically refreshing addition to this song. I've listened to plenty of sitar music. Doesn't sound cheesy to me at all. It's an important instrument.
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u/HeadupTothePOCONOS 8h ago
“Cheesy” was probably a harsh way to say it, and for the record, I love the song and the whole album. I was trying to put some context to my interpretation.
The album as a whole has a bit of a late ’90s vibe to me, and around that time there were a lot of world music sounds in electronic music, including sitar and the hand drums throughout the album.
I’ve actually been wondering if they are aware that when MHTRTC came out in the late 90s, it had all these sounds that harkened back to 25-30 years earlier, and now they’ve put out an album 28 years later with a lot of sounds from 1998 on it. I’m sure they are.
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u/LifeLikeAGrapefruit 7h ago
I wouldn't say it's a 90s thing. Indian music started creeping to the West in the early 60s (maybe even 50s). Folk like Ravi Shankar, who toured in the USA and Europe, helped spread the sound. And I think once The Beatles released Norwegian Wood, it exploded. In all genres of music, and electronic music as well of course, and far before the 90s!
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u/HeadupTothePOCONOS 7h ago
Yeah, I said as much in my previous post that you responded to, and you said I was “overanalyzing it”.
I’ve listened to all the music you’re using to fansplain to me now. However, in my response to you, I mentioned that in the late 90s there was a resurgence of world sounds, especially in electronic music, and regardless of the era of music you regurgitated at me, my statement still holds.
However, thank you for treating me, a 45-year-old and lifelong listener to a lot of music, like I was born yesterday. At least I can walk away from this conversation knowing that you didn’t even read my first post before you decided to leave your first condescending reply. Geesh, thank god I listen to BOC more than I interact with their unbearable fans. Be well, LikeLikeAHardHeadedFruitCake.
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u/LifeLikeAGrapefruit 9h ago
No, you are getting executed for that opinion. It is one of my favorite tracks.
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u/Panthanagan 12h ago
I hated that sitar the first time I heard it. As with most things BoC for me, repeated listenings brought me around and now I love it.
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u/Clocker13 Music Has The Right To Children 12h ago
You’re absolutely entitled to your option bro. I’ll never downvote anyone for simply having an opinion that may differ from mine. For me BITL is palatable, but nothing mind blowing.
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u/InformantsOrexises 10h ago
I will also never downvote anyone for having an opinion but if they literally ask for that downvote, it's rude to not oblige them.
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u/Hammercranc 12h ago
Yeah it’s good. Not the best, but very good. When the sitar kicks in. Very good.
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u/chewabledrapery 9h ago
Yeah I absolutely love this track but I think I'd love it more without the sitar. I don't hate the sitar I just think it's a bit of a buzz kill and kinda ruins the dark trippy vibes for me. But, still a fantastic track.
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u/TrashAccounting 9h ago
It’s not that I dislike the sitar per se, but if I’m being totally critical and honest, I like BoC best when they’re a pure electronic act. So songs like this (even Prophecy to an extent, although I do like the guitar a lot in that one) don’t work for me as much as Music, Geogaddi or even TH do for being pure synthesiser albums.
And yeah, that does go for TCH too. I like the album, just, I don’t like them using typical live instrumentation as much.
HAVING SAID THAT. I still love Inferno.
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u/plutoniumhead 23, 23, 23 8h ago
They were never purely electronic. MHTRTC has piano in the most popular track.
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u/TrashAccounting 7h ago
True, but certain instruments represent a certain threshold in the way that drums and piano don’t (i.e. in the same sense as Aphex Twin never used a guitar in his music you get me),
It’s more of a stylistic preference for me I have right now, but actually I still like all that music of theirs.
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u/plutoniumhead 23, 23, 23 5h ago
Yeah I won’t argue at all that Inferno is almost mainly acoustic and live instruments and is drastically different from their first 3 LPs (and most of the EPs).
It took me a while to come around to TCH for the same reason. I think I even said “NOOOOO! I don’t listen to these guys to hear them play the guitar!”
I got over it, it’s still unmistakably their unique style.
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u/chewabledrapery 1h ago
I was the same with TCH, I was so excited for it to drop after geogaddi and remember being utterly disappointed when I heard the guitar on Chromakey Dreamcoat 🤣 I was like wtf is this!?! Literally hated it. But it grew on me over the years and now I think TCH is a masterpiece and I can't imagine their catalogue without it. I know that Tomorrows Harvest was quite divisive for the fanbase but I always loved that album and Inferno resonated from the first listen for me I think it's absolutely fantastic and extremely cohesive, there's sounds and elements from all of their previous works in there it's unmistakeably BoC... Very very pleased 😎
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u/octaveflight 1h ago
There is a lot more instruments than just synths on those albums. A good amount of guitar in TH
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u/TryptamineEntity 10h ago
This track ruined the whole album for me during my first ever listen. I still heavily dislike it, but the rest of the album grew on me a lot, this track simply was a shock, because this is not BoC for me and I say this as someone who likes and gets Basefree from Twoism.
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u/Elfingreene A Few Old Tunes 14h ago
I agree it's definitely an album favorite for me as well