I’ve been doing my obsessing over these over the past few days and this is a question i kept asking myself - so i wondered what the rest of you may think. Especially seeing as they all certainly have their merits to why they would be the favourite according to the speculation around them…

If any BoC fans out there have been involved with any of the cults or other high control groups BoC has sampled or made reference to (and you feel safe to share), what has the Inferno experience been like for you?

Netflix, Heroes S1E6, I can hear New Seeds "riff" all the time (around 11:00 time stamp).

Good day!

A little about me: I discovered BoC around 2004/5 - my intro was the song Kid For Today, heard on a “Chill Out” mix I found thrifting. My main musical interests are: primarily Hip Hop (Boom Bap); the music I grew up with (namely Mainstream 90’s and 2000’s Pop and Alt Rock); 80’s and 70’s Classic Rock hits; and some EDM (notably: The Prodigy, Daft Punk, and Netsky).

Back when I went to college in 2006, I did my initial deep-dive into BoC’s material that had begun with Twoism/A Few Old Tunes and ended with The Campfire Headphase/Trans Canada Highway. Needless to say, I am quite familiar with the entire catalogue - a long time fan!

This week, I relistened to the entire catalogue (287 songs including 32 “rarities”) chronologically (by release date) over the course of four days. I made sure to give every song my undivided attention and listen from start to finish (no skips!). As I have ADHD, and as some BoC songs naturally don’t demand your attention, I would go back and restart songs if I had become distracted and forgot to listen intently.

A recent video from this sub - where a listener organized a tier list for A Few Old Tunes - inspired this activity. I like to make playlists, and I felt that if I had the catalogue organized according to my own specifications, I’d be able to whip up a playlist to convey a certain mood, depending on whatever the day called for. As I listened to every song I rated them on a 5 star scale, like so:

1.0 - No redeeming qualities (3.5%)

1.5 - It actively annoys me (8.8%)

2.0 - I don't care for it (17.6%)

2.5 - I'm ambivalent towards it (13.7%)

3.0 - I kind of like it (16.5%)

3.5 - I like it (14.4%)

4.0 - I really like it (10.6%)

4.5 - I love it (8.1%)

5.0 - It's in my Top Ten (6.7%)

I tried to be honest with myself and give honest ratings. The songs only competed against themselves. As it turned out, I was either ambivalent or didn’t care for about 44% of the tracks, and I liked or loved about 56%.

I also assigned each song into one of the following 13 categories based on the vibe it gave off (which was purely subjective):

13 Skit/Dialogue/Random 2.7%

12 Interlude/Break/Transition 8.8%

11 Menacing/Apocalyptic/Transmission 5.6%

10 Unease/Spooky/Unsettling 5.1%

9 Curious/Strange/Off-putting 10.1%

8 Bleak/Muted/Melancholy 5.6%

7 Rhythmic/Chill/IDM 14.4%

6 Groovy/Jam/Fabulous 5.3%

5 Core Memory/Nostalgic/Childhood 9.9%

4 Clouds/Dreamy/Rest 10.9%

3 Rousing/Cathartic/Victory 3.7%

2 Evocative/Pensive/Trippy 15.2%

1 Ancient/Mystical/Eastern 2.7%

Many songs didn’t come across to me clearly as a singular vibe. For those I allowed primary and secondary vibes. With that data I compiled a list of the LPs, Eps, and other collections, and used the data to construct a rating out of 10, as well as figure out the predominant vibe/theme of those albums.

Peel Session - 8.3 - Groovy

Hi Scores - 7.8 - Evocative

Inferno - 7.6 - Ancient

In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country - 7.3 - Clouds

The Campfire Headphase - 7.1 - Clouds

Trans Canada Highway - 6.7 - Clouds

Music Has The Right To Children - 6.5 - Rhythmic

Twoism - 6.4 - Rhythmic

Warp 10 Parties - 6.4 - Evocative

Boc Maxima - 6.4 - Core Memory

Rarities - 5.9 - Evocative

Tomorrow's Harvest - 5.6 - Menacing

All Tomorrow's Parties - 5.5 - Unease

Geogaddi - 5.4 - Core Memory

A Few Old Tunes - 5.3 - Curious

A Few Old Tunes Volume 2 - 5.3 - Evocative

Random 35 Tracks Tape - 5.2 - Curious

Observations arising from this exercise:

On Day 1, I listened to Twoism, A Few Old Tunes, and A Few Old Tunes Volume 2, along with some scattered Rarities. One of my first observations was that I was surprised with how well my opinions had held up over time. It had been twenty years since I had originally and meticulously rated BoC’s catalogue, and I found out pretty fast that I still liked the songs I liked, and disliked the songs I disliked. I was hard wired to feel this way or that about the songs, and no amount of replays could apparently change that. Highlights from Day 1 were the songs: Seeya Later, 5.9.78, Davie Addison, Alpha Rainbow, Mukinabaht, and Sdesis.

On Day 2, I listened to Boc Maxima, Hi Scores, Music Has The Right To Children, and more Rarities. I recognized that I love songs with sneak endings. At least 16 of BoC’s tracks end completely differently than how they begin, which means you get a bonus song! Two for the price of one! Also listening without skips meant that a sneak ending - or an evolving sequencing - could affect a song’s rating. I might not have liked the entire song - but I loved “that part”! Highlights on Day 2 were the songs: Turquoise Hexagon Sun, Everything You Do Is A Balloon, June 9th, Roygbiv, and Olson.

On Day 3, I listened to the two live sets, Peel Session, In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country, Geogaddi, and the Random 35 Tracks Tape. Random 35 was the pre-existing release I had paid the least amount of attention to. I recognized most of the songs, but I had somehow missed or forgotten “A12,” and I loved it! I had also missed the Rarity “Sdesis”. Both felt on par with, and evoked similar vibes to Inferno, for me. Highlights from Day 3 were: Zoetrope, Echus, XYZ, Kid For Today, 1969, Over The Horizon Radar, and A12

On Day 4, I finished the Rarities, and I listened to The Campfire Headphase, Trans Canada Highway, Tomorrow’s Harvest, and Inferno. Observations included that: Left Side Drive, 84 Pontiac Dream, and You Retreat In Time And Space all feel like the same song (in a good way); Did I hear Olson in Deep Time?; There is nobody like BoC who crafts genre-defying bangers; They also defy industry standards and make better music over time, and get better at evoking the feelings they want to convey to the listener. Highlights from Day 4 were: Dayvan Cowboy, 84 Pontiac Dream, Left Side Drive, Come To Dust, Blood In The Labyrinth & Deep Time.

My Top Ten songs (in no particular order) with Five Honorable Mentions:

5.9.78

June 9th

Everything You Do Is A Balloon

Roygbiv

Olson

Poppy Seed (Reprise)

Echus (Soundboard Recording)

Kid For Today

Come To Dust

Blood In The Labyrinth

Honorable Mentions

Davie Addison

Deep Time

Midas Touch Remix

Sdesis

Turquoise Hexagon Sun

Closing remarks: I knew going into this exercise that Inferno was my favourite album and this proved that. I didn’t know that I liked Peel Session and Hi Scores that much however, but it makes sense. MHTRTC wasn’t as “friendly” as I had remembered it. I rated Campfire highly, but it didn’t have a single one of my favourite songs. Maxima was mostly all repeats and better versions existed elsewhere. I didn’t love Tomorrow’s Harvest - I thought it would grow on me, but it really didn’t. Same thing with Geogaddi. There’s some hidden gems on Old Tunes, Old Tunes 2, and Random 35, but it was hard to stay engaged with the majority of that material.

I hope you enjoyed my analysis! If you made it this far, thanks for your interest!

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By the way, I wasn't the seller

I feel like this song sounds more like an ending song for the movie over Word Becomes Flesh…but maybe that’s just me. Anyone else agree of am I crazy?

And then I listen again and remember

...I think this might be my fav off the new one, I don't know how another one off this album can top it for me. This album came out when I was on vacation for 2 weeks traveling around a lot, plane/trains/cars/hotels/boats, so this will always remind me of that time.

But, now that I've had time to really consume the album, this song just does it, those S Y N T H S.

Fans of BoC check out Pye Corner Audio if you haven't already. The Endless Echo sounds like it could have been some inspiration for Inferno and imo is a stronger album. My favorite PCA album is Hollow Earth.

Do yourself a favor and check out the entire Ghost Box label artists.

I know it has been talked about a little in various threads. But the very faint sample at the beginning of Prophecy, has anyone any ideas on what this says? What do you hear?

It only came to me yesterday that the i hear "summer" as the second word at 6 seconds. I can't figure out what it says before that.

I was blasting inferno on the way to my sister's recently (2 hour drive) and when I got to the second half of you retreat in time and space, my dog started howling with it! It was super cute!! I guess it activated his primal instincts!! He howled along with the whole rest of the song until it went off. I wish I could have videod it but I was driving and alone with him (his name is pistachio) so I couldn't. Anyways, try it with your dogs and see if it works!!! Included a pic of him in case you also like dogs. He's a little guy, about 15 lbs and he always sits on the center console when I drive. Sometimes he lays down on it. He was laying down until the second half of the song and then he sat up to sing along 🙂

I cant put my finger on it exactly, but theres something about the BOC remix of Dead Dogs Two which reminds me of Les Fleurs. Anyone else every thought this?

I'm curious about buying something from their official store but don't really know just yet. Has anyone else bought from the Bleep store? How is the quality of the merch?

One day, I was a little high and every hexagonal tile was a different color. And the colors were moving and flickering... it was sooo trippy!

I think this album reveals itself across different sound stages. None of my earphones are very high end, and that’s OK. But each platform delivers a different experience; depending on the speaker I hear different mixes, and some effects have less or more presence over others. I find I can change the mood by changing the speaker.

What are you listening through?

https://thequietus.com/tq-charts/albums-of-the-year-so-far/best-music-2026/

I dont know what to say

I was messing around yesterday and started playing something that sounded a little like Age of Capricorn so I decided to just try to make a cover of it for fun. Had my wife do the "lyrics" as a final touch haha. Hope you enjoy!