Nothing is Real in the Bulk Brane

From Boards of Canada's 2013 opus Tomorrow's Harvest, which I could listen to for days on end. Over on The Horror Vision, we recently did an episode titled, "Liminal Horror is Not YouTube Horror," wherein we dissected the concepts and origins of "liminal" storytelling for the modern age. Boards of Canada came up as a major sonic influence, and I'd say there may be no greater example of the liminal space the group creates in my own head than this particular song, which is both nostalgic and futuristic, tender and apocalyptic at the same time.

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NCBD:

Short list this week. Say thank'ee:

Jeff Lemire's wonderfully mysterious Minor Arcana continues and we're deep in an otherworldly hotel in an abandoned seaside town. Add in all the Tarot, and this is literally, right up my alley.

Yeah, my words last month for MASK #3 were something to the effect of, "unless something huge happens, this will be my last issue of MASK." Then I read issue three, reached the end and saw Baron Karza from Micronauts and, yeah, I'm sticking around for that. 

Batman 13 - hoping this issue pushes the Vandal Savage stuff out into that Bad Seeds mini-series book spinning out of this and we can focus on other plot points for a while.

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Watch:

My good friend Dan surprised the hell out of me yesterday by sending me a copy of Ben Wheatley's latest film (well, being the prolific dynamo he is, Wheatley directed two films so far this year, the Bob Odenkirk action hit Normal and...) Bulk. This played at Beyond Fest Chicago back in April, and while Dan, his girlfriend Heidi and I made it to Normal (not realizing Wheatley directed it until the credits rolled), we did not score tickets to Bulk. 

Dan ordered this beautiful BR/4K combo from Wheatley's Rook Films, and upon holding it in my hands, my excitement skyrocketed. I thought I'd posted a trailer for this months ago, but maybe not. Regardless, going in, I only knew two things: that Bulk was shot in B&W and that dealt with Brane Theory in some capacity.

I LOVE that Rook Films used a computer program to construct a trailer out of random images from the film. This ensures you see enough to get the juices flowing, but not enough to give anything away. All I'll say other than I wholeheartedly recommend this film (especially for fans of the Director's other work), is that this pays more than a little homage to the classic British television SciFi of Nigel Kneale, and I absolutely adored it.

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas

John Harrison - Day of the Dead OST

Joseph Bishara - Malignant OST

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Jim Williams - Possessor OST

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun

The Mars Volta - The Bedlam in Goliath

Roughly Enforcing Nostalgia - Front Door Doxologies

Quicksand - Bring on the Psychicx

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Eldritch Lace Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Nine of Cups

• 17: The Star

• Seven of Wands

Everything's coming up Milhouse. 

Lee Cronin's The Mummy

From their 2013 masterpiece Tomorrow's Harvest, which, to my ears, plays like the sweetest soundtrack to an 80s Horror film that never existed. 

All this talk of the upcoming album has me excited to dip back into all the BOC music I love, and I love this one the most. 

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Watch:

After swearing off Lee Cronin's The Mummy for almost two weeks, I ended up seeing it last Thursday, and I actually really liked it. I hate the trailer and pretty much every single piece of art released for the film, which was a large part of why I swore the film off to begin with, but here's something that's not too obnoxious:

To crib directly from my Letterbxd review: 

"Lee Cronin suffers from publicity that seems bent on ruining his films. The trailers take the weakest, most trite scenes from his films and blow them up as if they were the entire movie. It happened with Evil Dead Rise, "Mommy's with the maggots now," and it happened with The Mummy, "Don't worry, grandma, it's fun to be dead." 

Both of those scenes are cringe-inducing in my opinion. Especially when they've been forced down our throats for months on end at the theatres. But against all the odds, The Mummy actually turned out to be fun and pretty intense at times. Kinda “Evil Dead Exorcist.” In fact, I almost wish it could have just been another Evil Dead flick, so they could have shaved 30 minutes of setup.

Jack Reynor did a great job. His performance buoyed some of the more goofy stuff. He sold me on his grief, anger and frustration. And Natalie Grace… I didn’t care for the makeup they used for her, but she did a really good job. Creepy movements. Nightmare fuel."

Seeing and liking The Mummy (for the most part) put me in mind to revisit Cronin's Evil Dead Rise for probably the third time since I bought the Blu-Ray. And at least a year has passed since my most recent viewing, and two since the movie came out, I find that, as I originally suspected, I can honestly say I really like this one. None of the things about it that bugged me at the time it came out still do, except, of course, I really wish the trailer hadn't ruined some of the imagery centered around Lily, as trying to see it with new eyes definitely makes me think it would have been far more effective had it not been ruined by that same inundation The Mummy just suffered. 

Also, EDR has probably the best opening of any Evil Dead film to date. Just my opinion, but it's pretty freaking epic.

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Playlist:

Steve Moore - Christmas Bloody Christmas

Electric Youth & Pilot Priest - Come True OST

Radiohead - Kid A

Telefon Tel Aviv - Immoliate Yourself

sElf - Gizmodgery

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here

Pink Floyd - Animals

Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar

Big Business - Here Come the Waterworks

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Gnarls Barkley - Atlanta

sunn O))) - Pyroclasts

Blackbraid - Blackbraid II

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• King of Cups

• Knight of Wands

• King of Wands

That's a lot of masculine energy. Let's look at some overviews here:

King of Cups - Emotional upheaval or conflict

Knight of Cups - Controlling those emotions with Will

King of Wands - Sometimes, to get control, aggression is required.

Being smart enough to recognize when my emotions are getting the best of me, and being strong enough to prevent my response to those emotions from getting out of control. 

Total work pull. People piss me off all the time, and sometimes I get worked up enough where I want to say something. Here's the reminder not to say something. Grin and bear it. Stay dressed in the fatigues of the enemy. They pay your bills.

Boards of Canada - Nothing is Real

Ain't that the truth. I'm not entirely sure where I go when this song comes on, but its both far, far away and more intimately close than most other songs inspire. The womb-like recreation of tactile sound has long been Boards of Canada's specialty, however 2014's Tomorrow's Harvest and this track in particular bring their strange musical nirvana ever closer to fruition. I listen to this a lot on airplanes.

Boards of Canada - Palace Posy (Tomorrow's Harvest)

Last week I completely forgot that the new Boards of Canada had come out. Well, scratch that, what I'd completely forgot was that June 18th had come and gone. Where the hell did June go? Anyway thanks to my good friend Jacob I received a copy over the weekend and pretty much haven't stopped listening to it since. If anything can derail a Godflesh binge, it's new Boards of Canada.

Palace Posy is one of my favorite tracks. There's something regal about the way it moves, but also a bit dancy. Also, it reminds me a bit of Badly Drawn Boy, but I'm not sure what track (and I only know two records' worth of his music). Welcome to the Overground maybe?

New Boards of Canada - Cold Earth

Via Exclaim.ca via Pitchfork: New Boards of Canada (reportedly) that was premiered before Squarepusher's set last night (Sunday, 5/26/13) at the Movement Electronic Music Festival in Detroit.

I can't wait for this record. BoC have figured heavily into my listening habits ever since they really hooked me back in the early oughts, and this year especially I've been going through jags of drowning myself in Geogaddi & 2000's ep "In a Beautiful Place out in the Country" - they're fantastic writing music.

Boards of Canada - Mystery Solved

Mucho thanks to Brooklyn Vegan, Pitchfork and all the other great sites that did the research on this night and day and have made me very happy by confirming the following: The new Boards of Canada album is titled Tomorrow's Harvest and will be released June 11th on Warp.

Now, how awesome is this? That mystery string of numbers all those articles I've been linking to since this thing started (699742628315717228936557813386519225)? It's the password to get you into Boards of Canada's new website, here. However I warn you, I was unable to cut and paste that massive string of numbers into the Dos prompt opening page for the site, so write that shit down on paper or toggle some windows, cuz no one's memory is that good.

Awesome. Here's some old school BoC to celebrate. June 11th is just around the damn corner people, get excited!!!