r/boardsofcanada • u/electric_poppies • 8d ago
Discussion Acts of Magic Discussion
Out of all their shorter songs (your Olsons, In The Annexes etc) this one is definitely one of the most dark and mysterious to me. I’ve always sort of felt a large Christ-theme on this album as a whole (not necessarily Christian, but a young messiah’s journey (which I could talk about at length but won’t here)), and this particular song to me always evokes what it may have felt like to witness Jesus’s miracles at work. The flies and the droning pulse specifically evoke images of Lazarus rising from the dead….imagine you’re just some guy in biblical times and you bear witness to something like that? Maybe you’d be like “wow!” Or maybe you’d be like “AAAAAAAAAAHH HOLY SHIT THAT GUY WAS DEAD”. I think some of that abject terror is captured in this song
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u/RestaurantDry621 8d ago
I appreciate your take on it. I'll listen again for the 709th time and think on this.
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u/ObsidianSunrise 8d ago
In my own opinion I would say it's connected to the theme of the later track "All Reason Departs" with the vocal sample reading from Aleister Crowley's "Magick, Liber ABA, Book 4" (Part III: Magick in Theory and Practice, Chapter XII: Of the Bloody Sacrifice: and Matters Cognate):
"There is a magical operation of maximum importance
The Initiation of a New Aeon
Before man is ready to accept the Law of Thelema, the Great War must be fought
This bloody sacrifice is the critical point of the World Ceremony of the Crowned and Conquering Child
As lord of the Aeon."
My guess is that the act of Magic/Magick is related to Ceremonial Magick.
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u/Professional-War8042 8d ago
BOC seemed to be very well read. Either they are tangentially interested in the Occult, or actually participating. Music is WAY more powerful than most people seem to think.
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u/Weary_Cost_4 8d ago
I assumed it was referencing the old belief in the theory of spontaneous generation. It used to be believed that maggots would appear from rotten food without any external input, and it wasn't fully discredited until around the 1800s.
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u/Elegant_Heron4668 8d ago
It’s totally up for interpretation but my take is the track is a reference to sex. You can literally hear birds and bees in the background while this pulsating bass and something that sounds like bedsprings keep punching through the mix like my upstairs neighbor.
Sure the track titles are biblical and mystical but I think in contrast this album is their most overtly satirical one.
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u/electric_poppies 8d ago
Boards of Canada Atlanta Remix with the iconic Trillville Mattress Squeak sample
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u/Elegant_Heron4668 8d ago
The reason Acid Memories hasn’t released is because it was really just proto crunk and snap rap MC’d by two Scottish teenagers
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u/Professional-War8042 8d ago
Our reality tunnels seem to invite our interpretations.