randomstranger24

[randomstranger24]

Random Livestream Tonight - 9:30PM Eastern Standard Time United States.

[randomstranger24]

My new studio space. In the works of releasing some material and possibly Sample Packs. I'm currently organizing and getting myself settled in. It's quite a process. Hope you're all doing well!

[randomstranger24]

Blind, No Longer - Lyrics I wrote for a shoegaze track

Fading fast from in my mind, through shadowed paths where love was blind. Unspoke the words of hearts unkind, Invoked a spell, unleashed the bind.

Passing through the narrow path, challenged by the daunting task to break my mind free at last.

Break free, break free, undo these ties of needless deeds. Break free, break free, uproot the pain, unplant the seed.

Feelings passed, another sign, was this all real or by design? Was it yours or is it mine? Break the sky, nowhere to hide. Awakened eyes, no longer blind.

[randomstranger24]

Hey just uploaded a video with one of your tracks/videos in it, check it out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPIkCBYxB4U

Kind of inspired the track i wrote, though it sounds completely different.

Thank you for sharing. I enjoyed your surf track!

[randomstranger24]

Was asked by my non-Tumblr-user friend to send you this message-- "Hey, this is ReimuHakureiShrine. I've thought of it for a while, but I was wondering if you'd be up for a Discord interview. If you are interested, send me an invite @ emilyvasquez. It would be an honor to if possible."

Certainly! I will try and make an account.

[randomstranger24]

In the "Seek" video there are dates, names and places. Do they have any special meaning? Can you recall the synth sound used at the beginning of the video?

Is there any information on the video that has a person asking "Where would they be?" Is a longer version of the video available online?

Thanks!

If my memory serves me correctly, the "Seek" video was meant to have the viewers seek out the numbers from the letters to find the hidden code which equated to GPS coordinates to the original Thrift Store where the tape was supposedly found in the story.

The synth was sampled from the Track titled "Surf" where it was originally created and time stretched to give it a more drone aesthetic.

[randomstranger24]

love the tunes

there was something called "Eleven Missing Tracks" which I came across a while back - is that you too? I especially love the one that starts at around 50 seconds in - do you have a name for that one?

peace and love

Yes, I made those tracks as well. I don't remember the names unfortunately. I have the tracks saved on my external drive, but they are all scattered. I never knew the music would gain an audience. Thank you for listening and interest!

[randomstranger24]

what's the music that plays before & after "the sunset coast" on (Selection A) Offload 2? (at 13:25 and 15:20) i don't hear it in any of the posted high-quality tracks

I'll be honest, no joke, I don't remember. lol hahah!

[randomstranger24]

Is there an uncompressed version of Enter Cumulus? Every track on More Tunes is capped at a very low sample rate and it would be nice if enter cumulus had a higher quality version considering it's one of the non sample based tracks

As far as I remember, everything originally was exported at 48000, 24 bit depth. I'll have to check it out. Perhaps I missed something? I'll try and get back to you on that. Thank you for listening!

[randomstranger24]

I'm late catching up on all of this...

First of all, I thought I had some profound questions inside of me like, "Are you Dan Fingerman?" Then I realized what a stupid fucking question that really is. Second, I can't believe you revealed yourself! I know it's probably weird to hear this, but what a fucking gift! Nobody does that!

I originally wanted to know who you were because I felt like you truly belonged amongst a bunch of us BoC fans who were starting to feel like we were on the periphery of the actual fanbase, which had, in my opinion, become very discouraging and very cynical toward BoC, and music in general. Call it snobbery or call it entitlement, but it didn't feel good.

Then came your music...

Do you have any idea how amazing it is? I hope you do, and I hope you see that you've built a fan base of your own.

On a personal level, your music ended up becoming a nonstop soundtrack to life for me. There was an intro song, Tilt-A-Whirl, that truly fucking blew my mind. I played that thing so much that I convinced myself that I knew the song from my youth. So many other songs had creative elements that made me think, "This person gets it. We need to hang out!"

I don't want to ramble too long and take away from what you've got going but I do want to let you know that there is no reason to apologize to anyone, no reason to feel bad, and for the anxiety caused by BoC fans, I truly apologize. The core group of Random Stranger fans celebrate your work. Keep it up if you can!

So, if I need to ask a question, it's this:

Would you be open to an in-depth interview about your music and art? (I know this site serves as such but...)

Yes, I'd love to provide as much insight to anyone who wants to know and if doing an interview is one method of doing just that, then I'm happy to . Of course, without revealing too much that it blows my cover of my identity.

I am very anxious and scared that I'm goin to be sued for my shenanigans. Sued for what? I have no idea. Is it a rational fear? I don't know lol.

It makes me happy and warms my heart you enjoyed the music that much. I always knew the music belonged somewhere and I'm glad it found a home.

I realize BoC "new music releases" are very rare (probably what makes them so special) We've all been waiting so patiently. I too can be cynical at times. As it's been over 10 years since their last release, One thing I didn't want to do is to hurt any integrity of any future releases by them and I have a feeling they may release something in June. I could be totally wrong, but I didn't want the ARG from my latest shenanigans to ruin anything they might be brewing up if that makes any sense?

Well, Skyandtrails, I hope you keep in touch and I can share any future music with you and we can do an interview. Thank you so much for listening!

[randomstranger24]

With all the positive feedback and encouraging messages from all of you, I can't see why this, the YT channel, and Soundcloud can't stay up indefinitely. Thank you all again! Would love to collaborate with some folks in the near future.

[randomstranger24]

What were the tracks "2.OBX" and "4.The Bhopal Tragedy" for? I've heard every other missing tracks track before besides these ones.

Hope you like them. They were originally meant to go on the missing tracks, but felt it didn't catch the vibe, but looking back on it, they're great tracks. I title my tracks based on the feelings I get when I hear them.

[randomstranger24]

a close friend of mine has an insanely successful youtube channel where he anonymously plays guitar. He covers all genres and his channel is entirely cover versions, or playing known tunes in different genres/styles. This is strikingly similar to your predicament. In fact, youtube is full of people covering BoC on piano, or recreating their stuff using hardware. There’s a system in place whereby the original artist /rights holder receives a cut of ad revenue. Its not always the case that they issue a takedown notice. I think your anxieties might be telling you what you’ve done is a very bad thing, whereas it’s actually just a (usually) healthy part of the modern music ecosystem…

I appreciate your insight, Thank you!

[randomstranger24]

Here's the Drive link with Every album. There's a bonus album of 17 additional tracks in the folder called "Missing Tracks" sitting in there that a few of you have requested. It's a mix of different kinds of experimentations. All the artwork also included. Feel free to share with others, upload on your own channel and or use in content. Enjoy and thanks for tuning in!

[randomstranger24]

Posting these questions for my friend ReimuHakureiShrine, who doesn't have a Tumblr--

How long have you been making music for?

Even though your music is free to use, are there any ways for fans of your works to support you?

Have you had thoughts of how you could've handled the way people found out about your music better?

Will you have an online presence, or will you continue to be anonymous after this?

What do you love most about Boards of Canada?

Knowing your recent issue about being anonymous despite wanting to have your work seen, wouldn't it help to keep your audience by making up either a new handle/mainstay YT channel, and uploading all your future content there?

since I was a young teenage lad

Eventually, I'd love that, but anything of or from this project, I can't ethically and or morally do so. I wouldn't feel right being that I essentially plagiarized BoC's sound. However, I am so grateful that anyone would ever inquire to support me. Thank you!

Yes, all the time. You'll see and understand more about that particular question in my bio/explanation post if you're able to read it. 

My identity will be concealed and the online presence remains to be seen. I sampled a lot of things from BoC and Cocteau Twins. I could get copyright strikes if I stay on Youtube. The thing is, it all goes back to question #2. on profiting from all this. I won't be monetizing, but I do want to give you more music. 

This too will be answered in more detail in the bio post, but in a nutshell, their music, I hold so deep and personal to my heart ever since I first discovered them. I am a child of the 80's so there music struck a chord. Like no other band ever has.

Yes. I think "Random Stranger" is good for now. Also think,,,,for now,, "Eclipse Records" channel can stay up so long as there's no issues. 

[randomstranger24]

The synths used in Sweet Dreams of the Thrift Shop Tape reminds me a lot of the Blade Runner soundtrack with the brass synths from the Yamaha CS-80. Is it true that both of these synths are similar and sound the same or are they different from each other?

For that track, surprisingly, I believe The Yamaha Reface CS. I think and I don't remember what else because of how long ago I recorded it plus the hundreds of tracks I made. It's truly ridiculous lol. I know for a fact, no like old school vintage collectable synth was used. But man,,,it would be fucking amazing to get my hands on the "Yamaha CS-80". I can dream though lol.

[randomstranger24]

I’m certain a lot of people think I’m some deranged lunatic and will be skeptical and or just won’t believe anything I have to say. I totally get it and if it were me on the other end, I think I’d draw the same conclusion as well. It’s more than reasonable, but I promise there is a much bigger picture and I think you deserve to at least know another perspective. 

Not sure where to begin. I’ll start off first by saying I won’t be referring to anyone’s names or occupations to conceal anyone’s identity including my own.

I owe a big apology not just to the BoC fans, but also to Mike and Marcus, not that they would even give a shit, but if so, I’m sure they’d hate my guts. Yes, I am the original creator of the “Thrift Store Tape" and no, I am of no relation to the brothers, (no surprise there). I do feel spiritually connected to their music though if that’s of any consequence? (no surprise there either) I’m sure they’ll never see this, but I realize I could be viewed as an untalented hack and a giant piece of shit. This, I understand and I accept it. I never had bad intentions, I promise that, but it’s like they always say, “The road to Hell is paved with good ones”. 

Here’s how this entire thing got started. Regardless of what anyone might assume, I never in a million years set out to intentionally deceive people into believing this was some long lost BoC record. Hear me out and let me explain from the beginning. 

For years prior to all of this, I have been experimenting with recording my musical creations onto VHS and cassette tapes in attempts to capture those warm fuzzy lofi aesthetics, but Sometimes the final product is actually disappointing because you’d be surprised how good VHS tapes actually hold sound. So, fast forward 2018, one of my housemates at the time, who was actually the one who helped manage a Red White And Blue thrift store. This was the catalyst of what sparked this idea in my head after my housemate mentioned all the blank VHS tapes that were being donated.  

I Purchased a whole bin of tapes and started dubbing my music, (both old and new) onto the donated VHS tapes to send back to the thrift stores to be re-donated in efforts of someone finding them. Kind of like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it out to sea in hopes someone finds it. I would donate several of these VHS tapes and would leave my dubbed mixes over top of older shitty movies. I had the idea of rummaging through and curating all of my “Old Tunes” sound-alikes and Vaporwave tracks or anything sounding adjacent and placing them on several tapes.  

I probably dubbed well over a hundred tapes over the years since 2018, both used and blanks

I ended up donating most of them to several different thrift stores. Mostly old generic shitty “dollar-bin” movies that nobody really wants and generic kids cartoons. I would never destroy a collectible VHS or anything of value, so no worries there, but I doubt anyone will ever find the ones sent out and even if they do, they’ll most likely throw it away or something. I have a few tapes that escaped that were made with music that accidentally got deleted years ago and I would pay top dollar to get back, but that’s another story for another day. 

Anyway, So, my other friend (Not housemate), who, (we’ll just say, is an independent filmmaker of sorts) had the idea which kind of spawned from mine to do a found-footage VHS horror film project also known as “Analog Horror” or the genre at least. Now, keep in mind, this is the spring of 2020 during the height of the pandemic lockdown. So, time is all we had. 

I had the idea of using an ARG for people to solve to lead them down a “Rabbit Hole” as part of an interactive movie project. It would start off pleasant and would progressively get more sinister and darker and even more disturbing the further down you went. My main intention and goal was to hopefully have this project be the subject of topic on a big name youtube channel like “Nexpo”. I figured the music and aesthetic would all be “Old Tunes- BoC-inspired” and would give it a more suitable twist. I figured any fans that would ever come across it would take notice instantly that it was “BoC-inspired” or at least the music. I also figured the BoC cover tracks would add a few disturbing layers to the mystique of this “Rabbit Hole” mystery.  especially since we wanted to catch those "Backrooms" "Liminal Space" vibes.

I’m sure folks will be skeptical and that’s okay, but just hear me out on this and yes, I’d be thinking the same way too, so I certainly do understand any skepticism. 

Originally, the inspiration for the name “Strange Soup” Mixtape was used in the original upload in efforts to connect ties to this twisted bizarrely disturbing video titled “Blank Room Soup (Dark Web Video)”.

Now, you can do a google search about this video. It was a strange mysterious viral sensation for quite a few years after emerging on 4chan and has been a part of other “Rabbit Holes”. We ended up deleting the original video so that another one could be uploaded in place of it. 

The idea was to incorporate it as part of this story, but we needed to scratch other ideas altogether because the numbers did not properly equate to the letters we needed to start the ARG and time was running out. We also needed the upload date to fall in line with the project. The creation of these ARG’s are not easy to create. Believe me when I tell you. I’m just some uneducated moron, so figuring this stuff out took trial and error. Even with the help of my friend.    

Now, if all would have gone as planned, we would have opened another account uploading another tape in connection with the thrift store tape. We were in search of materials to craft out costumes like the one’s seen in the “Blank Room Soup” video and wanted to utilize the office space at my friend's school.  

Originally, this is how this should have all played out in order for this horror project to have worked. We needed The first video to be uploaded at a certain date in order to maintain validity for the ARG storyline so it could be incorporated into the film project. The goal from the start was never to deceive people into believing this was a “long-lost BoC record”. I’ll explain more below.  

The next step, after a week or two, was to have all of us post the link to the video in “thrift store finds facebook groups” in order to drum up the mystery. He and I shared the link on a few of the forums online such as Reddit and so on. The forums had absolutely nothing to do with music or ARG’s. Just thrift store finds and VHS collector’s groups. We wanted to build the mystery up and clue people in eventually. The original video sat on youtube for quite some time. It had like maybe 60-75 views after a month. That view count just stayed stagnant. Then one day in, I think late March out of nowhere, I got the messages in the comments. They were friendly at first with some people just mentioning it was “Boards of Canada”. I thought to myself, “Oh shit, they found the video”. Soon the view count just kept on climbing and Soon enough some folks started becoming hostile. I convinced my housemate to make a response video explaining everything. We all thought this was the best course of action because of how unbiased he’ll be for the simple fact, he has no idea who BoC is (Well, he does now lol) and he is not a musician, like, at all haha. 

Me and my filmmaker friend were excited at first that at least we had an audience now and could run with it. So I figured the response video my housemate put out would quell any outrage and save our project in order to move forward but, boy, was I dead wrong.

The views kept climbing up and the comments kept coming. People were becoming hostile and outraged. Things got way too real and I started to panic slightly. I have a bad anxiety disorder and it triggered it for sure. I just had all these thoughts like, “What if I get sued by the band?” I had nightmares of the brothers coming after me and them telling me how much of a piece of shit I am.  

BoC fans are some of the craftiest people you’ll ever come across, lemme tell ya lol.

They had somehow figured out the metadata from the original deleted video that was uploaded months prior. After it was confirmed and revealed to me they could dig this info up, I was in a full blown panic attack. I started hyperventilating. I messaged my buddy and told him what was up. He was against it at first, but I told him, “hey I have to delete this whole channel, they’re going to find out where I live next and who I am!” I just had the worst thoughts imaginable. 

So, I hit the “Killswitch” button and within minutes it all vanished like a bad dream. I was genuinely worried at first that I could potentially face legal backlash, but my friend explained to me that I wasn't out there putting any BoC label on it or even labeling the tracks and attempting to make any money from it.   

Some time had passed and the dust settled a little bit. I was kind of shocked to see people had ripped the original audio from the video and were sharing it to facebook and reddit and soon uploaded to Youtube. The “Dan Fingerman” channel was the first to reupload as I read through the comments and to my surprise they were all mostly positive. Some people thought for sure the music was BoC and others were skeptical, but most of them didn’t believe for a second, but yet still they kept talking about how much they enjoyed it. Even “David Firth” the creator of “Salad Fingers” left a comment at some point stating he liked the music, but didn’t care for the BS backstory. I was so happy that this music that had been sitting around for years on end had finally found a home somewhere. 

This music is only meant for a small niche audience. Most folks will not appreciate it. I think where I really fucked up, was becoming addicted to the excitement of seeing people enjoy the music that I had accumulated over a decade. Believe me when I tell you, there is more where that all came from. It is ridiculous the hundreds of unfinished or hidden tracks I have stored on several harddrives, VHS and cassette tapes, but I am happy to finally put it all to bed today.

Here’s where I need to really step up and take accountability for my ignorance and selfishness. 

Again, I was truly happy that people were actually enjoying the music so I did a foolish thing and ran with it like an idiot. All the hate and backlash that I will receive after all of this is all well deserved. Yes, I’m a giant loser, I'm an idiot, a talentless hack with no life. I’ll take the “L”. I just wanted to purge the last of this music and put an end to all of it once and for all. I think this was much needed and I can now move on with my life and stop obsessing over creating music that sounds like BoC. I can go back to writing and producing dark progressive black and death metal like I once used to lol.     

The day I discovered BoC’s music is the day it changed my life forever and how I saw the world through a new lens. I became obsessed with wanting to replicate their sound. I think it is more than relevant to talk about it to help illustrate my madness. 

Growing up in my teen years I was an extreme metal fanatic. I listened to a lot of black and death metal bands and played in many metal bands as a guitarist. My biggest influences were bands like Slayer, Immortal, Death, Opeth, Dimmu Borgir, Gorgoroth, Deicide, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest. You name it, If it was extreme, I was probably into them. I wanted nothing to do with any music that wasn’t extreme metal. I was very narrow-minded back then. That’s not to say I’m no longer a fan of metal, I’m just not as closed off as I used to be. 

As the years went on, I would watch my favorite front men from the most prolific metal bands give interviews and mention their musical influences and would always be blown away by how far away from metal their influences actually were. One of them would mention Radiohead in multiple interviews and naturally I got curious and started trying out “Radiohead" and soon fell in love with Thom Yorke’s experimentations. I think this is where my taste began to shift. I started getting into the “chill trip-hop’ genres and bands like Portishead, producers like DJ Shadow, Flying Lotus, and J Dilla. So pretty much the recipe for being receptive to BoC was already in the making. 

Eventually I stopped playing in bands after I learned how to play every instrument: Bass, Piano, drums and so on. It just got too hectic with everyone’s schedules to keep the dedication. I wanted so badly to learn how to write, record, and produce my own music. At the time I had a friend who used “Frooty Loops” to make Industrial beats, but that was about it and he would never teach me how to use the program. I wanted so badly to make my own black metal album and perform and record all the instruments as well as sing vocals.            

“Opeth’s” front man Mikael Akerfeldt influenced me in other directions from the metal genre and 

I eventually outgrew those desires and over time I became more interested in collecting vintage things like vhs camcorders, tape players, and record players. This really set the stage for me. Some years later, I was surfing Youtube in 2008 in search of videos on the drug `DMT" and a slideshow video of psychedelic imagery started playing and that’s when I was introduced to BoC's "Roygbiv" for the first time. As I was listening, it was like something inside of me was born. I’ll never forget that day. 

Now, I grew up in the 80’s and I distinctly remember “PBS” and the shows that would air back then like Reading Rainbow and Sesame Street. As I’m listening to Roygbiv, I was in this state of disbelief. How did they manage to pull that off? These sounds of rich warm vintage analog tones of the mid 70’s TV bumpers on public broadcasting networks. It took me right back to my childhood and unlocked this part of me that had been missing my entire life. I had shivers down my spine. From that moment, I instantly fell in love. I just had to find out who the creator of this music was. I did some digging and one comment read the band name and I sought out more of their music. The next track I listened to was “Bocuma" and it buried into my soul even deeper. I had both tracks on repeat all day. It took me back to the simple days of my childhood of the early 80’s. I just had to find out what software they were using. I wanted to learn how one could possibly recreate something of the past with such an unreal haunting aesthetic.  

I eventually found out this music was released in 1998 and that, of itself blew my mind as well.

I was so certain the music was from the present day using “present-day-computer-technology”.

Eventually, I got my hands on a computer and started to dabble in music production and also learned how to convert analog to digital and vise/versa. I had read on multiple forums and interviews of how they could achieve their signature sound and naturally I followed.   

I would damage and degrade tapes to record on them and I had some incredible results and as mentioned before, a lot of disappointment because VHS has such a good HIFI sound. Almost better than any digital. 

I would fall asleep and dream of melodies and try to figure them out. It got to a point where it plagued everything I did musically. Everything I would make would always end up sounding similar to their music. This is why I am happy today, to purge the last of it and move on with my life.  

Am I mentally ill? Perhaps? Am I a lunatic? Far from it, but I needed to get all this out of my system. I am sorry for everything and I hope you can just enjoy the music for what it is. It was never about clout or recognition. I'm not here to profit financially. All I ever wanted was it all to find a home. Thank you so much for even listening and giving it the time. I owe so much to them. They opened my eyes to a whole other artistic realm. Special thanks and gratitude all goes to the brothers for all the inspiration over the many years. Thank you Mike and Marcus. Your music has settled deep within my heart and I will take it to the grave. Thank you so much and Thank all of you for all your kind words that I probably don’t deserve. Thank you for taking the time to read. I am so grateful.