If you’re a fan of Boards of Canada and have been awaiting a new album as anxiously as every other super fan boy (me included) then you’ve likely seen all the internet non-sense going on that started with a secret insanely limited BOC Record Store Day release (⬇⬇⬇).

Basically @Imnopandabear from New York City, known as Lilcakey on Reddit found and purchased the above record from Other Music in NYC.  It’s one sided with only 20 second of audio playing some clearly BOC snyths with a robotic voice speaking the number 9-3-6-5-5-7.  A video of the record playing can be seen here.  

The going theory is that this is one of 6 nearly identical records, each with a different number that corresponds to the six groups of six unknown numbers found on the record sleeve.  When all the records and numbers are found, we put them together to make some kind of code and possibly the most elaborate promotion for a highly anticipated new record ever.

Two more numbers have since appeared curtesy of BBC Radio 1 and NPR All Things Considered, 519225 and 699742 respectively.

There have also been more clues turning up in BOC videos recently edited, with the Julie and Candy (⬆⬆⬆) showing the ———/———/———/———/———/———/ followed by ONE GOT FAT @ 4:19.

That was apparently a clue to the following video (⬇⬇⬇) for Everything You Do Is A Balloon which samples vintage footage from “One Got Fat,” a 1963 bicycle safety movie.

The last trinkets yet to surface come from the the official Hell Interface Youtube channel (which is the name Boards went under before they were Boards of Canada) where they posted this three second video, which links to this video that plays a new 44 second sample.  Again with the numbers: 717228.  That 3 second seemingly blank video also contains hidden stills from Little House On The Prairie, Episode 68, “Times of Change,” aired Sept 19 1977.  If you scrolled over timeline you’d see clips of it, but Boards of Canada (unofficial) IRC grabbed all the stills and posted a jpg for ease of view (⬇⬇⬇).

So basically BOC are laughing their asses off while their fans look for secret codes everywhere, which will likely all amount in a new record or absolutely nothing at all.

If you’d like to follow the mayhem to the minute, looks like 2020k is the official place to do it.

Ad Hoc

is also a quarterly zine— available in electronic and paper formats, and full of original art work and long-form features. Resurrecting the curatorial logic of zine culture, Ad Hoc will paint a dynamic, living landscape of the underground music world at large, setting the reflections of professional journalists and critics alongside artists, promoters, and other music-world personalities. Ad Hoc is a mosaic of voices, each offering its own partial illumination of underground music today, and what it means to navigate a rapidly changing industry in the era of information.

The Ad Hoc Community

Ad Hoc features regular contributions from 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Decoder (ex-Get Off The Coast), Distonal (ex-The Decibel Tolls), Dummy Magazine, International Tapes, Mutant Sounds,  No Fear of Pop, Visitation Rites, Raven Sings The Blues, and Rose Quartz.

And writings from Alex Bleeker (Real Estate), Alex Zhang Hungtai (Dirty Beaches), Alan Palomo (Neon Indian), Allese Baker (Artforum), Dale W. Eisinger (New York Press), Dan Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never, Ford & Lopatin), Emil Amos (Holy Sons, Om), Emily Rose Epstien (Ty Segall), Hunter Hunt-Hendrix (Liturgy), Ian Nelson (Friendship Bracelet), James Leyland Kirby (The Caretaker), Jenn Pelly (Pitchfork, Village Voice), Jessa Farkas (Future Shuttle), Jigmae Baer (Royal Baths), John Elliot (Emeralds), Justin Spicer (Tiny Mix Tapes), Kim Kelly (NPR, Brooklyn Vegan), Laurel Chartow, Liz Pelly (Boston Phoenix), Maria Minerva, Marc Masters (Pitchfork, Wire), Matt Sullivan (Altered Zones), Michael McGregor (Chocolate Bobka, The Report), Nate Luce (Flower Orgy), Taraka Larson (Prince Rama), Todd P, and many, many more.

Sounds pretty rad (^^^).  Especially the cassette box sets and print zenes.  Head over to kickstarter and pledge to help these kids make it happen.