Just a few days after cryptic VHS cassettes were sent out to fans, Youtuber MATTHS says he’s “99.9999%” sure that this is linked to Boards of Canada, with customers of Warp Record’s Bleep.com being sent the tapes, seemingly at random.
Could the mystery that often shrouds the enigmatic duo all be part of a clever marketing strategy? It wasn’t until seven years after their debut, Music Has the Right to Children (1998), that the duo revealed to Pitchfork that they are in fact brothers, to avoid being compared to other sibling electronic acts like Orbital.
If the latest cryptic tapes are giving you a sense of deja vu, that’s because back in 2013 in the run-up to the band’s last album release, Tomorrow’s Harvest, they pulled a similar stunt. Back then, it was using limited quantities of 12in vinyl records with one of six codes that needed to be deciphered. The internet rallied together, strung together the code needed to unlock a video on the Cosecha Transmissiones website which led to a pre-order for the album.
Using VHS tapes to house cryptic messages perfectly fits the pair’s ambient lo-fi distorted and ‘wonky’ taped vocals too – Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin are known for weaving in samples from obscure 1970s educational films, documentaries and children’s TV programs.
Youtuber MATTHS has been following the story and gathering all available information to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
He says that so far, 17 tapes are known to have gone out and he had a spreadsheet to keep track of the locations and whether the tapes are in PAL or NTSC.
In his latest video, he says “A lot of tapes have gone out” and “More and more have been going out to people’s houses”. It becomes harder to refute the connection to Warp Records and Boards of Canada, as he’s recognized a correlation between those who have received the VHS tapes all had previously bought something from Warp’s Bleep.com
He goes on to say “It’s certainly associated with Warp and Bleep” and calls for anyone who has received a tape to get in touch or find a video recorder so they can share the footage.
One tape which landed in the UK is of particular interest. It seems to have more tape on than others so could potentially glean new information.
MATTHS goes on to say there are clues in the tapes received so far that hint towards a “hexagonal flexidisc” and with Record Store Day coming up on 18th April, fans are speculating that new Boards of Canada vinyl will be dropped then.
