Old Tunes


Old Tunes is the collective name given to two officially unreleased audio cassette tape recordings by the Scottish electronic music duo Boards of Canada: Old Tunes Vol. 1, and Old Tunes Vol. 2, both produced in 1996. Although neither tape has been officially released by the band, copies have leaked online and can be found on media-sharing sites such as YouTube. An untitled collection of 35 tracks known as the "Random 35 Tracks Tape", believed to date back to 1995, is also sometimes included as part of the Old Tunes series, and was believed to be Old Tunes Vol. 1 until 2009, when photographs of a copy of A Few Old Tunes with "Old Tunes Vol. 1" written on the tape labels began to circulate in the BOC fan community.

Background

Old Tunes, as with most of Boards of Canada's other early work, was privately released only to the artists' family and friends. When MP3s of the albums' songs appeared on peer-to-peer file sharing service Soulseek in the early 2000s, there was controversy among fans as to their authenticity given past fraudulent claims of Boards of Canada "rarities" albums. Neither Boards of Canada nor their label acknowledged their validity until someone attempted to sell the tapes on eBay, when a representative for Hexagon Sun explained the private nature of the recordings and the possibility of a compilation release in the future.

Track listings

on Old Tunes Vol. 1:
Side A:
  1. "Spectrum" – 2:19
  2. "Light, Clear Hair" – 0:41
  3. "P:C:" – 0:48
  4. "Trapped" – 3:52
  5. "Rodox Video" – 1:19
  6. "Happy Cycling" – 1:49
  7. "House Of Abin'adab" – 1:55
  8. "Finity" – 5:00
  9. "Forest Moon" – 6:35
  10. "Skimming Stones" – 2:12
  11. "Carcan" – 1:50
  12. "Devil" – 0:14
  13. "Mansel" – 5:36
  14. "She Is P" – 1:42
  15. "Davie Addison" – 1:15
Side B:
  1. "Sac" – 1:23
  2. "Blockbusters" – 0:40
  3. "I Will Get It Tattooed" – 1:37
  4. "The Way You Show" – 2:56
  5. "I Love U" – 1:41
  6. "King Of Carnival" – 4:18
  7. "M9" – 3:32
  8. "Original Nlogax" – 1:11
  9. "Sequoia" – 4:49
  10. "Boqurant" – 1:43
  11. "5.9.78" – 4:14
  12. "Wendy Miller" – 0:32
  13. "Paul Russell's Piece" – 0:53
  14. "Up The March Bank" – 3:24
  15. "Nova Scotia Robots" – 1:47
on Old Tunes Vol. 2:
Side A:
  1. "We've Started Up" – 5:39
  2. "Jimbo Rehearsing" – 0:35
  3. "Staircase Whip" – 2:14
  4. "Statue Of Liberty" – 1:52
  5. "Dave " – 1:50
  6. "Peace-Tony-Devil" – 0:18
  7. "To The Wind" – 2:30
  8. "Iraq Says" – 0:38
  9. "Nine-Rubber Wisdom" – 1:20
  10. "On A Rolling Sea" – 1:34
  11. "Iced Cooly Beatnik" – 0:36
  12. "David Came To Mahana'im" – 4:39
  13. "Sir Prancelot Brainfire" – 2:51
  14. "North Sea Arbeit" – 1:12
  15. "Mushyz" – 0:35
  16. "Heysanna Hosanna" – 0:59
  17. "Fly In The Pool" – 0:51
  18. "Mukinabaht" – 5:05
  19. "It's A Whole 'Nother Year" – 2:00
Side B:
  1. "Kiteracer 2" – 2:29
  2. "Bmx Track" – 5:05
  3. "Hiscores" – 3:38
  4. "Geometric Piss" – 0:51
  5. "Zander Two" – 3:59
  6. "Magic Teens" – 3:00
  7. "Apparatus" – 0:33
  8. "Music For Pylons" – 1:12
  9. "Alpha Rainbow" – 1:12
  10. "Northern Plastics" – 1:55
  11. "Buckie High" – 5:16
  12. "I Love My New Shears" – 3:11
  13. "Solarium" – 0:22
  14. "Breaking Nehushtan" – 2:41
  15. "Orange Hexagon Sun" – 2:22
  16. "Lick" – 2:39
  17. "Powerline Misfortune" – 1:15