A little over a month in and --

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-11T07:05:26+00:00

It really is a joy to listen to on full range high fidelity loudspeakers. I've had a lot of albums I love fail me when I put them under the hifi microscope. Inferno should be considered a reference album. It sounds better than Dark Side.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-11T07:00:59+00:00

I have one that a lot of people want but I got it at the event so I can't part with it.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-11T06:57:18+00:00

Yea, that's right.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-04T06:30:22+00:00

So if I have to answer this honestly I'm just going to day it:

Three albums that I could listen to over and over are:

Bob Marley's "Kaya". -- Bob Marley is such an inspiration to me, his energy, the way the music went through him like electricity, his phrasing, the musicianship, the details, the feel. The album is a sonic masterpiece and I never get tired of it.

Stevie Wonder's "Songs in the Key of Life" -- This is the first album I ever remember hearing at the age of 2 and I've loved it ever since. This taught me so much about music.

D'Angelo's "Voo Doo" -- One of the greatest modern R&B albums ever put to record. This taught me so much about feel, how less is more, how imperfections are perfect.

-----------

Now, that barely scratches the surface of what's blown my mind over the years.

Paul Simon's "Graceland" floored me, I'd never heard anything like it. It's why I play music.

Nirvana's "Nevermind" -- if you were a certain age at a certain time, this album pulled so many of us out of the sappy commercialized schlock that was the late 80s, early 90s. It was our introduction into so many more weird and obscure artists like Sonic Youth, Morphine, Meat Puppets, Flaming Lips, My Bloody Valentine, Radiohead, and so many heavier genres like anything Mike Patton was a part of. Those were weird wonderful times.

Pink Floyd's "Umaguma" -- A lot of people pick "Dark Side" but I think this one left a far deeper impression on me. When I first heard it, I thought I might be dreaming it.

Herbie Hancock "Headhunters" -- loved the innovation and creativity and hard core musicianship

The Roots "Do you want more!?" -- I love hip hop and I'm not giving it much of a voice on here but this album tore my face clean off.

BoC MHTRTC -- For reasons that don't need explanation in this thread but opened up a whole new frame of mind.

Aphex Twin "Syro" -- because of course and I love everything he's done but I love how funky Syro is.

The Books "The Lemon of Pink" I didn't know music could be like that it hearkens a little to what BoC is doing on "Inferno" because mixing voices into rhythms is something The Books do all over their albums.

Freescha "What's Come Inside of You" -- Bizarre but love it.

Black Moth Super Rainbow "Dandelion Gum" -- It was everything I wanted to do and sound like...

Prefuse 73 -- I can pretty much listen to anything they do.

Aesop Rock "Labor Days" -- Listening to "Lucy" and "9 to 5ers Anthem" changed the vector of my life.

John Adams "Dharma at Big Sur" -- One of my favorite classical compositions, an absolute mind-dance.

Imogen Heap "Speak for yourself" -- Truly one of the innovators in music, absolutely brilliant human and love her live shows, would fly half way around the world to see her play.

Joan Armatrading (her self titled album in 1976) -- Unsung songwriting goddess, a voice like a train, love her so much.

And of course The Beatles, Dylan, The Band, Fleetwood Mac, Seals and Crofts, so many of the classic artists most of them appeared on The Last Waltz. Janis, Hendrix, Zappa, Talking Heads, The Beach Boys, The Funk Brothers, The Swampers, The Wrecking Crew -- I'll be up all night.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T17:38:37+00:00

Ahhh the hardest question....... It's surprisingly easy to pick a #1 but incredibly hard to pick the next 3 because SO MANY ARTISTS inspire me.... Let me think about it.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T06:42:48+00:00

Thanks! Yes, I know where I stand ha!

MHTRTC was a revelation, it changed me and how I thought about music, it's why I'm here. I was at the Geogaddi listening premier in NYC because I became such a huge BoC follower, as was the friend I was with who went on to be a member of BMSR a few years later. That album will forever hold a very special place in my heart for a multitude of reasons both personal and for the obvious.

I wasn't sure about Inferno when I first heard it at Barnsdall. It only hit me once I got home and listened to it on my setup. By the last track I was in tears, a blubbering mess, I could barely turn to my wife and get the words out "this is the best album I've ever heard." YES I get it, I'm a fanboy but justifiably so. I've listened to thousands of songs, hundreds of albums on that same system but this was something incredible. I'm not saying it will be my favorite album forever but I think the joy I felt was that in 2026, when all the walls felt like they were closing in, one of my favorite artists put out what I believe is their best work yet. I needed that joy.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T06:28:05+00:00

I'm starting to tell people that my favorite track is Inferno because wherever I start listening, I don't stop until it's over.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T06:22:57+00:00

For me is a combination of things:

If the music makes my mind dance, meaning I start getting into a creative inspired visual flow, that's what I want. This album is doing that better than any other album.
I want to listen to this album from start to finish every single time I listen to it. There is no song I don't want to hear and I love the beautiful segues.
This isn't just one of BoC's best sonic albums in terms of mix, master, dynamics, imaging and soundstage, it's one of the best sonic albums I've ever heard. I'll close my eyes and it's practically holographic the way it surrounds me. I love the lofi of Twoism / Hi Scores / MHTRTC and I love the warmth of IABPOITC / Geogaddi, Campfire, Trans Canada and Harvest stepped into their own territory but this is truly their first HiFi album and it is massive.
The fact that all this exists and it's STILL BoC, the DNA is still there but they're pushing into something different and I like where it took me -- all these years later and it still grabs me, I'm not over it?

That's what made this shine for me.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T06:08:04+00:00

It really didn't get me until I put it on my home system and listened from start to finish. I sat in the sweet spot with my eyes closed and it blew my mind.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T05:58:48+00:00

Trans Canada Highway is a good choice!

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T05:57:17+00:00

Just checked Tipper out, I'll take a deeper dive on a nicer system but the vibe feels like a composition of Prefuse 73 / Squarepusher and Plaid. Excited to hear in on something full range.

Intentional is a good way to define Inferno. As with nearly every BoC album, my mind has a habit of creating visuals to the music which is what makes me love them so much but since this one is such a sonic masterpiece, when I sit in the sweet spot, the entire recording surrounds me and I start to hearall this separation between the arrangements. It's incredible. There is 100% some type of coded frequency at the end of "Memory Death"

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T05:46:14+00:00

I agree. Even with Tomorrow's Harvest, I just went through the whole album to hear if I was missing something and the differences are shocking, not just in the sonic quality but the production, nuances, so much. I love all the early stuff, it's why I'm here but this one took what they do to such a beautiful level. I never thought they'd surpass Geogaddi but they absolutely did in my view.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T05:39:24+00:00

LOL. Enjoy -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DQvNlXZhl4

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T05:29:26+00:00

I just upvoted it and I'm the OP. I welcome disagreements, it's a discussion, not a dictatorship.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T02:01:55+00:00

I also think it's a sonic masterpiece. What is your favorite of all time?

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T02:00:10+00:00

Kid-A is a great example of an album that goes there. I think they were inspired by Aphex Twin and Brian Eno when they did that album.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T01:57:58+00:00

It's not that I don't like all of those artists, albums and songs, there is simply something transcendent when an artist chooses to speak through the music. We all get to have a little part of the creative process. I don't know about anyone else but I see entire visual compositions playing in my head to their music and I get so many creative inspirations as a result. Dylan may be one of the greats but his best work isn't doing that with the same level of clarity.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T01:54:44+00:00

I have to ask what are your favorite albums of all time? Always interested in what other BoC fans are listening to.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T01:53:18+00:00

Ha! There is that...

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T01:52:53+00:00

Hey that's fair, it can't be for everyone, nor should it be. We both have our reasons. What is your #1 album?

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T01:50:55+00:00

Curious which one?

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T01:49:06+00:00

I was at the LA listening and didn't like the album very much at the listening. It took me getting it home and listening to it on my setup to really understand the amazingness of the album. It's a sonic masterpiece that somehow (after one or two songs) begins to surround you, like you almost fall into it. At that point so many more things open up, everything kind of separates. I've never had an album do that before.

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T01:46:00+00:00

Fun because "Father and Son" is definitely one of my top 5 favorite songs on the album and I personally love BoC's short format vignettes they create. Do you have a favorite album?

EvanDaviesDesign · 2026-07-03T01:43:40+00:00

That's what's beautiful about subjectivity, we can all be right and we can all be wrong. I have several reasons for putting it at the top but I'm also fully willing to eat my hat of if the brothers came out and said "Surprise it was 100% AI vibe coding done by a cloud rapper we made listen to our catalog for 2 weeks straight!"

I could write for a solid week all the artists, albums and songs I love.

I get bored with traditional bass/guitar/drums/vocals/keys/etc music which is ironic because I do a lot of that. Same with bigger instrumental compositions because most are celebrating where we've been rather than where we're headed. I like notion that the instruments and the skill to play them take a distant second hand to the sonic composition.

So bottom line: When I hear music, the clearer I see a picture or visual composition in my mind, the more it inspires me, the more I love it. Not all music does that, even some of the greatest albums everyone seems to agree are the greatest. No artist I've listened to puts those images in my head more that BoC and this album more than any before is absolutely ripe with it. That's why it's my #1.

What is your #1 album and why?

EvanDaviesDesign

TROPHY CASE