Daft Punk's recent global teaser campaign spurred much fan craze. But it was a campaign long before any of us knew that it was. Friends were talking about it two years ago but according to this timeline, the campaign started as far back as 2008. In the last few months, the duo went into high gear running an intense viral campaign that touched almost every media outlet. They snuck tidbits of information to music fans up until the release of Random Access Memories. Love it or leave it, album aside that was a good marketing campaign.
Boards of Canada, another electronic duo, took a similar route out of it's 8 yr hiatus. Rumors started in February last year, when a BBC radio personality mentioned a Boards of Canada double album was on the way. The band confirmed on their Facebook page but gave no other details. Fast forward to a year later, on Record Store Day 2013, a mysterious 12" was found at Other Music in New York City.
When the record played, there was an overlayed robotic voice, that spit out a string of numbers. Another copy was later discovered at London's Rough Trade East. Over the coming days, five more codes were released to BBC Radio 1, NPR, Adult Swim and the fan site Twoism. The numbers heard on each snippet were parts of a code that unlocked the details for the new album, Tomorrow's Harvest.
These bands and record labels understood their audience: electronica fans who spend an obscene amount of time online :) If you haven't heard the new Boards of Canada album, have a listen. Not sure if I like all of it but I do love this song.
