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welcome to my Bull of Heaven Fan Page

Here I will talk about my favorite BOH pieces and why they're great! You can find Bull of Heaven's music on archive.org or on their official website.

my top 10 (in no particular order)

005: A Lovely Pear

Bull of Heaven's fifth ever release is honestly one of the most gorgeous things I've ever heard in my life. Simple, contemplative guitar loops, nature recordings, and a spoken word sample all come together to create a beautiful atmosphere that is both melancholic and hopeful. I've cried to this before and I will cry to it again.

025: Tale of an Earth Man

This is a meaningful piece for me personally, and I'm not sure I can explain why. It is a short loop that repeats for an hour and 15 minutes. The loop itself is a beautiful melody, peaceful and lush, with interesting noise and what sounds like rushing water in the background. This sound, repeating over and over, manages to evoke some indescribable emotions in me. Thanks in part to its cover art and title, this thing feels ancient, like a sound from thousands of years ago. It feels like earth and nature and moving water and animals and humanity. It feels human. Like I'm reminded of how long we've been around on this earth, how everything has changed and yet some things stay the same. It connects me, somehow.

This all probably doesn't make much sense. I've tried the best I can to put it into words, but describing the complex way any given piece of music makes me feel is difficult. I would recommend listening to it for yourself. There's no guarantee it will mean anything to you, but give it a shot anyway.

056: Return of Ghost Sheriff (Werewolves Are Chasing Me)

This is the piece that got me into Bull of Heaven. And no wonder. I love music that has a very specific atmosphere, music that takes you to a specific place. 056 takes me to a desert. Dry, desolate, and lonely. Like a lost cowboy or perhaps... a Ghost Sheriff. It's a great listen. Highly recommended.

004: Reasoning in State Hospital

Cold, lofi, extremely repetitive melodic piece that almost lulls me into a trance. BOH are so good at creating interesting atmospheres holy fuck.

018: Candles Green, Heads and Skulls

The longest piece I've had on my list so far. 018 is a four-hour drone piece that is calm and soothing, and has plenty of nice variation to keep me interested through its runtime.

299: Self-Traitor, I Do Bring the Spider Love

An incredible space rock jam, truly EPIC to behold. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

236: Pitiless Light Over the Stony Landscape

A painfully overlooked ambient piece that I absolutely loved from the first listen. It's got an almost creepy sound to it, but there's a nice vocal sample that hops around and (mostly) prevents it from being too dark. Actually feels comforting after listening for a while, but there are points where the sample becomes distorted or stops its regular rhythm, which keeps me on edge. I love this one.

019: Hypnosis, Drugs, and Mind Control (The Beginning: A Touch)

You thought 018 was a bit long? Well, this one is 8 hours and has much less variation. But it's still great! It feels like sleep. Comfortable and easy to slip into. I would have expected something this long to be more daunting, but it's really not. It's just nice to get lost in it.

028: Even to the Edge of Doom

You thought 019 was a bit long?!?! This one is 24 HOURS. And unlike 019, it was a difficult listen for me. Not that it isn't nice musically; it is. But 24 hours of anything isn't easy. Having to sit with it for so long was an interesting experience. It's quite minimalist, but there are 8 sections of variation throughout, which I found myself really looking forward to while listening. My first 12 hours or so of this felt pleasant, but after that I did start to have more negative feelings.

If I had negative feelings, why did I put this on my top 10? Well, it's simple. The experience of listening to 028 was eye opening. I don't regret the experience at all and I think it was a net good, as it really caused me to think a lot about how I listen to music, what music means to me, what my time means to me and so on. So even though I resented 028 at some points, overall I think it's a great work of music. (And BOH have many pieces longer than this one, some of which I will probably attempt at some point.)

123: Eighty Thousand Species of Mischievous Sprites

You thought 028 was -- just kidding, this one's half an hour. And it rocks.

honorable mentions

what about THOSE pieces?

If you aren't a Bull of Heaven fan, and you've somehow heard of them, you probably know that they created some pieces of an extreme length which have been recieved negatively, to put it lightly. Their most famous is 210: Like a Wall in Which an Insect Lives and Gnaws, a generative piece which runs for over 5 years and whose very existence is enough to enrage some nerds on the internet because how dare anyone make this AFFRONT to the concept of ART. I have listened to a couple of the excerpts from 210 (I really need to listen to the others soon) and honestly, they are good. This album is vast and fascinating. Of course it's not meant to be listened to in full. That's not the point. What is the point? Well, that depends on your point of view. Some would say the absurdity is the point and some would say it's about the futility of trying to experience art. I can't speak to the meaning of the piece, but what I can say is I don't know why some people get so angry about it. Lots of art is conceptual, lots of art is weird, and if that bothers you, IDK man just let it go. It's still art even if you don't like it or "get" it. Art has a right to exist.

Funny thing is, 210 isn't even BOH's longest work. That honor goes to 310: ΩΣPx0(2^18×5^18)p*k*k*k, which is one single sound meant to repeat for over 3 quindecillion years. Admittedly, this is amusing to me. But I sadly don't have anything insightful or intelligent to say about the existence of these pieces. Just that I think people are overly dismissive of the idea of music as conceptual art. Conceptual art as a whole is often dismissed or ridiculed, and doubly for this kind of music, it seems. I guess people think, why would you make music that no one listen to in its entierity? Well, why does anyone make anything? I don't know. I'm glad they do. I'm glad this stuff exists. If music provokes a complex discussion then it's at least doing one thing right.

in conclusion

I love Bull of Heaven.

bull of heaven 210 cover recreation

(Above is a recreation of the cover of 210. I made it in MS Paint. The artist of the original painting is James Loder.)