Boards of Canada: Classic or Dud?

BoC audio Instagram filters, booYA

just occurred to me that I've always thought of their albums like this:

MHTRTC: Sky
Geogaddi: Core
Campfire: Sea
Tomorrow: City

That's probably abetted by their album covers, but that's always how I've heard them.

Campfire esp. Dayvan Cowboy has always been about outer space for me, that must have to do with the video but it rings very true even without watching it.

For me it's

Mhtrtc: forests, fog
Geogaddi: sunny, cold, maritime

Trans-Canada Highway: highway driving
A Beautiful Place in the Country: beautiful places in the country

Interesting

I always think of places like Canada

Campfire Headphase actually sounds like... camping, maybe involving mushrooms.

Geogaddi - hiding out in the white mountains, preparing to launch a possibly suicidal assault on the Tripods.

loved that the first track on Geogaddi was included in Baby Driver.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3890160/soundtrack?ref_=tt_trv_snd

wtf ?

yep. i was psyched!

MHTRTC: childhood
Geogaddi: adolescence
Campfire: adulthood
Tomorrow: old age

"A beautiful place in the country" is one of my fave listens when being on an airplane. There is something in it which makes my mind fly which is perfect as my body flies already. That synchronisation between body and mind is perfect.

I don't see much variation between the albums. They're all good, to varying degrees, but they have more or less exactly the same mood and feel for me. That's fine, it's the kind of group they are. TH is a bit more melodic than the earlier ones, maybe?

last track on Ewans new record has a touch of Boards of Canada about it

Ewan Jansen

Great change of mood between Geo and Campfire. TH by far the least melodic IMO.

Tomorrow's Harvest made no impact on me. I was a massive fan of all of their work before- I first heard them when Campfire Headphase came out, which I love. Tomorrow's Harvest was just in one ear out the other. I owe it another listen.

i am very into late great's breakdown. what about:

MHTRTC: spring
Geogaddi: summer
Campfire: autumn
Tomorrow: winter

just relistened to Tomorrow's Harvest for 1st time in couple years and yeah it's not bad per se but def in one ear out the other. Feels like all of it could be condensed to 1 track.

exactly, it's not bad but it's so autopilot/anonymous. the thought of putting it on... it just feels like a chore.

i'll color the records this way:

MHTRTC: depression
ABPOITC: paranoia
Geogaddi: anxiety
Campfire: contentment

late great OTM

Geogaddi definitely is adolescence and the sinister edges/paranoia of the adult world creeping in

MHTRTC: Dorothy
Geogaddi: Blanche
Campfire: Rose
TH: Sophia

MHTRTC - up
IABPOITC - down
Geogaddi - strange
Campfire - charm
Harvest - top
yet to come - bottom

Off topic but for the brief time in my life where I was smoking weed they were one of my favorite bands. Geogaddi and In a Beautiful place EP can be terrifying in the wrong mood tho. There's a definite loss of innocence im those.

In not im*

Very few artists are timeless for me but BOC definitely have that distinction.

'The Campfire Headphase' is PEAK them for me. What a perfect album. It sounds like camping out on a beautiful alien planet where you're the only inhabitants.

MHTRTC - Mushrooms
IABPOITC - Ayahuasca
Geogaddi - LSD
Campfire - Ecstacy
Harvest - Marihuana

MHTRTC - Mushrooms
IABPOITC - Ayahuasca
Geogaddi - LSD
Campfire - Ecstacy
Harvest - Marihuana

Haha yeah that would be something

Says something good about boc that there's no consensus about what their best is. I couldn't listen to Campfire Headphase more than once, but I must have listened to Tomorrow's Harvest a hundred times or more

yeah TH is a great sustained bit of mood music although it's perhaps a bit too long. I need to take a long walk oke day and listen to it properly.

Campfire is the one I really didn't get. Too many horrible-sounding acoustic guitars, not enough subliminals for me.

Geogaddi I own proudly on vinyl, so maybe my favourite. That said, it's a bit disjointed (and again feels quite long). I like the fact it's by far their darkest-sounding record but I think they push it too hard on Beware The Friendly Stranger, which I really don't like. That track taints the record for me a bit.

MHTRTC and IABPOITC are obviously indisputable classics. you just can't fuck with them and they still sound amazing nearly twenty years later

Campfire progressively became my favorite. I get the BoC turns MOR criticism but they really nailed on that one the psychedelic pastoralism that I love most about them. Harvest always left me cold but otoh I never spent much time with it

Geogaddi freaked me out as a teenager due to the vocal in "The Devil is in the Details". There's a creepy vocal that sounds like it's saying "ross", which is my name. This may sound cheesy but it made the record feel cursed to me

that might be my favorite track on Geogaddi now. didn't jump out at me for years, then maybe 5 years ago it just clicked. Really disturbing song, I love the tense/hesitant keyboard motif that runs throughout.

geogaddi best album

yeah geogaddi's the best

i like tomorrow's harvest a lot. not my favorite but still remarkable

Their first albums are the best for me. Geogaddi is objectively the best one but it's too dense for me I can't listen to it full.

Objectively? Bullshit.

Music Has the Right to Children and Geogaddi are the ones I'll return to whenever I'm in the mood for a Boards of Canada record - the others, not so much.

The worst thing I could say about Boards of Canada is that in IDM (or whatever) terms they're just not as exciting as peak Aphex or Autechre.

Geogaddi>MHTRTC>>TH>>>CH

The MHTRTC/twoism/hiscores/bocuma stuff is really really special, connecting with the universal consciousness type stuff.. The rest of the albums are fine idm

The worst thing I could say about Boards of Canada is that in IDM (or whatever) terms they're just not as exciting as peak Aphex or Autechre.

Aphex Twin is not inert or soulless some of his songs are more soulful than anything BOC has done. I agree with Autechre tho.

Saying Autechre is without soul is bonkers imo. I don't even know where to begin...

It treats melody like a repugnant fart

yesca not exactly otm but this rings true ... there is an acrid (?) quality to latter autechre and much aphex whereas BoC melodies, even at their darkest, are always classically harmonious and beautiful

imo comparing autechre / aphex / BoC is a three-way apples to oranges thing, they're each quite distinct

i meant classically melodious but there are beautiful harmonies in BoC too ... occurs to me that although autechre are not always melodious they are good w harmony too

Aphex has written some of the best melodies of all time wtf you crazy kids

yep