Boards of Canada: Classic or Dud?

As for myself, I like MHTRTC. It's background music, but it's lovely background music all the same. My only consistent complaint with BoC is how analog and cheesy they occasionaly get. Like the last two tracks of the new ep. But at the same time "Bishop Amo Roden" redeems the whole thing. So...a "Classic", with reservations. But still not "where all art should be focusing at the moment."

BoC are at their most interesting to me when they move away from the two formulae I mentioned at the start of this thread. "Chinook", "Rodox Video", "June 9th", "Skipping Stones, "Red Moss" are all excellent - I think BoC Maxima is their best album; too much of MHTRTC is overtly unobtrusive and quiet as you say. Also, "M9", which makes all Parr comparisons redundant.

When they go "analog and cheesy" it's curiously endearing because I really don't like what they're copying at all - I like "Iced Cooly" better than any Roger Limb track I've ever heard. There's something in that faded-brown-to-gold process, I think.

boards of canada are really good. i'd say classic, for distilling the one ambient track that's on every idm album and basing a career around it. that's usually the best song anyway.

Fred: I'm not embarrassed with the phrase "on the money", it's just that the Pinefox has turned it into something of a cliche round here and made it hard to use without a moment's tongue in cheek.

'music has the right' took a while for me to love. much of it is classic but there are some boring parts. roygbiv is, of course, the highlight.

the best thing though is probably happy cycling on the peel session (is this on the US version of 'music has...'?)

i disagree about plone though, fernando. i think plone work when they are overly twee and fisher-price like, but too often (on the patchy album) they try and sound darker, or more ambivalent, or go the cod- morricone way, and it doesn't work.

Boc have done some beautiful songs (the last single was wonderful too), and i think its a bit of a shame that they often get categorised as 'smokers music' (which is pretty harsh criticism)

I'd have agreed with you about Plone once, Gareth, but now I find those tracks *unlistenably* twee; I can't get more than a minute into "Marbles" without choking, and don't get me started on "Bibi Plone". Conversely, "Busy Working", "The Greek Alphabet" and "Top And Low Rent" sound better to me than they ever did.

K-reg hits the nail on the head, as often, I think.

elliot

What better comparison point for a band who call a track "M9"?

and into a world where synthesizers coexist with hundred-year-old willow trees.

-----

love this. Also the term 'soccer children' = beautiful, somehow very BoC. Ah well, that used to be me ;)

Since one of my earlier threads seems to have been resuscitated, I'll just add that I probably rate BoC higher in terms of *magic realism* than I ever have. I can sort of see where Billy's coming from with the ISB comparison, as well: if you're looking for the halfway point, Bill, I'm waiting with a C90 of "The Fourth Dimension" ...

The 70's BBC children's television series, The Changes, is an
indisputable influence for MHTRC. Robin Carmody is well aware. His BBC Radiophonic Workshop essay is outstanding.

IABP and Geogaddi are minor shifts in the BoC sound. The whole David Koresh theme is creepy, but I love it.

I say they're ace, hands-down, CLASSIC. They make beautiful textures, tones, and melodies with very few synths and outdated samplers and that is no simple feat!

Any ILXors ever been to the Pentland Hills area or met the BoC or any of the music70 collective?

Boards of Canada = Near Classic; depends on what they do next.

re: the "british sound" as mentioned above: stirmonster (v. occasional glaswegan ILM poster) once mentioned elsewhere [heavy paraphrase ahead] that he found the prettiness of BoC's music a sharp contrast to the dreadful starkness of the north coast of scotland.

Not in the north of Scotland though, just next to Edinburgh. The Pale Saints recorded some of their records near there.

anyhow, classic, "geogaddi" included.

in some ways i think much of their back catalogue is a bit tainted by the beats. as in, they seem unnecessarily leaden. they certainly date the records to a particular time period (its less apparent on geogaddi i guess). i like pretty much everything still, but the beats detract for me, or, at least, are the worst parts of most of their stuff

the point i was making is that making something that sounds like on the nose BoC is actually part of what BoC do on purpose

a band writing music that sounds like the band's style? wild concept...

sorry, let me try to rephrase it better..

BoC have a tendency to occasionally produce tracks that are too by the numbers or too "pretty" (for the lack of a better word) to fit into the mythology that got to be associated with BoC. i'm calling it a feature because they don't seem to care, the fandom will incorporate it into the canon anyway, and why worry about upholding everything you do to some imaginary expectation? it's a pretty track, who cares, the band likes it, the band includes it. BoC seem to not worry about it, and we're all better for it. it's only on the nose because it doesn't fit somebody's expectation of what BoC should sound like, which brings us all the way back to.. hot takes.

Ah - I think for me "on the nose" has a particularly negative, dismissive connotation. Semantics!

But that's interesting - them writing "pretty" music was always their MO, up until Tomorrow's Harvest. Man what 13 years between album cycles does to a fan base, oy

yes, and them being called out for it is not a new thing either, which is why i mentioned Dayvan Cowboy and the associated "it sounds like an ad soundtrack" critiques

I’m beginning to think this thread is going to collapse into a singularity

Dayvan Cowboy is one of their best tracks imo. I love that side of them

I've seen the "on the nose" stuff was mostly being used to say that what they used to subtly hint at is now in your face. Cultish samples, eeriness, and so on.

Even if I think Inferno doesn’t quite reach the heights of Dead Cities it does remind me of that specific era of ‘90s techno where every new release sounded like an immersive journey, DC being merely the best comp in terms of the specific atmosphere conjured up.

with Orbital being mentioned earlier, InSides is another example of this and a great counterpart to both Dead Cities and Inferno

yeah exactly what I was thinking of

All Reasons Depart made me think of Orbital earlier.

Bu anyway, this album is great, I like it a lot, I’m listening to Campfire Headphase right now and that’s also great, BoC are great, enjoy their music, music is great, I’ve had wine, the world is OK despite all the shit. X

Getting rushes from “Father and Son” again this morning. I’ve realised the underlying rhythm feels like Autechre’s WNSN.

"The Word Becomes Flesh" is a weird track where a woman recites the stages of the development of an embryo in sync to the beat, but it isn’t true-to-life, it’s more like a dystopian abstract fantasy of embryo development, it is quite strange

I think I read in another forum (or maybe Reddit) someone suggesting to them it felt like AI in its current nascent state "gestating". Hard not to consider that (in addition to the political connections around abortion rights) when listening to it now, which only seems to add to the mood and themes.

absolutely love how the groove changes throughout that song and all the sparseness is slowly filled in

I also like how her voice frequently morphs into a lower pitched computer voice and eventually becomes fused with it

The lower computer voice is kind of like the backing singer for a lot of it. Incredible effect.

my favourite moments so far are that melody Prophecy ends with and the very beginning of Naraka, so arrestingly beautiful
but there are so many to choose from

I've decided this album isn't any more OTN or unsubtle than MHTRTC or Geogaddi. Only in context of then doing away with any explicit sampling or messaging on TCH and not much on TH either does this one feel more like a "back to the roots" type of deal

And i also think there's more to tracks like Father & Son or The Word Becomes Flesh than first meets the ear

Also, am I the only person who whenever Age Of Capricorn comes on I half expect to hear Bryan Ferry to come in with "Where have you been my blue-eyed son / Where have you been my darling young one?"

What beard papa said: My use of “on the nose” when I mentioned the Krishna chant refers to the way it stands out in the mix. I like when BoC muffle/slur/chop up/mix down their vocal samples. That’s all. I just prefer that mysterious side of what they do, sonically. No biggie.

Father and Son is the most front and center undistorted extended sample I can think of in their catalogue, other than the occasional interjections of “yeah that’s right” and “orange” in MHTRTC

I mean don't forget Leslie Nielson's cameo!

Just a wee aside, I sometimes go on the BoC subreddit and you wouldn’t believe how many posts are just people saying “orange” or “yeah that’s right”. Unfortunately “ I think that’s wonderful” has also entered their lexicon. On topic, new album is 10/10

I mean don't forget Leslie Nielson's cameo!

i get his voice and Lorne Greene’s mixed up!

Marvelous!

You gonna call him a liar?

endless variations on “the preparation for an ilx post is always a tense time”, truly the monty python parrot sketch of th BoC online commentariat

you wouldn’t believe how many posts are just people saying “orange” or “yeah that’s right”

I very much would.

Orange

DON: Boards of Canada are, to me, one of the era's defining electronic bands. They are experts in transmuting the nostalgia of our past into the last images we see before civilization plunges into the abyss.

GLENN: But if you're getting down for some end of the world action are you really going to put this orange record on?

DON: Well, yeah... That's right

how many posts are just people saying “orange” or “yeah that’s right”

My guess is about sixty-ten

First album so far this year that I've found myself compulsively replaying. I liked them previously, but wouldn't call myself a superfan.

I'm starting to resent this album's hold on my life, won't be playing it today.

The thunderous rumbles of bass in the second half of All Reason Departs tho.

i took a day off yesterday and listened to Tomorrow’s Harvest instead

back on Inferno today, found myself wondering if they might actually play some shows, now would be the moment if they ever cared to

Sometimes I forget I ever saw them live it was so long ago (Warp event in 2000).

Sometimes I forget I ever saw them live it was so long ago (Warp event in 2000).

For a second I thought that was the Warped Tour festival thing and I was confused.

BOARDS OF CANADA OPENING FOR LESS THAN JAKE

this album is my world at this moment

If they toured it would sell out faster than Autechre, which I believe took an hour for the entire North American tour.

touring thought spurred in part by the particularly band vibe of some of You Retreat In Time And Space - the very live feel bass playing and wah guitar bits, I feel they could construct a pretty incredible set in 2026, blending electronic and live instruments (not to mention what fun they could have with their visuals)

If they toured it would sell out faster than Autechre, which I believe took an hour for the entire North American tour.

definitely not a sell out in DC, tix were still available until day of show iirc amd my section was not full

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dj0XDkPNMg

Love this

I accidentally first played the flexi disc at 33 instead of 45 and it was extra eerie

I gotta try that, switching my turntable to 45 is a huge pain