Album Description: One of the world's most revered and mysterious electronic acts, Boards of Canada re-emerge from the ether with "The Campfire Headphase" their first album since 2002's mystic "Geogaddi". "The Campfire Headphase" will satiate the groups massive, rabid fanbase. This is classic Boards of Canada touched with acid-drenched folk music, atmospheric dissonance, deceptively tough alien beats and mindbending melodic creations.
Amazon.com: This Scottish duo's third album is their most shoegazer-y and gorgeous. For the first time, acoustic and electric instruments intrude on their landscape, which brings them closer to the work of artists like Four Tet and M83. But there's an intricacy to their beats and a strange, underwater quality to their samples that's strictly BoC. It's weird woozy music that's lovely and alien. "Dayvan Cowboy,"for instance, is a slow-paced bit of moody psychedelia; the drums don't even kick in until two thirds of the way through. The hypnotic, analog synth-driven "Farewell Fire"sounds like some lost tune by space-kraut pioneers Cluster. This is music you listen to when drugs don't work anymore; it's more reliable and a whole lot cheaper besides. "Oscar See Through Red Eye,"one of the more percussive songs, is perfect for languid late night dancing, but most of the album is sublimely made for the bean bag chairs. --Mike McGonigal
Not a child, or a teenager, but brilliant nonetheless... I've been listening to the new Boards of Canada album, and while I love it, my feelings and thoughts are somewhat mixed. While on many levels, it's their strongest work to date - breaking out of the more artificial background of groundbreaking electronica that was their first and previous albums, the guitar/acoustic-based approach to IDM is truly the absolute best possible direction they could have contemplated going- at a time when many, like myself, grow to resent the somewhat hollow artifice of many electronic artists (bola, for example- while wonderful, I do crave a bit of organic material mixed in with the beats and loops), BOC are taking their art to the next level- and in doing so have connected themselves and the listener back with some strong roots in 'music' rather than 'IDM music', per se. It's not all flowers and roses - in fact, this may be what is lacking on their new release - the subtle, yet always present, inability/conscious choice to wrestle (literally, or metaphorically) with the same devils that brought such multi-variabled depth and transitory meaning to the previous works- as a result the new work appears beautiful yet somehow lacking a distinctive core upon first listening - it's like the situation in the world is so bad today that to acknowledge it would bring a darkness/foreboding to the music which they have consciously chosen to avoid, this time around. Similar trends are noted in other electronic-crossover artists such as Nitin Sawney, Massive Attack and even Autechre to a limited extent - the post-september 11 refusal to even look at the global state-of-the-world, or reflect on it in any way - in other words, at a time when the world itself seems to be unravelling to it's edges- the corresponding tendency in music, in these cases, are not to comment, but to bring positivity back to the world in a digestible format- unfortunately, that blunt refusal to plumb the heady depths leaves The Campfire Headphase feeling a little like it's got a hollow center - in the sense that while their previous releases seemed filled to the core with heady and wildly variable emotions, this release appears reluctant to go to that level- I love it, but at times am left wondering, where's the refusal to give themselves away completely, the mysterious/quixotic element that made the previous albums so elusive/attractive? It's an absolutely beautiful album- but not a headstrong, capricious runaway ala Geogaddi, nor a stoned-adolescent reminiscing on times past ala Music has the Right. All in all, worth buying - but it won't propel them into the 'mainstream' music market in the way they seem to hope it will, and nor will it touch base at the levels their previous work touched at- unfortunately. m@
The Campfire Headphase & the polar extremes. Boards of Canada's new album. Though out in 2005, I'm writing the review now, when it's nearly 2008.
As I scanned through the reviews of this album I saw two things: "THIS ALBUM IS HORRIBLE AND BORING" and "NUH-UH THIS ALBUM IS GREAT THEY'RE DOING ROCK EXPERIMENTS."
Wow, what a contrast. The first thing I would like to point out is that the only new ground BoC is covering on this album is the addition of a guitar. Other than that... I notice no real difference in style, aside from perhaps a more polished quality to the overall sound of the music. There's definitely nothing here that I would call "rock experiments." Futhermore, while the guitar seems somewhat unnecessary at times, it never really makes the music sound bad. In fact, I rather like this album, so three stars it gets.
No, the real complaint I have with this album is it sounds too much like their old style. GASP. "But what are you saying man? They sound totally different!" ... Do they? I don't know about that... The tracks on this album still have that BoC four-chord-hazy-synth backbone, with the small weird filler tracks in between. It's a track model that BoC has followed since the beginning, except now they seem to have it down to a formula. Which is precisely the problem. It's getting a little bit stale from overuse, and honestly I'd have probably been happier if they HAD changed their style a bit.
I can even give you some track comparisons. These are purely opinion, so don't hold me to my words here, but:
Slow This Bird Down > An Eagle In Your Mind Oscar See Through Red Eye > Pete Standing Alone '84 Pontiac Dream > Julie And Candy
...My favourite tracks are definitely Peacock Tail, Hey Saturday Sun and Oscar See Through Red Eye. I just love that warm fuzzy synth thing they do, and the guitar and bass in Hey Saturday Sun top it off like nothing else.
So my final verdict is: this album is a lot like a modernized version of MHTRTC with guitars in it. Seeing as how my favourite album is Geogaddi, it's unsurprising that I gave this album three stars instead of four This shouldn't suggest that I hate it though, as many seem to, but at the same time, I also don't love it to death. It's a good album, nothing more. Buy it if you like BoC. If you don't like guitars or don't like BoC, don't buy. Simple as that.
Cheers!
Infinite Nostalgia I love this album so much....the music takes me back to my childhood and reflect on old times. I listen to all their albums quite often. Music is very original and well done. Anyone can appreciate these albums. Check them out if you'd like to escape the everyday crap you hear on radio and TV.
One Edit and This Album in a 5 Star Delete (or uncheck) dayvan cowboy and add macquarie ridge to the end. NOW the album is fluid...ahhh
The Campfire Headphase is worth the money. Aside from the rest, Dayvan Cowboy and Chromakey Dreamcoat underline this album. Not much to say, but just a little bit of those two tracks goes a long way.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tony's Online Tips
Trevor
