Boards of Canada

Boards of Canada

Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin performing live

Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin
Background information
Also known as Hell Interface
Origin Edinburgh, Scotland
Genres Electronic, ambient, IDM, downtempo
Years active 1986 (1986)–present
Labels Warp, Skam, Music70
Website boardsofcanada.com
Members Mike Sandison
Marcus Eoin
Past members Christopher Horne[1]

Boards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of brothers Michael Sandison (born 1 June 1970) and Marcus Eoin (born Marcus Eoin Sandison, 21 July 1971).[2][3][4][5][6]

They have released several works on Warp Records with little advertising and few interviews, while also having an elusive and obscure back-catalogue of releases on their self-run Music70 label. They have also recorded at least four tracks under the alias of Hell Interface.

History

Early years (1986–1994)

Growing up in a musical family, brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin began playing instruments at a young age. They experimented with recording techniques at around the age of 10, using tape machines to layer cut-up samples of found sounds over compositions of their own.[6]

In their teens they participated in a number of amateur bands. However, it was not until 1986 when Marcus was invited to Mike's band that Boards of Canada was born, naming themselves after the documentary TV films by the National Film Board of Canada that they watched as children.[6] By 1989, the band had been reduced to Sandison and Eoin. In the early 1990s, a number of collaborations took place and the band put on small shows among the "Hexagon Sun" collective.

Twoism EP, Boc Maxima and Hi Scores EP (1995–1996)

In 1995, the band made their first Hexagon Sun studio release, the EP Twoism. Like earlier Music70 releases, it was produced in a self-financed limited run and was privately distributed, primarily to friends and labels. Unlike previous releases, however, a small number of copies were also released to the public through a mailing list. Though not a widespread commercial release, it was considered of sufficient quality and worth to be subsequently re-pressed in 2002.

The band made another release in 1996; titled Boc Maxima, it was a semi-private release that was notable for being a full-length album, and was the precursor to Music Has the Right to Children, with which it shares many tracks.

Boards of Canada's first commercial release occurred after attracting the attention of Autechre's Sean Booth, of the English label Skam Records, one of many people who were sent a demo EP. Skam issued what was considered Boards of Canada's first "findable" work, Hi Scores, in 1996.

Music Has the Right to Children and In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country EP (1998–2000)

The debut studio album, Music Has the Right to Children, was released in April 1998. The album consists of longer tracks mixed with song vignettes. It also includes one of the duo's most popular songs, "Roygbiv". Music Has the Right to Children received widespread acclaim upon release. It featured at #35 on Pitchfork's "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s" list.[7] It was ranked #91 in Mojo's 100 Modern Classics list.

John Peel featured Boards of Canada on his BBC Radio 1 program in July of that year. The session featured two remixes from Music Has the Right to Children — "Aquarius (Version 3)" and "Olson (Version 3)" — along with the tracks "Happy Cycling" and "XYZ". Excluding "XYZ", the set was released on a Warp Records CD titled Peel Session TX 21/07/1998.

Though never an actively touring band, Boards of Canada did perform a handful of shows. Early shows saw them supporting Warp labelmates Seefeel and Autechre in a handful of UK dates. They also participated in a few festivals and multi-artist bills including two Warp parties: Warp's 10th Anniversary Party in 1999 and The Incredible Warp Lighthouse Party almost one year later. They made their most prominent showing in 2001 as one of the headliners at the Tortoise-curated All Tomorrow's Parties . They have not performed a live show since.

The band released a four-track EP, In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country, in November 2000, their first original release in two years. The 12" edition was pressed on sky blue vinyl.

Geogaddi (2002)

Their second studio album, Geogaddi, was released in February 2002. Like Music Has the Right to Children, this album consists of longer tracks mixed with song vignettes. It also presents a darker sound than its predecessor. Geogaddi received universal acclaim from music critics.

It was described by Sandison as "a record for some sort of trial-by-fire, a claustrophobic, twisting journey that takes you into some pretty dark experiences before you reach the open air again."[8]

The Campfire Headphase and Trans Canada Highway EP (2005–2006)

Their third album for Warp Records, The Campfire Headphase, was released on 17 October 2005 in Europe and 18 October 2005 in the United States. The album featured fifteen tracks, including "Peacock Tail", "Chromakey Dreamcoat," and "Dayvan Cowboy". Two versions of "Dayvan Cowboy" — the original and a remix by Odd Nosdam — are on the six-track EP, Trans Canada Highway, which was released on 26 May 2006.

In late 2009, the Warp20 (Recreated) compilation featured two BoC covers, one by Bibio of their song "Kaini Industries" and one by Mira Calix of "In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country". Warp20 (Recreated) is part of the larger Warp20 boxed set, which also includes two previously unreleased Boards of Canada tracks, "Seven Forty Seven" and a 1.8 second sample of "Spiro".

Tomorrow's Harvest (2013–present)

On Record Store Day 2013, a vinyl record containing a short clip of music which was believed to be the work of Boards of Canada surfaced at the New York record store Other Music.[9][10] Shortly after the release, Warp Records vouched for the record's authenticity.[11] The record (titled ------/------/------/xxxxxx/------/------) contained a short clip of audio followed by a voice reading six digits similar to that of a numbers station. The record revealed what was to become one of six unique numbers that were part of a type of alternate reality game that was used to promote the release of their next studio album.

The rest of the codes were hidden through various websites and online communities, as well as being broadcast over BBC Radio One, NPR, and Adult Swim.[12] After much speculation, the official website for the band redirected users to another website[13] which asked for the user to enter a password. Once all six unique codes are entered, a video is shown announcing Tomorrow's Harvest, their fourth studio album. The album was released on 5 June 2013 in Japan, 10 June 2013 in Europe, and 11 June 2013 in the United States to widespread critical acclaim.

Musical style

Boards of Canada's music is reminiscent of the warm, analogue sounds of 1970s media and contains themes of childhood, nostalgia and the natural world. Mike and Marcus have mentioned the documentary films of the National Film Board of Canada, from which the group's name is derived, as a source of inspiration. Other, more industrial sounds are often incorporated in their music, with usage of distorted, highly processed beats. The vast majority of their tracks are downtempo ambient, although some releases display faster, more abrasive sounds.

Sound and methods

BoC's sound is a product of their use of analogue equipment, mix of electronic and conventional instrumentation, use of distorted samples as well as live and recorded lyrics, and their layering and blending of these elements.[14][15] For example, the duo have revealed that they use many old tape machines, such as those manufactured by Grundig;[16] and it can be said that this is one of the key factors that contributes to their vintage sound. Because they avoid a purely synthetic sound, their music is often described as having a warm, emotive quality often meant to inspire nostalgia. This is helped by the use of samples from 1970s television shows and other media prevalent in the era of the brothers' shared childhood, especially the nature-inspired documentaries produced by the National Film Board of Canada.[6]

Brief interludes or vignettes feature prominently in BoC's music. Such songs are often weaving melodies or speech accompanied by atmospherics to capture a specific moment or mood. They often last less than two minutes, but, as BoC state, "we write far more of [these] than the so-called 'full-on' tracks, and, in a way, they are our own favourites".[17] BoC have written an enormous number of such fragments as well as full-length tracks, most of which have been held back from release. It does not appear that their music is made exclusively for commercial release; rather, albums seem to be the result of selecting complementary songs from current work. For instance, Geogaddi's allegedly involved the creation of 400 song fragments and 64 complete songs, of which 22 were selected (possibly 23, if the final track of complete silence is included).[17] Says Marcus: "The idea of the perfect album is this amorphous thing that we're always aiming at […] the whole point of making music is at least to aim at your own idea of perfection."[17]

Interviews with the Sandison brothers provide some insight into their creative process. They have cited several acts that have influenced their work including Joni Mitchell, The Incredible String Band ("we have all the String Band records […] our rural sensibilities are similar"), The Beatles ("[they] really became enthralling to us through their psychedelism"), and My Bloody Valentine ("even if we don't sound like them, there's a connection in terms of the approach to music").[6][17][18]

They have also expressed a strong interest in the power of subliminal messaging and their work is full of cryptic messages including references to numerology and cult figures such as David Koresh of the Branch Davidians.[19] When questioned about their aims in making such references, BoC express themselves in neutral terms ("We're not religious at all [...] and if we're spiritual at all it's purely in the sense of caring about art and inspiring people with ideas.")[17] while remaining fascinated with the ability of music to influence the minds of others ("[We] do actually believe that there are powers in music that are almost supernatural. I think you actually manipulate people with music...").[20]

Discography

Major releases

Studio albums

EPs

Old Tunes and other oddities

Main article: Old Tunes

Supposed early Boards of Canada recordings have been found online, claiming to be original tracks from Catalog 3, Acid Memories, Hooper Bay and other pre-Twoism albums. All unreleased albums are presumed to be inauthentic BoC recordings, with the exceptions of Boc Maxima, the Old Tunes tapes and the Random 35 Tracks Tape.[21] While the Old Tunes tapes are believed to be authentic (mostly due to the inclusion of very similar tracks found elsewhere on official releases), there has never been any official recognition of their authenticity.

Media usage

References

  1. ↑ Boards of Canada Biography, Matador Records, retrieved 4 May 2012
  2. ↑ Boards of Canada Biography, AllMusic. Rovi Corporation, retrieved 31 Jan 2014
  3. ↑ Boards of Canada official Youtube Channel, retrieved 31 Jan 2014
  4. ↑ Boards of Canada official Facebook page, retrieved 31 Jan 2014
  5. ↑ Boards of Canada iTunes store bio, retrieved 31 Jan 2014
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Hoffmann, Heiko. "Pitchfork: Interviews: Boards of Canada" (September 2005)
  7. ↑ Staff Lists: Top 100 Albums of the 1990s - Features - Pitchfork, Pitchfork.com, retrieved 2013-06-15
  8. ↑ Archived 13 September 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ Sean Michaels (2013-04-22). "Does Boards of Canada's record-store clue point to new album? | Music | guardian.co.uk". Guardian. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
  10. ↑ Pattison, Louis (6 June 2013). "Boards of Canada: 'We've become a lot more nihilistic over the years'". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
  11. ↑ "Boards of Canada Released a Mysterious 12" on Record Store Day | News". Pitchfork. 2013-04-21. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
  12. ↑ Minsker, Evan. "Boards of Canada Commercial Airs on Cartoon Network" (April 2013) Pitchfork Media. Retrieved on 28 April 2013.
  13. ↑ Pelly, Jenn. "Boards of Canada Mystery Continues with New Password Protected Website" (April 2013) Pitchfork Media. Retrieved on 28 April 2013.
  14. ↑ Pytlik, Mark. "The Colour & The " (Feb 2002), HMV magazine. Retrieved on 20 February 2007.
  15. ↑ Micallef, Ken. "Northern Exposure" (Jul 2002), Remix magazine. Retrieved on 20 February 2007.
  16. ↑ http://emusician.com/remixmag/ Vol. 7 No. 12 (December 2005), pp26-30
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 Poolman, Koen. "Play Twice Before Listening" (Mar 2002), OOR magazine. Retrieved on 20 February 2007.
  18. ↑ Kyrou, Ariel & Leloup, Jean-Yves. "Two Aesthetes of Electronic Music" (Jun 1998), Virgin Megaweb magazine. Retrieved on 20 February 2007.
  19. ↑ Brown, Colin. "What the hell is up with Boards of Canada? Shorter analysis of Geogaddi". Retrieved on 23 March 2006.
  20. ↑ Nicholls, Steve. "Big Country" (March 2001), XLR8R Issue 47. Retrieved on 21 February 2007.
  21. ↑ Discography – bocpages – the unofficial boards of canada wiki, bocpages, retrieved 4 May 2012
  22. ↑ Mur-Écran, The Windscreen 52 min:42-44 sec into the 53 min:59 sec podcast, Paul Kennedy says "Music was by Boards of Canada."
  23. ↑ Jagernauth, Kevin. "Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood To Score Lynne Ramsay's 'We Need To Talk About Kevin'". The Playlist. Retrieved 2016-03-24.

External links

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