Boards of Canada
The Campfire Headphase
Warp Records
2005
www.boardsofcanada.com
When you mention to people that you've picked up the new Boards of Canada
they roll they're eyes and quip "oh you mean, bored with Canada".
I have failed to find the humor in this remark in that it implies that the group is passé. It suggests that Boards of Canada could not possibly be progressing past their seminal 2001 release Music Has the Right to Children.
Oh Please!
The Campfire Headphase is perhaps one of the best Boards of Canada projects ever. It lacks the simplistic hooks that made Music Has the Right to Children so palletable to the general public. It forces you to look past the goofy warblings and chirps that were so prevalent in the early work and see the complex layers and rhythmic shifts that make BOC edure.
In short; it fucking rocks and you would be stupid not to own this album.
The BOC sound is there of course- the haunting space-scapes, that for some
reason evoke Manatoba in the Winter rather than Mars are the base upon which
BOC constructs their project.
From that point though the layers of complexity are such that at times it
becomes difficult to gauge whether this really is BOC. There is little of
the chugging drums or spaced out "E-Head" tic-tacks that cause the
Volkswagon Jetta set to bob their heads in stupefied unison.
On tracks like "Farewell Fire" the old Boards of Canada resurfaces with a haunting sound-scape that is wonderfully meandering in nature and simple in execution. The track eventually fades out so slowly that you almost forget its gone, and the echos of the tune are still rattling around your head long after the tracks end. Much of Campfire Headphase is like this, thus making it hard to differentiate between tracks, drawing you deeper into the BOC sound.
Tracks like Oscar See Through Red Eye will no doubt bring the old fans (and their Volkswagon Jettas) back into the fold. It has all the handclaps and "elephant walk" high hats that made BOC famous with the post-rave set. But wait! There's still no continuity! The raver set frowning because they can't draw a bead on the beat or style.
This is exactly what I love about The Campfire Headphase- it does little to conform to the earlier BOC projects and yet the sound is certainly as focused and all-encompassing as in the previous works. It is a progression in the best sense of the word and it is pleasurable to see a group with so much talent push the envelope even further in their new work.
Buy!
-John Southern