Log #19 - Have a flutter with purveyors of out of tune electronica Boards of Canada

1. Neu! - Neu!
2. Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right to Children
3. Boards of Canada - Twoism
4. Bob Dylan - Desire
5. Kruder and Dorfmeister - Sessions CD 2
6. Mo Wax - Headz Volume 1


Boards of Canada are two Scottish brothers who make electronic music. Their music is weird and strangely appealing. I think this is just as it is so unusual - it therefore does different things inside your brain than most music and hence stands out and becomes memorable. The effect is rather like hearing the minimalism composers Part, Glass or Reich for the first time, or music from a different culture (eg. Indian, or Chinese, or South East Asian) that sounds alien to our western ears.

We believe that there are powers in music that are almost supernatural.

Unlike most electronic contemporaries the Boards of Canada make wide use of vintage and analogue equipment including tapes. This gives their music an authenticity and warmth rarely present in the more mathematically perfect music of other electronic pioneers like Kraftwerk. On casual listening a lot of their music sounds "out of tune" but stick with it and literally "tune-in" and it becomes beguiling and hypnotic.

The reclusive Boards of Canada, unmasked

Debut album Twoism (1995) was a home recorded affair and was a real mind bender like a Chris Nolan film - but one of his earlier low budget ones. Like my favourite film of all time Memento Twoism sounds like it was recorded backwards. Follow up Music Has The Right To Children (1998) was a studio album recorded for Warp Records but is barely more "commercial".

Both records make liberal use of samples over a characteristic mix of loops, flutters, drone, squeaks, pips and wobbles, pinned by primitive drum machine beats. Aquarius from the latter album is a very accessible start point for new listeners. Things get a lot weirder than this lovely "counting" song (but checkout how the sequential count in the "lyrics" goes awry after 36 - I wonder if there is any pattern or coded meaning to this? - I expect a BoC geek, of whom there are many apparently, has investigated).

Someone even plotted the lyrics to Aquarius!

The boys' apparent love of codes, hidden meanings, fractals, subliminal messages, numerology and cults, allied with the paucity of their releases and live appearances, has added suitably to their mythical status over their 20 year career. Hashtag cool!

Similar but not really at all is the compilation release from the Mo Wax label Headz. This sort of bland sampled jazzy looped trip hop may have been cutting edge at the time (1994!) but now sounds frankly a bit lazy and soulless despite containing cuts by Autechre and DJ Shadow. It always fascinates me how music of very similar styles can either leave you inspired or cold. To describe the difference between say Bonnie Prince Billy, Iron and Wine, The National, Fleet Foxes, Mumford and Sons, Bears Den and The Felice Brothers, may be quite difficult in words but you'll rarely find someone who likes all those bands, and one is fairly universally disliked for whatever reason (any guesses?)! I also have this debate with my teenage son who loves "his" music and "hates" my music although on the face of it there is barely any difference.

Fancy a flutter on Boards of Canada? No better place to start than here >>