The Campfire Headphase

by

Boards of Canada

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It was inevitable. From the post rock experimentation on the In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country EP to the 'dirtier' tracks on Geogaddi, the signs were there. Then, endorsement of Bibio's folktronica and some very psychedelic remix work for Beck and others occured. We all should have known that this is how The Campfire Headphase would turn out. Heck, what else does one play around the campfire? Certainly not rusting analogue synths. I think Dayvan Cowboy is the best song on the album. The fact that it sounds nothing like Boards of Canada is besides the point. Including that song, the album is My Bloody Valentine/Incredible String Band/Tortoise with electronic textures and soft beats. Haven't listened to those groups? You should - they're all good, and they've all influenced BOC's sound from the beginning. If it was anyone else but BOC, we'd all be saying it's a sublime, understated masterpiece. The point is this - you experiment, or you repeat. The best musicians make music for themselves, and if they get some fans, so much the better. We didn't really want Music Has The Right To Children (Part 2), and so this progression of an album is what we have. I may not enjoy every track on The Campfire Headphase, but I have to respect BOC's artistic vision - the sound is dense and alluring, and the flow of the whole is nearly seamless. Thank you BOC, for expanding your horizons, and ours.

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!