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Music Has The Right To Children (1998) and the EP, In A Beautiful Place In The Countryside (2000), forged their reputation for a haunted nostalgia that at times touched the sublime. Once led into their labyrinth by the dreamy voices of cult members and the laughter of distant children, it's difficult not to find oneself lost in reveries about long-lost polaroids edged with the encroaching darkness of times evermore distant. Boards Of Canada's best work teases the listener with things that lie just beyond reach. The Campfire Headphase returns to the seductive beauty of those works. It also successfully recaptures the fluid coherence fundamental to the success of their hypnotic appeal, something that its predecessor, Geogaddi ultimately failed to do.
Given the foregoing, it seems strange that Mark and Mike Sandison have now embarked upon a concerted campaign of demystification. Lengthy interviews published in The Wire magazine and on the Pitchfork website express their frustration at the public's mythmaking and talk keenly of the ageing techniques that they apply painstakingly to their music. It's difficult to see how such disclosure enhances their art and it's a tribute to the strength of The Campfire Headphase that it survives this puzzlingly banal urge.
As with its predecessors, The Campfire Headphase initially sounds almost too easy on the ear. The music itself offers little more than a tweaking of the duo's template to date. The only real change is the presence of guitars and the reduced prominence of vocal samples (where they do occur they're much more blurred and distant than before). This latter may be a reaction to the relentless puzzle-solving provoked by Geogaddi's multiple references.
Only time will tell whether Boards Of Canada can continue to produce this kind of music without surrendering to the rule of diminishing returns. Despite this concern, the duo remain extremely adept at creating lacunae at the heart of their music, spaces into which you can project your own feelings and memories. As you do so, you'll slip into a gentle whirlpool of slowly emerging sonic details. The effect is seductive and remarkably subtle. A perfect accompaniment to summer evenings as dusk falls, The Campfire Headphase provides a key to the lost art of daydreaming. --Colin Buttimer
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Customer Reviews
If you own their previous albums you'll want to get this one too; and if you don't, Campfire Headphase is just as good a place to start as any other. I was renting a CD from the library the other day, and when I told the muso behind the counter that I actually thought Campfire Headphase was better than Music has the Right to Children he acted like I'd just confessed to secret fantasies about having sex with glove puppets or something. I'm not a BoC fanatic, just a fan. Music has the Right is great too, but Campfire Headphase just happens to do it for me on a personal level. It's sweeter and more melodic - music to wake up to, fall asleep to, make love to, even break up to... pretty much everything, in fact, except dance to.
I get to listen to it now and again on car journeys, when my boyfriend's forgotten his iPod, and it's like remembering a really cool dream you had once, where everything was Technicolor or you finally got to snog the boy you fancied, or suddenly realised you could fly... It's not like reality: it's better than that. A few people have mentioned stand-out tracks, and I too like Peacock Tail... and Dayvan Cowboy, Sherbet Head, Tears from the Compound Eye... Oh God, I love them all, really! The only one that doesn't do it for me is Oscar See Through Red Eye, and of course some of the song titles are a bit loony but that's not necessarily a criticism. They make the best covers too; the artwork is outstanding, and predisposes you to like the music before you've even heard it. I'm not really sure what a 'campfire headphase' is... but it kind of describes the buzz I get every time I hear this amazing album.... Read more ›
'The Campfire Headphase' surprised fans with the sudden and unexpected use of guitar sounds on this, their third 'proper' album. BOC are well-known for their unmistakable analogue drones and science-programme jingles, which are present here in the gorgeously wonky tracks like '84 Pontiac Dream' and 'Oscar See Through Red Eye', but now the sounds are augmented by squelchy percussion and what sounds like a broken electric guitar with half of its strings missing. In fact the stand-out tracks for this reviewer are two of the most heavily guitar-oriented; The wonderfully lysergic 'Satellite Anthem Icarus' and the epic sci-fi western (as the band put it) 'Dayvan Cowboy', with its shuddering tremolo guitar and thunderous cymbal crashing climax.
The result is a strange new angle on the 'BOC' sound, part introspective synth ambience, and part seventies library music band in a jam session. In fact, the retro element is a key to the focus of this album's intent. Occasionally a poorly-informed reviewer, usually new to Boards of Canada, attempts to criticise their music with remarks about their 'cheesy 70s synth sounds', when in fact this is an unwitting compliment to BOC. As if the band's name, (which derives from the 1970s TV documentaries of the National Film Board of Canada), isn't a big enough clue.... Read more ›
I feel much the same about Campfire Headphase. Again things are a little different but it's still unmistakably Boards of Canada. This time round BoC seem to have dropped the deliberately mysterious moments & 'Easter eggs' of Geogaddi (which caused much debate) and just let the music do the talking! In this respect it's probably closer to MHTRTC than Geogaddi. BoC have also used a fair amount of guitar on this album. Both acoustic & electric but in both cases these sounds seem to have been subject to much tinkering & manipulation - you'd expect no less from the Boards. It's their ability to shape the sounds they use & inject their own unique quality that has given them their sound & reputation.
Unfortunately it's this reputation that blights BoC somewhat now as people expect a lot of them. I guess this happens with all bands/artists that put out landmark albums - every subsequent release is expected to be equally as groundbreaking.
... Read more ›quiet easy listening and a great album to wind down to.
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