Boards of Canada

Their sound has been frequently described as being curiously nostalgic. It recalls, amongst other things, the warm, scratchy, artificial sounds of 1970's television, and indeed, the band themselves admit to pulling a large portion of their creative inspiration from the National Film Board of Canada's documentary films of that era.

Discography

• Catalog 3 - Summer 1987 (Music70). Limited cassette release. Limited CD re-release in 1997.
• Acid Memories - 1989 (Music70). Limited cassette release.
• Closes Vol. 1 - 1992 (Music70). Limited cassette release. Limited CD repress in 1997.
• Play By Numbers - 1994 (Music70). Limited CD & cassette release.
• Hooper Bay - 1994 (Music70). Limited 12" relase.
• Twoism - 1995 limited LP release (Music70). 2002 general re-release on LP and CD (Music70/Warp).
• Boc Maxima - 1996 (Music70). Limited CD & cassette release.
• Hi Scores - 1996 (Skam). 12" release. Repressed on 12" and CD in 1998 and 2002.
• Aquarius - Jan 05 1998 (Skam). 7" EP.
• Music has the right to children - Aug 1998 (Warp/Skam). CD, 2xLP.
• Peel Sessions - Jan 1999 (Warp). 12", CD.
• In a beautiful place out in the country - Nov 2000 (Warp/Music70). Sky-blue 12", CD.
• Geogaddi - Feb 2002(Warp/Music70). 3xLP, CD, Limited Edition CD.

History of the Band

Boards of Canada began in the late 1970s between Michael Sanderson and Marcus Eoin, childhood friends, began experimenting with laying cut-up samples of found sound over compositions of their own. The band would have a nebulous roster throughout their history, encompassing at least fourteen different core members and an unknown number of collaborators. In 1984, Mike began to produce tracks professionally at a studio on the north coast of Scotland, and in 1986, Marcus joined his band. By 1989, the band had been reduced to three people : Mike, Marcus, and Chris. In the early 1990s, a number of collaborations took place, and the band was putting on small, fairly regular shows with the 'Hexagon Sun' collective. Hexagon Sun is also the name they gave to their secluded Edinsburgh studio when they christened it in 1995, the year of Twoisms release. Chris left the band in 1996, and shortly later, Autechre's Sean Booth of the English label Skam contacted the band, which was once again composed only of Mike and Marcus. That same year, the duo released what was considered their first 'findable' album on the Skam label, Hi Scores. Prior to that, their distribution had been limited to a small number of albums (most tape-only releases) passed among freinds and family. They quickly gained a strong following. They released another collection of prior hits and new songs on the seminal full-length album that many consider to be their real debut, Music Has The Right To Children, in 1998. Many consider this record to be a masterpiece, while others point out that much of its tone has been obviously inspired from other Warp monikers, such as Autechre. Nevertheless, the popularity of the record within the IDM community was substantial enough to start a wave of "sound-alikes," a few of which went on to find their own sound and become established in their own right. All of this ensured Boards of Canada would become one of the most prominent,respected, and name-dropped musical acts associated with IDM.

The Controversy

Few bands have managed to conjure the same amount of enigma and conspiracy. They have only participated in a rare few tours, and infrequently do interviews or public appearances. Marcus and Michael enjoy their privacy and the quiet life rural Scotland affords them, but do instigate on some occasion (unknowingly or not) the perception of themselves as an enigma. They have both expressed a strong interest in the power of subliminal messaging ; their work seems rife with cryptic messages. No doubt, the sheer amount of data that can be found within not only the scattered vocal samples, but the mathematical timing of beat structures, song titles, colours, cover art, and track lengths do nothing to quell the suspicions of the conspiracy theorists.

Indeed, some have dispensed with listening to the music at all, saying that they are positive the band is trying to brainwash a group of people for unknown motivations, showings stacks of references to David Koresh[?], and occult symbols as proof. Others approach these facts from the skeptical angle, saying it is nothing but a bunch of cute tricks, and a bit of an ironic gesture towards people who take such things seriously (and some would say, as a bit of a similar gesture towards their own body of work in later releases, such as Geogaddi.)

Controversies aside, Boards of Canada remains one of the most influential, and well known IDM acts to this day, retaining an extremely loyal base of admirers, and inspiring electronic artists with their sounds.

External Links

• http://www.boardsofcanada.com
• http://www.music70.com
• http://www.davidac.fsworld.co.uk/boc.htm - Positively exhaustive amounts of information. The most comprehensive source of BoC info on the web today.
• http://boardsofcanada.watmm.com/ - News, and copies of all known interviews with the Boards
• http://www.matadorrecords.com/boards_of_canada/biography - The only true biograhpy of the band ever to surface.