Boards of Canada

'''Boards of Canada''' is a Nextel ringtones Scotland/Scottish Abbey Diaz electronic music duo comprised of Michael Sandison (b. 10 June 1969) and Marcus Eoin (b. 21 Sep 1970).Free ringtones #Endnotes/1 Described by many as enigmatic, they have released a number of works with little advertising and few interviews, such as their well-known albums ''Majo Mills Music Has the Right to Children'' and ''Mosquito ringtone Geogaddi''. Their sound has frequently been described as curiously nostalgic. It recalls, amongst other things, the warm, scratchy, artificial sounds of 1970s television, and indeed, band members Eoin and Sandison admit to being inspired by the documentary films of their namesake, the Sabrina Martins National Film Board of Canada. The duo has recorded a few minor works as '''Hell Interface'''.

Early Boards of Canada (1970s-1995)
Sandison and Eoin were childhood friends who experimented with creating music together through their teens. They began playing instruments at a young age, and experimenting with music at around 10-years-old. Using Nextel ringtones Tape recorder/tape machines they experimented with laying cut-up Abbey Diaz Sampling (music)/samples of found sounds over compositions of their own. Although they had made music together as friends, "Boards of Canada" did not exist until much later.

The band would have a nebulous roster throughout its history, encompassing at least fourteen different core members and an unknown number of collaborators.

Boards of Canada have said they "began writing and playing music in a more serious way at some point around 1987". They go on to say, "At first, we experimented without setting ourselves any questions, with whatever means were available to us, then we worked a lot with other musicians and with real instruments, which brought more complexity into our music. Five years ago [1993], we sounded a lot more Free ringtones Gothic rock/Gothic, much closer to experimental rock, with the occasional vocal. Though it was heading for electronic music; already we were sampling our own instruments. Then we went back to something closer to our original spirit: simple and instinctive, the only difference being that from then on, we could use all the wonders of Majo Mills digital technology, and so it was a lot easier to experiment and to get what we wanted" [VM].

By 1989, the band had been reduced to Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin. In the early 1990s, a number of collaborations took place and the band was putting on small, fairly regular shows among the "Cingular Ringtones Hexagon Sun" collective.

Boards of Canada from Twoism (1995-present)
''so principled Twoism'' was released night despite 1995 on their own airtight yet Music70 label. It was a self-financed own film cassette and implements were LP distributed privately. Though not a widespread commercial release, it was considered of quality to be subsequently re-pressed in 2002 and serves as a demarcation point into more professional releases. Also in that year, their green scott Edinburgh studio was christened but prosecutors Hexagon Sun.

The precursor to ''Music Has the Right to Children'' was released in 1996. Titled ''jarrett the Boc Maxima'', it was a semi-private release that is notable for being a full-length album. ''Boc Maxima's'' work was later used for ''Music'', with which it shares many songs, though there were also a number of additions and subtractions.

Boards of Canada's first commercial release occurred after attracting the attention of miami for Autechre's as american Sean Booth of the English label gay population Skam Records, one of many people sent a demo EP. Skam released what was considered their first "findable" work, ''Hi Scores'', in 1996. Prior to that, their distribution had been limited to a small number of releases (mostly cassette-only) passed among friends and family.

Another collection of prior and new songs was released as the seminal full-length album that many consider to be their real debut, ''croats needed 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 under joe Warp Records luminaries, such as Autechre. Nevertheless, the popularity of the record within the outside portland Intelligent Dance Music/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.

go like John Peel featured Boards of Canada on his few glazed BBC Radio 1 program in January of testing some 1999. Four songs were played. From ''Music Has the Right to Children'' came two remixes, "Aquarius (Version 3)" and "Olson (Version 3)". Two new songs were also played, "Happy Cycling" and "XYZ". "Happy Cycling" was later edited and appended to the vegetative nutty United States release of ''Music Has the Right To Children'' (1999, Matador), and to the subsequent worldwide re-release in 2004 on Warp. Excluding "XYZ", the set was released on a Warp Records overcome backlogs Compact disc/CD titled ''these useful Peel Session,_Boards_of_Canada/Peel Session''. Boards of Canada also performed live a few times, once at the Warp Records 10th Anniversary Party (Nov 1999) and again at the Warp Lighthouse Party (Oct 2000).

Boards of Canada released a four-track Extended play/EP ''In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country'' in November 2000, their first original release in two years. The title had come from a recruiting video made by the Branch Davidians. The song "In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country" features the repeated vocals "Come out, and live in a Religion/religious community in a beautiful place out in the country." Another, "Amo Bishop Roden", is named after the Branch Davidian person of the same name.

The full-length album Geogaddi was released in 2002. It was described by Sandison as "a record for some sort of trial-by-fire, a claustrophobic, twisting journey that takes you into some pretty dark experiences before you reach the open air again." The album has a darker, more complex, and fuller sound than ''Music Has the Right to Children''.

Michael Sandison's first child, a girl, was born in July of 2004.

Boards of Canada members Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin currently live a few miles outside Edinburgh, Scotland.

Sound and methods
Boards of Canada's unique sound is a product of their strong use of analogue equipment, mix of instrumental and synthetic sounds, use of often unrecognizably distorted samples, use of live and radio or film lyrics, and their layering and blending of these elements.

"A lot of the synthetic-sounding things you hear are actually recordings of us playing other instruments, pianos, flutes or twanging Electric guitar/guitar strings or field sounds we get from walking around with portable tape recorders, like electronic beeps in shops, or vehicles, then they are mangled beyond recognition. We have an arsenal of old High fidelity/hi-fi tricks up our sleeves and we basically destroy the sounds until they're really lovely and fucked up. So we're using sounds that are totally our own thing," Sandison said [HMV].

"The voices are sometimes from old TV shows or tapes we've made. We have a lot of stuff we've collected, going back to the early '80s. But half of the time, it's things we've had friends record especially for us. We create tapes all the time. Practically everyone we know has been roped into recording something for us at some point," said Sandison [http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KYX/is_2002_July_1/ai_88684002/pg_2].

Brief songs feature prominently in their music. Such songs are often weaving melodies or speech accompanied by atmospherics to capture a specific moment or mood. They often last less than two minutes, but, as Sandison says, "those short tracks you mention, we write far more of those than the so-called 'full on' tracks, and in a way, they are our own favorites" [OOR].

Boards of Canada has written an enormous number of song fragments and songs, most of which will never be released. It does not appear that music is made exclusively for commercial release. Rather, albums seem to be the result of selecting complementary songs from current work. ''Geogaddi's'' development involved the creation of 400 song fragments and 64 complete songs, of which 23 were selected, one of which is silence.

Subliminal messages, symbology, and religion
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. Sandison and Eoin 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 messages/subliminal messaging and their work seems rife with cryptic messages. No doubt the sheer amount of data that can be found in their catalog (not just the scattered and reversed vocal samples, but the mathematical timing of beat structures, song titles, colours, cover art, and track lengths) does nothing to quell the suspicions of the Conspiracy theory/conspiracy theorists.

Indeed, some have dispensed with listening to the music at all, saying that they are positive the band is trying to brainwashing/brainwash their listeners for unknown motivations, citing 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'').

Michael Sandison sought to dispel their occasionally cultish image in an interview, saying: "We're not Satanism/Satanists, or Christianism/Christians, or Paganism/Pagans. We're not religious at all. We just put symbols into our music sometimes, depending on what we're interested in at the time. We do care about people and the state of the world, and if we're spiritual at all it's purely in the sense of caring about art and inspiring people with ideas."

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

Proposed lyrics and references
:''Main article: Lyrics of Boards of Canada''
There are no lyrics or explanations of references in album booklets. Hearing and knowing the exact lyrics used or references made is considered by some to be at odds with the ambiguous and nostalgic aspect they see in Boards of Canada's music. '''Consider this a spoiler warning.'''

There are some confirmed masked, backwards, or otherwise obscured messages in Boards of Canada tracks and albums:

*"Sixtyniner" Midway through the song, a monologue from a pornographic/pornography film can be heard, detailing a young man's experience losing his virginity. The vocals are very faint and may be difficult to hear.
"That tiny room at the beach was absolutely the perfect place for my first time. When we came together, I could feel the hairs growing on my chest. I saw my future. I saw my past. For a few minutes it was like being alive. They lived happily ever after. All my questions had been answered. All my fears disappeared. All that was left was a kiss. Every move we made was a kiss."
*"An Eagle In Your Mind" A description of a place named "Holts" can be heard throughout the song, but it's also pretty difficult to hear under the music.
*"Happy Cycling" The vocals at the end of the song are reversed. They are taken from an interview with Jeff Lynne regarding the controversy over reported reversed messages in a few of Electric Light Orchestra's songs.
*"In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country" The repeated distorted vocals are "Come out, and live with a religious community in a beautiful place out in the country," a slogan used in Branch Davidian recruiting videos.
*"1969" The repeated highly distorted vocals are "Although not a follower of David Koresh, she's a devoted Branch Davidian", ostensibly regarding Amo Bishop Roden (whose name is the title of another Boards of Canada song on ''In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country'' Extended play/EP), a principal Davidian. The track is also 4:19, matching the date of the Waco Standoff, April 19.
*"Alpha and Omega" Reversed vocals towards the end: "I'm a God-darned Satanist, and, if I wanted, I'd be in [t]his business too"
*"The Devil is in the Details" The vocals throughout the entire track are muffled, through use of effect processors. They appear to be instructions from a meditation or self-help advice session.
"Just relax, and enjoy this pleasant adventure.
Here you are, secure and protected, in this, your special place, letting my voice flow into your mind.
There's no need to concentrate. Just gently as you go. Suggestions are going into your unconscious mind.
Open yourself up to the greater wisdom and understanding.
So, now, letting the sound of my voice reach the inner, healthy, receptive centre of yourself.
See yourself now in your imagination; and you are being tranformed in a positive healthy way,
so you are programming your unconscious mind, gaining new insight into your directions, in the future.
Allow yourself to be more aware of your pathway through this life. [Enjoy all that you can.(?)]
As the days go by, you are programming your mind, and you are allowing this to happen.
These things are happening day by day, just as I tell you they are happening, wherever you are.
See this happening. Allow it to become part of you; more and more happily, more and more surely,
more and more powerfully, each day. When it is necessary, you can program yourself,
be able to dream the information you require. This awareness will come back to you at your own rate.
It will never be more than you can cope with. This guidance will help show you the way.
This will only happen if you choose it will be so. Ready, now ..."
*"You Could Feel the Sky" The phrase "a god with hooves" is audible at several points throughout the track.
*"A is to B as B is to C" When the lyrics "we love you all" is played backwards it comes out as "all we love you", a near-perfect internal audio palindrome. The reversed sound of a barking dog and an excerpt from the song "Teddy Bears' Picnic" may also be heard. The part of the song that begins "I have been gone about a week" and ends with "Occupied," juxtaposed to the same quote in reverse, is a simple audio palindrome - it sounds exactly the same in reverse play as it does in normal play. The title of the track is a reference to the golden ratio.
*''Geogaddi'' The total length of the CD is 66:06, or 666 (number)/666. The combined file size of all the songs on the disc totals 666 megabytes. (This number is commonly known as the Number of the Beast (numerology)/Number of the Beast in the Christian Bible, in the Book of Revelation)
*The import version of Geogaddi has a bonus track, "From One Source all things Depend". With that track added, the total length of the CD is exactly 69 minutes.
*''In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country'' The packaging features a blurry image of David Koresh's right eye on the CD and a picture of Amo Bishop Roden, who once referred to Koresh's ranch as "a beautiful place out in the country," on the backsleeve.

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" release.
* ''Twoism'' - 1995 (Music70). Limited cassette and LP release. 2002 general re-release on LP and CD (Music70/Warp).
* ''Boc Maxima'' - 1996 (Music70). Limited CD & cassette release.
* ''Hi Scores'' - 1996 (Skam Records/Skam). 12" release. Re-pressed 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 Session, Boards of Canada/Peel Session'' - 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.

Live and radio appearances
* ''Peel Session'' - January 1999, BBC Radio 1 (Released on Warp)
* ''Warp 10th Anniversary Party'' - November 1999
* ''Warp Lighthouse Party'' - October 2000
* ''All Tomorrow's Parties at Sussex'' - April 2001
* ''Helterskelter FM Radio Broadcast'' - 2002

Collaborations and covers/remixes
Boards of Canada have remixed a number of artists' songs. The work of these artists is generally described as electronic, ambient, experimental, or hip-hop. Most artists come from the United Kingdom or United States. Boards of Canada has additionally remixed two older, popular songs under the alias Hell Interface, detailed below.

=Remixes of Boards of Canada=
* "An Eagle In Your Mind" by Push Button Objects on ''Warp 10+3 Remixes'', 1999
* "Kid For Today" by Stereolab on ''Warp 10+3 Remixes'', 1999

=Remixes by Boards of Canada=
* "Surfaise (The Trade Winds Mix)", on ''Demon 1'', Michael Fakesch, May 1997
* "Poppy Seed (Boards of Canada Remix)" on ''So Soon'', Slag Boom Van Loon, 21 May 2001
* "Last Walk Around Mirror Lake" on ''From Left to Right'', Boom Bip, May 2003
* "Dirty Great Marble" on ''Dirty Great Marble (Remixes)'', Bubbah's Tum, 1998
* "Sandsings" on ''Pin Skeeling'', Mira Calix, May 1998
* "Dead Dogs Two" on ''Dead Dogs Two'', cLOUDDEAD, 26 January 2004
* "Prime Audio Soup" on ''Prime Audio Soup'', Meat Beat Manifesto , 1998

=Remixes by Boards of Canada as Hell Interface=
* "Trapped" by Colonel Abrams on ''mask200'' (Skam Records/Skam Compilation), 1995
* "Midas touch/The Midas Touch" by Midnight Star on ''mask500'' (Skam Records/Skam Compilation), 1999


Aliases
Boards of Canada has also recorded as Hell Interface.

End notes
1 Dates of birth from http://www.ncf.ca/~ep521/hexagon_sun/ehx/canada.htm, a defunct website from around 1998 that ''appears'' to have been written by someone with personal and local knowledge of Boards of Canada. These are the only dates of birth available.

References
*Boards of Canada (Interview) (June 1998). ''Virgin Megaweb''.
*http://boardsofcanada.bravepages.com/Mondosonoro.html. ''Mondosonoro''.
*http://boardsofcanada.bravepages.com/nme%20interview.html. ''NME''.
*http://www.matadorrecords.com/boards_of_canada/biography.html (22 September 1998). Retrieved 3 January 2005.
*Micallef, Ken (1 July 2002). http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KYX/is_2002_July_1/ai_88684002/pg_2. ''Remix''.
*Pytlik, Mark. The Colour & The Fire. ''HMV''.

See also
* Warp Records
* Skam Records
* Matador Records

External links
* http://www.boardsofcanada.com
* http://www.music70.com
* http://www.hexagonsun.com/ - the internet is evil. wake up.
* http://www.Warprecords.com
* http://www.Skam.co.uk
* http://www.matadorrecords.com
* http://boardsofcanada.watmm.com - Music website maintaining DavidAC's well-known BoC pages
* http://www.matadorrecords.com/boards_of_canada/biography.html

Tag: Scottish_musical_groups
Tag: Electronic music groups
Tag: Boards of Canada