Boards of Canada, have over the course of their last 3 full length albums and numerous e.p's varied the atmosphere they create greatly, from the darker geogadi to the thick analogue synths of music has the right to children, yet boards of Canada have always managed to retain their own unique sound.
With the campfire headphase B.O.C have managed to introduce a new element to their sound, the major change on this album is addition of guitars and other live instruments all recorded by the duo themselves. The mood of the album has changed to a more upbeat sound from geogadi, which was much darker (The song Beware The Friendly Stranger is used extensively on the bizarre salad finger's online cartoon). The campfire headphase has a warm acoustic sound to it and many of the tracks can bring back memories of summer days spent in fields, and walking through the countryside.
The addition of live instruments and guitars for me is one of the greatest changes on this album, the guitars are all heavily filtered and the sounds they get from them are beautiful. The guitars are usually repeated chords or riffs but they work with the songs really well and the single chords complement the swirling synth sounds very well. On the track Dayvan Cowboy a long intro of some simple nicely distorted guitars make's way for some delayed chords and about half way through the song drums come in and some lovely synths, although the song like many songs and the album has many elements to it the sound is never cluttered and nothing needless is present.
The second track on the album Chromakey Dreamcoat, demonstrates how well boc have used guitars to introduce a lovely drum beat and they managed to include some sample's of what to me sounds like seagulls, it's hard to describe but all these sounds fit together perfectly. Boc frequently use samples for elements of their songs but often they modify them to the extent where they aren’t really samples and form vital parts of the songs sound. Boc always use very nice drum sounds and this album is no exception with the snares and cymbals all having a unique sound that always manages to fit into the song perfectly.
Although the album is new it has a certain retro vibe to it, to me it would be just as suited to the 60's but at the same time i could just as easily imagine people listening to it in the future on a space colony as i could picture people listening to it at Woodstock.
Although the album works perfectly as a whole and none of the tracks are weak if asked for the strongest tracks davyn cowboy, Chromakey Dreamcoat and '84 Pontiac Dream are all outstanding.
This is my first review i hope it's not too bad and it has persuaded some people to check out this album, it's a great album to listen to and everyone i have played it to has enjoyed it and boc seems to appeal to people with varied musical tastes.
A great album to relax to just sitting in a room, or listen to while watching the sunset in a beautiful place out in the country. (B.O.C also put subliminal messages in their music, which to me is always good)
