Ripe for repeated listening, or is it easy to get Board of this instead? Let’s go Way Back!

Good Morning to you! I’m Jacob Braybrooke and, well – you know the drill by this point – it’s time for me to get typing up for your weekly revisit of the sounds from the past which have influenced those of the present, because it’s always my day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! If the name of Boards Of Canada seems familiar to you, you’re either already one of the beloved cult followers of the group who possibly paid $800 to obtain your own copy of their debut ‘Twoism’ EP following it’s release in 1995, since the original distribution was scarcely limited to 100 copies before Warp Records gave it a quiet re-issue in 2002, or you read my previous post about them back in October or November time. Whichever route applies to you – the fact remains that Boards Of Canada are, if not the most well-known in terms of mainstream recognition, still one of the most devotedly followed Electronic music acts of our time. Just for the record, the bandwagon for 1998’s ‘Music Has The Right To Children’ is one that I’ve definitely jumped onto, as I think that it is a truly exceptional record. Made up of the Scottish brother DJ duo of Marcus Eoin and Mike Sandison, BOC represent an interesting flipside for electronic music production practice for me, where the tropes of club music being developed in London or Birmingham are turned on their heads by the brothers originally creating their music with vintage synthesizers and dated samples in a rural community in Scotland, where they have since kept very reclusive from the media, with very little interviews or performances existing. I’ve been delving deep into the back catalog of the brothers over the last two months or so, and so it’s been interesting to see where their formula of nature centric themes and nostalgic qualities started for them. In the typical BOC fanbase fashion, you can check out the fan-made video for ‘Seeya Later’ – taken from their debut EP ‘Twoism’ – created for YouTube by Saint Santiago – below.

Eoin and Sandison took their name from the children’s educational films distributed from The National Film Board Of Canada which they grew up watching at a toddler-level age, and they also pulled off the most, if not one of the most, elaborate ‘Easter Egg’ hunts in the marketing campaign building to the release of their most recent release, 2013’s ‘Tomorrow’s Harvest’. There really is a lot of fascinating information about them out there, which is too lengthy for just a simple blog post, so I would look them up after you’ve read this if that sounds interesting to you, but, for now, it’s back to the matter at hand. ‘Seeya Later’ was originally released by the duo as part of the ‘Twoism’ EP on their own label, Music70, and it later appeared on their ‘Hi-Scores’ EP in 1996 as well, where you can also find earlier versions of a few tracks that later appeared on their aforementioned breakthrough release, MHTRC. Chris Horne, a since lost third BOC member, also contributed to this release. Although not as commonly talked about as ‘Sixtyniner’, I feel that ‘Seeya Later’ still makes for an effective insight into the core formula of BOC’s initial musical practice. The track has a slightly darker vibe to some of MHTRC’s most popular recordings for me. Although not as haunting as the anti-religion nods of ‘Geogaddi’, it sounds like something that you may expect to hear on Aphex Twin’s ‘I Care Because You Do’ all the same. The bassline lightly throbs among the high percussion sounds, with trickling synths that evoke a somewhat unsettling atmosphere. This instrumentation doesn’t fluctuate very much throughout the track, but it remains interesting enough due to the ghostly textures and the intriguing ambience that hold your interest. The melancholic drum beats and the more downtempo influences, like much of BOC’s work, is housed in a driving Hip-Hop breakbeat dressing, which gives it a sense of memorability and pushes the beats forward. I would say that it feels a little bit unfinished, but I think the BOC brothers primarily used the ‘Twoism’ EP as a demo tape to get interest from labels, and so I can forgive the very direct and singular beats being a little exhausting by the end here. Overall, though, it is still a fascinating companion piece to their later work, with less of a child-like feel, more of a dream-like trance. Although it may feel like a sonically incomplete Boards Of Canada, that can make this all the more appealing to seek out.

If you think the BOC are brilliant, you can check out how I initially felt about their music through an early listen of ‘An Eagle Of Your Mind’ from 98’s ‘Music Has The Right To Children’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/11/03/todays-track-boards-of-canada-an-eagle-in-your-mind-1998/

Thank you for checking out my latest blog post! I’ll be back tomorrow, as per usual, with an in-depth look at a recent track from an emerging Folk/Blues singer-songwriter who, by day, teaches English in Boyle Heights but, after dark, gets busy writing tunes like ‘Swim Test’, which is based on her father who can’t swim, despite living next to the beach for decades. If you really liked what you just read, why not follow the blog to get notified when every new daily post is up and why not like the Facebook page here?: https://www.facebook.com/OneTrackAtATime/