Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase (2005)

Every time I hear electronic music described as "soulless", "robotic" or "un-human", Boards Of Canada come to my mind instantly, as a counter-example. Despite being build upon samples, synthesiser sounds and percussive rhytms, The Campfire Headphase is still one of the most organic-sounding records that I've ever heard in my life. In spite that, it's probably also BOC's "least talked about" album, which is a shame, cause I definitely prefer it over "Geogaddi" and "Tomorrow's Harvest" and I believe it contains a lot of BOC's best ever material!

Characteristically for the band, the record begins with a fittingly titled interlude track - "Into the Ranibow Vein". There's total of four(?) such tracks here, and they seem to blend with each other in my head, so that I think I'm not able to distinguish which one is which upon hearing them. After an interlude, the absolute peak begins. "Chromakey Dreamcoat" is an absolute Boards classic and IIRC is one of the band's most popular tracks - and deservingly so. The song is soooo cool.

The whole gimmick of this album is a seamless intertwinement of acoustic, natural-sounding organic sounds with IDM in order to create this mysterious, nostalgic atmosphere, capable of inducing severe cases anemoia. And what instrument manages to do it better than guitar? It's a genius move, probably alluding to their shoegazey/alternative explorations contained in the ever ellusive (still lost as I'm writing this!) 1994 release "Play by Numbers". The creative usage of textured electric, and later acoustic guitar on this LP is one of the most unique aspects of it, and it elevates it to another level for me.

Another nice thing about this album is how functional the beats and sound design are. The next song, "Satellite Anthem Icarus" illustrates it perfectly. The slow, dragging rhytm in juxtaposition with sparse but concise guitar lines, paint the wonderful soundscape of mountain trek or a walk in the woods on sunny day. The hissing sound that opens the track sounds like a waterfall, what amplifies this effect even more. Also, the whole track sounds very western-like (yeeehaw!) thanks to the guitar sounds.

"Peacock Tail" brings to the table yet another interesting observation about the LP - every song feels like a walk through different place. This one brings to mind images of some swampy, marshy terrain, probably because of those squelchy snare hits. "84 Pontiac Dream" sounds like a brush, or a dense, lively forest thanks to its' colorful synth patterns and foggy wall of sound in the background. Lastly, let's talk about "Oscar See Through Red Eye", which presents more interesting, not exactly that consonant sound pallete, which kinda sounds like a speedway cutting through the plains. If you're a synesthesiac, you might find all these tracks especially interesting to listen to!

I have a lot to say about the song "Dayvan Cowboy". Apart from its' title adding to the whole western-y vibe of the record, the track defnitely stands out from the rest. First of all, the chord progression always reminded me Pink Floyd's "Time"! It's uncanny how simmilar it feels. The song is foggy and fuzzy, again probably inspired by their earlier experiments with shoegaze music in the 90s, but now it a good way in my opinion. I've always thought it lacks something. When the drums kick in in the latter half and those mysterious synth notes start to play, the track becomes much more interesting, but overall I'm not a huge fan of it.

Another standout here is "Sherbet Head", which sounds like it's playing from a degraded, moss-covered cassette tape, buried under the rubble and leaves for decades. It fits into the nature-celebratory motive very well and in a exceptionally interesting way.

Probably my favourite track here is "Hey Saturday Sun". It's weird enough, since I'm not a big fan of "Geogaddi" and this track is probably the Geogaddiest song on Campfire Headphase... But again, the guitar and the illustratory nature of it, make me just love it. When I listen to it, I imagine a long walk through a suburban area during an exceptionally hot summer.

Fittingly titled "Slow This Bird Down" is a very airy and open sounding song, despite it's cryptic, noisy sound collages. It sounds like a vast, open cavern which hosts some kind of alien life. Really, the song just feels radioactive and dangerous! It's so cool and creepy, I love it.

For the penultimate track, we have "Tears From the Compound Eye" - a stereotypical BOC soundscape. The hazy synths and mysterious, nostalgic vibe are all here, and serve as a reminder that we're in fact just listening to a BOC record, not tripping/dreaming of all these natural landscape stuff. I consider this a real, final "song" of this record, beacause what comes next, is really just an epilogue in the form of lengthy drone piece.

This song is called "Farewell Fire" and for years it never fails to amaze me. It's soothing, peaceful and provides a certain sense of closure. I LOVE how it starts at a normal volume, but then gradually fades away into the silent nothingness, like some slowly smouldering embers. The title of the album and the song, make me think about how the album may just be conceptually imagined as a collection of campfire stories told through the music.

This is peak BOC! MHTRTC may still be their best, due to the everlasting legacy of it, but Campfire Headphase is their most conceptually and sonically interesting album for me. There's so much here to talk about! The beats, the organicness, the beautifully atmospheric, glueing interludes, the drone outro... I think we need more celebration of nature in our lifes during current time. BOC's sound have always been inspired by nature documentaries, so this LP may seem like a bland and obvious idea, but the creativeness and realisation of all the concepts is so neat and elegant. It's so nice that this album exists <3.