Boards of Canada | |
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.jpg) Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin performing in 2000 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Hell Interface |
| Origin | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Genres | |
| Works | Boards of Canada discography |
| Years active | 1986 (1986)–present |
| Labels | |
| Members |
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| Website | boardsofcanada |
Boards of Canada are a Scottishelectronic music duo consisting of the brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin. Signing first toSkam followed byWarp Records in the 1990s, they received recognition following the release of their debut album,Music Has the Right to Children, on Warp in 1998.[1][2] They followed with the acclaimed albumsGeogaddi (2002),The Campfire Headphase (2005) andTomorrow's Harvest (2013).[1]
The duo's work, largely influenced by media andelectronic music from the 1970s, incorporates vintage synthesiser tones,samples,analog equipment, andhip hop-inspired beats. It has been described by critics as exploring themes related to nostalgia,[3][4] as well as childhood memory, science, environmental concerns and esoteric subjects.[5] In 2012,Fact described them as "one of the best-known and best-loved electronic acts of the last two decades".[4]
The brothers Mike Sandison (born Michael Peter Sandison, 14 July 1971)[6][7] and Marcus Eoin (born Marcus Eoin Sandison, 27 May 1973)[6][8] were brought up inCullen, Moray, on the northeast coast of Scotland.[9] From 1979 to 1980, they lived inCalgary, Canada, while their father, who worked in construction, took part in the project to build theSaddledome.[10] They attended theUniversity of Edinburgh, where Michael studied music and Marcus studied artificial intelligence. Marcus dropped out before completing his degree.[9] The duo did not reveal that they were brothers until a 2005 interview withPitchfork, as they had wanted to avoid comparisons with another electronic sibling duo,Orbital.[10]
Growing up in a musical family, the brothers first played instruments at a young age. They experimented with recording techniques from around the age of 10, usingtape machines to layer cut-upsamples of found sounds over compositions of their own. In their teens they participated in a number of amateur bands. However, it was not until 1986 when Marcus was invited to join Mike's band that Boards of Canada was born. The band's name was inspired by theNational Film Board of Canada (NFB), the government agency whose award-winning documentary films and animation they had watched as children.[10]
Their first known release wasCatalog 3, in 1987 oncassette tape,[11] on the brothers' own label, Music70, while Boards of Canada was still a band (it was later re-pressed in 1997 on CD on the same label). By 1989, the band had been reduced to Mike and Marcus, and they released Acid Memories in the same year.[12] Both albums have only been heard by the band's friends and family, except for a 24-second excerpt of "Duffy", released on the EHX website in the late 1990s. Acid Memories is the only early album the brothers have mentioned in interviews. Later, in the early 1990s, the band had a number of collaborations and the band put on small shows among theHexagon Sun collective, along with the releases of albumsPlay By Numbers[13] andHooper Bay,[14] both in 1994, which, similarly to Acid Memories, were only released to friends and family and had sub-1 minute excerpts of two songs ("Wouldn't You Like To Be Free" fromPlay By Numbers and "Circle" fromHooper Bay) released from both albums on the EHX website.[15]
The duo self-financed the limited release of theTwoism EP in 1995. After a copy was sent to Sean Booth ofAutechre, Booth suggested contacting Skam Records, leading to the release ofHi Scores in 1996 on the label.[16][17] In the same year of the release of Hi Scores, the duo releasedBoc Maxima through Music70 with limited distribution.[18]
Between 1995 and 1997, the duo started recording what would become their debut studio album,Music Has the Right to Children, released in April 1998. The album was joint-released by bothSkam Records andWarp Records.[5] The cover of the album is a family photo that was taken atBanff Springs, with each person's face digitally removed.[5] The album consists of longer tracks mixed with song vignettes. It also includes one of the duo's most popular songs, "Roygbiv".Music Has the Right to Children received widespread acclaim upon release, with it being featured at No. 35 onPitchfork's "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s" list.[19]
The duo began recording their next studio album,Geogaddi, between 1999 and 2001. 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."[20]Geogaddi was officially released by Vivid on 8 January 2002 in Japan,[21] and by Warp Records on 18 February 2002 in Europe. Critics noted a shift in mood withinGeogaddi; Mark Richardson ofPitchfork commented that "the atmosphere on this album is a shade darker than on previous releases, and comparatively tense with a noticeable thread of paranoia."[22] It was later noted by the duo that the album was a response to theSeptember 11 attacks.[23]
As early as 2002, the duo began working on sketches for their next studio album,The Campfire Headphase, however studio work didn't begin until 2004.[24] After releasing two singles from the album exclusively ontoBleep, and a music video for the track "Dayvan Cowboy",[25]The Campfire Headphase was released on 17 October 2005. When writing about the album forThe Observer,Simon Reynolds noted that "blurring the boundaries betweenrock andtechno is a smart move, because BoC have always made music that deserved to appeal beyond the electronic audience", and praised "the stereophonic delirium of their production."[26]
After the release of their previous studio album and an EP namedTrans Canada Highway, Eoin and Sandison "took some time out, and spent some time travelling".[27] The two also expanded their recording studio atHexagon Sun, which is near thePentland Hills in Scotland. In February 2012, aBBC Radio personality noted that a new album from Boards of Canada was "on the way".[28]
OnRecord Store Day 2013, a vinyl record containing a short clip of music and a distorted voice speaking a six digit code, which was believed to bethe work of Boards of Canada, surfaced at the New York record storeOther Music.[29][27] Shortly after the release, Warp Records vouched for the record's authenticity.[30]
Other codes were hidden through various websites and online communities, as well as being broadcast overBBC Radio One,NPR, andAdult Swim.[31] After much speculation, the official website for the band redirected users to another website[32] which prompted the user to enter a password. Once all six unique codes were entered, a video was shown announcingTomorrow's Harvest, their fourth studio album. The website showed the cover art, the month and year of release and a short snippet of music. The album was released on 5 June 2013 in Japan, 10 June 2013 in Europe, and 11 June 2013 in the United States to widespread critical acclaim.
In 2016, Boards of Canada released two remixes. The first, a remix ofNevermen's "Mr Mistake", was released on 12 January 2016,[33] and was followed shortly after by a remix of "Sisters" byOdd Nosdam on 22 February 2016.[34] On 17 February 2017, an instrumental version of the "Mr Mistake" remix was released.[35] On 29 July 2017, Boards of Canada released a remix of "Sometimes" by The Sexual Objects.[36]
In 2019, Warp Records kicked off the celebrations for its 30th anniversary, titled WXAXRXP, with a 100-hour takeover of online radio stationNTS Radio, featuring mixes, radio shows, and unreleased music from a number of artists on the label's roster. This included a 2-hour mixtape from Boards of Canada[37] titledSocietas X Tape, aired on 23 June 2019 at 9:00 PM BST, and featured music from other artists such asGrace Jones,Devo andYellow Magic Orchestra, spliced with spoken word samples and music that is rumoured to be unreleased work from the group itself.[38][39][40] On July 3, 2021, Boards of Canada released a remix of a second Nevermen song, "Treat Em Right".[41]
The music of Boards of Canada has been described as "evocative, mournful,sample-ladendowntempo music often sounding as though produced on malfunctioning equipment excavated from the ruins of an early-'70scomputer lab."[42] CriticSimon Reynolds described their style as "a hazy sound of smeared synth-tones and analog-decayed production, carried by patient, sleepwalking beats, and aching with nostalgia" while crediting them with "reinvent[ing]" elements of psychedelia through the deliberate misuse of technology.[5] Their distinctive style is a product of their use ofanalogue equipment, mix of electronic and conventional instrumentation, use of distorted samples, and their layering and blending of these elements.[43][44] They have additionally been referred to as afolktronica act as a result of these elements.[45] To achieve their evocative and "worn down" sound, the duo have made use of outdated brands of recording equipment, such as tape machines manufactured byGrundig.[46] They also make use ofsamples from 1970s television shows and other media prevalent in the era of the brothers' shared childhood, especially the nature-inspired documentaries produced by theNational Film Board of Canada.[10] The duo's preoccupation with memory, past aesthetics, andpublic broadcasting presaged the 2000s electronic movement known ashauntology.[5] Theorist and music critic Adam Harper described their work as "a simultaneouslyArcadian and sinister musical hauntology based on cut-up samples, vintage synthesiser technology and a faded modernism arising from mid-twentieth-century television, science, public education, childhood and spirituality."[47]
Interviews with the Sandison brothers have variously provided insight into their creative process: they have cited several acts that have influenced their work includingJoni Mitchell, theIncredible String Band (saying "we have all the String Band records […] our rural sensibilities are similar"), theBeatles (saying "[they] really became enthralling to us through their psychedelism") andMy Bloody Valentine (saying "even if we don't sound like them, there's a connection in terms of the approach to music").[10][48][49] They have also namedMeat Beat Manifesto as a chief influence, citing their synth sounds.[50]
Brief interludes or vignettes feature prominently in the duo's music, often lasting less than two minutes; Sandison has said that "we write far more of [these] than the so-called 'full-on' tracks, and, in a way, they are our own favourites". Boards of Canada have written an enormous number of such fragments as well as full-length tracks, most of which have been held back from release, and it does not appear that their music is made exclusively for commercial release; rather, albums seem to be the result of selecting complementary songs from current work. For instance,Geogaddi allegedly involved the creation of 400 song fragments and 64 complete songs, of which 22 were selected (possibly 23, if the final track of complete silence is included). Eoin has said about the duo's discography that "the idea of the perfect album is this amorphous thing that we're always aiming at […] the whole point of making music is at least to aim at your own idea of perfection."[48]
The duo have expressed interest in themes ofsubliminal messaging, and subsequently their work has incorporated cryptic messages, including references tonumerology andcult figures such asDavid Koresh of theBranch Davidians.[51] When questioned about their aims in making such references, Boards of Canada have expressed themselves in neutral terms (saying "We're not religious at all [...] and if we're spiritual at all it's purely in the sense of caring about art and inspiring people with ideas.")[48] while remaining fascinated with the ability of music to influence the minds of others (saying, with irony, that "[We] do actually believe that there are powers in music that are almost supernatural. I think you actually manipulate people with music...").[52]
In October 2025, Boards of Canada's track "Olson" was programmed as a sequence of tones and played on the last operable and actively maintainedDigital Equipment CorporationPDP-1 computer, which is displayed at theComputer History Museum of California.[53][54]
Studio albums
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Vol. 7 No. 12 (December 2005), pp26-30
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