The Campfire Headphase

Boards Of Canada

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 18, 2005)
• Original Release Date: October 17, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warp Records
• ASIN: B000AP2ZQC
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (97 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #54,366 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This Scottish duo's third album is their most shoegazer-y and gorgeous. For the first time, acoustic and electric instruments intrude on their landscape, which brings them closer to the work of artists like Four Tet and M83. But there's an intricacy to their beats and a strange, underwater quality to their samples that's strictly BoC. It's weird woozy music that's lovely and alien. "Dayvan Cowboy,"for instance, is a slow-paced bit of moody psychedelia; the drums don't even kick in until two thirds of the way through. The hypnotic, analog synth-driven "Farewell Fire"sounds like some lost tune by space-kraut pioneers Cluster. This is music you listen to when drugs don't work anymore; it's more reliable and a whole lot cheaper besides. "Oscar See Through Red Eye,"one of the more percussive songs, is perfect for languid late night dancing, but most of the album is sublimely made for the bean bag chairs. --Mike McGonigal

Product Description

One of the world's most revered and mysterious electronic acts, Boards of Canada re-emerge from the ether with "The Campfire Headphase" their first album since 2002's mystic "Geogaddi". "The Campfire Headphase" will satiate the groups massive, rabid fanbase. This is classic Boards of Canada touched with acid-drenched folk music, atmospheric dissonance, deceptively tough alien beats and mindbending melodic creations.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The new and improved BOC, now with guitars! (shudder), October 18, 2005

By	Christopher Betche (Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It was inevitable. From the post rock experimentation on the In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country EP to the 'dirtier' tracks on Geogaddi, the signs were there. Then, endorsement of Bibio's folktronica and some very psychedelic remix work for Beck and others occured. We all should have known that this is how The Campfire Headphase would turn out. Heck, what else does one play around the campfire? Certainly not rusting analogue synths. I think Dayvan Cowboy is the best song on the album. The fact that it sounds nothing like Boards of Canada is besides the point. Including that song, the album is My Bloody Valentine/Incredible String Band/Tortoise with electronic textures and soft beats. Haven't listened to those groups? You should - they're all good, and they've all influenced BOC's sound from the beginning. If it was anyone else but BOC, we'd all be saying it's a sublime, understated masterpiece. The point is this - you experiment, or you repeat. The best musicians make music for themselves, and if they get some fans, so much the better. We didn't really want Music Has The Right To Children (Part 2), and so this progression of an album is what we have. I may not enjoy every track on The Campfire Headphase, but I have to respect BOC's artistic vision - the sound is dense and alluring, and the flow of the whole is nearly seamless. Thank you BOC, for expanding your horizons, and ours.

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Their Least Best But a Good Album, Nonetheless, October 18, 2005

By	A. Johnston (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

"The Campfire Headphase" is an exceptional release but it is far from a 5/5 album. Really, folks...we're all excited after such a long wait but do keep in mind the conotation of a perfect score. On a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a 7.

A few notes:

The introduction of guitar is, despite some opinions, a nice way for BoC to avoid parodying themselves. BoC simpy could not have made another wholly synth/sample album and gone much further out. While creativity has no bounds, being rooted in such a signature sound as that of the mighty Boards does create some very narrowing criteria this faar down their road. While I wouldn't go as far as to compare this album to Bob Dylan going electric, the acoustic/organic feel of TCHp will be the hardest element for some to adjust to.

There are a handful of new "classics" here but few with quite the same level of crushing timelessness as previous albums. As a "single, unified listening experience," TCHp holds up well. It is consistent, warm and nice. Put it on and let it loop while you paint, draw or just stare out the window. Still, songs do tend to meander longer than in the past. While BoC has always proved kings of the solidly built yet simple and enthralling electronic song, many of the tracks here seem to get lost in their own loose discipline. While it's just as easy to blissfully zone out to, there is much less here to snap you from your frosty coma and recognize when a particularly good bass bomb or synth chime has struck just that much deeper.

Should you buy it? Sure, so long as it's not your first BoC purchase. After about ten listens, I am of the opinion that it's certainly a fine work but it is not a towering work such as their previous two.

Some argue that they simply 'went mellow' on this one but that doesn't really fish. What really differentiates this album from the other two is not a gain of Zen but a certain loss of darkness. Albeit a fine, nostalgic joyride, it can be argued that, with "The Campfire Headphase," BoC have cranked their backward time machine past the awkward unease of the 70s and into a blissed-out 60s hippie commune. You still get the faded Polaroid flashback, just not as much of that dear, sad bittersweetness.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars now for something a little different..., June 2, 2006

By	R. Lister "burblet" (Palo Alto, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

All Hail mighty BoC! Oh. Hang on. This sounds different. Boo! Boo! Down with BoC!

-pretty much the response this album got on release. The cutting phrase 'Least great album' was bandied about. Gotta admit, I felt that way too. Gone was the lofty shimmer of Geogaddi and MHTRTC.

Anyway, I'm glad I waited six months before writing this review, because 'Campfire Headphase' has grown on me in an gradual, organic way, like a tasty mushroom. As a really good album should. The thing I initially liked least, I now like best: the contrast. MHTRTC was crystalline music - icy and measured. Geogaddi followed that with a kind of spooky-movie feel - very dense, very unsettling, sort of David Lynch-y. So far, so "cool"

Now think about words like 'warm', 'organic', 'rich'. Not so traditionally "cool" in concept, huh? Ditto 'guitar' in the IDM world, right? Obviously, still with lots of crackly synths and woozy warbles. The change takes some getting used to, but now I'm loving this album, end to end. Ok, then, enough banter: to specifics

Dayvan Caravan is magnificent, possibly my favorite BoC track ever. An enormously long build up unfolds to a surging orchestral/murky choir theme with a trademark 'just so' melody bleeped on top of that. How in the world do BoC take 5 bare notes of melody and make them into an emotional epic?

Tracks like Satellite Theme Icarus & Ataronchronon are actually more representative of the mood, though - with the sound of gentle waves in the mix and a calming reflective feel. Think of people on a beach, sipping banana daquiri's as the sun sets. Robot people.

It's also an album of phases: there's an georgeous wind-down in the last three tracks, each more sparse and languid than the last, until the gentle hushed chords of Firewell Fire either send me to sleep, make me hit play again or force me to finally get on with some work, depending on my environment. But while the album's playing, I'm living in BoC's (for once) warm & welcoming world.

anyway, if this direction sounds scary to you - watch out. The duo (brothers, as it turns out) have threatened an entirely acoustic album in the future. I'll be the one person looking forward to that, then.