Boards of Canada's imaginative, heavily copied sound generally consists of midtempo hip-hop beat patterns, grainy samples, and warm, nostalgic synth melodies reminiscent of 1970s nature documentaries and children's television programs. The duo have often utilized outdated analog equipment in order to capture a haunting, time-worn feel, and their intentional use of cryptic titles and subliminal messaging has created a cult mystique to their music and imagery. BoC's debut studio album, 1998's Music Has the Right to Children, redefined home-listening electronic music, and remains one of the most influential and beloved electronic albums of all time. The darker, more psychedelic Geogaddi followed in 2002, and has received nearly as much acclaim. The more streamlined and guitar-based The Campfire Headphase appeared in 2005, and nearly a decade passed before the cinematic Tomorrow's Harvest arrived in 2013. Since then, the reclusive pair have occasionally surfaced with remixes of other artists and a well-received 2019 DJ set for NTS Radio.
Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin grew up on the northeast coast of Scotland, and spent some of their childhood in Calgary, Canada. The two are brothers, though they did not initially disclose their relation to the media in order to evade comparisons to Phil and Paul Hartnoll of Orbital. They began playing instruments and experimenting with tape machines at a young age, and they formed Boards of Canada, named in tribute to the National Film Board of Canada, in 1986. Through their own Music70 imprint, BoC reportedly produced several albums and EPs that were pressed in limited quantities and only made available to family and friends. The only ones that have surfaced have been 1995's Twoism, which was later reissued, as well as 1996's Boc Maxima and a pair of Old Tunes cassettes, calling the existence of the earlier releases into question. Twoism was the group's only verified release to feature fellow Hexagon Sun collective member Christopher Horne, who left amicably and began releasing music under the name christ. The EP caught the attention of Autechre's Sean Booth, which led to 1996's electro-inspired Hi Scores EP being released by the Skam label. Sandison and Eoin also produced tracks under the name Hell Interfacethat were released on Skam's MASK EP series, as well as a Christmas EP on V/Vm Test Recordings.
In early 1998, Skam released a limited 7" single containing exclusive versions of the songs "Aquarius" and Boc Maxima rarity "Chinook." "Aquarius," a playful track with a counting sequence and repeated samples of children's speech and laughter, became one of the highlights of Music Has the Right to Children, which was co-released by Skam and Warp in April, and later reissued stateside by indie rock behemoth Matador. Warp released the duo's Peel Session EP in early 1999, though the song "Happy Cycling," appended to the Matador edition of Music Has the Right to Children and subsequent Warp reissues, was actually a studio re-recording. BoC performed at Warp's tenth anniversary party, broadcast live online, in November. In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country, a four-song EP themed around cult leader David Koresh and the Branch Davidian religious sect, was released in late 2000. The duo's last known live performance took place at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in April 2001. The much-anticipated, sometimes shoegaze-leaning Geogaddi, containing further references to the Branch Davidians and numerology, arrived in February 2002. The sought-after Twoism was given its first widely available release later in the year.
BoC remixed songs by Beck, cLOUDDEAD, and labelmate Mira Calix before releasing their third studio full-length, The Campfire Headphase, in 2005. The album sported a clearer, less sample-driven production style as well as the distinctive presence of guitars. Trans Canada Highway, an EP based around album highlight "Dayvan Cowboy," followed in 2006. After several years of near-silence, BoC resurfaced in 2013 with Tomorrow's Harvest. The album's promotional rollout began with an unannounced Record Store Day release containing a distorted voice reciting a sequence of numbers. Only a handful of copies of the record have been found. Other codes were hidden on various websites or broadcast through radio and television networks, and entering them into a website gave information about the release. Tomorrow's Harvest, inspired by film composers like John Carpenter, Wendy Carlos, and Riz Ortolani, was released in June and became their highest-charting release in most territories, even nearly reaching the Top Ten in the United States.
In 2016, BoC released remixes of "Mr Mistake" by Nevermen (a supergroup consisting of Faith No More's Mike Patton, TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe, and Anticon's Doseone) and "Sisters" by Anticon's Odd Nosdam. The duo issued a remix of "Sometimes" by the Sexual Objects in 2017. In 2019, BoC participated in Warp's 30th anniversary celebrations by producing a two-hour mix, Societas X Tape, for online station NTS Radio. The label also reissued the pair's Peel Session, this time including "XYZ," which was previously unreleased due to sample licensing issues. A second Nevermen remix, "Treat Em Right," was digitally issued in 2021.
- Paul Simpson (AllMusic)
