Dawn Chorus

As noted on Saturday I've somehow manged to go over fifteen years of daily blogging without ever really writing about Boards Of Canada (apart from a mention in a post about a remix EP of The Sexual Objects back in 2018), a mystery to me really because in the period from the mid- to- late 90s to the mid 00s they made some startling and wonderful electronic music and two albums- 1998's Music Has The Right To Children and 2002's Geogaddi and two EPs, In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country from 2000 and Trans Canada Highway from 2006- are among the best from that time and since. 

Boards Of Canada were two brothers,Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin (Sandison) born in Scotland and for a period in their childhood they lived in Calgary, Canada. The family returned to Scotland and both boys went to Edinburgh University. The made music from a young age, playing with tape recorders and found sounds from their early teens, layering their own samples recorded from short wave radio over of music they made. In 1986 they formed a band, Boards Of Canada, and released small quantity recordings among friends. In 1996 they sent a tape to Skam and signed to the label and then in 1998 released Music Has The Right To Children jointly with Skam and Warp. 

Music Has The Right To Children is a fully realised album, short pieces and longer songs, made using tape to tape experiments, loops, analogue synths, drum machines, some super slowed down hip hop drums, samples from North American 1970s television, found sounds, the blurred guitar sound feel of My Bloody Valentine and some weird 90s nostalgia for a 70s childhood. It's futuristic and modern but aching for a past that maybe never existed- a feel that has become known as Hauntology. The vocal samples are seem to mean something but it's not obvious or evident where the answers are. 

 By 2002 the brothers had recorded a follow up, the twenty two song Geogaddi. It was a darker, more ominous record, paranoia and mistrust added to the mellower sounds of the first album. This was partly a resposne to the geopolitical world of the early years of the 21st century- the 9/11 attacks and subsequent war on terror. Geogaddi like it's predecessor has short, one minute tracks, often just loops and samples that buzz into life for a minute or two, and longer ones that unfold at their own pace, never quite conforming to expectations. It's a wonderful album, one that works best taken in one sitting. Among its highlights is Dawn Chorus-

Dawn Chorus

Circling loops of off kilter sounds, slo mo drums, woozy synths and 70s kids TV melodies, some voices and vocal sounds- at times Dawn Chorus seems to be three or four different songs playing at once, each one slipping slightly out of time. It's magical and a little unsettling, like the solar flare you get when you accidentally stare at the sun on a summer's day, the grass all bleached, and the sense that time is getting on a bit, the day is running away with you.