Music Review #2: Boards of Canada

The two-man music masterpiece that is Boards of Canada is in a category all its own. Spawning dozens of admiring artists in recent years, Boards of Canada has redefined what musical harmonics can be experienced like. Stepping outside the natural boundaries of contemporary music with it’s steady 4/4 beat and superficial lyrics, this group attempts to grab someone, pick them up and sweep them away to a parallel universe that could be described as being a warm and fuzzy 70s era boreal landscape with peaceful and serene ambiance, coupled with a type of sunshine that you wish to taste and savor the experience forever.

The rich sound of this group’s musical frequencies makes it feeling very natural and yet altered ever so compellingly that it takes one to a reality that does not exist in ours but has just been manifested thanks to the music of Boards of Canada. We are able to traverse this newly-created reality where all is peaceful and all is blissful. Childlike happiness and joy are experienced inthe core of our very being. The theme of childhood is often repeated in BoC’s music and certainly opens up the larger theme of childhood worriless innocence that each one of us can reexperience and relive if we are willing to do so, and the music by this artist will help facilitate that. The wonderfully altered vibrational tones that BoC uses is absolutely mesmerizing. The music ranges from beatless ambient works, like Skimming Stones, to nostalgic psychedelic downtempo grooves, such as the beautiful Dawn Chorus. Boards of Canada has been around since the 90s and they have several albums out, which are relatively easy to find. Listen to the sounds that will take you back to an earlier time…a time that feels like it may have existed, although it never has, but does now.