Boards Of Canada - 'The Campfire Headphase' (Warp) Released 17/10/05

Over the course of their two previous long-players, avant-garde Scottish duo Boards of Canada have created challenging, organic and very human electronic landscapes of noise far removed from the norm. Not as intricate as the complex web of weird sounds that was 2002’s ‘Geogaddi’ and lacking the oomph of some segues from their outstanding debut ‘Music Has The Right To Children’ (‘Roygbiv’ for one), ‘The Campfire Headphase’ is still an exquisite, understated opus that’s just as stunning as anything else they’ve produced. 

Surprisingly, for the first time Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin have formed the crux of an album around that most strange of instruments – the guitar. Yet, coupled with unusual arrangements and a smorgasbord sounds, their songs are still beautifully unorthodox. The gorgeous ‘Chromakey Dreamcoat’ is all swirling loops of guitars, lush beats and swathes of electronica, while ‘Satellite Anthem Icarus’ fuses chunky bass with generous guitar strums and whirring atmospherics. Elsewhere, the plonking ‘Peacock’ is almost celestial and the glacial ‘Dayvan Cowboy’ is genuinely affecting.

Thankfully, just to confound us all, the second half of the album is made of weirder stuff. ’84 Pontiac Dream’ takes you on an almost otherworldly journey, and ‘Sherbet Head’ bombards the listener with impossibly deep rumbles and swathes of ominous static. The strange ‘Oscar See Through Red Eye’ is all bizarre kaleidoscopic noises, while ‘Slow This Bird Down’ is deep drone noises that go nowhere for five minutes, but still sounds compelling.

Despite the slightly underwhelming finale that is ‘Farewell Fire’, melancholy, happy, demanding and engaging – sometimes all at once - ‘The Campfire Headphase’ is an album that slowly draws you in and won’t let go.