Sometime in the future

This is a band that if I'm not playing them constantly, or talking about them, mythologising how relevant and important they are in the pantheon of the greatest music and bands of all time, I'm waiting for them. Enjoyng them but always waiting.They have a new album out next year. Or 2012, or 2016, who knows. Not even Warp know. You could be forgiven that the delay is because their perfectionism is the reason they need to explore, experiment, mix, fix, tweak and wait. They might just as easily be great at procrastinating. But we wouldn't know. We'll never know. It's what the fans admire. Bloody mindedness, perfectionism and the waiting game, but beautiful music, myths, lies and legends often follow the great bands around.

In the meantime the fans are going stir crazy. The fans here at least. Since the Trans Canada Highway EP in 2006 contemporay and popular music has gone through a few but not earth shattering changes. Fans have been speculating what the new album might sound like, not in the sense of what other music it might ape because it won't sound like anything other than Boards of Canada. This is the dream of other artists, not to sound like Boards of Canada but to sound like themselves, to become a genre of their own. Although from the fan made videos and the BOC community they are more Boards of Canada than Boards of Canada.

There's something kind of anti-corperate, certainley in the tone and assembley of the library footage chosen but also ambivalent and ambigious. It's hard to place. I sometimes go past a place called 'Cemex Aggregates' on my way to Manchester, whenever I take the train. I've associated it, and its logo so much to Boards of Canada that it almost feels significant and iconic.


So what is it about Boards of Canada that the fans love about them? It's partly the stuff already metnioned above, along with they washed out colours of distant, childhood summers. It's in part the sinister undertones of their mixes, the music somehow encapsulates what it is we can't express about those lazy school holidays in the early 80s when there was nothing to do and most of our better off friends were away somewhere. It's also in some of the themes which Ghost Box Records have exploited with the likes of Advisory Circle and Belbury Poly, that British public information mentality. The music is comforting but with an undercurrent that you might die soon. Or something incredibly evil is happening in the world and you can't exactly put your finger on what it is. Listen to 'The Devil is in The Details' or 'Alpha and Omega'.

The appeal for some fans is either the hidden secret messages in the music and the nods to cult/religious iconography. Now there's a few websites dedicated to unravelling these ideas which range from bonkers to intriguing but I think BOC just like to fuck with us sometimes.

Seems like a fitting place to leave this feature.


Also checkout this mix too.

http://soundcloud.com/strictly/sometime-in-the-future