Boards of Canada have had an enormous influence on the ambient, downtempo and IDM scenes. They have frequently made reference to the warm, scratchy, artificial sounds of 1970s television. Indeed, the Sandison brothers admit to being inspired by the documentary films of the National Film Board of Canada, from which they take their name. The duo have recorded a few minor works under the name Hell Interface. Boards of Canada’s music has been used in several CSI episodes and on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim interlude shorts; small bits of their music have been used on the BBC program Top Gear for transitional music.
Early Boards of Canada (1970s-1995)
Growing up in a musical family, brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin began playing instruments at a young age. They experimented with recording techniques at around the age of 10, using tape machines to layer cut-up samples of found sounds over compositions of their own. In their teens they participated in a number of amateur bands, however, it wasn't until 1986 when Marcus was invited to Mike’s band that Boards of Canada was born.
By 1989, the band had been reduced to Sandison, Eoin and Christopher Horne. In the early 1990s, a number of collaborations took place and the band put on small, fairly regular shows among the “Hexagon Sun” collective.
In early 2000, the official website for the band, Music70.com (now boardsofcanada.com) removed the early discography of Boards of Canada, although some information has been preserved by fans. Early tape releases by Boards of Canada include "Play by Numbers", "Acid Memories", "Hooper Bay", and the earliest known release by the band is titled "Catalog 3". None of the material from those days is readily available, and since official Boards of Canada sources ignore the existence of this material, there seems to be little chance for this early material to ever resurface.
Boards of Canada from Twoism (1995-present)
In 1995, the band released the first work from the Hexagon Sun studio, the EP "Twoism". Like earlier Music70 releases, it was produced in a self-financed limited run and was privately distributed, primarily to friends and labels. Unlike previous releases though, a small number of copies were also released to the public through the IDM mailing list. Though not a widespread commercial release, it was considered of such high quality to be subsequently re-pressed in 2002 and serves as a demarcation point into more professional releases.
The precursor to "Music Has the Right to Children" was released in 1996. Titled "Boc Maxima", it was a semi-private release that is notable for being a full-length album. Boc Maxima’s work was later used for "Music Has the Right to Children", with which it shares many tracks.
Boards of Canada’s first commercial release occurred after attracting the attention of Autechre’s Sean Booth of the English label Skam Records, one of many people sent a demo EP. Skam released what was considered Boards of Canada’s first "findable" work, "Hi Scores", in 1996.
"Music Has the Right to Children" was released in 1998. Many fans consider this record to be a masterpiece. The popularity of the record was substantial enough to start a wave of sound-alikes.
John Peel featured Boards of Canada on his BBC Radio 1 program in January of 1998. The session featured two remixes from "Music Has the Right to Children" — "Aquarius (Version 3)" and "Olson (Version 3)" — along with the tracks "Happy Cycling" and “XYZ”. Excluding “XYZ”, the set was released on a Warp Records CD titled "Peel Session TX 21/07/1998". The session was later reissued in 2019 which released "XYZ" in an official manner for the first time.
Though never an actively touring band, Boards of Canada did perform a handful of shows. Early shows saw them supporting Warp label-mates Seefeel and Autechre in a scattering of UK dates. They also participated in a few festivals and multi-artist bills, including two Warp parties: Warp’s 10th Anniversary Party in 1999 and The Incredible Warp Lighthouse Party almost one year later. They made their most prominent showing in 2001 as one of the headliners at the Tortoise-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties festival. They have not performed a live show since.
Boards of Canada released a four-track EP, "In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country", in November 2000, their first original release in two years.
The full-length album "Geogaddi" was released in 2002. It was described by Sandison as ”a record for some sort of trial-by-fire, a claustrophobic, twisting journey that takes you into some pretty dark experiences before you reach the open air again.”
Throughout most of their career, Mike and Marcus chose not to publicize their brotherhood and were simply portrayed as childhood friends. Their kinship was finally revealed in a 2005 Pitchfork interview. Mike explained that they concealed the fact to avoid comparisons to Orbital, another well-known UK electronic group composed of two brothers.
Their third album for Warp Records, "The Campfire Headphase", was released on 17 October 2005. The album covers much of the same musical territory as their previous works and featured fifteen tracks, including “Peacock Tail”, “Chromakey Dreamcoat”, and “Dayvan Cowboy”. Two versions of “Dayvan Cowboy” — the original and a remix by Odd Nosdam — are on the six-track EP, "Trans Canada Highway", which was released on 26 May 2006.
Sound and methods
Brief songs or “vignettes” feature prominently in their music. Such songs are often weaving melodies or speech accompanied by atmospherics to capture a specific moment or mood. They often last less than two minutes, but, as Sandison says, “those short tracks you mention, we write far more of those than the so-called ‘full on’ tracks, and in a way, they are our own favorites”.
Boards of Canada have written an enormous number of song fragments and songs, most of which will never be released. It does not appear that music is made exclusively for commercial release. Rather, albums seem to be the result of selecting complementary songs from current work, which is a compositional technique shared by many electronic or experimental artists such as Nightmares on Wax, Canabrism and King Crimson. Geogaddi’s development involved the creation of 400 song fragments and 64 complete songs, of which 23 were selected, one of which is silence.
Subliminal messages, symbolism, and religion
Marcus and Mike have both expressed a strong interest in the power of subliminal messaging and their work is full of cryptic messages.
Some critics refuse to listen to their music on account that they are positive the band is trying to brainwash their listeners for unknown motivations, citing references to David Koresh and occult symbols as proof. Others approach these facts from the skeptical angle, saying it is nothing but a bunch of “cute tricks” and an ironic gesture towards people who take such things seriously (and some would say, as a bit of a similar gesture towards their own body of work in later releases, such as "Geogaddi").
Gyroscope
Boards of Canada Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Two
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The lyrics of Boards of Canada's song Gyroscope consist of a series of numbers, which are spoken in a monotonous voice. The numbers are read in groups, and there is no discernible pattern to them. The repetition of numbers throughout the song creates a sense of rhythm, which adds to its overall hypnotic effect. The lyrics may be interpreted as a representation of the monotony of everyday life, where we often find ourselves going through the motions and doing the same things over and over again.
The use of numbers also adds to the theme of control and technology that is often present in Boards of Canada's music. The band's name itself is a reference to the film "Boards of Canada," which is a documentary about mind control. The use of numbers in Gyroscope may be seen as representing the way in which technology has come to dominate our lives, and how we are constantly being monitored and controlled.
Overall, the lyrics of Gyroscope are deliberately cryptic and open to interpretation. They may be seen as a commentary on the alienating effects of modern life or as a representation of the way in which we are all controlled by the systems around us.
Line by Line Meaning
One
The beginning of a counting sequence
Two
The second number in a counting sequence
Three
The third number in a counting sequence
Four
The fourth number in a counting sequence
Five
The fifth number in a counting sequence
Six
The sixth number in a counting sequence
Seven
The seventh number in a counting sequence
Eight
The eighth number in a counting sequence
Nine
The ninth number in a counting sequence
Zero
Zero
Nine
Nine
The year 2009
Zero
Nine
Eight
Zero
Zero
Zero
Nine
Zero
Three
Four
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Nine
Zero
A specific date/time; possibly significant to the artists personally
Zero
Nine
Eight
Zero
A specific year; possibly significant to the artists personally
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Zero
A counting sequence that leads up to the year 2009
Zero
Nine
Eight
Zero
Zero
Zero
Zero
One
Zero
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Zero
A specific date/time; possibly significant to the artists personally
Zero
Nine
Nine
Zero
Zero
Five
Zero
Zero
Zero
A sequence of numbers that may represent coordinates or other location data
Zero
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Zero
Zero
A counting sequence that starts with the number 23
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Zero
Zero
A counting sequence that starts with the number 23 and ends in double zeros
Zero
Nine
Nine
Zero
Zero
Zero
Zero
Zero
Zero
Zero
Zero
A sequence of zeros that may represent a placeholder for future data
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Zero
A counting sequence that starts with the number 3 and ends in 90
Zero
Nine
Eight
Zero
Nine
A specific year; possibly significant to the artists personally
Lyrics © WARP MUSIC LIMITED
Written by: MARCUS SANDISON, MICHAEL SANDISON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Colm Kelly
I was reading a great interview with Boards a few weeks ago. They spoke about their recording techniques and such and during which Marcus Eoin briefly brought up this song. Apparently, it came to him while he was dreaming. He mentioned that as he woke up he managed to produce it so quickly that it sounds 99% of what it was like in his head and to this day he still finds it spooky to listen to. So with that in mind, this track was entirely invented in someones subconscious. Unreal!
Geek Nation
No wonder I get uneasy vibes from it!
explosionparty
Anyone know what interview this is?
crazygoji
the guys who did sinister picked the absolute best part of the movie to use this in. not during a spooky scary projection scene, not just some intro credits thing, the super tense GTFO OUT THE HOUSE AND BURN EVERYTHING THIS PLACE IS FUCKED UP scene
i luv it
Big Cheese Bill
@NT check it out it’s a decent film
crazygoji
@NT yea, it's called sinister and it's from 2012
NT
Yay! This song was used in a horror movie?
Cheesy8
Yeah
Lawrence Horner
Plus the end credits.
kate c
besides the fact that this song is associated with sinister, this song on it's own is already unsettling. the rapid beat and distorted voices are offputting.