TuneAttic: find music, know music
TuneAttic: find music, know music
TuneAttic: find music, know music
TuneAttic: find music, know music
TuneAttic: find music, know music
TuneAttic: find music, know music
Boards of Canada

Boards of Canada are an experimental Scottish Downtempo and IDM group consisting of brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin.  The pair have been releasing since the late 1980’s and are currently signed to Warp Records

 scales of success
 timeline

 

'Hi Scores'
(Skam 1996)
‘Music Has The Right To Children’ (Warp Records 1998)
Warp 10 Year Anniversary Party, 1999

Early Years: 1987 to 2001

Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin started producing together in the late 1980’s and self-released their debut album - ‘Catalog 3’ (Music70 1987) - on cassette in 1987 on their DIY label, Music 70.  They took their name Boards of Canada from 1970’s documentary films made by the the National Film Board of Canada. 

The duo continued to self-release a number of albums throughout the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.  Interestingly in 2000 the band removed all reference to these early works from the discography section on their official website. 

In 1996 Boards of Canada had their first full commercial release - the E.P. ‘Hi Scores’ (Skam 1996) – after a demo version of the release had attracted the attention of fellow experimental electronica artist Sean Booth of Autechre.  

At this point momentum began to kick in and within two years the band were signed to the highly influential IDM record label Warp Records.  Their first album for Warp - ‘Music Has The Right To Children’ (Warp Records 1998) – was a critical success and was championed by the legendary John Peel on his BBC Radio 1 show.

‘Dayvan Cowboy’
(Warp Records 2006)
‘The Campfire Headphase’ (Warp Records 2005)

Later Years: 2002 to present

Boards of Canada took a characteristically unorthodox approach to their second album on Warp, ‘Geogaddi’ (Warp Records 2002).  Already lengthy at 23 tracks ‘Geogaddi’ was actually selected from a total of 64 tracks and a further 400 track fragments, one of which was pure silence.  They then launched the album with live performances in six churches across the globe.

Throughout their career Boards of Canada have shown scant regard for consistency of style across their releases, instead considering each album as an isolated work.  Thus their 2005 album - ‘The Campfire Headphase’ (Warp Records 2005) – came as a shock to many fans, swapping electronic beats for wall of sound guitars.  ‘The Campfire Headphase’ sees Boards of Canada drawing on their shoegaze influences such as My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive.

Although Warp have re-packaged and re-released some of Boards of Canada’s earlier releases, ‘The Campfire Headphase’ is the bands last studio album to date. 

Boards of Canada have always taken a left field and self-consciously avante garde approach to music.  They rarely participate in the traditional music industry practices of extensive touring, interviews and marketing to support album releases. Despite taking such a counter-commercial to music, the brilliance of their subtle, understated creativity has nonetheless seen some of their tracks ripple out towards mainstream success.  

Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin are brothers but kept the fact secret for much of their musical career.