Boards Of Canada – The Campfire Headphase

While not as essential in ones collection of ambient/trip-hop/idm (whatever you'd like to classify them) as Boards of Canada's earlier release "Music Has the Right to Children", "The Campfire Headphase" is still interesting and if anything more mature (and not as dark as geo). Easily the most recognizable addition to this over any other BoC release is that they added a guitar. People fight back and fourth claiming it wasn't necessary it manipulated their sound too heavily; it added finesse back into their game etc. that's for you to decide.

I personally like the addition; they have always been a duo to somehow bring on nostalgia and events throughout ones life (even while making modernized beats). With `MHtRtC' we heard them blend hazy effects, drier clothing warm and mysterious at times. Goopy and full it's like viewing life again as a child reasonably unknowing and innocent. 'Campfire' crackles and pops with a more refined sense of imagery. It's still tranquil, and although new they `aged' it. After recording they hit up the lo-fi gear and proportioned the intensity of everything phasing in and out of your headphones/speakers.

Children mumbling have been replaced with a thematic revolution coasting around the album. Adolescent vibes along with even adulthood are more traceable here. For clarity sake the album is crisper and (in my opinion) shows the previously unknowing side finding a ripened course as if the horizon does have an end but why end there? This album does cater more to the guitar then needed, but it was this outward grasp that helps BoC renews their step in expenditure. So it's not as odd or colorful, it works though.

Without puncturing your views and this album entirely though, it doesn't seem to hold a candle to the marvels of MHtRtC'. Whatever it may be I find it a bit above "Taoism" (earliest of BoC works). Maybe due to it's more centric unity of theme. I will give them credit though on the use of the guitar, never does it feel like a sterile white bulb exposing every nook and cranny. All BoC albums are good, if you are not familiar with them again check out Music. Good for entire plays of the album. Same goes here, but this one may not last as long. It seems like this wine has already reached it's prime some time ago incomparison. A good individual track here is "Oscar See Through Red Eye", has a little bit of everything this album has to offer. See if you like that track before grabbing this.

Especially if you are one for purchasing records...The vinyl, much like all the duos LPs, can end up costing an arm and a leg soon after the releases hit the year mark. [...].

Hopefully the fifteen tracks will keep you interesting and hold you for some time on.This one isn't unknowing it's uncertainty BoC become more appealing after each listen. You try to spot out a tiny segment you enjoy a lot, in a song, and anticipate it sincerely, yet find yourself distracted hearing more and more as times (and listens) go on. Really is pleasurable, looking to fill in a void musically? Kind of jaded with much of the modern commercial scene? Ease your way into this electronic ambient wonder; it'll be there for ya.