Tomorrow's Harvest and The Campfire Headphase

[zeoevil]

Headphase is the best thing ever. Full stop.

[FernieCanto]

I have no idea what's with the "negative attitude" towards Headphase, but what I know is, that album just never grasped me the way the others did. Music Has the Right to Children had this slow, creeping effect, while Geogaddi just grabbed me by the throat right away. But with Headphase, I remember enjoying Chromakey Dreamcoat, Satellite Anthem Icarus, Dayvan Cowboy and... the whole rest of it was a blur. And every time I went back to it, the effect was the same. Even after listening to it with undivided attention, for the life of me I can't remember how Oscar See Through Red Eye and Slow This Bird Down go.

And this was before I found out I was not alone, so it wasn't hater bias. The album simply sounds much less focused than the others, including Tomorrow's Harvest. I don't think it's an inferior album, but for BOC's (very high) standards, it's almost subpar.

[optic]

Totally agree with you. However, after TH, TCH sounds much less flip, more of a "yin" to this very dark "yang" of TH (or is it the other way around? Never knew what the dark and light were specifically, come to think of it...). I'm really beginning to think that TCH is side one and two of the fabled BoC double album (as has been mentioned elsewhere around here). How clever to release them 8 years apart.

I have no idea what's with the "negative attitude" towards Headphase, but what I know is, that album just never grasped me the way the others did. Music Has the Right to Children had this slow, creeping effect, while Geogaddi just grabbed me by the throat right away. But with Headphase, I remember enjoying Chromakey Dreamcoat, Satellite Anthem Icarus, Dayvan Cowboy and... the whole rest of it was a blur. And every time I went back to it, the effect was the same. Even after listening to it with undivided attention, for the life of me I can't remember how Oscar See Through Red Eye and Slow This Bird Down go.

And this was before I found out I was not alone, so it wasn't hater bias. The album simply sounds much less focused than the others, including Tomorrow's Harvest. I don't think it's an inferior album, but for BOC's (very high) standards, it's almost subpar.

[ryetronics]

my homies and i have a special indoor environment where we've spent a lot of time listening to BOC and it was here where tracks from The Campfire Headphase just blossomed repeatedly... it's a pretty enclosed space

How much longer do you have on your sentence?

[In_The_Annexe]

MHTRTC is a great album.

Geogaddi is a great album.

Headphase is a great album.

Harvest is a great album.

Boards of Canada make nothing but good music and that is why their my favorite band. They simply can't disappoint me.

[Kathleen]

Either you're a mind reader or my brain has internet access, because I was just thinking of this exact same thing driving home from work today

Yessssss. I will take this as the "not crazy" validation I need.

If they kept repeating themselves they'd be pegged as a group relying on gimmicks to make music. TCH shows that they have real compositional talent and mastery of their instruments more than any of their other releases did.

I think this is right on the money.

[Aimo]

I agree with a lot of what you put in your initial post Kathleen, apart from the melody issue - I think The Campfire Headphase is their most melodic work, which is why I love it so much. And I don't understand some of the comments I've been reading in some of the Tomorrow's Harvest reveiws, where some of the reviewers compare it to some 'chill out' late 90's comp. Firstly, there's nothing wrong with a bit of Air-esque/Royksopp/St. Germain/Kruder & Dorfmeister et al stuff, and I actually quite like a lot of lounge music, and secondly even if it could be compared to a chill out album(which I still don't see - there's so much going on in the background of these tunes, it demands your attention - I can't leave it on tin the background without giving it my full attention), it's Boards Of Canad's take on a chill out album. I'll take that, thanks very much!

[d e n]

^yeah... people feel a need to put a label on EVERYTHING. most of it is all completely arbitrary.

my homies and i have a special indoor environment where we've spent a lot of time listening to BOC and it was here where tracks from The Campfire Headphase just blossomed repeatedly... it's a pretty enclosed space

How much longer do you have on your sentence?

man... i'd stay in there all day.

[Kathleen]

I don't understand some of the comments I've been reading in some of the Tomorrow's Harvest reveiws, where some of the reviewers compare it to some 'chill out' late 90's comp.

Having now spent a few listens with the album, I can't imagine how anyone would find this relaxing to just "chill out to in the background." You wouldn't hear half the album, and the bits you would hear would be scary. Those reviews are bad and the reviewers should feel bad.

[d e n]

anyway, i'm always psyched to talk about this album. it sort of reminds of Bill Evans, cause of his transcendental chord voicings and next-level understanding of harmony.

i go in and out of listening to BOC heavily, but when ever the Campfire swells up in me, whether i'm feeling up or down, it never fails to impress.

Yeah, Campfire and TH both have prominent trends in their respective harmonies.

Two things on Campfire come up a lot (not for the first time in the BoC repertoire, of course): Major chords separated by thirds, and "plagal" (down a fourth) resolution of major chords.

Satellite Anthem Icarus, at one point you have: Dbmaj Emaj F#maj. So you have both the Dbmaj to Emaj major chord third relationship, and the plagal F#maj to Dbmaj

Peacock Tail: Fmaj Cmaj Gmaj Dmaj, then Gmaj Amaj Emaj (lots of down-a-fourth movement there)

Dayvan Cowboy: F#maj Amaj Emaj Bmaj (which is identical to Peacock if you leave out three consecutive chords of Peacock and shift the progression over)

It's fun to notice that Dayvan, not counting the two brief excursions Ebmin, is exactly a chord-for-chord "majorized" version of IABPOITC, which is Amin Cmin Gmin Dmin. Exact same root movement--one is all major, the other all minor.


Whereas on TH you've got a lot of natural minor harmony. In many of the tracks (Collapse, Cold Earth, Nothing is Real, Jacquard Causeway, RFTD) there's i VI or VI i motion and others are just a pedaled minor chord with a clear b6 like Gemini, White Cyclosa.

so good to read some analysis that doesn't have to do with layering tracks or playing them backwards

[Elexen]

I always thought TCH was their most focused complete concept and a true masterpiece. I feel like they used that same focused concept format on TH but took it in the opposite direction. Another complete masterpiece with a different theme.

To each his own, but I really don't understand how some people can dog on TCH. It blows my mind.

[azamarro]

Be careful not to talk too much about Tomorrow's Harvest or else the thread might be shut down and we'll be redirected to the TH thread!!!!!!!!!

[Compound Candy]

This is actually an interesting thread.
After spending about ten days with TH constantly on my headphones, I suddenly felt some kind of a nostalgic urge to go back and listen again to TCH...i personnaly love this album, just because it is to me one of the most positive one BoC did. Then when I started to listen to songs like Peacock Tail, I felt a great amount of sadness/nostalgia, like the end of an era. I do like the idea of TCH being side A of TH being side B...like if beach and campfire times were over leaving space only for a desolated/deserted planet with its heartbeat still pumping over the sky...

(morning thoughts)

[miklatov]

Be careful not to talk too much about Tomorrow's Harvest or else the thread might be shut down and we'll be redirected to the TH thread!!!!!!!!!

QFT! Methinks the mods were a bit trigger happy in the recent wave of thread closing, but hey-ho.

I'd have preferred it if they put a link to the closed thread, in the thread they were redirecting too. As it is, they seem to have got it the wrong way round - putting a link to the open thread in the closed one - not much use when the closed one is on pg 123 and no-one sees it. Just my humble opinion, of course (please don't beat me, mods!)

On topic, I found my TCH cd last night and I'm really excited about having a full listen through again.

After spending about ten days with TH constantly on my headphones, I suddenly felt some kind of a nostalgic urge to go back and listen again to TCH...i personnaly love this album, just because it is to me one of the most positive one BoC did. Then when I started to listen to songs like Peacock Tail, I felt a great amount of sadness/nostalgia, like the end of an era. I do like the idea of TCH being side A of TH being side B...like if beach and campfire times were over leaving space only for a desolated/deserted planet with its heartbeat still pumping over the sky...

This is bang on the money. It's as if part of the TH message was that when the bad times come, we'll miss the good old days and TCH represent those happy ole times.

[optic]

This is actually an interesting thread.
After spending about ten days with TH constantly on my headphones, I suddenly felt some kind of a nostalgic urge to go back and listen again to TCH...i personnaly love this album, just because it is to me one of the most positive one BoC did. Then when I started to listen to songs like Peacock Tail, I felt a great amount of sadness/nostalgia, like the end of an era. I do like the idea of TCH being side A of TH being side B...like if beach and campfire times were over leaving space only for a desolated/deserted planet with its heartbeat still pumping over the sky...

(morning thoughts)

I'm going to go one further and say that TCH is really disc one to TH's disc two, because they go together like peanut butter and jelly. I just gave TCH a spin after pretty much listening to TH non-stop since monday evening. And...wow. I always liked this album, but I won't lie...I was disappointed in it after it sank in. I never really went deeper into it like I did with Geo (difficult for me to glom onto for the longest, but then I came back to it about a year later and then it really spoke to me) and whenever a tune from campfire came up on shuffle I would listen to it passively or just skip over it. After being immersed in TH for so long, the songs, structure, vibe...all of TCH suddenly sounded new, and it sounded right. I suppose you could say all of BoC's stuff feeds of of itself in some respect, but nothing like this. These discs are meant to be played together.

[Skytree]

TH reminds me of Twoism more than anything.

Gemini...

[NuevasSemillas]

MHTRTC is a great album.

Geogaddi is a great album.

Headphase is a great album.

Harvest is a great album.

Boards of Canada make nothing but good music and that is why their my favorite band. They simply can't disappoint me.

This

[Yellow Records]

I actually had a question about TCH. For a long time I've thought the album was about the life of one person. I can't remember if I thought it up or I read it somewhere. I'm sure someone else must have talked about this, but I can't find anything. Has this been discussed before?

Here's how I see it:

Into The Rainbow Vein - birth

Chromakey Dreamcoat - joyful infancy, then the change at 4:29 at the dawning of self-awareness

Satellite Anthem Icarus - childhood

Peacock Tail - school

Dayvan Cowboy - reaching sexual maturity, then the change at 3:07 represents sexual awakening

A Moment Of Clarity - nearing adulthood, thoughts of becoming an adult

'84 Pontiac Dream - young adulthood, college, fun in the sun

Sherbert Head - marriage

Oscar See Through Red Eye - becoming a parent

Ataronchronon - middle age

Hey Saturday Sun - late middle age, retirement, bittersweet memories of youth

Constants Are Changing - dawn of old age, contemplating mortality

Slow This Bird Down - very old age and then death

Tears From The Compound Eye - funeral and burial

Farewell Fire - the memory of the person slowly fades until there is nothing left

Shit Man.

[esselfortium]

Even after listening to it with undivided attention, for the life of me I can't remember how Oscar See Through Red Eye and Slow This Bird Down go.

Well, you should fix that. Oscar See Through Red Eye is probably the best song BoC have ever recorded, and almost certainly their most melodically/sonically complex and varied. There's so much going on in it.

[Headphase]

Headphase is the best thing ever. Full stop.

Amen!