What was your first impression of Boards of Canada?

Dudeman162 · Post by **Dudeman162** » Wed May 14, 2014 5:47 pm

Well, when I was a young lad back in 2011, I would go to chill XM and listen to the songs they have. If I liked one or more, I would record it and save it(I had a satellite tv provider that also had satellite radio stations, and chill XM was one of them). Then one day, I found the song "oirectine" by Boards of Canada. It sounded familiar, for it might have been one of those bump songs Adult Swim plays. Initially, I thought they were some indie band making chill music, who happened to be Canadian.

Then a few days later, the song "Alpha and Omega" came on. I imagined giant zeppelins and other steampunk things in an old sepia film, so I thought of them as stereotypical gentlemen with monocles and top hats. Then I finally got on YouTube to look up the rest of their work and I found out what they actually looked like, then I proceeded to buy and download all of their music.

It'd still would have been cool to see them as gentlemen.

warphead · Post by **warphead** » Wed May 14, 2014 7:47 pm

Surprisingly (since I am here on a BOC forum) I never really liked Boards of Canada that much to start with. I was always (and still am tbh) first and foremost a massive Aphex Twin fan, since he was on Warp Records I also started to get into Autechre and BOC.

For about a decade since first buying MHTRTC and then Geogaddi I really struggled seeing what all the fuss was about. I remember thinking that MHTR was real hippy dippy stuff, and definitely remember thinking Geogaddi was just overblown with filler. TCH, I couldn't stand much either!! Then about midway between TCH and the release of TH, I began spending a lot of time absorbing their music.

I'll cut to the chase and just say I began to see the light.

Headphase · Post by **Headphase** » Wed May 14, 2014 8:51 pm

I liked them as soon as I heard them. The only album I still haven't gotten into yet is TH

fake mistakes · Post by **fake mistakes** » Wed May 14, 2014 9:03 pm

Honestly, the first time I heard them was when a friend gave me their album (geo) I put it in and gave it a listen. I did not like it. It was weird.
The second time I listened to it was when I was backpacking alone, I loved it.
I now back pack for my job and they are all I listen to.

arvy · Post by **arvy** » Wed May 14, 2014 9:22 pm

Nothing special. Hip-hop beats. Boring. If someone interested in my retarded opinion.
Although it was amazing moment, when I saw sinister trees in the Geogaddi artwork

powershoes · Post by **powershoes** » Thu May 15, 2014 12:36 am

warm orangey exorcism

panic button · Post by **panic button** » Thu May 15, 2014 1:14 am

The best music EVAR.

i-the-wayside · Post by **i-the-wayside** » Thu May 15, 2014 8:46 am

I'm a self-professed member of the Dayvan Cowboy bandwagon (before everyone starts booing me, I would've been 15/16 at the time, I haven't been a musical connoisseur from birth!) When I saw the video late at night on MTV2 I enjoyed it, and sought out the album soon after, though I certainly didn't think "this is going to be my favourite band within a few year's time" (little did I know).

I tend to find the songs that you love the longest are the 'growers', the ones that don't jump out at you right away. I don't know why that is. Having said that, 84 Pontiac Dream was immediately one of my favourite songs when I first heard it, and still is.

Another couple of growers from that album is Tears from the Compound Eye and Farewell Fire, I didn't pay them any attention until probably 4 years after I'd heard them, and now they're some of my favourites. It's weird how music and the brain works.

Anyway, after a holiday in the sun and TCH on repeat, it grew on me, and I fell in love with it. Especially when I came home to rainy England, played TCH, and the feeling of the sun and solitude came flooding back, and it still does.

23degreesdream · Post by **23degreesdream** » Thu May 15, 2014 9:14 am

A free CD on the cover over NME back in 1998. Alot of the time i wouldn't really listen to these as they'd be full of formulaic indie. Somehow i managed to wade through it and "Roygbiv" jumped out. I had to listen to it about 5 times - i fell in love with it, it reminded me instantly of music i remember from educational TV we watched at school. I bought MHTRTC off the back of that track alone.

Twoist · Post by **Twoist** » Thu May 15, 2014 9:51 am

'Bleak'. Soon followed by 'oh I LIKE it'.

sevenELIXIR · Post by **sevenELIXIR** » Thu May 15, 2014 10:25 am

first heard BOC back in 2003. I consider myself an old school fan and member of this board (member for almost 10 years now). from what I remember, I thought "these guys have managed to create the aural equivalent of a mushroom trip" after listening to Geogaddi. the type of music I'd been waiting for my whole life. I still feel the same.

chronical · Post by **chronical** » Thu May 15, 2014 12:02 pm

Fantastic emotional engineering.

Opothecary · Post by **Opothecary** » Thu May 15, 2014 1:05 pm

The reason I checked them out is because a glowing review of MHTRTC appeared in the same issue of AP that I bought because it had a story about the Sunny Day Real Estate reunion at the time - I was a huge fan of their debut album (very different from BoC!) and the reviewer was blown away and the description of the album sounded intriguing and seemed like what I'd been looking for without even knowing it.

Went out and found the album, put it on and halfway through An Eagle in Your Mind, it all clicked - to my teenage brain, drugs and psychedelia suddenly made sense, and at the same time it made me reconnect with and reevaluate the value that I put on my childhood. From then on, I chased down every scrap of their music that I could find!

ajog · Post by **ajog** » Thu May 15, 2014 2:35 pm

When MHTRTC came out, I just remember thinking 3 things:
1. brilliant
2. this is a refinement, in some ways, of the kinds of things that Tortoise was doing.
3. everything that they put forth was/is well thought-out. Everything in the scheme of their music serves a purpose, no filler.

Distant Nebulus · Post by **Distant Nebulus** » Thu May 15, 2014 3:23 pm

Back around 2007, I was a huge fan of Aesop Rock, especially his LP, Float. My favorite track on the record is called, Drawbridge ft. Dose One. I liked it so much, that I researched further into Dose One and the whole Anticon crew's music. Its from there that I discovered cLouddead, which I became obsessed with for a short time until I heard the remix of Dead Dogs Two by Boards of Canada. I then youtube searched Boards of Canada where the first result was ROYGBIV. I took one listen to that song and the rest is history. Skyliner and Happy Cycling where two other very early tracks that I came across that solidified my sudden interest in BoC.

ryetronics · Post by **ryetronics** » Thu May 15, 2014 5:24 pm

I'll never forget playing poker at a friends house back in 2004 and hearing Kid Loco's remix of Happy Cycling. I immediately asked what it was and from that day on was a huge fan.

uf0party · Post by **uf0party** » Thu May 15, 2014 7:29 pm

powershoes wrote:warm orangey exorcism

i just saw the movie about the woman in your avatar
fascinating person she was

uf0party · Post by **uf0party** » Thu May 15, 2014 7:38 pm

my first ever exposure to BoC was when i was a lil baby 11 year old back in 2006. i watched salad fingers a lot as well as david firth's other more fucked up videos and as lots of you probably know he uses lots of aphex twin and boards. first song i heard was "beware the friendly stranger" and i probably didn't give much thought to the music originally, besides that it gave a nice creepy atmosphere.
seeing the words "boards of canada" in the credits always gave me mental images of surf boards and the ocean and canada which didn't grab my interest initially, so it wasn't until probably 3 years later that i actually gave them a chance.
i looked at their website before listening to anything and was somewhat interested, but mostly i just wanted to hear something new. at 14/15 i was really trying to branch out with my taste so i was giving everything a chance. i used limewire a lot at the time so i just typed in their name and downloaded probably the first 10 songs that popped up.

dayvan cowboy was the first song that made me go "woah this is something". chromakey dreamcoat and hey saturday sun are the two songs that really turned me into a fan, and the first full album i listened to was twoism i think. and i was in love. then with every album i listened to after that, i just fell deeper into obsession and here i am now.

Generalchesty · Post by **Generalchesty** » Thu May 15, 2014 11:21 pm

my friends first tried turning me on to Geogaddi and I thought it was ok. I liked Music Is Math and I just thought they were geeky musicians who were into science and math... Several months later I heard Buckie High and went on to MHTRTC and Twoism and was reminded of cloudy summers and Saturday morning outings and every crevice of my old home

frank chipboard · Post by **frank chipboard** » Fri May 16, 2014 2:39 am

23degreesdream wrote:A free CD on the cover over NME back in 1998. Alot of the time i wouldn't really listen to these as they'd be full of formulaic indie. Somehow i managed to wade through it and "Roygbiv" jumped out. I had to listen to it about 5 times - i fell in love with it, it reminded me instantly of music i remember from educational TV we watched at school. I bought MHTRTC off the back of that track alone.

Snap! Jurassic 5 were on the same cd.

Good times.

____twoism

What was your first impression of Boards of Canada?

What was your first impression of Boards of Canada?

The story of how Aesop Rock led me to Boards of Canada...