A Few Old Tunes… A Tribute To Boards of Canada

“I played at a festival with Mike and Marcus, curated by Mira Calix in Sheffield in the late 90s, where they performed a rare DJ set. We all stayed at the same place after the gig and – already being a fan – I asked them about some of their influences. I’d brought along some 70s jazz records that sounded like some of their music – mostly, I now realise, because they used the same synth sounds. One of them was an album called Timeless by John Abercrombie which you can hear a tiny sample of, closing out the end of ‘Everything You Do is A Balloon’. When I showed them it they looked nonplussed. They had no idea what it was. They’d sampled it from an old video tape, not knowing the source. They’d never heard the full piece, so I promised to send them my spare copy. A few weeks later, I received a personal letter from them thanking me, along with a unique CD of the Peel Session release with the extra track, ‘XYZ’, which was left off the official release.” – Strictly Kev

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“Although people were on to the Conet stuff a long time ago it’s still fascinating and addictive to get into. I completely buy into it all too. That kind of stuff really does lead you down the BOC rabbit hole. I’ve always been one of those who’s at home with the LP on, reading the sleeve top to bottom at the same time, and it’s firing the imagination off in all sorts of directions.” – Tom Central

“Boards of Canada are one of the main reasons we ended up as Posthuman. Rich and I had messed around writing tunes on some old keyboards, FX pedals, a drum machine and a 4-track when we were teenagers. Rich then left for university and I stayed behind (I’m a year younger). He came back after a few months away with a CD by BOC on Skam. He was excitedly telling me about this act and label he’d discovered – all about the notorious braille stickers on the sleeves, and how secretive Boards were, and of these super-rare MASK series records.

Probably less than a half-dozen pieces of music have affected me in my life the way that did.

“He put the CD on and played ‘Roygbiv’, and that was it – I was hooked. Probably less than a half-dozen pieces of music have affected me in my life the way that did. It influenced our style of writing and led directly to us sending a demo to Skam – which resulted in our first release and inspired us to carry on as Posthuman. And here we are, 15 years later, still listening to ‘Roygbiv’ in awe.” – Josh Doherty

“Have you ever tried to mix their tracks? I don’t know what it is about their sounds and melodies but they seem to be out of tune with everything else, even their own tunes. Maybe that’s the secret of their success? Maybe they mix subtly discordant sounds together that trigger something in our minds that other groups don’t? Whatever it is, it makes blending their songs into anything but pure drums a real challenge.” – Strictly Kev

“Why did I re-edit ‘Reach For The Dead’? It simply didn’t go on long enough. Just as I was getting into it, it finished and I wanted more. Oddly enough, since then they’ve said that they deliberately did this with several tracks on the LP, mimicking the way some soundtracks are cut from longer pieces of music and end unexpectedly. I’d love to get the multi-tracks of the piece to do something epic with it.” – Strictly Kev

“I see Tomorrow’s Harvest as a culmination of several decades of work. It encapsulates the nostalgia of Music Has The Right To Children, the darkness and foreboding from Geogaddi and the organic melodies from Campfire Headphase. It sticks to its guns in offering a listenable musical experience as well as offering the depth and mystery the deep codebreaker fans want. It’s immediately accessible and a long-term grower. It’s my new favourite Boards of Canada LP. But then I do like a nice case of dystopian apophenia…” – Mach V

A Few Old Tunes… takes place on Thursday, June 20th, at Catch, Kingsland Road, London from 8pm until 2am. Free entry all night.