REVIEWS

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Boards of Canada
The Campfire Headphase

Warp Records

Posted: Tuesday, April 18, 2006
By: Jon Prusik

The world is most undoubtedly riddled with a large number of hypocrisies. The one I shall reference here is the perils that artists fall into when the fan is not satisfied with their most current endeavor. Now this can take on varying levels of reasoning to find out why the fan is unsatisfied with what their choice band has set forth upon the earth and the accompanying solar system. The core of this hypocrisy that I speak of is when a band gives us something that we weren’t ready for or ever expected in the first place, and we aren’t having it because we expect what we expect based on their past work or just our own selfish quirks. Bands are comprised of human beings (except Kraftwerk) and these life forms, that we are viewed as, seem to change both mentally and physically over time; this is what we call progress in some circles, and in others it’s called betrayal. Ever since I was able to articulate my feelings and opinions to others about forms of art and entertainment and process what they’ve had to say in return, I’ve always heard this one thing over and over. To sum that thing up and express it to you as to what it’s always meant to me is that the artist must always do what you expect and never change, but if they do then they should be ready for the tar and feathers.

What happened here with The Campfire Headphase is that we get exactly what we have come to expect from them and it’s bittersweet because though we get the standard Boards of Canada fare, which is pleasing to the ear, it’s also a bit dull to be listening to the same record after all this time. Granted there is some light guitar instrumentation/sampling (calm down okay!) and that is a change for them, it still makes me happy that I downloaded this one instead of buying it and feeling cheated for the bland joy it evokes. The Campfire Headphase is such an extension of its predecessors that this reviewer feels that he’ll save ReGen readers time by not breaking the album down into much further detail, because this is an album they could’ve (and have) written years ago with past favorites such as Geogaddi and Music Has the Right to Children.

In the end if you want an hour of well-composed background electronic music treats for that darkened room lit only by your laptop’s monitor, this is the one new one you can add to your collection for that nightly ritual. The problem with having another one of those is that the market is already flooded with them and now it’s coming from bands that used to raise the bar. Now the bar is still where it was when bands like BoC entered the game and flourished, but none of these IDM artists seem to want to or are able to lift it. Even label mates, such as Richard D. James, have proven themselves exhausted... and why not? We’re arguably in possibly the most exhausted and stagnant era of creativity in human history.