#campfire headphase

Short Review

‘Campfire Headphase’ is an emotionally rich journey of an album. The tracks are thick with various sounds that sound strangely organic and nostalgic. I recommend this album if you’re searching for something calming to listen to whilst you do your homework or something... I dunno that’s what I use this album for.

Long Review

Eventually I will write about Boards of Canada’s more recent album ‘Tomorrows Harvest’ but today I got a $400 driving ticket and want to listen to one of my favourite albums ‘Campfire Headphase’. ‘Boards of Canada’ is the stage name of the Scottish electronic duo consisting of brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin. Their music can be characterised as sound rich and highly organic. In a way their music is quite nostalgic in the sense that it feels like listening to the echoes of the past which is probably an odd thing to say but that’s what I think. The style of music that ‘Boards of Canada’ produces is kind of hard to pin point. It’s kind of a cross between ambient, IDM, and highly instrumental styles of music. Their music is something you just listen to and enjoy; it’s certainly not something you’d hear at the club as far as I know.

‘Campfire Headphase’ is one of my favourite albums from Boards of Canada with their recent album ‘Tomorrows Harvest’ almost topping it in rank. ‘Campfire Headphase’ is just such a brilliant albums featuring these tracks that have thick layers of organic sounding… uhh… sounds. Each track feels very well produced as if a horrendous amount of thought had been implemented to produce such calculated pieces. If I could describe this album in three words I would say calming, warm and brilliant.

In the first half of the album we’re introduced to tracks such as ‘Chromakey Dreamcoat’ and ‘Peacock Tail’. These tracks seem like you’re going on a journey as you listen to them. The tracks actually go somewhere. ‘Chromakey Dreamcoat’ begins with a tame sounding banjo sort of sound and drums before all of a sudden the track just bursts with swirling ambient sounds and what I’m assuming is woodwind pipes? It’s pretty sweet. ‘Peacock Tail’ is similar to ‘Chromakey Dreamcoat’ in terms of composition; however instead of moving in and out of banjos and drums to heavy ambient synths, ‘Peacock Tail’ is just one big build up. The track begins with a gentle guitar strumming and as the track progresses drums, xylophones, synths and sort of weird old transmission sounds join in. The track just becomes stockier as it progresses before fading out into nothing.

‘Dayvan Cowboy’ is another track from the first half that’s worth mentioning. The beginning half of the track is a slow progression towards something that you just know if going to happen. The sounds of eerie, old sounding ambient music switching from left to right of your ears, deteriorated notes from something that sounds like an electric guitar, and the sound of distant drums that get closer as the track progresses gives the beginning half this sense of suspense. The second half begins with all sounds cutting out leaving this lone guitar to strum before a sort of drop occurs with the sounds of violins, xylophones, synths, drums, etc. gaining speed before ending with the lone guitar. It’s a really spectacular track. I’ll link this pretty cool music video someone made using the track ‘Dayvan Cowboy’ and footage of the ‘Red Bull Stratos Jump’ at the end of this review.

Out of the whole album and not just the first half I would probably suggest that the best tracks (apart from ‘Dayvan Cowboy’) would be ‘`84 Pontiac Dream’ and ‘Oscar See through Red Eye’. These two particular tracks are probably the fullest sounding tracks without being overly obnoxious. ‘`84 Pontiac Dream’ is just such a calming track even though the track is so thick in composition. There are so many sounds in just one track. The sound of various drums, symbols, thick bass sounds, xylophones, strangely organic synth sounds, ambient noises of streets and rain seem to just swirl in and out. It’s beautiful. The track ‘Oscar See through Red Eye’ is kind of similar to ‘`84 Pontiac Dream’ in composition however it’s heavier on the drums and strings. The direction in this track just like ‘`84 Pontiac Dream’ relies heavily on the sounds of the synths in the background allowing the listener and the various, VARIOUS other sounds to follow along this flowing stream of musical water (and that ladies,  gentlemen and whatever other gender is how you sound like an asshole). They’re really good tracks… in my opinion.

There’s not a lot to say about the second half of the album. The first half is just this amazing array of sounds whist the second half (although still beautiful) is kind of a depressing come down with tracks that progressively become slower and more shallow in terms of their composition. The second half is more of a drawn out closing for the album. Don’t let that be a turn off though there are still some decent tracks in the second half. I would suggest ‘Slow This Bird Down’ and ‘Tears from the Compound Eye’ are the best tracks of the second half. ‘Slow This Bird Down’ is a very nice ambient track; it’s very minimalist compared to many of the other tracks. The track features some nice slow and consistent drums, some eerie radio transmission like sounds whilst ambient synth sounds echo in the background like a choir. ‘Tears from the Compound Eye’ is a little different. It features similar ambient synth sounds with some strange sounding transmission noises. I particularly enjoy the slightly aged sounding, almost violin like synth that sticks out from the eerie drones of ambient sounds; it’s very emotional in a sad lonesome way. The album then comes to an end with ‘Farewell Fire’ and ‘Macquarie Ridge’ (a bonus track in the Japanese release I believe) two very different sounding tracks. ‘Farewell fire’ is what I consider to be the end of the album. It’s this very bleak sounding ambient track which has this aged sounding synth playing this kind of slowed down carousel music. It’s really nice. ‘Macquarie Ridge’, the final track on this album is kind of the opposite. The track has these loud, reverberating synths that repetitively fluctuate whilst this bass sound accompanies the track keeping it grounded. There are also some melodic sounds, various ambient synth sounds, and distant xylophone tunes that appear every now and again. It’s a pretty uplifting track to end on, a lot less depressing than ‘Farewell Fire’ my opinion.

I think the album as a whole has been put together incredibly well. The album opens up with tracks that sound like you’re embarking on an amazing journey gaining in awe as it progresses before slowly drawing to an end by the second half inducing feelings of loneliness and emptiness. From the tracks to the construction of the album this album is incredibly emotionally heavy. The tracks are strangely organic sounding as I previously mentioned but even the synthetic sounds have these weird natural textures. It’s bizarre but awesome. This album is brilliant and I highly recommend the album to anyone who wants to try a very different style of electronic music.

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