Campfire Headphase

Campfire Headphase is a good album. It is not a great album.

From this band i expect greatness. From these perfectionists i expect nothing short of genius. I expect to be moved, scared and gobsmacked in equal measures. Not just to listen to, but to study also. Campfire took three years to make yet it sounds like three months.

I just didn't get it. Not then, and not now. I'll still be there for the next release though, and would happily wait a bit longer if they get it right. I expect a massive return to form.

  On 6/1/2010 at 4:30 PM, Hoodie said:

  On 6/1/2010 at 10:17 AM, Joebot Kill said:

i dunno, it is what it is. here's hoping their new stuff will be more like 747 or the why? remix. or even trans canada highway, which is pretty incredible.

 

dude, i agree with everything you say, but especially this. get outta my head, yo!

yeah, i'm definitely with you on the 747.

yep...looking forward to a new release.

but hoping for that anal perfectionism of previous releases. i agree 100% with digger,

it just doesnt sound like the love was given to this release. its lackluster....and ya, coulda been done in three months

rather than three years.

and yes again digger...they should take as long as it takes to make this album a nuke. hope its gonna drop like a musiclear bomb.

D...i can't hang the with why? remix. personally i think its the worst thing theyve ever done. the only track of theirs i deleted from the collection.

for me...it never happened :)

i likes the clouddead guys though. freakin thick sounds...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpkO02ZZWh4

know what im sayin....

[interesting...when i previewed this post i saw youtube windows. is this a new feature?]

It's actually swimming in detail. These tracks are deceptively simple. For example, I bet you didn't notice all the crazy sampling during the last third of Peacock Tail?

I disagree with the post that said that if you love this album you enjoy the other two for the wrong reasons. Bullshit. You do realize that people's opinions are formed by the context they put things in from everything they've experienced thus far in life.

  On 6/2/2010 at 3:23 AM, Candiru said:

It's actually swimming in detail. These tracks are deceptively simple. For example, I bet you didn't notice all the crazy sampling during the last third of Peacock Tail?

you mean at the moment that track starts to fall apart? reminiscent of system7. its just flaccid.

ya i noticed it. but its not like the previous releases.

pete standing alone with ever changing kicks. ever so subtle, but intriguing to the ear. little snares slipped in every now and again, but not to much as to become repetitious.

sick shit.

[note: this is just a personal opinion and in no way reflects how you feel about the album or tunes we are discussing]

  On 6/2/2010 at 3:23 AM, Candiru said:

It's actually swimming in detail. These tracks are deceptively simple. For example, I bet you didn't notice all the crazy sampling during the last third of Peacock Tail?

 

I disagree with the post that said that if you love this album you enjoy the other two for the wrong reasons. Bullshit. You do realize that people's opinions are formed by the context they put things in from everything they've experienced thus far in life.

Yeah, I knew what I was saying was gonna elicit this response, I was just saying it to emphasize how far away the album was from everything that made me love BoC in the first place. For me, Headphase has little or none of the charm I found in previous albums, and everything that did scream "BoC" at me screamed it in a massively cliched, hackneyed way. The "oldness" sounded fake. There was no hauntology about it.

Obviously everything's context and everything's subjective (?) so there's no point arguing, but that was what I was trying to express

  On 6/3/2010 at 6:49 AM, soundbwoy said:

For me, Headphase has little or none of the charm I found in previous albums, and everything that did scream "BoC" at me screamed it in a massively cliched, hackneyed way. The "oldness" sounded fake.

There was no hauntology about it.

Obviously everything's context and everything's subjective (?) so there's no point arguing, but that was what I was trying to express

agreed and agreed.

this is the best album in the world fuck the haters right in the cunt hard

  On 6/3/2010 at 8:16 AM, MAXIMUS MISCHIEF said:

this is the best album in the world fuck the haters right in the cunt hard

That's a bit harsh.

  On 6/3/2010 at 1:02 PM, Stickfigger said:

this album will always make me remember the day that i stopped calling myself a BOC fan

Were you listening to it the day you lost your goddamn mind? ;-)

headfire campphase

why are people hating on this album? sure its different than their other shit, but its still phenomenal.. more of an ambient sense

peacock tail fucking rocks

And like you can say they wanted to make a lighter, surfy, hippy (read: shit) sort of album, and I guess that's their decision yo

But it seems a weird decision to make when that light, surfy, hippy sound is pretty the same sound lots of contemporaries are aiming for, and doing pretty much as well

It's like comlpetely ignoring their unique talent for the darker sound. Anyone can sound like Campfire Headphase, but it seems no-one but BoC themselves could create the unique atmosphere of previous albums. When you've got a monopoly on a unique sound in the way they do, it seems a strange move. Or not so strange, but more of a waste of their talents.

  On 6/3/2010 at 9:46 AM, NewSchoolScience said:

  On 6/3/2010 at 8:16 AM, MAXIMUS MISCHIEF said:

this is the best album in the world fuck the haters right in the cunt hard

 

That's a bit harsh.

idgaf

  On 6/4/2010 at 12:45 PM, soundbwoy said:

And like you can say they wanted to make a lighter, surfy, hippy (read: shit) sort of album, and I guess that's their decision yo

But it seems a weird decision to make when that light, surfy, hippy sound is pretty the same sound lots of contemporaries are aiming for, and doing pretty much as well

It's like comlpetely ignoring their unique talent for the darker sound. Anyone can sound like Campfire Headphase, but it seems no-one but BoC themselves could create the unique atmosphere of previous albums. When you've got a monopoly on a unique sound in the way they do, it seems a strange move. Or not so strange, but more of a waste of their talents.

Follow up

  Quote

lighter, surfy, hippy (read: shit) sort of album

  Quote

a weird decision to make when that light, surfy, hippy sound is pretty the same sound lots of contemporaries are aiming for, and doing pretty much as well...Anyone can sound like Campfire Headphase

I read this complaint quite often but I never see a comparative analysis. Please list albums that you think sound like TCH, or that TCH appears to victimize. Anyone? Does this mean everyone?

  Quote

but more of a waste of their talents

  Quote

Follow up

 

  Quote

lighter, surfy, hippy (read: shit) sort of album

This is subjective. You have not developed an appreciation for these styles.

 

  Quote

a weird decision to make when that light, surfy, hippy sound is pretty the same sound lots of contemporaries are aiming for, and doing pretty much as well...Anyone can sound like Campfire Headphase

I read this complaint quite often but I never see a comparative analysis. Please list albums that you think sound like TCH, or that TCH appears to victimize. Anyone? Does this mean everyone?

 

  Quote

but more of a waste of their talents

Would they agree?

Follow up follow up ;D

Yes, that is subjective. In fact it was more intended as a joke anyway, I don't think they necessarily have to be shit, but subjectively, it's not the kind of music that generally grabs me

Allow a comparative analysis; you should get that my drift is that no-one but BoC can make an album like Geogaddi etc. A lot of us feel this way. Less of us feel so strongly that somebody couldn't make Campfire Headphase if they wanted to. Without having to list all the 100000 songs I've heard over my lifetime that I now vaguely recall listening to Campfire Headphase, suffice to say that I get the feeling I've either heard something massively similar somewhere else, or could imagine someone making it in a way I can't do with MHTRTC etc.

And finally, I was going to add in my previous post (or maybe I did?) that obviously BoC are BoC. I'm not BoC. So of course they must have had a reason to make Campfire Headphase. They probably didn't make it out of a desire to alleviate the darkness of previous albums. They don't need a particular reason. But I PERSONALLY feel that they have a rare sound that only they can create, and to create a sound other than that is sure fine, but you know. What about that massive roll you were on with ALL of your previous albums...

  On 6/4/2010 at 5:35 PM, soundbwoy said:

  Quote

Follow up

 

  Quote

lighter, surfy, hippy (read: shit) sort of album

This is subjective. You have not developed an appreciation for these styles.

 

  Quote

a weird decision to make when that light, surfy, hippy sound is pretty the same sound lots of contemporaries are aiming for, and doing pretty much as well...Anyone can sound like Campfire Headphase

I read this complaint quite often but I never see a comparative analysis. Please list albums that you think sound like TCH, or that TCH appears to victimize. Anyone? Does this mean everyone?

 

  Quote

but more of a waste of their talents

Would they agree?

 

Follow up follow up ;D

 

Yes, that is subjective. In fact it was more intended as a joke anyway, I don't think they necessarily have to be shit, but subjectively, it's not the kind of music that generally grabs me

 

Allow a comparative analysis; you should get that my drift is that no-one but BoC can make an album like Geogaddi etc. A lot of us feel this way. Less of us feel so strongly that somebody couldn't make Campfire Headphase if they wanted to. Without having to list all the 100000 songs I've heard over my lifetime that I now vaguely recall listening to Campfire Headphase, suffice to say that I get the feeling I've either heard something massively similar somewhere else, or could imagine someone making it in a way I can't do with MHTRTC etc.

 

And finally, I was going to add in my previous post (or maybe I did?) that obviously BoC are BoC. I'm not BoC. So of course they must have had a reason to make Campfire Headphase. They probably didn't make it out of a desire to alleviate the darkness of previous albums. They don't need a particular reason. But I PERSONALLY feel that they have a rare sound that only they can create, and to create a sound other than that is sure fine, but you know. What about that massive roll you were on with ALL of your previous albums...

I agree it is totally divergent, and for many a large speed bump, that looked like this :

...on the road to the perfect time and space rape we are really hoping for.

Headphase is bees in David Crosby's beard. I really dig that vibe. But its dense and complex too. Oscar might as well belong in a sculpture park. Surf's full of dead babies and not bro's when Slow Bird rolls in, etc..

All I can say is give it another go if you gave up on it after a week. You seem like the type who would pay strict attention first so it might forever be a wash.

And the perfect album? I was kinda hoping it would be the hooty binary ectoplasm witnessed at ATP back in 2001. But I had the retro goggles in my back pocket that turned the flat guitars into 3-D kaleidoscopic flat guitars. They have a weird ability to pull out my favorite sub genres left and right so I am basically skewed.

I'll add this perspective for the Headphase or "Let it Be" haters by playing on the Beatles or BoC progression :

revolver / twoism

sgt. pepper's / music has the right to children

mmt / iabpoitc

the beatles / geogaddi

let it be / campfire headphase

yellow sub OST/ trans canada

abbey road / ?????????

(collected HS singles, one offs for Past Masters, remixes are guest appearances on "Nilsson Schmilsson" etc)

Exciting news! This "data" suggest a BoC album of ABBEY ROAD proportions is on the march! Huge! This of course will be the last "Boards of Canada" album, notwithstanding Beatles would have released their entire discography in between Geogaddi and Headphase. During the late 60's the time was with the Beatles, and I can only assume fighting process with "hauntology" as the metaphoric time machine has caused the delays for bros S, kind of like a salmon fighting its way upstream.

i can't stand The Beatles.

having to hear them every fucking time i enter a shop in Liverpool might have something to do with that.

  On 6/4/2010 at 7:19 PM, oscillik said:

i can't stand The Beatles.

 

having to hear them every fucking time i enter a shop in Liverpool might have something to do with that.

T-Boys used to sneer at the mods wearing their AE shirts back in 1966--nothing has changed!

  On 6/4/2010 at 12:45 PM, soundbwoy said:

And like you can say they wanted to make a lighter, surfy, hippy (read: shit) sort of album, and I guess that's their decision yo

But it seems a weird decision to make when that light, surfy, hippy sound is pretty the same sound lots of contemporaries are aiming for, and doing pretty much as well

It's like comlpetely ignoring their unique talent for the darker sound. Anyone can sound like Campfire Headphase, but it seems no-one but BoC themselves could create the unique atmosphere of previous albums. When you've got a monopoly on a unique sound in the way they do, it seems a strange move. Or not so strange, but more of a waste of their talents.

i myself am 100% surf. rocked trestles in socal 3-5 times a week for YEARS. 10 years in san clemente.

nothing surf about this album in the SLIGHTEST, save the footage they put in the dayvan vid. WHICH had a couple nice shots.

but some lame laird hamilton shots, strapping.

laird DOMINATES the 'O', dont get me wrong. but there is much surfier surf stuff than that.

this album [in my surf bias opin] is 0% surf related. unless little toe-highs lapping at the beach is considered surf.

it sounds more like presets and one shot takes.

[try to watch the first 2 or 3 if you can. they are worth it]

THIS is surf....Shelter

FUCK this surf vid IS surf. thank you mccoys! embodiment of surf

Sprout

Sprout trailer

and the punk side...volcom's Creepy Fingers

NOW THIS is surf.

THIS IS IDM

  On 6/4/2010 at 9:09 PM, phaelam said:

nothing surf about this album in the SLIGHTEST, save the footage they put in the dayvan vid.

Thank you for making this point break.

  On 6/4/2010 at 9:19 PM, all_purpose_sandpaper said:

  On 6/4/2010 at 9:09 PM, phaelam said:

nothing surf about this album in the SLIGHTEST, save the footage they put in the dayvan vid.

 

Thank you for making this point break.

no sweat peanut butter and jam

  On 6/4/2010 at 9:13 PM, oscillik said:

THIS IS IDM

No,