Boards of Canada: The Campfire Headphase (2LP) [WARP]

Why you'll love it

This Warp 2LP set spreads the album across four sides, each one freshly recut for this pressing. It reached No. 41 in the UK, scored 79 on Metacritic and earned a silver certification from the Independent Music Companies Association.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Recut on all four sides

About the album

Most electronic acts spend their careers adding gear. Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin went the other way on their third album, aiming, in Sandison's words, to shift and reduce the sound palette until it felt like a conventional band gone over the edge. Sketches started in 2002, the real work in 2004, and the duo steered clear of effects units and computer programming wherever they could, bending hardware sounds by hand instead.

The result swaps cryptic samples for heavily treated guitars that sound like they've been left out in the sun. "Dayvan Cowboy" builds from a woozy drone into a huge, widescreen surge, and its video pairs Joe Kittinger's famous parachute jump from 19.5 miles up with Laird Hamilton riding big waves in slow motion. "Chromakey Dreamcoat," "Peacock Tail" and "Oscar See Through Red Eye" carry the same warm, faded Polaroid glow, and "Farewell Fire" closes things out in a long, slow dissolve.

The Observer's Simon Reynolds praised the stereophonic delirium of the production, and it remains the warmest, most guitar-friendly door into their catalogue. Despite the name, they're from Scotland; we file them under Electronic and try not to take it personally.

Also at Kops: more Boards of Canada on vinyl · browse Electronic

Tracklist

Listen

On Warp (cat# warplp123r), a reissue of the 2005 album.