Boards of Canada and my Philosophy of music

Cool people are:
- People who achieve extraordinary feats but do not give a damn about what others think, good or bad.
- People who do not give a damn about what others think
- People with tasteful play-lists filled with songs from great artists unheard and unknown to the mass.

The first two prove to be quite annoying and arrogant sometimes. But the third one never fails to please me no matter how cocky they might be. Definitely, they make statements with the music the listen to (better still, with the music they make!).

However, so far, very very few people I know ever make it into this categories because they are mostly wannabes who unluckily did not have the prerequisite first-hand exposure or simply (and bluntly) forgot who had introduced them to such enlightenment, mistaking it for their own discovery but totally ignoring or distorting the philosophy behind such creations, turning it into superficial means to fill up the boredom of silence. These are people who passively feed on others' yearning for music and recognition for deserving people. Music is meant to be shared but not to be given away in such a meaningless manner. I pity people who cannot feel or think when they listen to music. (Therefore, I hate myself for some times)

Of course, there are fun music, momentous music, deep music, instant music , music for noble course and music for casual purposes too. But no matter what sort of music it is meant to be, at the first place, sound is only qualified to be called music when it can evoke one's feelings that might take a more specific form as images or memories in one's mind. Of course, this is very much subjective to one's level of imagination but even for the dullest person in the world, music must also be able to work this way through, otherwise, it's just sounds pieced together pointlessly under some theories.

In contrast, the best music does not only stir up the emotions hot-pot but also implicitly and aesthetically slot humanitarian messages and life philosophies in between the notes that have the power to transcend any obscurity to enlighten every single listener.

In this term, Boards of Canada is the epitome of the subject.
In case you think their name is a shameless self-promotion of a country, well, then it's not. Full story can be followed here. The fact that they are siblings and their attempt to conceal the kinship to avoid being compared to well-known bands of similar background really excites me.

Electronic sounds can never be deeper and more humanized than BOC's creations. There works (or at least those in debut album"Music has the right to children") are characterized by the haunting ambiance anchored to the edge of phonic comprehension by repetitive, calmly cold drumbeat and breakthrough swirling electronic melody. OH YEAH, and don't forget the nostalgic vocals that can only be heard of from picture-perfect 70s documentaries, heavily synthetic like Stepford wives but strangely organic like touching a real orange or sniffing a leave of mint.

I can totally imagine how perfectly BOC's music is fitting to be featured soundtrack of some Osamu Tezuka's movies about humanoid robots striving for humanity if they were ever to be made.

Whenever I listen to BOC with my eyes closed, images like a golden daisy field just appear in front of me like scratchy, jerky old film reel with washed-out-color, serving like an useful long-lost manual for people in an emotionless world to win back the ability to feel.

The key-word here is VERY THOUGHT-PROVOKING. Highly nutritious food for thoughts.

My favorite tracks are all in "Music has the right to children" album as this is the only one I've gotten my hand on so far. I won't put the video here as there are no official videos for BOC. All are fan-made so the quality wasn't that consistent for display. In order of merit, they are

Turquoise Hexagon Sun

Olson (that has extremely excellent fan-made video with Cowboy Bebop montages so I'll put here)



One very important thought

The Color of the Fire

You can go Youtube and dig up the rest. ENJOY!

Caution: Don't listen when you work, highly inefficient as this is sleep-inducing when the mood is not right