Sometimes a day’s experience can prepare your mind for a moment, the way a cook prepares a dish to taste its best. In my case, I spent Saturday loafing around downtown Ann Arbor with a friend. It was unseasonably perfect – light jacket weather in mid November and we were there to look for photo locations, considering every building and tree for its loveliness and color scheme - our eyes becoming acclimated to searching for accidental beauty.
I drove home during an inky dusk, my mind swept clean from so much fresh air, listening to the new Boards of Canada. As I steered my vehicle East, from 275 to onto 696, I passed one of those giant oscillating search lights, spinning giant beams of white up at the clouds. The track Slow this Bird Down was playing and at that moment I had the distinct sense of my own transience – that the earth was a place among places, rather than the totality of locations for existence, as it often seems. I felt temporary, that I could dissolve into the oily horizon for a ride to the next station. The marquee spotlights spun powerfully.
Boards of Canada make triggers for the sonic subconscious. Each release is a mixed bag, half of it magic. Here are three of the finer tracks from their most recent release, The Campfire Headphase.
Boards of Canada – Slow This Bird Down
Boards of Canada – A Moment of Clarity
Boards of Canada – Tears From the Compound Eye
