Imagine how those SETI guys must feel – that is, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. All day, waiting by a sonar scanner monitoring any kind of discrepancies they may encounter, any sign of life. The exact thing out of that movie Contact. This, in a nutshell, is what it feels like to be a fan of Boards of Canada: a long, patient wait for what may, or may not, come.
For those of you who don’t know, the famed Scottish ambient duo recently announced their first studio album in 13 years, after a two-week rollout that involved cryptic VHS tapes sent to fans, creepy posters, and endless analyzation.
And if you’re new to the band, odds are you’ll quickly find how deep the fanbase runs. And not just how hyper vigilant it is (they scrub through every minute detail with a fine-tooth comb), but just how proactive they are. Within the first four hours of the unlabeled VHS tapes being known, deep chat forums such as Twoism and KEYOSC had already been scrubbing through the shared footage, analyzing the audio via spectrograms (backwards and forwards), and trying to source the origin of each religious image they were able to recognize.
But this isn’t the first time a rollout of their’s has gotten fans in a frenzy. This phenomenon went even deeper 13 years ago with the release of their last album “Tomorrow’s Harvest,” which also began with a cryptic rollout involving un-labelled vinyl records containing numeric sequences requiring fans to work together to unlock a “code.”
The philosopher Terrence McKenna once said, “Culture is the ultimate cult.” And needless to say, their fanbase is one of a kind: proactive, critically thinking, and hyper-observant. But they’re also a fanbase that likes (and expects) to be challenged. Most bands offer new music as refuge – a collection of material to retreat into for a short period of time. However, Boards of Canada does not succumb to those types of expectations. They do not see their music on the same level where it’ll just be taken for granted. Instead, they – for lack of better words – make you work for it. They’re not just going to give it to you willy-nilly on a silver platter to just “enjoy.” They’re going to make you be an active listener. They’re going to make you get off your ass. They’re going to make you engage with other listeners and work together whether you like each other or not, decode things, in an effort to unlock a greater common goal.
Do you see what we mean? To Boards of Canada, it’s not just about “releasing new music,” but mobilizing (and re-uniting) a community in the process.
But that’s what the intimacy of Boards of Canada can do. Their music has a way of working its way through your ears and directly accessing your emotions. Just visit one of the many chat forums and you’ll find many others affected the same way: members who have been a part of this community for decades now, once again resurfacing for what feels like a comet entering our solar system.
It’s amazing that a band could have such a devout, yet detached, fanbase that has still been cultivating for years without the band even making a peep. It’s music that is shared, passed down, and enjoyed communally, much like bedtime or campfire stories, making them one of the few contemporary acts that can still drum up such a hype. Their music enables a private obsession amongst the listener, yet engages them in a larger communal experience.
A lot of people’s hopes were re-kindled when they uploaded that Youtube video, loosely titled “Tape 05.” And a lot has changed over the past 13 years since they last released original material. Many of us have fallen in love, gotten married, fallen out of love, had kids, passed on… We’re all different versions of ourselves now, hopefully better versions, and perhaps we’ve gone through many versions on the way here; how many phases and goodbyes have we gone through since?
As for this writer, we know exactly where we were: still naïve, un-jaded, and had yet to have their heartbroken unaware of the weight age brings. New Boards of Canada is not just a batch of new songs to listen to – it is also an acknowledgement of our past, a chance to say goodbye to the person we’ve become and figure out who we’re going to be.
Featured image courtesy of Warp Records