Boards of Canada: everything you do is a balloon

Boards of Canada

everything you do is a balloon (Hi Scores EP. Skam 1996)

(click on link to watch vi

I first came across Boards of Canada back in the mid-nineties with the release of their album Music Has The Rights To Children which was co-released via record labels Warp Skam and Boards of Canada's own label Music70 at the time the album was was unlike anything I'd heard before. I searched the internet and was astonished to read that Boards of Canada (brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin) had a pretty decent back catalogue of releases which dated back to 1987.

I eventually managed to get my hands on a copy of the Boards of Canada EP Hi Scores, which was released on the small independent Manchester label, Skam. This is one of my favourite EPs of all time and contains six equally diverse tracks. One stand out track is the sublime Everything You Do Is A Balloon. The first thing that stood out to me is the bizarre title, but after listening to the track the song title peculiarities seem to drift away! When I listen to this track it evokes memories of my first years at Elbury Mount Junior School, all our class sat in the dinner room watching the children's TV show Picture Box, which featured films by The National Film Board Of Canada.

I was looking at a recent picture of my two nieces Charlotte and Georgina, in which Charlotte is holding a balloon, and it indirectly inspired me to produce my own video of Everything you do is a balloon, featuring images of Boards of Canada, mixed with various pictures of my sisters Susan, Dawn and Tina, accompanied by pics of myself, Charlotte and Georgina and cameos of other family members. I think the video captures the nostalgia of my family pictures, and everything you do is a balloon is the perfect accompaniment to these images.

Midnight Star: Midas Touch Colonel Abrams Trapped (Hell Interface aka Boards of Canada Remix)

Midnight Star: Midas Touch Colonel Abrams Trapped (Hell Interface aka Boards of Canada Remix)

Click here to listen Midas Touch

Midnight Star: Midas Touch (Hell Interface Remix) (Unreleased Tracks 2007) (MASK 500 2007 Skam) err.....in case you don't know I err kind of 'worship' Marcus and Michael Sandison aka Boards of Canada. One of their side projects was "Hell Interface" which surfaced a few years ago with bootleg remixes of Midas Touch and Trapped by Colonel Abrams. It makes me giggle when I think of these uber-cool reclusive, enigmatic IDM giants of Warp remixing 80's dance music! I think they did a good job. btw good luck in getting this on vinyl peeps, even I couldn't get it without spending a small fortune!!

Click here to listen to Trapped

Colonel Abrams: Trapped (Hell Interface Remix aka Boards of Canada) (Unreleased Tracks 2007) (MASK500 1997) I liked the original version of this track from back in the day, and as a matter of fact M.S. Six used a looped sample of Trapped in the "In The Jungle Remix" on Absolute 2. I thought Boards of Canada's remix was more in their style, a little more grainy with a that trademark retro BoC sound.

Luke Vibert: I Love Acid (YosepH Warp 2003)

Click Here To Listen: Luke Vibert: I Love Acid (YosepH Warp 2003)

Ive been a big fan of the 303 for quite a few years. I think the first time I heard acid house track was Sleazy D's I've Lost Control. Ever since the late 80's Ive always been fascinated with that trademark squidy acid sound!! The thing I like about Luke Vibert, is that he's not afraid to explore different types of styles and sounds in his music. I like the fact that he uses a break in this tune. Mr. Polygon Window may be a Cornish superstar, but my boy Luke Vibert will always right up there with Richard D James!!

Dillinja: Silver Blade (The Prototype Years 1997)

Click here to listen to Dillinja Siver Blade (Prototype)
Subwayz Selectionz: Dillinja Silver Blade (Prototype Recordings 1997) There are many reasons why I really like this track. It's as dark as storm clouds over Kansas, and is as menacing as fook. it contains a sample from Blade Runner (one of my favourite films of all time) It has one of the most evil punishing basslines in drum n bass history, which culminates to being all the trademarks of Dillinja, who is probably being worshipped as a demi-god somewhere on this planet even as I type this!! ROLL DA BEATZ......

Paul Hardcastle Rainforest/Forest Fire (Bluebird 1985)

Paul Hardcastle Rainforest/Forest Fire (Bluebird 1985)

Click here to listen to Rainforest

If you ever ask old school hip hop heads about Rainforest by Paul Hardcastle, you may get either the track Sound Chaser or Forest Fire as the B-side to Rainforest. The single was released in varied track listings, so consequently its a good guess that different fans will have different formats of the single!! I bought my copy from Magpie Records on Foregate Street back in the day!!

I've looked at many different unofficial accompanying videos to Rainforest on YouTube, which feature amazing graphics of tropical rainforests and jungle animals which look so bright and amazing in its own complexity. When I think of Rainforest by Paul Hardcastle I think of breakdancing and body popping!! I think its because the track has such an amazing break and has an intensity which evokes memories of me watching The Rock Steady Crew, Break Machine and other old school hip hop stars popping and locking on pieces of cardboard with a big ghetto blaster by their side!!

Click here to listen to Forest Fire
By contrast, Forest Fire brings back different memories of days past!! Back in the mid 80's I used to travel all over the country by train, and one of my regular stops was Birmingham New Street, which I usually had to wait a while to change trains. So I used to walk around the New Street station, and the surrounding area of brum. In the mid 80's I really liked my hip hop, and particularly the fashion and style i.e. trainers, jeans, hoodies, tracksuits etc. I come from a little country city, and there were very few who dressed different and dared to look different to everyone else. So to walk around Birmingham and see this tsunami of trendiness and fashion really took me by surprise at first!! Then later, after being desensitised to this hip hop pageant of everything trendy, I used to just walk around and take in all the atmosphere and trendiness. More often than not I used to have my walkman, and it seemed that I always used to play Forest Fire by Paul Hardcastle. So consequently, when ever I listen to Forest Fire my adolescant memories of all things Birmingham and those smart, trendy brummie b-boys come flooding back!!

So Rainforest and Forest Fire feature on the same release by Paul Hardcastle, but in return they combine to bring back diverse memories from what seems like light years ago in my own universe. It was an age of personal discovery for me. Namely that there was a big old world of diversity outside of Worcester, and as exciting and multifaceted I thought it was,it was still a scary dangerous world getting ready to sink its teeth into me........

Boards of Canada: Music is Math (Warp 2002)

Boards of Canada: Music is Math (Warp)

How long have we Boards of Canada fans had to wait for their album releases?

Geogaddi was officially released in 2002. I was in Buffalo at the time and was literally counting down the minutes until it was released!!

On the Warp website you could listen to snippets of Geogaddi, and if I've listened to Music is Math once, I've listened to it a thousand times!! I still think it is an amazing track, and sets the tone for the entire album very amply.

I don't know if I'd say that Music is Math is the best cut on the album, but for me it's iconic and illustrates Marcus and Michael Sandison's style of music in all of its intriguing and dark eerie beauty.

I think the accompanying video to this tune reflects all the reasons why I like this tune. I like the grainey images that give you the impression of old technology mixed with an organic quality that blends in very well in the imagery.

Mantronix Bassline (1986)

Subwayz Selectionz 001:

Mantronix: Bassline (Sleeping Bag & 10 Records 1986)

Back in the 80's, I was listening to an assortment of music, and electro was one genre of music that really caught my imagination, and in 1985 Mantronix came along and turned my world upside down again with trax like Fresh is the word, Needle to the Groove, Ladies and then Bassline. In a way it was a transitional moment for me. I used to listen religiously to Mike Allen on a syndicated radio show called "UK Fresh" on Radio Wyvern, even though hip hop acts had been on TV shows like Top Of The Pops it was amazing to watch the video of Bassline on a credible BBC2 music show like The Old Grey Whistle Test.

The Mantronix sound was a logical progression from electro, and featured superior edits by their production collaborators The Latin Rascals, that made Mantronix sound vibrant and underground, yet sophisticated compared to other emerging hip hop acts at the time.

To me, Bassline, and Mantronix: The album are special moments in my music journey. Mantronix has stood the test of time and will always be in my mind as the definitive hip hop sound of the 80's.