Music / The Campfire Headphase

"I didn't like mescaline before but I had such a good time... It was just so funny."

"For the first time the group have incorporated acoustic and electric instruments, like guitars, alongside their customary array of vintage analogue synths and digital samples. So they're no longer making electronic music, but an unclassifiable hybrid."

—The Guardian

The Campfire Headphase is the third studio album by Scottish electronic duo Boards of Canada, released in 2005. Following the unsettling Geogaddi, the brothers decided to take this album in a different direction. While Geogaddi is more of a dark, foreboding journey, The Campfire Headphase is closer to a hazy, sun-bleached trip throughout the countryside. Though it received mostly favorable reviews upon release, it was initially seen as too much of a departure from the traditional BoC sound. However, in recent years, fans have come to view it in a better light.

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Tracklist:

1. "Into The Rainbow Vein" (0:44)
2. "Chromakey Dreamcoat" (5:47)
3. "Satellite Anthem Icarus" (6:04)
4. "Peacock Tail" (5:24)
5. "Dayvan Cowboy" (5:00)
6. "A Moment Of Clarity" (0:51)
7. "84 Pontiac Dream" (3:49)
8. "Sherbet Head" (2:41)
9. "Oscar See Through Red Eye" (5:08)
10. "Ataronchronon" (1:14)
11. "Hey Saturday Sun" (4:56)
12. "Constants Are Changing" (1:42)
13. "Slow This Bird Down" (6:09)
14. "Tears From The Compound Eye" (4:03)
15. "Farewell Fire" (8:26)
16. "Macquarie Ridge"^note Japanese bonus track (4:57)

Personnel

• Michael Sandison
• Marcus Eoin

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Tropes From The Compound Eye

• all lowercase letters: Much like Geogaddi, all the album titles on the back are entirely lowercase.
• Alliterative Title: Farewell Fire.
• Bittersweet Ending: "Farewell Fire" is a somber, quiet melody that gradually fades away into nothing.
• Breather Episode: The Campfire Headphase is a joyful, happy little album sandwiched between the nightmarish Geogaddi and the eerie, desolate Tomorrow's Harvest.
• Call-Back: The melody for "Farewell Fire" is very similar to that of "1986 Summer Fire" from Twoism. Both tracks even share the word "fire."
• Easter Egg: "Farewell Fire" seems to gradually Fade Out and end the album with 4 minutes of silence. Turning up the volume at this point reveals the song just keeps going at a barely audible volume.
• Epic Rocking: "Satellite Anthem Icarus," "Slow This Bird Down" and "Farewell Fire."
• Gratuitous Panning:
  • The distorted ending of "Satellite Anthem Icarus" bounces between each channel, eventually settling in the center channel as the song ends.
  • The main synth track on "Slow This Bird Down" slips between the left and right speakers, while the drums and everything else stay anchored in the middle, creating a disorienting effect.
• Leitmotif: The piano sample at the end of "Chromakey Dreamcoat" also appears in "84 Pontiac Dream" and "Slow This Bird Down."
• Lighter and Softer: Especially when compared to some of their earlier works.
• Longest Song Goes Last: "Farewell Fire" is both the longest song on the album, and the final song (not counting the Japanese exclusive "Macquarie Ridge," which comes after it).
• Miniscule Rocking: "Into The Rainbow Vein," "A Moment Of Clarity," "Ataronchronon" and "Constants Are Changing."
• Musical Squares: A precursor to what would eventually be done in Tomorrow's Harvest, the liner art features blurry, stained photographs (both a mix of family photographs, as well as pictures from old Boeing manuals and an old Pontiac advertisement.
• New Sound Album: This album shifted Boards of Canada's sound into a more guitar-driven, pastoral direction, mainly to avoid pigeonholing. Fans and critics are divided on whether or not this is for the better.
• One-Word Title: "Ataronchronon."
• Sampling: Far less than in any other album. The only track which really incorporates any samples is "Chromakey Dreamcoat," which samples this educational film about drug use, and, bizarrely, this Reese's Peanut Butter Cups commercial.
  • "A Moment of Clarity" samples the ending of "Foreign Affair" by The Manhattan Transfer.
• Shout-Out:
  • The title "Oscar See Through Red Eye" is thought to be one to Bad Day on the Midway. At one point, you take control of Oscar, a rat whose vision is tinted red.
  • "Ataronchronon" is actually the name of a Native American tribe part of the Wyandotte Nation.
  • "Chromakey Dreamcoat" seems to be a reference to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Chroma Key is likely used due to it being a newer technology than Technicolor.
  • "Hey Saturday Sun" is a possible reference to Nick Drake, who released a song titled "Saturday Sun" on his album Five Leaves Left.
  • "84 Pontiac Dream" might be a reference to the car from Knight Rider, which was a 1984 Pontiac Trans-Am.

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