A little over a year ago, I was driving to a friend's house and listening to KVRX. KVRX shares the 91.7 MHz frequency with KOOP: during the day, KOOP broadcasts and at night it's KVRX's turn. KOOP focuses on community programming while KVRX is mostly weird, unconventional, and independent music.

This particular night, I was maybe ten minutes from my destination when a song came on. Starting innocently enough, it built upon itelf and became something I had never heard before. Something that was good enough to pull me off the road and listen with the car turned off. At the time, I knew what IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) was, but I had limited myself to the music of Aphex Twin, Autechre, and Squarepusher. This was something else entirely.

After the song ended, I drove to the nearest pay phone (cell phone battery was dead) and called the radio station to ask the name of the song and the band that made it. "Telephasic Workshop" was the tune and Boards of Canada was the band. The DJ was so pleased I liked the track that she put on another one for me, titled "An Eagle in Your Mind." Less upbeat, even more beautiful, and yet still the same sound, I think I was hooked on BoC at that point.

The next week I picked up their full-length, Music Has a Right to Children. Simply amazing. Astounded by the presentation and the mood the music created, I went back a few days later to look for more CDs. Alas, the only other one available was In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country, a short four song EP that was much more downtempo and pastoral than the material on MHARTC, but unmistakably the same band. I listened to those CDs on a regular basis for weeks. After a while, I forgot to look for more and turned my attention to other acts I was interested in...mostly thanks to the influence from BoC.

Browsing around Waterloo Records a few months later, I came across something I had never expected to find: a Peel Sessions release! Though only three tracks and they were all slight remixes of material from MHARTC, it was something I couldn't pass up. It reawoke my desire to dig deeper into the group and read about them.

In the process, I discovered they were about to release a new full-length with brand new music. Estatic, I was to say the least. Though a corner of my mind worried about BoC sucking on their second try, I had faith...resting, as it was, on such a small foundation.

When I first heard Geogaddi, I told that little voice to shove it. BoC had created a monster of a followup, expanding in every way their now-famous and trademark sound. People often describe the music as the fading memories of a lost youth. That isn't a bad way to put it. Somehow, through the synth and selective sample work, BoC creates an air of a sepia dream state where people play and jostle and act like a "kid for today," the name of one of their tracks off IABPOITC. Now I had more songs...but I really wanted to hear their older stuff.

I didn't have to wait long. They just recently re-released their previously rare-as-hell debut LP, Twoism. I ran across it while Christmas shopping and didn't think twice about picking it up and paying for it. Barely a day later, I found another old release, Hi Scores and snatched that up as well. Suddenly, I had their whole catalogue!

I'm still digesting this new music, but I can say that I'm not disappointed. It's rougher, less complex, not as consistent, and doesn't flow as easily from one track to the next as Music Has a Right to Children and Geogaddi, but it's just as interesting and worthwhile as anything else they've released.

I think Boards of Canada make great work music for cubicles. Some of the tracks are a little too slow and melancholy, but the atmosphere and the mood I get from the songs is highly conducive to working. Not only do I love the hell out of the music, but there's nothing "offensive" about it which would drive a co-worker to complain.

I'm just speaking out loud. Not only do I dig their music, but they have an amazingly innovative website as well. All Hail!