Again, I'm not sure what inspired this, I think someoneeranother recommended it. Anyway, its the only Boards of Canada album I haven't heard (though I'm only really familiar with Geogaddi).
Firstly, yes, this sounds like a BoC album, in that it has otherworldly synths whispering under the surface, and a curious aliveness and frailty to it. As an illustration, I had a small pang of regret, as if snuffing out a life, when deleting a class from my Eclipse workspace while I listened to this.
There are three big changes: 1) a move to guitars (picked at, no chords, just as something to provide a different texture than synth arpeggios); 2) a lack of the warped vocals that peppered Geogaddi; and 3) a move to more repetitive songs, less aggressively broken up, more honed for meditative listenability. It actually sounds at times less like IDM, and more like krautrock/post-rock. I love when these little synergies pop up. The repetition, experimentalism, and time-stretching it evokes actually remind me of Can at times.
That said, the comparison only really applies relative to other Boards of Canada stuff. It is still very swirly, subtle and somehow organic despite being, say, as a wild guess, 85% electronic. Its just more listener friendly, less adventurous, and less bent on proving how adventurous it is than their previous stuff. I have to admit, I never listen to Geogaddi. Its brilliant in some ways, but its not a pleasant listen, and The Campfire Headphase's hypnotic quality actually makes it more likely to find its way back into my headphones 3.5/5
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