The Best of Boards of Canada

Presented here, in two volumes, is the very best of Boards of Canada: the ever-elusive Scottish duo with a penchant for vintage public television broadcast themes, nature sounds, kids, mathematics and sick ass beats. To fans of downtempo and electronic music, their debut full length Music Has the Right to Children is easily one of the most beloved albums in recent memory. Geogaddi is a challenging and often rather evil sounding second album, but every bit as appreciated as its predecessor. The Campfire Headphase (reportedly about what happens when you take acid on a camping trip) is a step in a considerably lighter, more peaceful direction and contains some of their best work yet. These tracks have been hand picked from a catalogue of those 3 LPs and 4 additional EPs, all released between 1995 and 2006.

If you've never listened to Boards before, the first thing you'll notice is the lovely weather. These kids are all about atmosphere. Sometimes it's good old nostalgia; songs like "Aquarius" and "Roygbiv" are often said to be reminiscent of a happy childhood. Other times it's downright otherworldly; "Oirectine" feels like a neon purple planet in far off solar system where you can't tell whether you weigh a ton or are as light as a feather. "Gyroscope" feels thick and unnatural, trudging you through the mud by the counting of a possessed child. With "Dayvan Cowboy," you're back on Earth soaring down through the clouds and into a clear blue sea...and it is fucking epic.

Probably one of the greatest things about BoC, however, is the effortless way they take you on these journeys-- the skill with which they advance a piece from simple beginning to epic end, adding rhythm on top of rhythm, melody on top of melody (Happy Cycling!) What could easily become chaos stays well organized and sharp in its execution. This music has serious attitude and is still cool as a cucumber.

All that said, I find this great music to study to. So, in the spirit of a new semester, I invite you to enjoy. And please, if you dig the music, support the artists and buy the albums!


CD I

1 Peacock Tail
2 Seeya Later
3 1969
4 Aquarius
5 Oirectine
6 Everything You Do is a Balloon
7 Oscar See Through Red Eye
8 Turquoise Hexagon Sun
9 The Color of Fire
10 In A Beautiful Place Out in The Country

CD II

1 Skyliner
2 Nlogax
3 Roygbiv
4 The Beach At Redpoint
5 Olson
6 Dayvan Cowboy
7 Kid For Today
8 Gyroscope
9 Corsair
10 Happy Cycling

Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?wzdawnu4cvdzowv

Your soon-to-be favorite music series returns with a second installment of late night aural dope smoke...

                

           Many of the tracks here are ones that didn't make it onto the first compilation, Music for the 2am Wind Down, plus a few others. Notable features include the sultry chanteuse Carla Bruni, Danish electro musician Anders Trentemøller, and the dub master Scientist (a classic track...remarkably fresh for being recorded in 1981.) Massive Attack makes a lovely contribution, as does ex-member from the Blue Lines era, Tricky. While his usual music partner and baby mama Martina Topley-Bird gives us "Intro," he commissioned the illustrious Polly Jean Harvey to do vox on the track, "Broken Homes."

Goldfrapp also makes another appearance here. Her gorgeous disco pop ballad "Utopia" was featured on the first compilation, but "Paper Bag" was a close second choice. I hesitated to include another track from the same album on this comp, but the fact is Alison Goldfrapp has a voice unlike any other and a style that lends itself very well to late night listening. Besides, with a song that begins, "No time to fuck/ But you like the rush," well, how could I resist? Both are from her stunning debut, Felt Mountain, one of my top 5 favorite albums of all time. If you haven't heard it, you'll be doing yourself a big favor by checking it out.

Let's see, what else have we got? An early b-side from Gorillaz and a dude with a British accent reads a letter. Yours truly covers an early version of Radiohead's "Lotus Flower," Pomplamoose covers Nat King Cole, and Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin take on Vivaldi. Yep :)

None of these selections are arbitrary; I love each and every one like my own (non-existent) children. Artists have and will make the list multiple times, especially those who's entire discographies are constantly in my rotation, but the choices here are versatile and contrasting. Once again it is limited to 20 tracks, approx 90min of music. After all the editing and arranging of this new collection there are a quite few more tracks on the cutting room floor, so keep your eyeballs peeled for yet another edition appearing sometime next month (probably.)

Alright, czech it:

megaupload: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q1WZSLBK

mediafire: http://www.mediafire.com/?p5ei5o5g35n1mrh

For those who don't like downloading stuff, here is the playlist for you to enjoy without leaving the page. Like before, my track isn't uploaded to GrooveShark, so in order to hear it you have to download the playlist through above links.

Thanks for listening!

WMB Presents: Music for the Two a.m. Wind Down

I know I've promised a lot of you guys mix cds over the years and never really got around to it. I'm hoping this can be a clever solution. At the bottom of the blurb below is a link to a playlist I've created that you can download and listen to. The theme for this one is "late night" but I've already started to create one for the early morning and perhaps one for the afternoon drive home. Enjoy guys <3

-Kristen
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We all love to be out on the scene, giving life and having a ball and, of course, music can make a good time absolutely classic. But on those nights when you arrive home not quite ready to turn in, what do you turn on for the chill-out?

I recently stumbled upon a series entitled LateNightTales. It answers that very question by commissioning artists and DJ's from around the world to create collections of their favorite and most inspiring tracks, all suited for a fabulous late night listening experience.


From their website:

"The idea was to let the world’s best artists delve deep into their collections to create the ultimate "late night" selection. Since its conception [in 2001], we’ve seen the likes of Groove Armada, The Flaming Lips, Four Tet, Belle & Sebastian, Air and many more step up to produce their own individual take on the concept...Not only is it a collection of the artist’s favourite tracks and inspirations, there’s also a special, and exclusive might we add, cover version included. This is the chance for our compilers to tackle a hidden gem or pay tribute to an idol by creating something totally new and exciting."

(For more information on the LateNightTales series, visit http://latenighttales.co.uk)


Not only do these compilations give brilliant insight into the tastes of musicians I most admire, they have exposed me to artists that I'd never even heard of or would've thought to listen to.
With that in mind, I've decided to dig through my own music library, create a similar playlist and deliver it as a n.s.a.* love note to you fine young peoples. There's something in it for everyone, from A Tribe Called Quest and Nina Simone to Iron & Wine and Mr. Airplane Man. Also, each volume in the original series features a spoken word track and, as stated above, a cover performed by the compiling artist. Therefore, I've added to this playlist a poem piece by Gil Scott-Heron and a reggae version of Peter Bjorn and John's "Young Folks" performed by yours truly ;)


*Except for the condition that it is for home use only and will not be burned to a cd and sold for drug money.


Alright, enough jibba jabba! Go get your fill of the fresh musics:
http://www.mediafire.com/?vq0n5iqh3h7gnxu
For those who don't like/know how to download stuff, I've got through the little extra trouble of creating a GrooveShark widget from which you can play these songs (with the exception of my cover of Young Folks which I will not be uploading to the website) without leaving the page. You're welcome.




P.S. There are plenty of tracks that didn't make it onto this comp due to a self-imposed 20 song limit. So, if you like what you hear, let me know and there will be a volume two :)