Boards of Canada

Prophecy At 1420 MHz

Ashburn

Boards of Canada's imaginative, heavily copied sound generally consists of midtempo hip-hop beat patterns, grainy samples, and warm, nostalgic synth melodies reminiscent of 1970s nature documentaries and children's television programs. The duo have often utilized outdated analog equipment in order to capture a haunting, time-worn feel, and their intentional use of cryptic titles and subliminal messaging has created a cult mystique to their music and imagery. BoC's debut studio album, 1998's Music Has the Right to Children, redefined home-listening electronic music, and remains one of the most influential and beloved electronic albums of all time. The darker, more psychedelic Geogaddi followed in 2002, and has received nearly as much acclaim. The more streamlined and guitar-based The Campfire Headphase appeared in 2005, and nearly a decade passed before the cinematic Tomorrow's Harvest arrived in 2013. Since then, the reclusive pair have occasionally surfaced with remixes of other artists and a well-received 2019 DJ set for NTS Radio.

Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin grew up on the northeast coast of Scotland, and spent some of their childhood in Calgary, Canada. The two are brothers, though they did not initially disclose their relation to the media in order to evade comparisons to Phil and <a href="spotify:artist:2VhTV1oh2l76vhVoQHhOrU">Paul Hartnoll</a> of <a href="spotify:artist:3csPCeXsj2wezyvkRFzvmV">Orbital</a>. They began playing instruments and experimenting with tape machines at a young age, and they formed Boards of Canada, named in tribute to the National Film Board of Canada, in 1986. Through their own Music70 imprint, BoC reportedly produced several albums and EPs that were pressed in limited quantities and only made available to family and friends. The only ones that have surfaced have been 1995's Twoism, which was later reissued, as well as 1996's Boc Maxima and a pair of Old Tunes cassettes, calling the existence of the earlier releases into question. Twoism was the group's only verified release to feature fellow Hexagon Sun collective member Christopher Horne, who left amicably and began releasing music under the name <a href="spotify:artist:4qiPIhi6NcmVorlwjGrO0q">christ.</a> The EP caught the attention of <a href="spotify:artist:6WH1V41LwGDGmlPUhSZLHO">Autechre</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:3nu5upBa3eLiejjFnda2Tp">Sean Booth</a>, which led to 1996's electro-inspired Hi Scores EP being released by the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Skam%22">Skam</a> label. Sandison and Eoin also produced tracks under the name Hell Interface that were released on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Skam%22">Skam</a>'s MASK EP series, as well as a Christmas EP on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22V%2FVm+Test+Recordings%22">V/Vm Test Recordings</a>.

In early 1998, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Skam%22">Skam</a> released a limited 7" single containing exclusive versions of the songs "Aquarius" and Boc Maxima rarity "Chinook." "Aquarius," a playful track with a counting sequence and repeated samples of children's speech and laughter, became one of the highlights of Music Has the Right to Children, which was co-released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Skam%22">Skam</a> and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Warp%22">Warp</a> in April, and later reissued stateside by indie rock behemoth <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Matador%22">Matador</a>. <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Warp%22">Warp</a> released the duo's Peel Session EP in early 1999, though the song "Happy Cycling," appended to the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Matador%22">Matador</a> edition of Music Has the Right to Children and subsequent <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Warp%22">Warp</a> reissues, was actually a studio re-recording. BoC performed at <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Warp%22">Warp</a>'s tenth anniversary party, broadcast live online, in November. In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country, a four-song EP themed around cult leader David Koresh and the Branch Davidian religious sect, was released in late 2000. The duo's last known live performance took place at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in April 2001. The much-anticipated, sometimes shoegaze-leaning Geogaddi, containing further references to the Branch Davidians and numerology, arrived in February 2002. The sought-after Twoism was given its first widely available release later in the year.

BoC remixed songs by <a href="spotify:artist:3vbKDsSS70ZX9D2OcvbZmS">Beck</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5LNpPvvMgrH9lgJLFa1uev">cLOUDDEAD</a>, and labelmate <a href="spotify:artist:7yop5VpIW8Wv2l8ReGzbSq">Mira Calix</a> before releasing their third studio full-length, The Campfire Headphase, in 2005. The album sported a clearer, less sample-driven production style as well as the distinctive presence of guitars. Trans Canada Highway, an EP based around album highlight "Dayvan Cowboy," followed in 2006. After several years of near-silence, BoC resurfaced in 2013 with Tomorrow's Harvest. The album's promotional rollout began with an unannounced Record Store Day release containing a distorted voice reciting a sequence of numbers. Only a handful of copies of the record have been found. Other codes were hidden on various websites or broadcast through radio and television networks, and entering them into a website gave information about the release. Tomorrow's Harvest, inspired by film composers like <a href="spotify:artist:0hxQtmgWiPtEsDPeIuKxXq">John Carpenter</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5MmXZQUGs0eXP5PV79iKrB">Wendy Carlos</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:5D3YOC6ffqe2wDikuU9ljG">Riz Ortolani</a>, was released in June and became their highest-charting release in most territories, even nearly reaching the Top Ten in the United States. 

In 2016, BoC released remixes of "Mr Mistake" by <a href="spotify:artist:09P3wPH0MvtLnhwfbtzrRq">Nevermen</a> (a supergroup consisting of <a href="spotify:artist:6GbCJZrI318Ybm8mY36Of5">Faith No More</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:34Ai24gPz5YJ8NbksiNFef">Mike Patton</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3HJIB8sYPyxrFGuwvKXSLR">TV on the Radio</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:3and7uje1nuMnKJczCKox9">Tunde Adebimpe</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:5VVauvkJVd7QMI7IJ4Ccqg">Anticon</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:5sEAp7hSgvYjKIEd9r2zBc">Doseone</a>) and "Sisters" by <a href="spotify:artist:5VVauvkJVd7QMI7IJ4Ccqg">Anticon</a>'s <a href="spotify:artist:5pQjRhCKmFtkDZSy67Z0tp">Odd Nosdam</a>. The duo issued a remix of "Sometimes" by the Sexual Objects in 2017. In 2019, BoC participated in <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Warp%22">Warp</a>'s 30th anniversary celebrations by producing a two-hour mix, Societas X Tape, for online station NTS Radio. The label also reissued the pair's Peel Session, this time including "XYZ," which was previously unreleased due to sample licensing issues. A second <a href="spotify:artist:09P3wPH0MvtLnhwfbtzrRq">Nevermen</a> remix, "Treat Em Right," was digitally issued in 2021. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi

Boards of Canada are an electronic music duo consisting of brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin.

this is no longer the most recent single released by Boards of Canada

Whos&#39;s here after Tape 05. THEY&#39;RE BACK!!!!!

Whos's here after Tape 05. THEY'RE BACK!!!!!

It&#39;s weird to see a BoC music video that&#39;s actually made by BoC.

It's weird to see a BoC music video that's actually made by BoC.

My brother and I would go to the forest to listen to BOC when albums dropped and it was special. He&#39;s no longer here but the music is and it&#39;s important to me. Thank you for the memories.

My brother and I would go to the forest to listen to BOC when albums dropped and it was special. He's no longer here but the music is and it's important to me. Thank you for the memories.

My cat was sent into another world today. She was 17. I love her.

For some reason this track hit me when I was outside in the sun with my 2 young sons. Remembering my youth and what it felt like, all these new impressions...and then seeing my sons playing, realising that they were living that very same moment that was already a memory for me....wow...

I don&#39;t know why there isn&#39;t more Boards of Canada music. It&#39;s been just over a decade since Tomorrow&#39;s Harvest. I am so grateful for what we do have, though I can&#39;t help but be deeply saddened that there hasn&#39;t been more from them. Absolutely phenomenal and horribly underrated. They were so ahead of the curve that it&#39;s mind-blowing.

I don't know why there isn't more Boards of Canada music. It's been just over a decade since Tomorrow's Harvest. I am so grateful for what we do have, though I can't help but be deeply saddened that there hasn't been more from them. Absolutely phenomenal and horribly underrated. They were so ahead of the curve that it's mind-blowing.

Life sometimes rewards you for not killing yourself

props to BoC for featuring smaller artists like God

Once in a while, but very rarely, there&#39;s a band that makes people go &quot;Yeah... i can wait a decade or more for new music&quot;.

Once in a while, but very rarely, there's a band that makes people go "Yeah... i can wait a decade or more for new music".

It&#39;s an honor to witness a part of music history with all of you.

It's an honor to witness a part of music history with all of you.

As a PhD in Astrophysics, it&#39;s neat to see 1420 MHz referenced, as that&#39;s what my entire PhD project was about. Summary: Some materials (radioactive stuff, very hot stuff, etc.) release signals. We can hear these signals with various devices. The Universe is very big, and these signals take time to travel across the Universe. So when our devices on Earth hear signals coming in, these signals have sometimes travelled for a very long time to get to us, and are therefore from very old stuff (ie. stars exploding millions of years ago). The early Universe (before there were galaxies and stars) was almost entirely nothing but hydrogen gas. Hydrogen gas is not radioactive, so for a long time it was thought it does not emit any signal (and hence we could never expect to detect a signal from it). In the 1940s it was realized that (for reasons having to do with quantum effects) hydrogen actually SHOULD release a very faint signal at a frequency of roughly 1420 MHz. In the 1950s the signal was detected coming from hydrogen in our own galaxy, and in the 1960s we were able to detect it in our neighbouring galaxies. Since then, there has been a huge effort to detect the signal coming from the early Universe. But the further the signal has to travel, the weaker it becomes (it will have been travelling for over 13 billion years to reach us!). So this early Universe hydrogen signal will be insanely weak. Detecting it is a huge ongoing effort, and is considered a &quot;holy grail&quot; in Astrophysics. If we could detect it, we could make a big 3D map of the young Universe before there were stars, planets, galaxies, etc. On a related note, some scientists have theorized that if there are aliens out there they would broadcast their messages at a frequency 1420 MHz because presumably all sufficiently advanced civilizations would be searching for this signal on account of the fundamental link to hydrogen (at least, it holds true for our civilization). So, the reference of 1420 MHz is both to a ubiquitous signal propagating all over the Universe since the very beginning, and potentially a means of communicating with other intelligent life.

As a PhD in Astrophysics, it's neat to see 1420 MHz referenced, as that's what my entire PhD project was about.

Summary:

Some materials (radioactive stuff, very hot stuff, etc.) release signals. We can hear these signals with various devices.

The Universe is very big, and these signals take time to travel across the Universe. So when our devices on Earth hear signals coming in, these signals have sometimes travelled for a very long time to get to us, and are therefore from very old stuff (ie. stars exploding millions of years ago).

The early Universe (before there were galaxies and stars) was almost entirely nothing but hydrogen gas.

Hydrogen gas is not radioactive, so for a long time it was thought it does not emit any signal (and hence we could never expect to detect a signal from it).

In the 1940s it was realized that (for reasons having to do with quantum effects) hydrogen actually SHOULD release a very faint signal at a frequency of roughly 1420 MHz.

In the 1950s the signal was detected coming from hydrogen in our own galaxy, and in the 1960s we were able to detect it in our neighbouring galaxies.

Since then, there has been a huge effort to detect the signal coming from the early Universe. But the further the signal has to travel, the weaker it becomes (it will have been travelling for over 13 billion years to reach us!). So this early Universe hydrogen signal will be insanely weak. Detecting it is a huge ongoing effort, and is considered a "holy grail" in Astrophysics. If we could detect it, we could make a big 3D map of the young Universe before there were stars, planets, galaxies, etc.

On a related note, some scientists have theorized that if there are aliens out there they would broadcast their messages at a frequency 1420 MHz because presumably all sufficiently advanced civilizations would be searching for this signal on account of the fundamental link to hydrogen (at least, it holds true for our civilization).

So, the reference of 1420 MHz is both to a ubiquitous signal propagating all over the Universe since the very beginning, and potentially a means of communicating with other intelligent life.

this feels like the final boss of the boards of canada universe

The preparation for a new Boards of Canada single is always a tense time

This is the closest I’ve felt, in a long time, to what it was like anticipating Christmas Day as a kid

I am taking a moment to think about all those fans who didn&#39;t make it to 2026. We feel you.

I am taking a moment to think about all those fans who didn't make it to 2026. We feel you.

my brother sagan passed away in 2021 and it feels so wrong that he isn’t here listening to this with the rest of us. he would have been 24 this year. he loved analog synthesizers and misspelled words and gaudy 80’s clothes and his laugh sounded like a honking goose. BoC was probably the band that meant the absolute most to him in this world and had the most impact on his own journey with making music. i’m playing this extra loud in the car this morning and pretending that he’s sitting shotgun

Every BOC fan around the world is feeling the same overwhelming joy right now.

Was at the listening party yesterday and this appears on the album about 3/4 of the way through…. Obviously under a different title 👍👌❤️

The preparation for a new Boards of Canada record is always a tense time

...and when the world needed them the most, they returned.

Artemis II brought this back from the other side of the moon.

Will we ever not think of it simply as &#39;Tape 05&#39;

Will we ever not think of it simply as 'Tape 05'

I used to listen to Boards of Canada with my son when he was very little. I was a single dad raising him. He’d sit in his car seat and get very quiet with MHTRTC and Campfire Headphase playing. He left last year (18) and doesn’t contact me very much. Yesterday he sent me a text that said, “It’s happening!” and we were both very emotional over this track. It connected us. Only the very best music does that.

I used to listen to Boards of Canada with my son when he was very little. I was a single dad raising him. He’d sit in his car seat and get very quiet with MHTRTC and Campfire Headphase playing.

He left last year (18) and doesn’t contact me very much. Yesterday he sent me a text that said, “It’s happening!” and we were both very emotional over this track. It connected us. Only the very best music does that.

My son was six when “music has the right” came out, we listened to b.o.c. all his life. A perfect soundtrack for raising him and me. He died in May of 2013. Tomorrow’s Harvest was the theme of my grief and part of the most important and transcendent times of my life. Yesterday, my birthday, I spent alone. Again. But this timing now is so perfect, helpful and personal and holds that strange exquisite pain of how overwhelmingly beautiful and short this life is.

Boards of Canada - Video Playlist

http://www.boardsofcanada.com
'Tomorrow's Harvest' 
Monday 10th June 2013 (Tuesday 11th in N. America)

Pre-order Album:
Bleep: http://glnk.it/23a
iTunes: http://glnk.it/239
Amazon: http://glnk.it/23b

Buy 'Reach For The Dead' now:
Bleep: http://bit.ly/16QoSzm  |  iTunes - http://bit.ly/13Nm3w1 

'Reach For The Dead' directed by Neil Krug

Boards of Canada - Reach for the Dead (from Tomorrow's Harvest)

Boards of Canada - Introit / Prophecy At 1420 MHz 
https://boardsofcanada.com/

Taken from Inferno, out 29th May
Pre-order – https://boardsofcanada.ffm.to/lqnfvyna3utw.OYD
Local Stockists – https://stockists.warp.net/
Pre-save – https://boardsofcanada.ffm.to/zoi4xaunpfks.OYD

​Directed by Robert Beatty 
​Production: Greg Burne / Big Active 

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Boards of Canada - Introit / Prophecy At 1420 MHz

Tape 05

'Tomorrow's Harvest' 
Monday 10th June 2013 (Tuesday 11th in N. America)
http://cosecha-transmisiones.com

Pre-order:
Bleep: http://glnk.it/23a
iTunes: http://glnk.it/239
Amazon: http://glnk.it/23b

XXXXXX / XXXXXX / XXXXXX / XXXXXX / XXXXXX / XXXXXX

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest Transmission (new album June 10/11)

From the album The Campfire Headphase (Warp Records, 2005)

Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy

XXXXXX / ------ / ------ / ------ / ------ / ------ 
Directed by Neil Krug

'Tomorrow's Harvest' 
Monday 10th June 2013 (Tuesday 11th in N. America)

Pre-order:
Bleep: http://glnk.it/23a
iTunes: http://glnk.it/239
Amazon: http://glnk.it/23b

Boards of Canada - Cosecha Signal One

INFERNO. 29 May 2026.
https://boardsofcanada.com/

Pre-order – https://boardsofcanada.ffm.to/lqnfvyna3utw.OYD
Local Stockists – https://stockists.warp.net/
Pre-save – https://boardsofcanada.ffm.to/zoi4xaunpfks.OYD

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https://twitter.com/boardsofcanada

Boards of Canada

Tomorrow's Harvest

The Campfire Headphase

Twoism

Geogaddi

Music Has The Right To Children

Prophecy At 1420 MHz

Good Friday (Boards of Canada Remix)

Reach For The Dead

Trans Canada Highway

In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country

Peel Session

XYZ (Peel Session)

Peel Session

Hi Scores

Late Night Tales: Badbadnotgood

DJ-Kicks (Kid Loco)

DJ-Kicks (DJ Koze) [DJ Mix]

Corymb

This Is Boards of Canada

Boards of Canada Radio

Songs to Test Speakers With

Generation Electronica