Editing Boards of Canada (section)

==Style and methods==
The music of Boards of Canada has been described as "evocative, mournful, [[sample (music)|sample]]-laden [[downtempo]] music often sounding as though produced on malfunctioning equipment excavated from the ruins of an early-'70s [[computer lab]]."<ref name="all">{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/geogaddi-mw0000218904 |title=Geogaddi – Boards of Canada |publisher=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=2 December 2015 |last=Bush |first=John |archive-date=10 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151210183457/http://www.allmusic.com/album/geogaddi-mw0000218904 |url-status=live }}</ref> Critic [[Simon Reynolds]] described their style as "a hazy sound of smeared synth-tones and analog-decayed production, carried by patient, sleepwalking beats, and aching with nostalgia" while crediting them with "reinvent[ing]" elements of psychedelia through the deliberate misuse of technology.<ref name="pitchforkMHTRTC" /> Their distinctive style is a product of their use of [[Analog signal|analogue]] equipment, mix of electronic and conventional instrumentation, use of distorted samples, and their layering and blending of these elements.<ref name="hmv">Pytlik, Mark. "[http://fredd-e.narfum.org/formerboc/interviews/#hmv The Colour & The ] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081024125949/http://fredd-e.narfum.org/formerboc/interviews/#hmv |date=24 October 2008 }}" (Feb 2002), HMV magazine. Retrieved on 20 February 2007.</ref><ref name="remix2002">Micallef, Ken. "[http://fredd-e.narfum.org/formerboc/interviews/#remixmag Northern Exposure] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081024125949/http://fredd-e.narfum.org/formerboc/interviews/#remixmag |date=24 October 2008 }}" (Jul 2002), Remix magazine. Retrieved on 20 February 2007.</ref> To achieve their evocative and "worn down" sound, the duo have made use of outdated brands of recording equipment, such as tape machines manufactured by [[Grundig]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://emusician.com/remixmag/ |title=Archived copy |access-date=19 January 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150117201337/http://emusician.com/remixmag/ |archive-date=17 January 2015 |df=dmy-all }} Vol. 7 No. 12 (December 2005), pp26-30</ref> They also make use of [[music sample|samples]] from 1970s television shows and other media prevalent in the era of the brothers' shared childhood, especially the nature-inspired documentaries produced by the [[National Film Board of Canada]].<ref name=pitchfork /> The duo's preoccupation with memory, past aesthetics, and [[public broadcasting]] presaged the 2000s electronic movement known as [[Hauntology (music)|hauntology]].<ref name="pitchforkMHTRTC"/> Theorist and music critic Adam Harper described their work as "a simultaneously [[Arcadian ecology|Arcadian]] and sinister musical hauntology based on cut-up samples, vintage synthesiser technology and a faded modernism arising from mid-twentieth-century television, science, public education, childhood and spirituality."<ref name="poetics">{{cite journal |last1=Albiez |first1=Sean |title=Sounds of Future Past: the Poetics of Electronica |journal=Bath Spa |date=2013 }}</ref>

Interviews with the Sandison brothers have variously provided insight into their creative process: they have cited several acts that have influenced their work including [[Joni Mitchell]], the [[The Incredible String Band|Incredible String Band]] (saying "we have all the String Band records […] our rural sensibilities are similar"), the [[The Beatles|Beatles]] (saying "[they] really became enthralling to us through their psychedelism") and [[My Bloody Valentine (band)|My Bloody Valentine]] (saying "even if we don't sound like them, there's a connection in terms of the approach to music").<ref name=pitchfork /><ref name="oor">Poolman, Koen. "[http://fredd-e.narfum.org/formerboc/interviews/#oor Play Twice Before Listening] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727112740/http://fredd-e.narfum.org/formerboc/interviews/#oor |date=27 July 2011 }}" (Mar 2002), OOR magazine. Retrieved on 20 February 2007.</ref><ref name="virgin">Kyrou, Ariel & Leloup, Jean-Yves. "[http://fredd-e.narfum.org/formerboc/interviews/#virginmegaweb Two Aesthetes of Electronic Music] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081024125949/http://fredd-e.narfum.org/formerboc/interviews/#virginmegaweb |date=24 October 2008 }}" (Jun 1998), Virgin Megaweb magazine. Retrieved on 20 February 2007.</ref> They have also named [[Meat Beat Manifesto]] as a chief influence, citing their synth sounds.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sato |first1=Joe |last2=Hiroyuni |first2=Nakamoto |title=The Last Unexplored Area of Boards of Canada |url=https://bocpages.org/wiki/Interviews-all |website=Buzz |pages=12–16 |date=March 2002 |access-date=28 November 2021 |archive-date=28 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211128214601/https://bocpages.org/wiki/Interviews-all |url-status=live }}</ref>

Brief interludes or vignettes feature prominently in the duo's music, often lasting less than two minutes; Sandison has said that "we write far more of [these] than the so-called 'full-on' tracks, and, in a way, they are our own favourites".  Boards of Canada have written an enormous number of such fragments as well as full-length tracks, most of which have been held back from release, and it does not appear that their music is made exclusively for commercial release; rather, albums seem to be the result of selecting complementary songs from current work. For instance, ''[[Geogaddi]]'' allegedly involved the creation of 400 song fragments and 64 complete songs, of which 22 were selected (possibly 23, if the final track of complete silence is included).  Eoin has said about the duo's discography that "the idea of the perfect album is this amorphous thing that we're always aiming at […] the whole point of making music is at least to aim at your own idea of perfection."<ref name="oor" />

The duo have expressed interest in themes of [[Subliminal message|subliminal messaging]], and subsequently their work has incorporated cryptic messages, including references to [[numerology]] and [[cult]] figures such as [[David Koresh]] of the [[Branch Davidians]].<ref name="brown">Brown, Colin. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20060519060341/http://www.speakeasy.org/~adbrown/boc.html What the hell is up with Boards of Canada? Shorter analysis of ''Geogaddi'']". Retrieved on 23 March 2006.</ref> When questioned about their aims in making such references, Boards of Canada have expressed themselves in neutral terms (saying "We're not religious at all [...] and if we're spiritual at all it's purely in the sense of caring about art and inspiring people with ideas.")<ref name="oor" /> while remaining fascinated with the ability of music to influence the minds of others (saying, with irony, that "[We] do actually believe that there are powers in music that are almost supernatural. I think you actually manipulate people with music...").<ref name="xlr8r">Nicholls, Steve. "[http://fredd-e.narfum.org/formerboc/interviews/#xlr8r Big Country] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081024125949/http://fredd-e.narfum.org/formerboc/interviews/#xlr8r |date=24 October 2008 }}" (March 2001), [[XLR8R]] Issue 47. Retrieved on 21 February 2007.</ref>