There’s plenty of music that really hits that sweet spot when it comes to analog synthesizers playing melodies. I wonder why it gives so many people such nostalgia though? We all weren’t watching the same children’s show were we? When our parents showed us old photos there wasn’t a button that made the photo play Geogaddi like some musical greeting card. I think I have narrowed it down to the show Nova, TV commercials, and the speaker quality of shopping markets playing 80s muzak. You all know Christ (The 3rd member of Boards of Canada that left after the Twoism album) and of course Boards of Canada (the Fonec track posted is from the album Closes Vol.1 EP) but I have found 2 young musicians that really caught my ear Minnesota’s Boreal Network and UK’s JC Harnell both are notable talents and carry on the torch properly of that sound in my opinion.
Boreal Network+Christ.+JC Harnell+BoC
11.19.2008
do you know Lone?
http://boxstr.com/files/4004870_dgxtt/10%20-%20Lone%20-%20Sea%20Spray.mp3
And most of Boreal Network’s stuff is free to download from their myspace page.
Can life get better?
Well, it will once your new tunes are up for sale.
Check out this label (music clips on the “artists” page) – brilliant stuff!:
http://www.ghostbox.co.uk/index.htm
Lone is the shit.
I’m super glad BOC got away from that sort of direction. That is a dodgy track.
The Boards of Canada track you’ve posted is actually “Hiscores” from the unreleased “Old Tunes Vol. 2” cassette tape. “Closes Vol. 1” has yet to be leaked to the net, unlike the old tunes tapes. Great song though, easily one of my favorites from that collection. If you’re really on a kick for nostalgia-inspiring synthesizer melodies that sound like relics from the 70’s, then have a listen to “Alpha Rainbow” from that same album.
i’m confused…hi scores that i have heard is much different than that tune.
I’m liking Boreal Network. Good stuff. In addition to Nova and 80s TV commercials, I’ve always thought that the instrumental music in the short skits on Sesame Street [and other PBS kids shows, too] were highly influential to our general nostalgia for warm analog synth sounds. A lot of that music was composed by Joe Raposo.
See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRIJCR_3UwA
and: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-in6pIkUII
and also these 80s motion logos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWDNJHeNKp8
Hey Scott, wanted to drop by and thank you for mentioning me and Treeborhood EP, this record is a long time coming and I hope people enjoy it. Cheers and good luck with the blog!
(For the record, a lot of the sounds that influenced me growing up were from Sega Genesis games, late 80s saturday morning cartoons, and of course public broadcast tv)
Check out the logo animation at 1:07 –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81TdkoelKU4&feature=related
Always a classic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtGZAoIDe84&feature=related
chris –
this info right here ——> “Joe Raposo” honestly if I had a genie and I had three wishes one of them would of been who makes all that PBS music, thank you kind sir
That BoC track is not from Closes Vol. 1 as mentioned before… it’s HI Scores, which is short for Hell Interface Scores.
Fredd-e’s excellent BoC discography should sort it all out for you:
http://bocpages.org/wiki/Main_Page
the sounds bring a lot of nostalgic thought to my mind too, only I’m 19. not really old enough to have been brought up with any similar references you mentioned. it’s strange how everyone thinks the same thoughts when listening to such music, and even the imagery (pretty much anything on this site actually) has a strong connection too. I don’t try and explain it, I just enjoy it as much as possible!
Oh man, I had forgotten just how good a tune Cordate is. A classic in it’s genre. Cheers for posting. 🙂
@ Jakub: I wondered the same thing for years. Joe Raposo was a very prolific composer/musician in the 70s and 80s. Odd bit of trivia: in addition to all his work on PBS, he also created the Three’s Company theme song.
these two you tube users posted a lot of his stuff online:
http://www.youtube.com/user/love2register
http://www.youtube.com/user/raposofan
chris –
No wonder I have the Three’s Company DVD boxset and seem to be the only one that wants to watch it
i didnt find the Boreal Network’s Steel Whirl in any of his downloads. can anyone help me out?
iarafath –
it is right here – http://www.moodgadget.com/premiere
Where can I find these old Boards cds?!
Love the Boards track you posted.
I want to buy the Boreal Network EP, but Moodgadet requires me to live in US, UK, AU or CA.
🙁