Boards of Canada — Oscar See Through Red Eye download

It has been over three and a half years since we were last treated to new Boards of Canada music. Sure, there was the re-release of what was the über-rare (but leaked-onto-the-internet) Twoism, and there were leaks of compilations of old BoC music. But they’re not new. And it’s been almost four years. Luckily it’s BoC, so it should be worth the wait.

Their new album, The Campfire Headphase, comes out on the 17^th of October. But to whet our appetites, today saw the release of a download-only single, Oscar See Through Red Eye.

Perhaps inevitably, there have been more than a few rumours floating around about what the new album sounds like. The most convincing rumour was that there will be guitars. It makes sense if you’ve been listening to BoC’s recent remixes of cLOUDDEAD and Boom Bip which both have lovely guitar bits in them.

There’s not an awful lot of that in Oscar See Through Red Eye. Well, there are guitars, but it’s not very explicit. They don’t really sound like guitars; you could mistake it for a synth or something. This sounds like Geogaddi DX to me though. The most comparable track is Alpha and Omega. But unlike Alpha and Omega, which sounds quite dark and murky, Oscar See Through Red Eye sounds very glittery, sparkly and shiny to me.

Stuff keeps on happening. Every bar something different comes along — twirling glissandos and mini-melodies. And it all sounds great. I can’t think of an example of a Boards of Canada track that does this, adding a different element to the same backdrop all the time. It’s a real evolution on their previous work.

When the track fades out it reminds me of A Beautiful Place Out in the Country. I’d love to hear how this sounds in amongst the rest of the album. As if I couldn’t wait enough already.

Now we just need to wait for everybody to analyse it to death! (Yes, I am aware that I am being a hypocrite as I have contributed to that website.)

Why listen to me prattle on about this though, when you can listen to it?

I think you need to press play every 30 seconds or whatever, but really. It’s only 99p which is not a lot for a great track like this.

A quick word about the download. This is only the second time I’ve paid for a download. The first time, you may recall, I had a bit of trouble. I had trouble this time aswell. I was a bit worried at first, like I’m jinxed with downloads. Luckily just adding ‘.mp3′ to the end of the filename worked. Phew. It’s like using a Mac again!