Comments on: Music similar to Boards of Canada?

Question: Music similar to Boards of Canada?

Otis — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 15:15:12 -0800

I really, really, like Boards of Canada. What other similar music might I like?

Other stuff I already listen to: Aphex Twin, Orb, Orbital.

By: beaucoupkevin

beaucoupkevin — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 15:22:44 -0800

Certain Mouse On Mars records may really appeal to you - Vulvaland being one of my favorites.

Prefuse 73 and Savath and Savalas both do slightly-glitchy, melodic ambient work as well, The latter may be closer to the sound you're looking for. especially on Aprop'at.

By: Hogshead

Hogshead — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 15:27:21 -0800

Last FM recommends (top ten, in order):
1 Aphex Twin
2 Autechre
3 Four Tet
4 Squarepusher
5 Plaid
6 Prefuse 73
7 Air
8 DJ Shadow
9 Mogwai
10 AFX

By: patr1ck

patr1ck — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 15:28:26 -0800

Check out this great askMeFi, it has tons of great suggestions for (somewhat) similar music.

By: influx

influx — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 15:29:12 -0800

I'd recommend tstewart's Living Exponentially.

By: scarabic

scarabic — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 15:38:11 -0800

MusicPlasma is your friend.

I'm supposed to like Boards of Canada but don't have much of an opinion either way.

Try Tortoise and Built to Spill.

Also: g

By: scarabic

scarabic — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 15:38:35 -0800

~~Also: g~~

By: scodger

scodger — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 15:54:37 -0800

You might also like -
Isan, Christ (get the pylonesque ep), Marumari, Freescha, Casino Versus Japan, Astrobotnia.
Hmm I could go on, but they are getting a bit far from BoC.

By: ab3

ab3 — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:01:01 -0800

I love BoC... all of the above are good suggestions. some more you might like... not necessarily all BoC sound alikes, but if you like BoC, i think there are elements of all of these you could really get into..

Godspeed You Black Emperor
Mum
Manitoba
Rachels
DJ Shadow
Greg Davis
Amon Tobin
Boom Bip
The Books
Dntel
Arovane
Max Richter
Tadd Mullinix
Metrovavan
Pulseprogramming
Isan
Juana Molina
Cyann & Ben
Ignatius
Clue to Kalo
Bovaflux
Tortoise
The Appleseed Cast
Friends of Dean Martinez
Explosions in the Sky
Keith Fullerton Whitman
Mount Eerie/ The Microphones
Do Make Say Think

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:01:12 -0800

telefon tel aviv - fahrenheit fair enough, immediate action ep
arovane - atol scrap & tides
phonem - hydro electric
sovacusa - centrepoint

By: shortfuse

shortfuse — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:03:27 -0800

I love BoC too. Here's some artists and labels you might check out. See discogs.com for details about record names, etc.

Artists:

Bola. Fantastic, soaring, intricate electronica. Like a moodier cousin of BoC. When robots rise to rebuild the world after the war has turned everything to ashes, this is music they will be listening to as they plow away under a bloody red sunset. Or something. Get the Soup LP - a classic in my book.

Christ. The Pete Best of BoC, as in the guy who worked with the BoC boys before their world domination. Very BoC-like music if without as many pastoral touches. Try the Pylonesque EP.

Kettel. Has done many diff types of music, but check out his "Look at This! Ha ha ha!" EP which has some excellent takes of the lovely spring-like feel of some BoC tunes.

Ulrich Schnauss. BoC meets Slowdive. Mixes gentle electronica with shoegaze-like dreaminess. I prefer his first LP.

Casino Vs Japan. Might be accused of borrowing a tad too much from BoC, but I'm a slut for this sort of melodic electronica. Try their Go Hawaii LP.

Lackluster. Mostly IDM and ambience. Start with his Container LP.

Plod. Made some IDM records full of warmth, somewhere between BoC and Plaid. Get the Pillow Talk LP.

Metamatics. Ranges from fast shifty stuff to slow ambient stuff. Try the Spook Tinsel Shoal LP for low-key, warm stuff.

CiM. Mostly jagged, fast, melodic IDM, but his Reference LP has moments of gentler beauty.

Plaid / The Black Dog. More quirky and frenetic than BoC in terms of beats, but the naive-sounding melodies might appeal. Try any of the Black Dog LPs (the last track off Spanners might fit) or Plaid's Double Figure LP.

Global Goon. Much closer to Aphex Twin's playful and wacky stuff. (GG is supposed to have been RDJ's flatmate?) The first album has the feel of music made by and for children, which might appeal to BoC fans.

Labels:

Skam. Try the Skampler compilation. The Lego Feet tracks are fantastic.

Clear. Try the Gescom (Autechre) EP or the It's All Becoming... compilation.

deFocus. Clear became deFocus. Try the Did You See compilation.

Neo Ouija. Run by Metamatics, I believe. Try any of the Cottage Industries compilation series.

By: geoff.

geoff. — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:09:18 -0800

Shpongle!

By: special-k

special-k — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:11:41 -0800

Caribou
Xiu Xiu

By: symphonik

symphonik — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:19:49 -0800

Definitely, definitely Lanterna. I recommend their album "Elm Street" as a good starting point.

By: symphonik

symphonik — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:20:19 -0800

(Oh, I also second Ulrich Schnauss.)

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:23:27 -0800

Tycho is the only musician I've heard who sounds exactly like Boards of Canada, other than BOC. Enough that even after listening to his cd dozens of times, and saw him play live twice, I hear a track and think "wait, is this some unrelease BOC track I should know?"

If you're big complaint is that there aren't enough slightly different BOC tracks to listen to, get sunrise projector and it will help a little.

By: jgee

jgee — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:26:43 -0800

I've said it before: Tycho. The album is streamable on his site.

By: jgee

jgee — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:28:24 -0800

Or, what aubilenon said. None of my friends who are into BoC have been disappointed with Tycho.

By: unmake

unmake — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 16:35:18 -0800

Morr Music's Putting The Morr Back In Morrissey compilation is oft-recommended as an intro to BoC-style IDM music..

Land of the Loops deserves a mention.

By: adamrice

adamrice — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 17:06:15 -0800

Blue States, which I like better than BoC.

By: pwb503

pwb503 — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 19:42:57 -0800

Some of the suggestions I see above I don't agree with. While I think Mogwai and Mum are awesome I don't necessarily think someone who likes BoC would like them.

Here are a few I think you'd like though:
Dim Dim - Kiwi is insanely good
The Grace Period - Dynasty is very good and sounds a lot like mellow DJ Shadow (to me)
The Urchin
Plaid
Mouse On Mars (some of their stuff, but not others...)
Global Goon - Family Glue is amazing
Apparat
E*Rock
E*Vax (alt link)
Four Tet
The Bionaut
Melodium - Anaemia is killer
Copy

I'd also suggest checking out the label Audio Dregs. I don't like everything they put out, but I like most of it. An Audio Dregs sampler can be downloaded here.

By: dazed_one

dazed_one — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 20:23:40 -0800

Might I suggest trying Pandora?

By: dazed_one

dazed_one — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 20:24:41 -0800

Oops. Let's try that again;

Pandora.

By: jayder

jayder — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 21:31:20 -0800

Paul Schutze
Seefeel
Steve Roach

By: hgws

hgws — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 23:44:31 -0800

I have been listening to much Proem lately & am frequently reminded of BoC. Machine Drum might be worth checking out too, esp. as you like your Aphex also.

By: psychobum

psychobum — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 01:51:51 -0800

your looking for down-tempo/ambient
try neotropic (white rabbits is the best electro album ever), pole, pete namlook, autechre (amber), aphex twin (analouge bubble bath and selected ambient works), funki porcini

By: psychobum

psychobum — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 01:53:31 -0800

also you might like the music from slabo.com (they have a grip of free albums and some nice mixtape sets)

more extreme but great electronic: venetian snares, doormouse, knifehandchop, kevin blechdom

By: psychobum

psychobum — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 01:54:58 -0800

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtempo

By: Otis

Otis — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 06:07:14 -0800

Wow! Lots to look into here. You guys rock.

By: ryanhealy

ryanhealy — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 08:54:46 -0800

I can't believe nobody's suggested M83.

By: kaseijin

kaseijin — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 10:34:40 -0800

I'll chime in and give a third or fourth suggestion of Four-Tet.

By: pinto

pinto — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 18:17:50 -0800

the first few that come to mind that haven't yet been listed are

fizzarum
animals on wheels
cex (a little more skittish/beat heavy)
biosphere (more ambient)

here are the artists in my 'idm' folder.
funkstorung
jan jelinek
lemon jelly
marumari
matmos
monolake
morgan geist (more ambient techno)
mouse on mars
plaid
proem
safety scissors
squarepusher
venetian snares
cylob
datathief
solvent
phoenicia

and the obvious
authechre, (m)u-ziq, amon tobin

see also
dub tractor
minus 8

By: MetaMonkey

MetaMonkey — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 18:26:50 -0800

Got here a little late, but some more suggestions for fun

Datach'i
Deadelus
Icarus
Fennesz
Fridge
Future Sounds of London
Luomo
Leafcutter John

All are worth a listen.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 18:35:03 -0800

pinto: venetian snares?
both being in your idm folder does not make them similar.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 18:38:44 -0800

tycho is neat btw, missed that other thread where he was mentioned.

By: Jon Mitchell

Jon Mitchell — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 21:42:20 -0800

Kid Loco : A Grand Love Story sounds like BoC, if BoC were from our actual earth, and not the parallel high-tech divergent 1970s they seem to be from. It's still very good, though.

By: psychobum

psychobum — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 02:49:58 -0800

slag boom van loon

By: Otis

Otis — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:05:49 -0800

Thanks again everyone -- so much to look into here. That Tycho recommendation was spot on, and I missed it earlier as well. I picked up Prefuse 73 and M83 CDs today and will have a listen later. Listening to a mixtape grabbed from slabco.com right now. Look forward to getting some more stuff from there.

By: Jon Mitchell

Jon Mitchell — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 23:12:30 -0800

Oh, also: BrothomStates. He sounds a bit like a lot of Warp artists, but check out mdrmx and Viimo on bleep.com. Both are lovely.

You might like Karsten Pflum, too. Here's one of his tunes used as a soundtrack to a generative music video.