Boards Of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

CD $13.98
LP $24.98
Download $9.98

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, the aphorism goes. For Boards of Canada, their absence from releasing music over the past seven years has left their fans rabid for something, anything from the band. Then it came — a series of codes released through various media that, when entered into a website, revealed the release of the duo’s fourth studio album. The long wait for new music and the duo’s willful obscurity about its release isn’t manipulation; it’s warranted, as part of the greater mysterious appeal of Boards of Canada, and for the fact that Tomorrow’s Harvest features some of the band’s greatest work yet. It begins sounding like the opening of a science film on “Gemini,” pointing to their early influence from Canadian nature documentaries, but “Reach for the Dead” directly follows with more epic, ominous tones. Boards of Canada have always been able to imbue their wordless music with just enough suggestion that listeners can invoke their own meaning from the music, and as such, one can’t help but think of countless awful news stories or meaningless status updates when listening to a track like “Sick Times,” which strings ghostly recorded samples of voices speaking in the background behind minor-key tones that hint at global dread. Tomorrow’s Harvest isn’t all doom and gloom, though. Even with a name like “Cold Earth,” it still the strong scent of nostalgia that carried such releases as the In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country EP to great heights, and their cut-up beatwork on tracks like “Jacquard Causeway” entrances. Tomorrow’s Harvest is long and loaded with great tracks, like the scenic “Nothing is Real” and pulsating “New Seeds,” which both appear in the album’s final stretch, making it the kind of record you want to spin again immediately when it’s over to let its finer points sink in. With luck we won’t have to wait as long for another Boards of Canada release, but Tomorrow’s Harvest is the kind of record you can pore over for years, rich enough to rank highly with the rest of the band’s estimable catalog.

Above and below are photos taken recently at the most unique T.I.N.Y. (The Interactive New York) large-scale, art installation that is on exhibit (for free) through this Sunday (June 16th) at the Marina at Pier 57 (Westside Highway at end of 15th Street on West side of Manhattan) where Garson Yu, the curator of this fun (and free) installation inside an old pier building, invites visitors to completely throw themselves into the interactive multi-media installation and to "engage in a sound hunt and discover your own story." Los Angeles resident Yu is the founder of yU+co: a design company specializing in film title design and motion graphics for film/TV and new media. He was born in Hong Kong but did live in New York about 20 years ago, where he began his art career, when the acclaimed video artist developed a love for the city and a keen appreciation of the sounds, sights and all the senses and feelings given by the streets of NYC and its intense subway system on which he bases this large scale art installation housed in a series of shipping containers.

I stopped by last weekend and joined the, surprisingly few, attendees taking advantage of this highly entertaining and completely free, vast interactive exhibit that is designed to interact with all of your senses as you walk into the big cavernous space surrounded by shipping containers - some 36 hanging above, others open for people to walk through and designed to resemble a subway car in length and scale with text and simple art, drawn by installation attendees (or “straphangers”) with the colored chalk provided, on its walls. Inside speakers pump out ambient sounds of the noises of the subway with city street sounds mixed in while video images of the city (all of which he meticulously filmed across the boroughs of NYC) flash by on the walls. Outside in the main opening videos are projected onto the containers on one side, and microphones are set up for folks to make loud "WOO" or "BOO" sounds into which, in turn, can speed up or slow the down the corresponding nearby video projections of city street and subway images (complete with sounds) - all done via the latest in interactive sound and motion technology.

Amoeba Music welcomes Academy Award nominated composer Marco Beltrami to celebrate the release of the score for World War Z and the movie’s release! Join us for a special advance screening of World War Z on Wednesday, June 19 at Arclight Hollywood! Plus, he'll sign copies of the film's score at the event.

The film revolves around United Nations employee Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt), who traverses the world in a race against time to stop a pandemic that is toppling armies and governments, and threatening to decimate humanity itself. 

To get into the screening, be one of the first 100 fans to purchase a World War Z Fan Pack ($30) at Amoeba Hollywood starting Tuesday, June 18.

What:  Advance Screening of World War Z and Signing with Composer Marco Beltrami

When:  Wednesday, June 19 at 9:30pm

Where:  ArcLight Hollywood

Tickets:  Purchase a World War Z Fan Pack ($30) at Amoeba Hollywood starting Tuesday, June 18 at 10:30am.

Each fan pack includes:

• Ticket to the advance showing of World War Z in 3D at ArcLight Hollywood 
• In-theater signing and meet & greet with Marco Beltrami
• CD of the score
• Movie poster

Due to the special screening and event timing, the signing will be limited to purchasers of the World War Z fan pack only. All Sales Final.