Boards of Canada season is officially here. Rejoice.

Despite the fact that the great Scottish band Boards of Canada are perfect for year-round listening experiences, fall feels like the “official” Boards of Canada season. There’s something about their downtempo, low key, slightly psychedelic and slightly haunted sound that is perfect for overcast days. Slight chill in the air, a brisk wind that picks up the further away you get from the safety of your home on a mid-October walk is the perfect time for zoning out to albums like Music Has The Right To Children, Geogaddi, The Campfire Headphase, Tomorrow’s Harvest, or their new 2026 masterpiece Inferno.

There’s also plenty of masterclass EPs to throw into the autumnal playlist. Twoism, Trans Canada Highway, Hi Scores, Peel Sessions and In A Beautiful Place Out in the Country. Twoism, IMO, is more of a mini-album and it holds its place among their official LPs. But then again, all of their EPs are stunning. A playlist with all of the EPs assembled lives rent free in my head.

2013 was the year BOC re-issued all of their records in remastered form, so 2013 holds a special place in my brain. It’s also the year Tomorrow’s Harvest came out which was the first record I bought of theirs when it came out new. Throughout the fall of that year I was collecting all the reissues and getting lost in their music on my daily fall walks.

The Campfire Headphase holds a special place in my mind as that was the first Boards of Canada record I’d ever heard. My buddy Shane brought his external hard drive over one night in 2008 along with a 6pk of Sierra Nevada IPAs and he shared a bunch of music with me. The Campfire Headphase was one of those albums, and it stuck. I instantly had a connection with it, and it was basically my introduction into the world of electronic music. I even remember a song off of The Campfire Headphase being played on a commercial on the Noggin channel(a more mature version of Nickelodeon from back in the day.)

My favorite Boards of Canada album? Pretty much whichever one I’m listening to at the moment. I know a lot of hardcore fans think Music Has the Right to Children is the one that they’ve never quite beaten, and while I think it’s a masterpiece I feel BOC have elevated their craft with each record. I love Tomorrow’s Harvest for it’s cinematic feel and dystopian vibe. Geogaddi is absolutely epic in scope and has some seriously dark undertones(Scott Derrickson using “Gyroscope” in Sinsiter say a lot), but if I’m being pressed to nail down a favorite in this very moment I would have to say their new album Inferno. It feels both the furthest away from what’s come before, while also still locking into their classic sound. And they’ve perfected the use of voice samples with “Father and Son”. That song haunts my brain every time I hear it.

I think that Boards of Canada are one the most consistently great bands that I listen to and admire. I can listen to them anytime and in any mood. But with leaves crunching under my feet, a knitted cap on my head, and a warm jacket buttoned up there’s something magical about their music. The nostalgia of their audio clips, combined with the aged, vintage sound of the analog instrumentation as well as the hip hop-inflected beats all come together to create a timeless sound. Sounds from the past, melodies pulled from dreams, and an overall eerie, “hauntology” sort of vibe. And the cult-ish and occult undertones give it all an almost cursed sound.

And like I said Boards of Canada were the gateway into electronic music for me. Soon after, I was buying up as much Oneohtrix Point Never as I could, which then led to artists on Daniel Lopatin’s Software Recording Co label like Ben Zimmerman, Huerco S, (Thug)Entrancer, Napolian, Sculpture and Ford & Lopatin. Then bands like Le Matos via the Turbo Kid film made their way into my periphery. Of course the Drive S/T was big, and even today I’m still discovering classic artists like Aphex Twins, S U R V I V E, Troller, and a ton of artists off Holodeck Records like Jake Schrock and Dust Witch. Hunter Complex, Cory Kilduff, Deadly Avenger, Dream Division, Timothy Fife, Mr. Eff, Burning Tapes, Harglow, Galactic Protector and beyond. Not to mention the great electronic artists coming out from SFI Recordings in Seattle.

And Boards of Canada were ground zero.

So when I smell the neighbor’s burning pine needle pile wafting into my open front windows, I know that means two things: One, that I need to shut my windows before my wife loses her mind. And two, that it’s Boards of Canada season.

Go out, move forth, and Happy Cycling!