I became aware of the band Boards of Canada about 30 years ago. I suspect, but don’t remember, that hearing them for the first time was one of many gifts of listening to the radio DJ John Peel late at night. Boards of Canada quickly became one of my favourite bands and maybe my all-time favourite.
They are an electronic duo – brothers – who were born in Scotland. They spent some of their childhood in central Canada. It seems to have been there that they picked up some of their earliest influences including nature and cultural history as depicted in numerous documentaries by the National Film Board of Canada. Their music keys into nostalgia and childhood with themes including the environment, psychedelia and spirituality.
They have only produced five albums (plus a few early EPs). The fourth album was long awaited after a gap of seven years and we have had to wait another 13 years for their latest album: ‘Inferno’.
Fortunately, in my view, and in the view of most reviewers, it has been worth the long wait. It feels like the most structured and complete of their albums. The cut-up vocals have a sense of greater purpose than on earlier albums and the focus on religion, alien life signals and spirits is slightly unnerving but interesting. I love it!
I have played it through a few times. On my way back from the Food Bank where I volunteer once a week (a two-hour walk mainly along tree lined footpaths), I looked up some of the song titles on the Internet. With help from Google, I was able to get some inklings into what many of the tracks on the album are about and their underlying themes. I learnt about Nostradamus (‘Age of Capricorn’), Hindi Hell (‘Naraka’), the significance of 1420MHz, which is apparently is the radio frequency of hydrogen and a critical band for radio astronomy and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (‘Prophecy at 1420MHz’), and much more.
I was particularly taken by the references on the internet relating to the track title ‘Memory Death’. This may well relate to the period occurs between clinical death (when breathing and circulation stop) and biological death (irreversible cessation of all cellular function) during which the brain may be active. Some have postulated that this period can last several minutes and that, during this time, the brain replays memories; some conjecture that it replays the best memories.
I was strangely moved by this concept. It got me thinking about what my best memories, to be replayed during my memory death, might be. To my shame I struggled to think of them. Admittedly I was walking and so not fully concentrating on the task of remembering, but I was shocked to find that, at first, all I could think of were relatively ‘bad’ memories.
For example, my earliest memory is of being alone at night in hospital having my tonsils removed. I was awake and kept flicking, no doubt noisily and irritatingly, a bit of loose Formica on a bedside table. I recall the nurse coming over and telling me off. I was four years old.
I remembered illnesses (measles, an infected leg, pneumonia), crashing a car in Kuwait before I had my driving license, funerals and one occasion of being reprimanded at work. I struggled in the moment to remember the good stuff. (My wife tells me that I shouldn’t have been so surprised at that since I’ve always been a bit of a half empty person).
Gradually I forced out some positive memories but I have resolved to find some time to think harder about those ‘good’ memories and perhaps write the best ones down. Goodness knows, there have been so many good experiences in recent years especially family holidays, the arrival of grandchildren and just in the everyday of retirement. But I wonder if I have become too reliant on recaps with the myriad of photos on my phone and have failed to sear memories and images onto my brain.
I’m going to think about this more and try documenting memories to help me remember how fruitful my experience of life has been. Meanwhile, I’m going to continue to listen to Boards of Canada and to hope there will be another album, even if we have to wait another 13 years for it.
My Retirement Journey 