Boards of Canada - The Campfire Headphase [2LP]

Warm, hazy and gently unsettling, The Campfire Headphase is Boards of Canada with guitars in hand, pressed here as a double LP with a digital download card.

Released in 2005, the Scottish duo's third studio album shifted their sound away from the eerie, sample-heavy textures of Geogaddi toward something sunnier and more organic. Brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin layered processed guitars over their trademark warped synths and dusty drum loops, as if a family slide show had been left to soften in a summer attic.

"Chromakey Dreamcoat" drifts in on wobbly tape warmth and a lazy, head-nodding beat, while "Dayvan Cowboy" swells from distorted guitar haze into one of their most uplifting moments. "Peacock Tail" glows with bittersweet nostalgia, and "Satellite Anthem Icarus" floats by like a half-remembered dream.

The whole album feels like faded film stock: colors bleeding at the edges, memories slightly out of focus, a sense that something lovely is slipping away even as you listen, and the guitars only make that ache feel more personal.

It is the most tender entry in their catalog, and for first-timers an inviting way into one of electronic music's most mysterious partnerships, best heard from start to finish with the lights low.