Mysterious VHS Tapes May Herald the Release of a New Boards of Canada Project

At some point over the last 24 hours, mysterious VHS tapes reportedly started arriving in the mailboxes of a select group of music fans. The tapes contained what one outlet described as “analogue visuals, shortwave-style audio and layered voice fragments,” and were emblazoned with a design featuring seven hexagons. There was no other identifying information, but fans quickly picked up on their origin: an address used by British experimental music label Warp Records. This points to an exciting possibility: A new release by reclusive Scottish brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, aka Boards of Canada. The term “highly anticipated” is the archetypal music industry cliché, but a new Boards of Canada record would be genuinely big—and exciting—news. Their most recent record, Tomorrow’s Harvest, appeared over a decade ago, so a new release is well overdue. And while nothing has been confirmed, there are plenty of signs that point toward the speculation about a new release being accurate. Apart from the tapes coming from Warp, their branding also seems significant: the duo has a long association with the hexagon, and a new album would be their seventh. BoC also has some experience in