Boards of Canada: Music is Math

BOC plays with numbers a lot. Their usage of numbers generally falls into 2 categories: spiritual/occult and nostalgiac. You could likely break these down into further divisions, but I personally enjoy the room they hold. BOC is a truly engimatic band and their music contains magnitudes, so broad categories are useful for discussing bigger-picture/general ideas in their work. This will certainly not be a "comprehensive" view of their music, it will just be my opinions from personal observation and limited research

The Numerology of Boards of Canada is one of the first things most people would pick up on upon digging a bit deeper into their work. Six in general is a prominent motif of their music. Geogaddi has a runtime of 66:06 (unless you have the woke Japanese edition with an extra song about god). The hexagon is a six-sided shape; the cover of Geogaddi depicts a red hexagon, in contrast to the turquoise and orange hexagons referenced in their other songs, though the Geogaddi hexagon is surrounded by orange and appears the same color turquoise as is shown on the Music Has A Right to Children cover. The band is a part of a collective called hexagon sun; hexagons are regarded as a highly prevalent natural geometric shape, existing in many places, including beehives and rather famously on Saturn. Marcus himself has said this about the hexagon theming: "The hexagon theme represents that whole idea of being able to see reality for what it is, the raw maths or patterns that make everything. We've always been interested in science and maths. Sometimes music or art or drugs can pull back the curtain for you and reveal the Wizard of Oz, so to speak, busy pushing the levers and pressing buttons. That's what maths is, the wizard. It sounds like nonsense but I'm sure a lot of people know what I'm talking about." Math and geometry are presented in their work (but especially Geogaddi) as representations of the divine

Boards of Canada also plays with numbers in a way that feels more innocent, more childish. The samples of number stations, to me at least, read in this way. They sound like children learning their numbers. Geogaddi in general does this contrast very well, the contrast of innocent childhood and a sinister world. 1969 contains samples of branch davidians and makes explicit reference to David Koresh. The branch davidians, rather notoriously, were accused of abusing children. Numbers are given an explicit link to a broader force beyond the comprehension of the children in 1969. It mirrors the message of From One Source All Things Depend, in my view. The children speak about God and broader ideas of higher nature which have consistently been linked to numbers and geometric shapes throughout the album, but all these finer details have been sanded away. The children read from the bible. One of them even reads hebrew; the children clearly don't understand, but they do believe. Ultimately, I think Geogaddi ends on a positive note. We don't need the math, we just need the faith. Spirituality is presented in this very freeing way here. The uplifting synths placed under these children speaking really paints a beautiful picture. The children might be indoctrinated/mislead or something similar, but it has not killed their spirit. They feel protected and taken care of in their faith. It's really quite heartwarming. I think it's appropriate that this track follows magic window. Magic window is quiet, it's like the environment inside of an empty church. I interpret the "magic window" to be a stained glass window. Staring into the magic window allows you time to contemplate, to look inside yourself. It leaves you alone with your thoughts. Once you sink deep enough into that self-reflection, you see the essence of it all. You become like a child again, in awe of the world, unphased by its cruel veneer. The world becomes beautiful again. You can lay back down in the green pastures. It feels like a celebration of faith after a long trip into its scariest implications, a celebration of the human desire for something larger than themselves