I'm not sure why Boards of Canada appeal to so many people. I don't dislike them but I find most of their songs sleep inducing, which is fine if I want to listen to something that will put me to sleep within three minutes of playing the album's first track.
I have a similar reaction to other ambient projects like Aphex Twin, Autechre and Eno's collected ambient works. I will concede that Music for Airports does have a calming effect if you're traveling by air.
I agree with Brain Eno's theory that ambient music is furniture music and it shouldn't demand attentive listening. Good ambient music should be easy to ignore because it's background music intended to enhance the listener's relationship to his daily environment. That's why nearly all ambient compositions have unobtrusive and repetitive themes.
I usually don't play ambient music unless I'm doing a specific activity like writing, reading a book, going to sleep or driving my car. Ambient music helps me focus my creative energies to the task at hand, while playing any other form of music usually distracts me from the task at hand.
Eno's theories on ambient music are highly conceptual. I saw him speak at a workshop at the Boston Museum School on ambient music theory and it was a challenge to follow the thread of his lecture because his ideas are so abstract. When Eno finished, he asked if there were any questions and nobody raised their hand, for fear being the first moron in the room to ask Eno a stupid question.
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There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
Townes Van Zandt
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