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I've been listening to the new Boards of Canada album Inferno, which released just two days ago. My expectations for this one were high, given they were a seminal electronic band of the 90s, and Inferno breaks a massive thirteen-year hiatus where they all but went radio silent and left the entire fanbase twisting in the wind. It's all too easy for artists to fumble a comeback after an extended hiatus (looking at you, James Murphy, American Dream has all of your worst music), but I'm glad to say that this is one of their best albums. It also doesn't feel at all like a cheap attempt at nostalgia-bait where an artist tries and fails to capture the sounds of their heyday; in fact they go in a completely fresh sonic direction that couldn't contrast more with the fuzzy, warm, childhood tape sounds of their first two albums.
The tracks here are extremely dark in tone, as well as sharp-edged and unmistakably electronic in their sound. They also draw from a far more eclectic range of inspirations than any of the tracks on their other albums - most of their other albums had a much clearer singular source of inspiration; Music Has The Right To Children and Geogaddi are clearly based off the music and sounds on old educational tapes and Parks Canada ads, whereas Tomorrow's Harvest is obviously a pastiche of 70s/80s apocalypse film soundtracks. The Campfire Headphase is a bit less cohesive and incorporates aspects of acoustic folk into its sound, but still relies on the more pastoral and sweet atmospheres of their early days. Inferno, however, is... not that. In spite of the music on here bearing superficial hallmarks of their earlier work such as ambiguous transposed chords and extensive samples ranging from Hare Krishna chanting and televangelists to educational docs and so on, their sound is now unexpectedly jagged and hi-fidelity. The production is absolutely immaculate, which is not a typical approach for Boards of Canada.
So many highlights. Prophecy at 1420 MHz, Father And Son, The Word Becomes Flesh, Into The Magic Land, Deep Time and All Reason Departs are fantastic tracks that really epitomise what the album has to offer. The second Prophecy comes in you know you're going to be in for a ride, the onslaught of hard-hitting drums and the electronic synth textures are infectious. But probably the biggest surprise on the album is the penultimate track You Retreat In Time And Space, which is placed on the album after a whole onslaught of increasingly ominous and evil tracks; it acts as a climax to the album with an absolutely blissful slow synth-funk ballad featuring a whole lot of guitars, bells and warbly synths that almost appear to sparkle. One could almost mistake it for a Daft Punk track if they didn't know Boards of Canada made it, albeit on a second look it's not all too difficult to see their DNA all over the track.
The fact that a band this old and this heralded is still putting out quality works this late in the game is great. Fantastic album. 8.7/10.
Damn, didn't know they had a new release. Twoism is one of my favorite EPs of all time, and Geogaddi is one of my favorite albums.
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