They’re a duo, both in their early thirties, from Scotland, and they have released their latest full-length on the experimental Warp label. As you have probably noticed, Boards of Canada don’t make nu-metal. Instead of being the next fad in shouting angry lyrics over distorted guitars, they use their synthesizers, added with drumbeats and distorted children voices. All winding up together to form an album full of beautiful, melancholic melodies. You’ll get soaked up, taken to another place, and be released after 66 minutes and 5 seconds of pure beauty.
The most incredible thing about Geogaddi is that you don’t hear the fucked up noises, bleeps, and blops that seem to characterize most ‘IDM’ releases these days. Instead of that, you hear soundscapes, drumbeats and an occasional sample of a child proclaiming that we should use "alternative energy" or a narrator talking about dandelions on the ocean floor. But in all that simplicity lays the beauty of this record. Using the most minimal means and still creating something good is something that’s universal and has always been, in my opinion, one of the most pure forms of art. For example, take Pink Moon, the last record from Nick Drake, an album with only guitar and singing, and you get close to describing what Geogaddi sounds like. No, Nick Drake didn’t use any drum computers on his records, but what he was trying to do is in essence the same as what the Boards of Canada try to do: creating music that sounds like it has always existed, the same as with the wind, the sky and the trees.
There’s a lot of Electronical Dance Music these days that try to make a difference and "be original" by using out-of-sync dreambeats, effects, weird noises and anything else that would be "out of the ordinary." Geogaddi doesn’t need all of that, and that’s why this album is so much more important than most other IDM releases. After listening to over an hour worth of music you get the feeling that you heard something that matters, and not just a kid fiddling around with his new PC.
1. Ready Lets Go
2. Music Is Math
3. Beware the Friendly Stranger
4. Gyroscope
5. Dandelion
6. Sunshine Recorder
7. In the Annexe
8. Julie and Candy
9. The Smallest Weird Number
10. 1969
11. Energy Warning
12. The Beach at Redpoint
13. Opening the Mouth
14. Alpha and Omega
15. I Saw Drones
16. The Devil Is in the Details
17. A Is to B as B Is to C
18. Over the Horizon Radar
19. Dawn Chorus
20. Diving Station
21. You Could Feel the Sky
22. Corsair
23. Magic Window
More about: Boards of Canada
