Boards of Canada – Geogaddi
Sunshine recordings with gyroscopes and dandelions.
Boards of Canada fans have been waiting fours years for a full length follow-up to the then-startling ‘Music Has the Right to Children’ LP that was put out in 1998. The Scottish duo teased underground enthusiasts with a few re-issues and even an EP last year, but the highly anticipated ‘Geogaddi’ has finally arrived, kids- and it is indeed a scorcher. Yet I’m still not sure if this means that it is good or bad. Initially, this will probably go over everyone’s head, from B.O.C. virgins to nerdy IDM chat room geeks, at least for the first few listens.
Somehow ‘Goegaddi’ is both more ambient and heavier than ‘Music Has the Right…’ This is hard-n-crunchy-blippy-ambient-electro-hiphop with majestic choral sythns, math equations, and child conversations(huh?). At times it seems to get too ambient, but Boards of Canada can get away with the hippie-ness of their music because the bass drum kicks are hands down the hardest hiphop beats to ever be exported from Scotland.
Though the album may be a little distracting with an overabundance of one-minute random interludes, there are some standout tracks here that upon each listen become more and more astounding. The Songs ‘Music is Math’, ‘Sunshine Recorder’, ‘1969′, and ‘Dawn Chorus’ all have the hard-ass, yet slowed down electro beats that compliment the high organic ambience in such a way its hard to really even describe.
So I’m left unsure on this one, kids. I can sense brilliance here, not because the loser new Bohemian wannabees name drop Boards of Canada as essential in their record collection, but because those bass drums are so damn infectious. This album takes work to listen to, but like anything you work for, the end result is a far better reward than something nicely packaged up for you to digest like oh lets say, ‘Mmm-bop.’
- Boards of Canada – Geogaddi
- by robNtime
- Published on March 1st, 2002
- Artist:
- Boards of Canada
- Album:
- Geogaddi
- Label:
- Warp
- When:
- February 2002
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