Due to their mostly instrumental, lo-fi electronic vibe, I listen to the Boards of Canada brothers a lot, probably a few times a week, while I’m writing. I find the experience a very cerebral music that puts you in a creative headspace, kind of like taking speed for the focus aspect. The albums that always end up on my rotation are Trans Canada Highway, Music Has the Right to Children, and sometimes, Geogaddi. Save for a few tracks, I have no real love for Tomorrow’s Harvest and find it quite aimless.
And now, 13 years later, we have Inferno, … an album at 17 tracks that is impossible to call aimless. I do not doubt that every track here was well thought out to fit the kind of occult-esque post-apocalyptic vibe Boards of Canada is going for on Inferno, and it works for me … for the most part. After a few back-to-back listens, there are parts of this album that I absolutely adore, a combination of old-school Boards of Canada’s analogue electronic warmth and sample layering (“Hydrogen Helium Lithium Leviathan”) with a few more modern flourishes.
Still, there are also moments during a few songs I can’t bring myself to listen to more than once, specifically the computerized voice trying to spell out ‘Marvelous’ during “Age of the Capricorn.” More voices appear in this discordant and prophetic styling, but then we get this super-heavy religious poetry that is just too much for me. The background layering works, but the vocal sampling could have been toned down. Still, some Boards of Canada tracks have always toed the line on being too on the nose, and this is one of them. “Father and Son,” with its simple beat, continues this vocal talk sampling thing, but at times it’s sped up, kind of a vibe similar to The Avalanches “Frontier Psychiatrist.” It’s a strange and forboding track, but that’s probably the point. This devoid of human life vocal sampling vibe comes up again on “The Word Becomes Flesh.” It’s a tough pill to swallow.
“Somewhere Right Now In The Future” is another classic BoC track, a hypnotic and darkened synth stealing the spotlight. “Naraka” was a huge surprise, heavy on the bass and synths, but dipping into more psychedelic and religious connotations with some manipulated Hare Krishna vocal chant samples. I have no idea if the religious layers are supposed to be taken seriously or if they are just used as musical backings. “Blood In The Labyrinth” utilizes the sitar and is currently probably my favourite on Inferno next to “You Retreat In Time And Space,” with it’s hooky synth line and funky bass lines.
As a whole, Inferno is an album that touches on that nostalgic sound I was waiting for when I heard that BoC was coming back and for the tracks that aren’t working for me now, I’ll just have to relisten.
