Larger than life machine music with a human face that stands for itself: the Scottish brothers expand their cosmos, to which there is no parallel universe.
What a thing: video cassettes that were sent to selected fans, a poster campaign, finally the first snippets with the well-established patina of recycled VHS aesthetics and musical rocket launch atmosphere, plus listening sessions in seven cities around the world. INFERNO, Boards Of Canada’s first album since 2013’s TOMORROW’S HARVEST, is a veritable major media event, its arrival in some ways the end of the subtlety that has always characterized Michael and Marcus Sandison.
And the fans are really into it. However, the accompanying mass hysteria stands in contrast to the tracks produced by the Scottish brothers. The 19 play stations offer the classic inner bombast of downtempo hip hop beats, dream pop guitars, iconic steel blue synthesizer tracks and obscure samples. The advance releases “Prophecy At 1420 MHz” and “Naraka” are such typical Boards Of Canada numbers that goosebumps become routine.
The former begins with an exuberant indigenous flute intro, which immediately makes it clear that the uncompromising return to the original, despite everything bohei, is still an indispensable part of the duo’s DNA. Then a first stubborn beat like something out of a spy thriller, before the deep drop into the inferno follows and apathetic but incredibly beautiful guitar chords push forward.
Memories of the 2006 classic “Dayvan Cowboy” come to mind, but are completely robbed of optimism. “I am god, the ultimate resonance,” says a heavily distorted voice later in the track. Fun fact: The vocals were not recorded by the two themselves, but were taken from a Harvard lecture by a technology-skeptical Islamic creationist from the 2000s. Pathetic nonsense alarm or artistic necessity? It should be clear that the pantheists at Boards Of Canada have not enjoyed the last 13 years.
“Naraka”, on the other hand, is even more striking and, after icy synths, actually samples the Hare Krishna mantra – Boards Of Canada are probably the only act that can get away with this somewhat unscathed, even if this perfectly formed, musically flawless Eso whip really didn’t have to be there.
So why these extreme reactions to the album when everything is the same as usual? After all, no one could have guessed that Boards Of Canada would practice almost blunt social criticism on their new album. Well: INFERNO expands a cosmos to which there simply is no parallel universe. Boards Of Canada deliver the perfect mix of familiarity and uncanny valley effect, producing larger-than-life machine music with a human face that stands on its own. And, in increasingly difficult times, keyword multiple crises, this is also part of the fascination: they provide comfort in the form of psychedelic streaks in which all disturbing noises can be wonderfully blocked out for 70 minutes – procrastination in a hauntological endless loop.
