As things tend to move rather slowly under the hexagon
sun, the re-release of two legendary Boards Of Canada
recordings has been widely acknowledged as one of the
events of the year. First was the announcement made
by Warp only a few weeks ago that they were to re-release
the long lost seminal Twoism, then it was the
turn of Skam to bring back the equally essential Hi
Scores EP. Although Michael Sandison and Marcus
Eoin came to the attention of the masses with the beautiful
and dreamy Music Has The
Right To Children in 1998, the hardcore electronic
fans had known of Boards Of Canada for some time thanks
to a handful of very limited releases published on the
band’s own imprint, Music70.
Hailing from Scotland, the duo started recording at
the end of the eighties, but it is not until Skam released
the Hi Scores EP that Boards Of Canada finally
started to get properly recognised. Two years later,
Skam and Warp conjointly released the band’s fifth
album, Music Has The Right
To Children, followed in 2000 by the In
A Beautiful Place Out In The Country EP, and this
year’s Geogaddi.
Originally recorded in 1995 as a demo for the then unsigned
duo to take to record labels, Twoism finally
hit the shelves this month, creating one of the biggest
buzz in recent years. Revealing the blueprint for the
Music… and
Geogaddi albums,
this recording is commonly regarded as one of the pair’s
best. Darker than subsequent releases, the mini album’s
eight tracks are built around heavily sedated hip-hop
beats and smooth vintage electronic sounds, emphasising
on beautiful melodies rather than on complex sonic constructions.
Defining dream sequences through an intelligent use
of sounds, Eoin and Sandison were going against everything
the electronic scene was standing for when they recorded
this album, and demonstrated that it was possible to
create music with a human dimension, using computers.
From the simple space ballad that is Oirectine
to the floating electro of Iced Cooly, with
its approximate tuning, or the stellar lullaby title
track and the low energy funk of Seeya Later,
the album plays on a complex pattern of tricks and subversive
elements to capture the imagination of the listener.
Released a year later as a follow up to Twoism,
Hi Scores reveals slightly more open, if equally
as drowsy, soundscapes. Evoking frosty fields at dawn,
this EP demonstrates further the incredible maturity
of the Boards’ sound back then. The opening title
track and Turquoise Hexagon Sun, which was
later included on Music…,
are classic BoC, with their repetitive melodic lines
cast over chilled beats, drawing attention to notions
of wide open spaces while tiny sonic details activate
in the background. While Nlogax takes further
the dirty electro-funk sound experienced with Seeya
Later, also included on this release, highlighting
a more upbeat and upfront side of the pair’s musical
identity, which would further blossom on Music…,
the remainder of the EP is typical of the sleepy atmospheric
electronica of Twoism.
With these two classic records now made widely available,
it is no wonder why Boards Of Canada have become one
of the finest and most highly regarded acts, not only
in the UK, but all over the world. This is absolutely
essential listening.
Twoism 5/5 / Hi Scores 5/5 |
