geogaddi is dark. very dark. extremely dark.

subtly dark.

what kills me is that some of the people negatively reviewing this album have totally missed the point of the record. the argument usually falls on two extremes:

1. that the album is too similar to mhtrtc

people seem to make more out of the fact that the album is 66:06 long than actually describing the music within (and not grasping the concept that its a joke played on people obsessed with the hexagon sun mythos). if youre familiar with their work already than you know that boards of canada is one of the most unique bands, electronic or otherwise, on the face of the planet. the fact that this is similar to their earlier works should come as no suprise, seeing as none of their other cds sound particularly different from one another.

i could go off at length about how much of a concept record this is. while mhtrtc was more about the blissful ignorance of childhood, this is about retaining innocence in a world full of evil. while we all have our childhood memories of abstract, fuzzy summer days outside, we also have our childhood memories of unease; the monster under the bed, the terror of being seperated from ones parents...

...blah blah blah. while this makes the album accessable and relateable to everyone since we all share similar memories of childhood, what really matters is that, while more meloncholy, this album is a staggering work of art thats both enjoyable on casual listens and extremely complex on closer ones. some tracks are both ferociously innovative (alpha and omega, the devil is in the details) and others wonderfully, and humourously, retro (sunshine recorder, 1969). also, am i the only one around here who thinks gyroscope is an awesome track? dark, brooding drones with a pummeling beat aimed directly at the distorted child counting off from deep within the song. brilliant stuff. the "filler" tracks work well i think, and help keep the album cohesive without being overly deriative.

mhtrtc is like a state forest in the daytime and geogaddi is the same woods at near-dusk. while during the day the trees and scenery are beautiful, at night everything is cast in shadow. the beauty is still there, but theres a dark undercurrent distorting all the elements that youre familiar with. a must listen.

...Geogaddi is a multi textured sonic masterpiece. From the opening discordant melody of 'ready lets go,' you know that the band are about to take you on a strange and wonderful journey. All of the elements that made Music has the right to children so special are present on geogaddi, oscillating synths from old documentaries, textures so deep and mysterious you could swim in them, tiny intricate sounds that only reveal themself on the 17th or 32nd listen, all tacked on to hazy, scratchy beats. In a word, magic!!!

There are those who will complain that boards of Canada haven't come that far in four years, or that they haven't broken much new ground. To me, this is the unfairest of criticisms. A band which is already as far out there as BOC and which has such a unique vision does not need to please electronic music snobs by doing something entirely new. Anyway, much of todays so called revolutionary electronic music sounds suspiciously like a cold sneering joke played by the artists on their listeners.

Geogaddi is a unquestionably a different album to Music has the right to children. It is more dense and psychadelic with some tracks feeling like a bottomless pit of texture and reverb, like "dawn chorus". There is a more sinister edge to proceedings too. A lot of the tracks shimmer and shine on one level, but sounds deeper in the mix are frankly really spooky. Boards of Canada were never all sunshine and stars, but now more than ever their music throbs with eerieness.

Finally the melody. Geogaddi is drenched in melody. Songs grow on you and completely hook you after a few listens. Every throb, thrum and bleep seems achingly melodic. Some come across like snatches of childhood song and others like musical toys with their batteries running low. This album is nostalgic but not in a corny way. BOC know that the childhood subconscious can be a scary place to be.

I may not be the most objective reviewer when it comes to this group, but for me geogaddi delivered all i expected and more. i hope everyone else enjoys it this much.

Boards of Canada are by far the most refreshing musical discovery I've made in the past couple of years. I love everything from Herbie Hancock to Radiohead to Derrick L. Carter so perhaps I'm easy to please. However, music rarely makes me feel the way Boards of Canada does---a strange combination of melancholy and inspired.

I'll admit I was late for this party. I picked up GEOGADDI first, then went back for MUSIC HAS THE RIGHT TO CHILDREN and IN A BEAUTIFUL PLACE OUT IN THE COUNTRY. I absolutely love every one of these releases, but Geogaddi is probably my favorite. Where MHTRTC seemed more in line with the standard "trip hop" of the mid and late 90s and In a Beautiful Place... is only 4 songs long, Geogaddi is intense and otherworldly---beautiful, haunting, and even a bit humorous.

There are a few themes that BoC always seem to come back to in their music, most notably math and numbers, childhood, and the disaster with the Branch Davidians in Waco, TX. I don't want to make BoC sound too political, but they are obviously intrigued by this story (check the vocoded ramblings on "1969" on Geogaddi and the title track on In a Beautiful Place). I have to disagree with the reviewer below who notes that "Gyroscope" is the first poor song by BoC. The track is very simple: a child counting over a repetitive tribal drum strike and a buzzing, warbling vibration in the background. I found the track to be very dark, and provocative. Other standout tracks are "1969," "The Devil's in the Details," and "Dawn Chorus." The latter actually sounds like something Moby might do, but not as polished (and all the better for it).

Dark and provocative. This brings me to my last point. Geogaddi is not the album you'll burn for everyone of your friends or throw on at a party. Chances are only a couple of your friends can really appreciate music like this. I personally like to listen to the album alone or in a car on a long drive. This music is strange, dark, powerful, hypnotic, beautiful, and, at times, disturbing.

I've been belaying this review for a long time. Since the album has been around for six years, I'm already late, but I've only been listening to it for three, so I'm only half as late as some.

I've read some of the lowest rated reviews, and some of them have good points: "This is not Music Has a Right to Children," "It's weird," "It's evil," and "It's garbage." Respectively, my opinion on those four matters are as follows; yes, sometimes, wrong, and that's your opinion.

For those of you expecting the flutey melody lines of Music Has a Right to Children, expect to be surprised. Or disappointed. Whichever you choose. Boards of Canada has yet to duplicate the same techniques in a subsequent album (since the release of The Campfire Headphase, this is almost an understatement). For those of you looking for upbeat lyrics and pop hooks, stop reading this and look up something you could listen to on hit radio.

An octopus would rather solve a puzzle than eat food, and may even starve itself to death trying. For me, this album is a labyrinthian puzzle, with unheard of angles and tortuous progressions. I have listened to it to the point where I wonder why I like it (since my wife definitely does not), and I begin to question what, specifically, creates some of the disturbing atmosphere. I never think of listening to this album as "just" anything. I don't listen to it when I'm cleaning, I pause it if I'm on the phone, and I don't sing along to it in the shower, and I always play it loud, just to submerse myself into it, rather than let it drift up from behind me.

Geogaddi is a deviation from the ethereal, floating space that welcomed the listener in Music Has a Right to Children. In it's place is a distressed and warped journey from Ready Let's Go to Secret Window. It could be mistaken for a destroyed vinyl LP soundtrack from a 1970s horror film.

When I first started listening to Boards of Canada, I remember thinking that Geogaddi had the property of making the listener feel isolated and alone (a contrast to The Campfire Headphase, incidentally). I remember also thinking that the musical movements had a quality of consumption, and not the sweet, slow consumption one might experience while drinking a milkshake. No, this was to be compared with swallowing a teaspoon of hydrochloric acid, feeling your insides burn as they were being eaten away. Of course, this is only a feeling brought on by listening. A graphic example, but I really had nothing else in mind.

I became a fan of electronica in the late nineties, specifically styles branched from the House style, but eventually I started listening to Trance, Rave, and Techno. All of which lose their shine very quickly, and become repititous. What I appreciate about Boards of Canada is that they base themselves in electronica without making it sound like electronica.

If I was to sum up the entire album, I would have to use the word, "Fire." The sound is dry, often crackling, and makes one feel as if they are being consumed. An interesting feeling, considering that this is a musical recording, but these boys have done it. Once I began to think of it in that vein, each track seemed to lose it's individuality, and the album seemed more whole and less of the "all over the board with weird." If you want something interesting, here it is. If you want to listen to something without having to think about it, you should have already looked up hit radio.

I am 17 years old, so it's strange to talk about music 'reminding me of my childhood'. But that's what got me into Boards of Canada, and electronic music as a whole (although BoC are the only act to have this effect on me). So this isn't as innocent and naive as 'Music has the right...', but let's face it, as long as children are innocent and naive, they are more susceptible to the darker parts of life. 'Geogaddi', is if anything, much more potent and affecting.

Maybe different people expect different things from Boards of Canada, and people expecting something more progressive are dissapointed. But as far as I'm concerned, this is music you connect with on a personal level. Whilst listening to this CD, I remembered memories and feelings years of TV and computer games had led me to forget. And at this age, as the embers of my childhood flicker out, this is a great comfort to me. It makes me feel alive, rather than a shell, a product of the state of the world today...

Along with Autechre's 'Confield' and Mum's 'Yesterday was dramatic, Today is OK', this is one of my all time favourite electronic albums. It's absolutely vital, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.