February
13th marks the 20th anniversary of Boards Of Canada’s sophomore album,
Geogaddi, which was released on this day in 2002, in Japan, and on the
18th in Europe. For this album, the Scottish duo decided to create a
decidedly darker, more harrowing “trial by fire” sonic journey, though
they resolved to eventually bring the listener into the light before its
end. Released with virtually no advance notice, the album was
premiered simultaneously at listening parties in six churches scattered
across the globe: London, New York, Tokyo, Edinburgh, Paris, and
Berlin.
The album is bolstered by various occult and
numerological references, like having 23 tracks and making the full
runtime total exactly 66 minutes and 6 seconds, just to reinforced their
devilish intentions. It is even reported that ripping the CD to WAV
files using CDeX yields a total file size of 666MB. Such
characteristics resulted in some controversy and accusations of
“Satanic” intent being leveled at the group. They remained typically
tight-lipped, however, and only granted a single email exchange
interview with NME to discuss the album. Their silence on the subject
has lead to a plethora of baseless theories, speculations and
assumptions being bandied about by both fans and detractors. The group
has consistently been dismissive of all of it and has never bothered to
confirm nor deny anything. If anything, the group have emphasized only
an academic interest in such subjects rather than any belief in or
adherence to any kind of spirituality.
In terms of its sound, the
album continues their warm, fuzzy approach to electronics, though there
is a far greater emphasis on acoustic sounds this time around. The
album was recorded over a two year period throughout 1999 & 2000
with its tracks being culled from a pool of some 90 pieces recorded for
the project. I have no idea what happened to the material not used for
this album. The title is essentially a nonsense word created by the
group by hybridizing several other words, though what those source words
were has never been revealed by the group, who prefer fans to come to
their own conclusions.
For me, it stands with the best of their
work as an essential listen for fans of psychedelic downtempo
electronica. It is most definitely “tripping” music of the “top shelf”
variety, preferably with the the best cognitive enhancements you can get
your hands on. It’ll certainly take you to the thresholds and beyond
of the most magical altered states.
