Reviews

Boards of Canada – Inferno

13 years after the superb Tomorrow’s Harvest, Scottish duo Boards of Canada turn their attention to religion on the apocalyptic Inferno.

In 2000, Warp Records famously traded Sheffield for London, neatly segueing into a new era for the label. The 2000s saw more guitar-focused and Hip Hop artists signing with Warp, as they diversified and expanded far beyond their predominantly electronic roots.

Scottish duo Boards of Canada neatly straddled this transition phase. Their debut album, Music Has The Right To Children, was released in 1998. Follow-up Geogaddi arrived in 2002, and by 2005’s The Campfire Headphase, brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin were inadvertently mirroring Warp’s progression, as they incorporated more guitar textures into their traditional electronic sound. Their flawless evolution continued with 2013’s Tomorrow’s Harvest, the pair’s last release prior to Inferno.

Thirteen years have passed, and given Boards of Canada’s impeccable standards, expectations for Inferno are understandably high. This perhaps goes some way to explaining the surprisingly divided critical response, although I am perplexed as to how anyone listening to Inferno could grumble about the absence of “Roygbiv” style jams. That particular classic is now 28 years old, and all of Boards of Canada’s subsequent works have demonstrated that they don’t stand still or rehash the past. A commendable trait, I would have thought.

Inferno does showcase a further development; its tone is darkly cinematic and even sinister at times. It’s a big picture record, characterised by slow tempos, eerie samples, and glacial synths. Thematically, the focus is on religion, with evocative titles (“Father and Son,” “The Word Becomes Flesh”) and samples (“I love you, but I love the Lord / More than I love any physical being”) chopped up and scattered around in a manner that suggests, let’s just say, a healthy degree of suspicion on the part of the brothers Sandison.

If the mere suggestion that Boards of Canada have non-neutral views on religion offends you, Inferno probably won’t appeal. But I don’t see it as mocking. Its Dante-esque title feels more reflective and philosophical: does Inferno refer to Hell, or are we already in the midst of the Inferno, in this world of judgement and religious conflict? There are no answers here, but if the apocalypse rocks up in the near future, we’ve got ourselves one Hell of a soundtrack.

Inferno is out now via Warp Records.