Introit To Left Hand Drive

Boards Of Canada's forthcoming album Inferno- out at the end of the month- has been preceded by a new track, or two tracks, or maybe three new tracks more accurately, because it seems to be three separate parts segued together. Introit/ Prophesy At 1420 MHz moves the Boards Of Canada sound again- all their albums seem to be connected but distinct too (the long gaps between releases gives plenty of time for the Sandison brothers to come up with a new approach, to shift the sound and feel, and to allow their influences to fully percolate). 

The Introit part is thirty seconds long (or ninety seconds possibly) starting with analogue synth oscillations and hand drums. At thirty seconds this fades out and something more ominous takes over, something more typically Boards Of Canada, the threat of something existential coming this way. Then at one minute thirty it changes again, becoming very different- a goth or darkwave guitar part, as if The Cure on downers or Berlin artist Curses suddenly turned up in the studio. The slow crawl of the drums and the gothcore sounds roll on and then a voice starts speaking, a deep, distorted voice claiming to be God and talking of subconsciousness and power, nature and super density. The long ending that follows God's part feels like the long slow fade out of a star going supernova (not that I have first hand experience of that). The visuals of the video suggest something along those lines. 

It's all pretty intriguing. 

 

In 2006, twenty years ago, Boards Of Canada released an EP called Trans Canada Highway, six tracks long (five BoC tracks and a remix of the first track on the EP, Dayvan Cowboy, by Odd Nosdam, an underground US hip hop producer/ visual artist). The two sides of vinyl of Trans Canada Highway are a fine way to spend half an hour, the tracks gradually revealing themselves with ambient, backwards guitar, loops of feedback, slowed down drums and heavy synth drones, all surrounded by that Boards Of Canada spaciousness. There's a less than a minute long ambient piece attached to the end at the end which suggests things heading elsewhere- but don't. The EP is intended to soundtrack a journey across part of Canada and it's a very floaty and abstract way to travel. 

Left Hand Drive