Geogaddi [Limited Edition]

Boards Of Canada | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 19, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Limited Edition
• Label: Warp Records
• ASIN: B00005Y0Q4
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (130 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #216,908 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Geogaddi, like Boards of Canada's 1998 debut album, Music Has the Right to Children, drifts its way into consciousness, rolling a fog of dark-hued psychedelia over slow-burning, lullaby melodies. Having led a reclusive existence in their Hexagon Sun studio, shunning interviews and live shows in an effort to escape the shrill, loud praise that accompanied Children's release, the enigmatic Scottish duo has stayed focused, creating another tour de force in the process. Geogaddi opens with no fanfare, with the bare hum of "Ready Lets Go" blossoming into the soporific, hypnotic chimes of "Music Is Math". But for the next 65 minutes, it's clear that while BOC move slow, they do so with the power of shifting glaciers. All their old influences--the noise-as-melody drone of My Bloody Valentine, the brave futuristic synths of Neu!--remain, but more than anything, Geogaddi is about the vivid sense of warm melancholy that lingers when the music fades out. It's another slow-burner, but Geogaddi is as utterly essential as its predecessor. --Louis Pattison

Product Description

Special edition CD with hardbound cover and 12 page booklet.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars dark, soothing, mysterious... disturbingly beautiful, March 8, 2002

By 

moyer (Chelmsford, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Geogaddi (Audio CD)

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
2. that the album is too dissimilar 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.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's... alive, August 7, 2002

By 

"furious_wombat" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Geogaddi (Audio CD)

If you have heard the previous full-length Boards of Canada album Music Has The Right To Children, you at least have an idea what to expect with Geogaddi. Boards of Canada produces music filled with colourful reversed synth washes, hip-hop flavoured beats, and downright creepy sampling of vocals (particularly children) and sounds from nature. BoC fits somewhere into the Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) sub-genre of electronica, but it's impossible to nail them down into anything but their very own category.

Geogaddi is a huge change from its predecessor LP. There is no question that it is the work of Boards of Canada, but it is not as claustrophobic as MHTRTC (the previous album was very much "headphone" music, whereas Geogaddi just pleads to be unleashed upon the world), and is also more complex musically and rhythmically.

The album opens with an otherworldly tonal blanket, accompanied by an insect-like wave in the background and slightly-warbling musical pings. This first track sets the mood for the rest of the journey: dark, emotionally charged, and unsettling.

Geogaddi's beats are not terribly unique or rhythmically complex, but the sounds themselves are very much one-of-a-kind; you may at times be hard-pressed to separate the melody from the beats. The sounds used are extremely visceral, and seemingly twisted like sonic toffee to achieve the desired effect. Many of the percussion tracks make me think of crushing a gigantic bag full of potato chips in a bear hug underwater.

The album's most memorable elements are the sensations it induces, rather than the melodies within it. It is unlikely you will find yourself humming the tune to a Geogaddi track, but you might begin associating certain feelings in your life with those present in Geogaddi's music. The album's melodies are rarely prolonged, and usually consist of a series of singular and brilliant musical moments composed of BoC's atmospheric synthesizers, bizarre beats, and disconcerting samples. The album also seems to have a unique organic texture to it; it is not the static that permeates so much IDM, but closer in nature to the spattering of sonic paint from a toothbrush onto a squirming sandstone wall.

Geogaddi is surprisingly accessible music; I have found that many of my friends who are not particularly interested in any unconventional or electronic music enjoy Geogaddi a great deal. It offers something to a wide range of listeners: it can serve as a colourful acoustic backdrop to whatever you may be doing in the meantime, it makes a fantastic soundtrack for travelling, and rewards the careful listener with its rich supply of subtlety and detail.

Geogaddi's most significant flaw may not be a flaw to all, but many listeners may find the shorter "filler" tracks like "Dandelion" or "Energy Warning" annoying or disruptive.

In short, Geogaddi is epic in its depth and impact. It is alive. As you listen, it will grow on you... and IN you... as long as you will let it.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is amazing., February 19, 2002

By 

Darragh Mc Causland (Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Geogaddi (Audio CD)

...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.