Customer Reviews

Geogaddi

5 star:		(85)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

...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.

What sets Boards of Canada apart from the rest of the paradoxically homogenous IDM mafia is a real sense of warmth achieved through heavily processed, resolutely electronic music. This is a claim that's often made of other groups with "crossover" appeal for non-electroninuts, but in this case the warm, homey, and, yes, nostalgic feelings exuded here are due to the effects-laden production, not in spite of it. Much has been made of this groups use of sample's from old educational films. It's where they got their name, after all. For me, however, this association rings true for one reason in particular. I'm just old enough to have started school during the pre-VCR era, and I remember watching worn-down old films on a rusty old projector. Due to either the condition of the film or the projector, the sound was often distorted and wobbly. Notes on the soundtrack ran into one another, and the whole dreamy effect was compounded by the acoustics of the gymnasium where we would watch films during recess on rainy days. The tones that bleed together and stratal ambiguity of this album took me right back to sitting cross-legged on the slick gym floor. Ok, so that probably plays right into the cliches about this group, but, really, it's key to understanding what I find most remarkable about Boards of Canada's music. Everything sounds almost haphazardly stitched together, with teetering beats overlaying synths that bubble up with slight irregularities. Any sense of carelessness that this approach runs the risk of insinuating is mitigated by this hazy, soupy quality; not to mention a sentimentalism that borders on the crass, while managing to teeter on its precipice like an emotional analogue of the precarious rhythms. As others have pointed out, this is not the most stunningly original music, but it certainly has a personal quality that makes it distinctive in its own humble way.

Like a few reviewers before, it pains me to think of unjust bashing this album will get given the state of music criticism today. All this focusing upon "what's new about it" and "how daring is it" is really getting out of hand. What would make them like Geogaddi? Distorted metal guitars, maybe? A violin section, perhaps? Or what if Boards of Canada had incorporated gabber beats into their music?

Thankfully, BoC do none of these things. The same tools that created Music Has the Right also create Geogaddi, and there is nothing wrong with this. All those who would so desperately search for "what's new" need only look to where "what's new" really need be asked: What is the emotional intent?

Honest listeners will undoubtedly detect this difference: Geogaddi has an entirely different agenda than Music Has the Right. Whereas MHTRTC was Summer-like, warm, and comforting, Geogaddi is a dark and windy place. There's an evil hidden in it, in the distorted vocals whispering about Branch Davidians (1969), in the mentionings of a "God with Horns" that are found in backwards playing. Like MHTRTC, Geogaddi contemplates childhood, but, again, a different, and wholly less pure aspect of it.

Children live in a world that is full of evil they cannot directly recognize, and so it follows that if Geogaddi is chronicling this aspect of children's lives, that its darker patches must not be immediately recognizable, either. This is not, in my opinion, an attempt to appear clever on BoC's part; it's part of the work of art they've created here, a part of Geogaddi. As they once said in an interview, "we always think of the listener as the most intelligent person on Earth." The silent track, "Magic Window" is simply the period at the end of the statement they're trying to make; I'm sure they know full well of 4'33's existence, so there's no need for anyone to point it out to them (or their listeners.)

As for the quality of the album itself-there's five stars sitting up there. They're there for a reason. It's every bit as affecting and draining as MHTRTC, a fitting Autumnal followup to its Summer. Listening to Geogaddi for the first time was like listening to Selected Ambient Works, Vol 2 for the first time, or Ambient 1 for the first time. "The Devil is in the Details" is the stuff of my nightmares, and "Music is Math" nearly brings me to tears with every listen. It's one of the few, that I believe with all my soul, and anyone who's still disappointed at the lack gabber or distorted guitar incorporation or whatever can go back to listening to Venetian Snares.

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 found Boards of Canada on pandora.com, when creating a song list based on the music of Brian Eno.

I was immediately astonished by 'Satellite Anthem Icarus', one of many superb tracks off of the Boards' latest LP, 'The Campfire Headphase.' Campfire is a milestone for modern music, featuring layered samples, synths, reverb, acoustic and electric guitars. 'Dayvan Cowboy' from Campfire is one of the greatest single pieces of electronic music ever recorded (and the video found for this track found on the band's website).

After some months of plumbing the pleasures of Campfire, I delved into Board's first LP, 'Music has the Right to Children.' No complaints here - this is another tasty set of electronic delights. At times, though, Children drifts a little too far in the direction of house, a tad too meaty on the beat and bass, with the sublime complexity one craves from Boards to be somewhat lacking, especially with the latter tracks.

As luck would have it, my Volvo CD Changer ate Children, and I had to ship the whole unit (w/ the CD in there) to the manufacturer. The dealer promised I would eventually get the CD back but, in the meantime, my brain was bugging me to get on with more Boards.

Really having no choice, Geogaddi found its way into my neural net and - sans doute - this is the Board's consistent best LP to date. The shear creativity that went into creating Geogaddi inspires awe. And, no, this is not machine music. It has warmth, and weirdness - including bizarre samples (including Leslie Nielsen's (?) voice on the track 'Dandelions'), and infant voices.

'Sunshine Recorder' features a shuffling beat, recorded loops, and multiplying synthesizers which culminate in a child's voice, insisting that the listener "give us the place." The context of this sample makes one's skin crawl. It is utterly weird, yet tuneful and, somehow (after a few listens), accessible.

Other reviewers have noted other standout tracks, such as 'Julie and Candy', '1969', 'Beach at Redpoint', 'Alpha & Omega.'

'The Devil is in the Details' features a distorted sample of some sort of self-help guru, whose voice seems to bubble up through mud, juxtaposed against an infant's plaintive wailing. Another oddly compelling, totally original, composition.

There are 23 tracks here but the odd numbered tracks, for the most part, are little bridge songs. Most of these are decent. There are a few throwaways ('Dandelion' being among them). But the shear number of great tracks makes this CD a 'must have' for anyone who digs electronic music.

After just a few years, Boards of Canada has established a catalogue of some of the best produced electronic music ever made.

Geogaddi stands as their current masterpiece.

5 Stars all the way.

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.

Geodaddi was my first BoC album, and it is simply an amazing work of art. It stands as one of my favourite albums of all time. After years of having this album its sound always manages to find it's way into my ears.

Geodaddi is deeply layered; woven together like a patchwork quilt of ethereal melodies, beats, and analog samples from the human subconscious. It's full of audible sways and analog impurities that make live music interesting -- a departure from the masses of electronica artists making the same repetitive sounds from the same repetitive devices.

Yes, it's a little harder around the edges and perhaps darker than Music Has The Rights To Children if you have that. But if you liked anything by BoC then you simply must have a listen to this one. It's unique to itself, give it a chance and it will grow on you. Definitely for listening alone, not danceable at all.

Notable tracks: Music is Math is just that, a mathematic foray into sound. The Smallest Wierd Number is fun. 1969 reminds me of San Francisco (don't know why). Alpha and Omega is my clear favourite, it's like a rollercoaster of sound. The Devil is in the Details is creepy but cool (and harmless). A is to B is B is to C is just plain fun.

I like how Geodaddi is so mathematical in nature, without being repetitive, and how it leaves room for imprecision with the analog nature of the samples. There is just so much there that one can easily justify the purchase of the album.

Rated 5 stars because this collection truly deserves them.

This has possibly been the most talked about c.d. release this year. Maybe it's because of the mystique that surrounds the reclusive Scotish duo Marcus Eoin and Michael Sandison. Their seems to have been almost as much rumour and innuendo about the duo as there has been about the music they create. Some believe that they are part of a cultish collective called Turquoise Hexagon Sun-the fact that the cover of this c.d. shows a ring of people forming a hexagon has just added fuel to the fire. For me all this and other even darker rumours has certainly enhanced in a bizarre way my enjoyment of this c.d. At times the electronica melodies are simply spellbinding-as heard on tracks like "Music Is Math" and the wonderful "1969". Yet behind these beautiful melodies lies an often uneasy feeling and mood. The sound of distorted human voices-sounds been fed forward and then backwards-it's really hard to put into words and can only really be experienced by listening to the c.d. properly. What amazes me even more is how people were able to review this c.d. so soon after it was released. This c.d. takes many, many, many listens before it slowly begins to reveal it's true beauty and class. I feel that I hear something new on this c.d. each time I listen to it and I've been listening to it solidly for over a month now. Some tracks are layered really densely yet other tracks rely on the sheer simplicity of a few basic chords or a vibrant throbbing drum machine. I've listened to very few c.d.'s that have possessed such a totally compelling yet eerie quality. Reviews no matter how gifted will ever truly convey the sounds and moods of this c.d. For me it changes with each listen-I absolutely am amazed by it-yet I can see others who would hate it. This is a c.d. to listen to alone so there are no distractions whatsoever-just lose yourself in an hour of musical electronica.A final thought what is with track 23 "Magic Window"-is it my imagination or does this track indeed feature absolutely no sound at all. I thought maybe it was a prelude to a hidden track-then I thought maybe I should turn the volume up even more-but still nothing. Any explanations will be truly gratefully received.