I'm sure you don't need me to tell you how good Boards of Canada are. Sometimes, however, I feel impelled to write something just to set the record straight on a few points as I've seen some, to put it mildly, lukewarm reviews by people who should know better.
Inferno, is not, as has been pointed out in several places, Music Has the Right to Children. Of course it isn't, because you're trying to compare an album with another that is frankly incomparable. It's now 28 years since BoC's magnificent debut and, back then, the idea that they'd still be making great music almost three decades later would have thrilled me to an almost disgusting degree. That would be enough. Only it doesn't end there, because Inferno is excellent in its own right.
Having heard their latest album numerous times, I remain thrilled. I love its textures, those aural mounds and troughs that has always been a distinctive BoC's sonic landscapes . They're all still present here, should you care to put aside preconceptions and just wallow in the tunes, which is always the recommended approach when listening to anything by this duo (or indeed anyone else). Where the vocal samples come in - as they do to triumphant effect in tracks like Age of Capricorn and Father and Son - it's possible to enjoy them on their own magnificent merits without yearning to hear Aquarius again.
It's great that we still have Boards of Canada in our lives and still making music that is recognisably BoC while still exploring whole new territories of sound. Predictably, I've been playing tracks in my shows over the last few months and Blood in the Labyrinth features in my Dandelion Radio show for July, which you can still hear on-demand here.
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