Outside of electro circles, Boards Of Canada are perhaps best known for their profound influence on Radiohead. (It's been suggested that that band's KID A was Thom Yorke's rockist reaction to hearing Boards Of Canada's brilliant 1998 debut album Music Has The Right To Children.) The Scottish duo have also, along with Warp Records elder brethren such as Autechre and Plaid, forged a latter-day minimalist techno movement based on their crackling atmospherics, geometric song sketches, and (sometimes) loping beats.

Having opted not to implode mysteriously after setting such a legacy in motion, BOC now find themselves in the unenviable position of having to live up to it -- or better yet, rethink it -- with second long-player Geogaddi. They don't quite.

Instead, they switch to cruise control and steer the disc down a familiar road -- certainly not bad news in light of the beautiful soundscapes that guarantees. But there's the sense BOC are going through the paces, more tour guides than explorers.

At 23 tracks in at 66 minutes, there's plenty of room for highlights: Dandelion effectively sets geography class film snippets (voiced, apparently, by Leslie Nielsen) against a simple glacial synth loop; a crop of minute-long tracks (The Smallest Weird Number, Energy Warning) sound like ghostly old radio signals bouncing back from space; blipping melodies Down Chorus and The Devil Is In The Details make KID A sound like Led Zeppelin by comparison.

As wallpaper, it's pretty, soothing, even sexy. But, always verging on a greatness that never arrives, Geogaddi's also a bit of a tease.

Saturday, February 23, 2002

Geogaddi covers old territory