This isn’t exactly movie-related but my experience at the Boards of Canada Inferno listening party was quite cinematic…
I enjoyed the album very much. I’ve had the chance to digest it a few times already as best as anyone can digest a decent quality phone recording of something (I recorded the audio in full for myself for the drive home afterwards and I won’t be sharing or distributing it).
What I found most interesting about this latest album is a handful of songs did not sound like Boards Of Canada at first. But after a few bars or 20-30 seconds in - a particular chord would play or a vocal sample would get dropped and it immedietly sounded like them. I liked that. They sound new while still retaining their signature sound (one song in particular sounded like a reworking of Aquarius). It should also be noted that the majority of Inferno was somewhere between mid 70-mid 80 bpm.
One signature sound/quality that was not present for me was nostalgia. Anyone familiar with BoC knows that nostalgia is often associated with their sound but I did not feel that. Everything felt current and present. Throughout the listening there was a flaming hexagon collage projected for everyone to see which sort of felt like a basic statement of “we’re are in hell together”. While it’s still very difficult to disassociate the imagery from the event with the sounds of the album - certain aspects of Inferno felt more cold, blue and icey than they did hot, red and hell-ish.
There is definitely a light shoegaze quality to some of this album. If I’m not mistaken, BoC has name-dropped My Bloody Valentine in the past as an influence. Inferno might be the first clear/non-arguable example of this (I also hear elements of Silver Apples, Slowdive and Cocteau Twins). But if anything - it sounds like they drew influence from the sounds of their last album.
Inferno feels like the perfect response to BoC’s last album in terms mixing, “sharpness” and the overall vibe. If Tomorrow’s Harness was a warning of things to come - Inferno is just a confirmation that we’re living in the world the brothers predicted for us in 2013.l (if anyone listens to El-P, Tomorrow’s Harvest going in to Inferno feels like the perfect parallel to Fantastic Damage going in to I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead).
I had a fun time. There was a great sense of community. I met a couple of Reddit, IG and Discord folks in person and had some cool conversations.
I’m looking forward to listening to a good quality version in less than a week!
Make sure to check out my Boards of Canada scratch videos and be on the look out for a very special BoC mix I have planned dropping very soon…
