Skyliner

Here's a bit of a break from all of the live gig reviews, a nice track review. So to start off, if you know nothing of them, the band I am going to talk of here is Boards of Canada.

Boards of Canada has made its mark in IDM as one of the most influential electronic duos in the genre, and they plan to keep on going strong. The two Scots aren't taking another couple years of hiatus after last year's album, The Campfire Headphase. To the delight of many fans they've already began prepping a new EP for the summer. Trans-Canada Highway is the marked title for this six track EP (including "Dayvan Cowboy" from The Campfire Headphase and then a remix of it).The original date of release was to be 6/6/06, which is classic BoC and gives any Geogaddi fan a slight smirk. Although it's been moved up by a little more than a week to May 29th. Although not as cool sounding, it's a great treat to those who want the EP in their hands as soon as possible.

A new song off the EP is "Skyliner". At first the hardcore Boards fan might say "this is too clean for the Sandison brothers." Although if you can get past that you might come to realize it echoes much of their back catalogue. The airy synths that whisp past your ears may give you a bit of nostalgia for 2000, reminding you of their EP A Beautiful Place Out In The Country. The track is definitely very reminiscent of those sort of minimalist techniques they would use back then. And etched a bit deeper in the track you might find a sort of Geogaddi influence in the winding percussion, a sort of muted "Julie & Candy" showing through. Although easily, there's no denying The Campfire Headphase sound that overlays the entire song. You may feel dissapointed at first, buyt with only a few more listens and you can toss it into the rest of their works and it fits in nicely while staking some of its own territory. If this is any hint of the rest of the material on Trans-Canada, any Boards fan should find themselves fulfilled and any newcomers will find it a nice time to hop in on the duo's music.

To listen to "Skyliner" you can just head over to Marcus & Mike's myspace: here

Along with this EP comes the first BoC video ever released, a short that is accompanied by "Dayvan Cowboy", taking a very Boards approach it can be viewed: here