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Also present is a balance between nature and technology. The songs on the In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country EP were taken from the Geogaddi sessions, which yielded the dark, schizophrenic final product of said album. The title track features a sample from a religious recruitment recording, and the second track's name is a play off of Branch Davidian leader Amos Poe Rodan (thanks for that info, Shawn). In the end, the winning force is what Boards of Canada have always been about.chilled out beauty.
Also, one of Boards' more unique songs, Zoetrope, is here to end the EP on a very light note. A contemplative, shimmering gem of a piece, Zoetrope feels otherworldly, magical, and nostalgic while only utilizing a single synthesizer. Kid For Today and In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country are the more chilled out, free form pieces on the album, while Amo Bishop Roden is soaring and moody although just as relaxing. All four songs here stretch the imagination with candy sweet synth melodies and bass heavy beats.
All four songs are crafted simply wonderfully. And yet every song is electronically touched, giving some kind of suggestion of an old, outdated video game. However, the songs on the Beautiful Place EP are slightly more listenable than the songs on Geogaddi, although they do have their fair share of unsettling details. Each song seems to reminisce of some natural landscape degraded in the signature Boards of Canada style, as if viewed on an elderly nature documentary.
All of the songs sound innocent in their underlying melodies, yet still have a curious undercurrent of mysteriousness. But these subtle hints of perversity do not hinder the aural beauty of this EP. As the first track, Kid For Today, suggests, listening to the disk is like taking a time machine in two different directions.
I just found that one uninspired. Its amazing how tracks that seem so simple can draw you in and hold on so tightly throughout the songs. The only negative is the 4th track which is why I can't give it the full 5 stars. I got this cd upon reading reviews here on Amazon and being a fan of much of what BOC has done in the past. BUT, the other tracks are some of the best they've ever released. I agree with what most of the posters have said of this album an its certainly a crucial offering if you're a fan or even a beginner wanting to try them out but not a take a full leap into a whole album. It seemed like just a small risk but boy did it pay off. The first 3 songs are magnificent, each one being incredibly relaxed and repetetive but never boring.
In fact, I enjoyed this first exposure to Boards of Canada so much that I have been inspired to seek out other works by the band.As somebody who likes music off of the beaten path, this band has proven to be a fantastic discovery. The synth tone colors that these guys select are very warm and organic sounding - even the drum machine sounds natural and not at all mechanical. Although this EP is a bit short at 24:00 minutes in total length, it packs a lot of gloomy texture and mood into that short time and as such seems to last a lot longer (sometimes I will simply just hit the repeat button in order to maintain a loop). This 2000 release by Scottish electronica duo Boards of Canada is simply excellent. All in all, In a Place Out in the Country is yet another fine recording by a contemporary band still interested in pushing the envelope and is very highly recommended. The instrumentation on the album includes synthesizers; a drum machine and other electronic effects/processing, along with the occasional found sound e.g. As a fan of 1970s electronica (Tangerine Dream; Klaus Schulze etc) and other styles including minimalism, I was delighted by the spacey, brooding musical landscapes and the analog sound of their music. laughing children, and a heavily altered vocal snippet on the title track (this music is predominantly instrumental).
I love an album that you can put on and let it repeat a few times from start to finish and you don't mind. It's really fun with feel good beats. it's that good. Having sampled this through listen samples only and being encouraged to order this album by positive reviews by others, I went ahead and ordered this CD. Let's just say it's smooth, jazzy, jungley, spacey, so many other juicy happy beats I could think of but won't take up the whole page to list.
I've used it for all of the above. The songs are mellow, but also have a trance feel to them, Amo Bishop Roden (one of my favorite songs by BOC) fits this exemplar perfectly. As for this EP, "A Beautiful Place Out in the Country" offers many layers and dreamscapes, and is a great sampler for BOC's melodies. Overall, this EP is a wonderful collection of music and a fairly price investment into the domain of Boards of Canada. When I finally listened to it I was pleased. My friend got me into Boards of Canada, after I got him into Aphex Twin.
I currently own all of their releases which all offer different cacophonies that range for dark to divine. This is a great CD to relax with, drift off to slumber, use as white noise or as motivation for writing a term paper. When he paid back the favor and introduced me to BOC, I was very impressed. With only four songs on it, ABPOITC is a mesmerizing selection of ambient/instrumental music. My best description of their music is electronic divided by ambient, with the square root of classical, subtracted from techno.
I was extremely interested to see what this little EP had to offer.
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