What we have here are more insights into the preoccupations of the Boards of Canada compound. Notoriously journalist-shy (they're rumored to run screaming into haggis-infested forests at the sound of an incoming fax), Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin leave it to their records to inform us of their politics, their preferred abandonments, and the ill winds that blow through the purple-heathered glen.
But those expecting a poorly judged foray into two-step garage will be crushingly disappointed, as In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country runs like updated material from their majestic 1998 offering, Music Has the Right to Children. And like that album's namesake, these five elegantly mournful melodies creep and explore like adored but unruly children, full of wide-eyed astonishment and naïveté. These songs speak to those of us who've bartered our innocence for the experience of rent payments, asinine bosses, rolling blackouts, and a suborned democracy.
After the effortless, ingratiating simplicity of the record's opener, "Kid for Today", Sandison and Eoin roll out the heavier bass of "Amo Bishop Roden". Though the song is easily the most groove-dependent on A Beautiful Place, the duo nicely retain their electro-agrarianism-- a strain of folk music I've yearned for since Ultramarine abandoned the Fairport Convention-styled techno of Every Man and Every Woman Is a Star.
When Boards of Canada's acknowledged appreciation for the laughter of children opens the vocodered titled track, it's as though Daft Punk's "One More Time" had calmed down and realized it forgot to have a childhood. This track, like "Kid for Today", stands as a persuasive reminder to grown-ups that it's alright to lead simple lives, free from adornment. The vocoder is a little hackneyed-- its lifespan as a relevant music-enhancing device has officially drawn to a close-- but there's a distinct "innocent abroad" aesthetic here that many bands seem too media-savvy and advert-aware to pull off convincingly. (When the Boards of Canada protest that they never meant to become as huge as they have, I believe them-- Belle & Sebastian these Scots are not.)
In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country concludes with "Zoetrope", a slowly revolving pastiche of minimalist melodies and Eno/Lanois ambience. There are no children's voices and no tunes reflecting wonderment-- just an echoing cleansing of the palette. Perhaps they'll shock us when they return with a violently beautiful, Alec Empire-inspired remake of the Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime next year. Or perhaps they'll just carry on doing that at which they excel: creating the music of innocent eyes.
