Although the religious right might have you think otherwise, their heralded Jewish Carpenter wasn't the only virgin birth in history; unusually pure progeny that grow into full-blown saviors abound in every culture. Even stranger are the myths of those that emerge into the world fully formed, sans incubation, with neither childhood nor adolescence to tether them. In Greek mythology alone there's Athena, the splitting-headache of Zeus, bursting forth as an adult clad in armor, and Aphrodite, who was curvaceously at the age of consent when she surfed in on the half-shell.
Add to this list of babes the more Apollonian duo Boards of Canada, for their seemingly nascent cries and lullabies are mature as far back as the eyes and ears go, as evidenced on their seven year-old stone tablet, Twoism. Often considered the Holy Grail of IDM (and not too long ago trading for a cool grand on eBay), ownership of one of the original 100 pressed-wax Twoism EPs guaranteed entrance into the upper echelon of electronica. And now, Warp Records have brought it back for all the proles, even though it feels more like a forced disinterring brought on by cultists, demanding some of that old-time religion whether or not the idols are ready with new scripture.
The numerology that's brought the glow-stick generation to dig on the Golden Ratio-- to pay attention in Geometry class-- is here. So is the Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom keyboard, which checks in on "Sixtyniner". Falling somewhere before "Sixtyten" or "1969", and after "Infinite Lines of Colorful Sevens" (from the cassette-only Play by Numbers), it can only further confuse fans trying to decode their apocalyptic sequences. The prescient, beanie-nodding beats are present, too, hammering home a surprisingly sweet subliminal message about that infinite moment, the kiss.
The Boards' cassette-only sonic limitations are the most telltale sign of the times that produced Twoism. While "Directine" showcases the particular sense of disembodiment the duo induces, with synths floating and kicks to give it that sense of propulsion, the individual, isolated hits are distorted and fuzzy, muddying the overall effect. The formulaic gurgling on "Iced Cooly" is largely forgettable, evoking Gerber's mashed peas more than the childlike phantoms that arise elsewhere in their discography.
As convoluted as Autechre were at the time, "Basefree" stands as one of the most rhythmically complex Boards tracks, with a surging bass throb that pushes and stutters through a far-off siren as slurred roars escape like gas from the pounding pistons. It has an intense hyper-beat that was scarcely touched on in Music Has the Right to Children, and which made only a slight return on Geodaddi's "Gyroscope". But once again, the compounds seem to mush all the frequencies together, and the details, so crisp in the near-future, are hazy. The title track is blurred, as well, taking the edge off both the strange ecstasy of the vocals and the melancholy of the hovering monosynth.
As zealots attempt to piece back together the dead sea scrolls Maxima, Acid Memories and Hooper Bay, so, too, have Marcus Eoin and Michael Sandison reconfigured their own past to bestow more cohesive statements to the present. As Maxima dispersed three tracks each to Hi Scores and Music Has the Right to Children, a similar recycling occurs here: "Seeya Later" appeared a year later on Hi Scores, and the closer here, "Smokes Quantity", also closed out Music Has the Right to Children.
Déjà vu is not necessarily a bad thing, and Twoism contains signs of refinement beyond its place as Stonehenge simplicity to underscore the Paul Lafoley complexity Boards reached by the time of Geogaddi. For those that contend the latter didn't travel far beyond the elysian fields of their major label emergence, Twoism will spur further critique, as in a sense, these thirty-six minutes show that the duo has basically been stuck in neutral since 1995. As our own Mark Richardson put it, "If you'd perfected a sonic playground like this, you'd probably want to explore it a while longer, too," but perhaps at their age, Boards of Canada shouldn't be hanging around playgrounds.
