From artist Sent Mon, Jan 19th 1998, 19:34
From artist Sent Mon, Jan 19th 1998, 19:34
Boards Of Canada - Aquarius / Chinook Skam Records KMAS001 1998 forgive me for my overenthusiasm but i think this is the best release on skam yet, and i doubt there will be a better record released this year by anyone. on their previous 12 for skam, b/o/c proved themselves to be far more compelling than the international gaggle of electro/illbient future burger flippers - here was something you couldn't tie down, it certainly had influences but the difference was that it took them somewhere different. no-one had sounded like this before taking cues from stasis and luke vibert, and adding a number of really original musical ideas, 'Aquarius' is both sonic utopian landscape and psychedelic emotional blueprint. the gravity of what you are hearing is apparent from the opening seconds, and it gets better from there. the driving bass guitar and live drum loops, in the hands of most techno producers so lifeless, here sound nothing but majestic, lying under the synth chords which make this track an instant classic. to me this track is visionary in the same way black dog productions were at the height of their powers. in the same way, you can't help but feel transported to another time by the music, but more like 1970 as opposed to bdp's 1500bc carbon date - the inlay to the 7" is a fitting accompaniment :-) an original and, i hope, influential record <waves> p.s whoops, i didn't mention the b-side :-)