In a Beautiful Place Out In the Country - EP

Album Review

Forget everything you ever thought was dull or ponderous about ambient music, as Boards of Canada return like Aeschylusian heroes — unbound from a genre that often sounds like a washing machine begging for a swift kick. Pay attention, Radiohead. Boards of Canada traced a disturbed childhood in the arctic, austere Music Has the Right to Children, but here there's a slightly warmer feeling. More central, tweaked vocals add a new dimension to the "hard beats + bittersweet melodies" pattern of the past; songs like the gorgeous, ice-melting "Zoetrope" glide along on simple celestial glimmers without a single bassline in sight. It's as if the band is thawing out in preparation for something. Even when it's hard to tell what that might be. Tiny, exploratory decisions — no matter. You'll likely want to crawl inside this EP's washing machine for a long, long time.