Issue #6: In a Beautiful Place

Hey, gang.

Do you like music? Me too.

Here's a picture of Neil Sedaka:

So, a musical project that I'm kind of passionate about is Scotland's Boards of Canada. Brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin (that's "Owen") started using tape machines and sampling to compose their own works when they were still children, and by 1995 they had released their first collection of experimental electronic music: Twoism.

Since that time, Boards of Canada have gone on to release three hugely-acclaimed albums and a handful of EPs. Thanks to utterly unique output like 2002's Geogaddi, their reputation has reached nigh-mythical status in the realms of ambient and IDM (though, they maintain that they have never been purveyors of dance music).

Unfortunately for everyone with ears, the brothers Sandison haven't released a single note since the Trans Canada Highway EP in 2006...

And they've all but vanished.

At least that's my understanding of it. I mean, they've never exactly courted the press. I'm sure they're perfectly happy on the moors somewhere... eating goat bladders, sipping wolf's blood, or busting coconuts over Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka's head. Whatever the Scots do in their downtime, I'm sure their dance cards are full.

Now, let's take a trip back to the year 2000, shall we?

That's the cover art for In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country, an EP released by Boards of Canada almost twelve years ago. And it's not hyperbole to declare that anyone who doesn't love it is a stupid asshole, and probably a serial pedophile.

I'll rephrase that.

In a Beautiful Place is, in my opinion, the Boards' finest work. A four track sequence of transporting sample-heavy electronic grandeur that touches on themes as diverse as the Branch Davidians of Mount Carmel and... well, it's pretty much just about Waco.

I'm not going to get into the horrors of 1993's infamous siege at Waco because, frankly, I'd rather talk about John Candy's monster pancakes in Uncle Buck, or that awesome "Gossamer" monster from Chuck Jones cartoons -- but suffice to say that it was sad and awful, and probably completely unnecessary.

It made for great music, too.

Most notable, to me, is the title track: "In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country". Ethereal synth-organ notes of icy sorrow mesh with a waxing, waning drum loop to seamless effect. The vocoded (?) refrain of "Come out... and live in a religious community in a beautiful place out... the country..." ensures that the point isn't missed, as the spliced home-movie laughter of small children fills in the blanks and makes the track's six minutes ghostly-beautiful and, ultimately, damning of everyone involved in the tragedy.

Check it out.


See you soon!