Boards Of Canada – In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country

Label: Warp Records – wap144r, music70 – wap144r
Format: Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, EP, Reissue, Remastered
Country: UK
Released: Nov 18, 2013
Genre: Electronic
Style: IDM, Ambient, Electronica

Boards of Canada's In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country is arguably their finest EP — four tracks, every one un-skippable, each one carrying the duo's signature haunting yet nostalgic sound that never fails to induce a strange, reflective, melancholy sort of mood. Originally released in 2000 in the fertile period between Music Has the Right to Children and Geogaddi, this remastered reissue on Warp restores the EP to full clarity and returns it to circulation for those who missed it the first time.

The EP centres around the Branch Davidian religious sect and their Waco retreat — the title itself drawn from a vocoder-processed and slowed voice sample on the third track, repeating Amo Bishop Roden's words about living in a religious community in a beautiful place out in the country. That source material haunts the record throughout, the warmth and nostalgia of Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin's production sitting in uneasy but entirely compelling tension with its conceptual underpinning. Kid For Today, Amo Bishop Roden, the title track and Zoetrope — four of the most quietly devastating pieces of music the duo have ever made, remastered and back where they belong.