April 23rd, 2026

Blog Post #2: THE NEW BOC ALBUM!!! "Inferno"!!! (Shopping Spree time!!)

i meant to write this blog post yesterday, but i wanted to update the layout of the website first, and with this incredible news and everything, i got a bit distracted from that! so let me just write about all of it right now...

i first heard the news about the new Boards of Canada album yesterday when i was in the car (passenger seat, dw..) i usually don't check Reddit while i'm in the car, because i prefer to just stare out the window and/or listen to music, but yesterday i just opened up my phone for no reason, i guess i was feeling a little antsy. and i was just like, eh, what if there's something cool. who knows.

and god damn WAS THERE SOMETHING! the first thing i saw when i opened reddit was a post showing the Warp Records email announcing the new album! i think i screamed a little bit! and my mom was in the car with me, talking about stuff to me, but i could hardly even focus on anything she was trying to tell me because my mind was just racing at 500 miles per hour trying to comprehend the fact that NEW BOC IS REAL!!!! i quickly made a comment under that thread and then a few minutes later before i got home made a story post on Instagram about the news.

and, while i was making the story, i always like to put a song in the background of the stories, bc yknow my account is based around music, and i put my phone's sound on in order to hear what i was doing, and since my mom was in the car me doing this was her first exposure to Boards of Canada! i chose the song 'Alpha and Omega' off of Geogaddi, and she liked it! she thought it was relaxing somehow. yeah !

then when i got home i just kinda... absorbed this news the whole rest of the day. i was unfortunately 5 hours late to the album being announced, because it was announced the second i left the house yesterday, so i wasn't able to see the news until i was leaving where i was to go home. but either way, i was SO HYPED!!!!!

one thing i did that afternoon was that i went out into my backyard. (and yes, touched grass, woah.) yesterday was such a nice day outside, with the sun shining, the temperature being just right... and the grass has been so green and lush recently where i live... so what i did was that i just ran around a bit outside, just taking in all of the excitement i guess! i really loved facing the sun with my eyes closed and just seeing it reflect in the back of my eyes, with Alpha and Omega stuck in my head... it felt really trippy and beautiful in that moment, and i'll probably always remember that moment when thinking about this new album...

throughout that entire time i was outside, i was thinking about if i wanted to buy the new album too... i usually don't pre-order albums, because my logic is that what if the album isn't actually good? and then i waste my money? seems pretty silly to buy an album you haven't heard, right? but, with Boards of Canada, they're one of those artists where i can make that exception... i like almost every song they've ever made, and they don't have any album i would rate below 4 stars, so i trust the brother's tastes and i'm confident that this next album will be worth me buying it. and, even if it isn't their best work, it'll probably still be good to leave on in the background, at least, considering that i enjoy the general vibe of their music so much.

also, i wanted to treat myself a bit, since i hardly buy stuff for myself, so i also bought the CDs for Music Has the Right to Children and Geogaddi! (btw i pre-ordered the new album on CD, and it also comes with a digital download.) getting the Campfire Headphase probably would've been a good idea, too, since it's my 2nd most played BoC album right now, but i think if their entire discography was getting deleted and i could only save 2 albums, i would probably pick MHTRTC and Geogaddi. they're like a yin and yang, you can't have one without the other. and in general, i want to get more into Geogaddi too, so maybe with the CD i could start playing it before i go to bed more often idk.

oh, and this isn't BoC related, but i also bought another CD as well during this shopping spree that I've meant to purchase for a really long time... my bloody valentine's eps and rare tracks compliation!!! i'm really excited to get that CD as well because it has 2 secret tracks at the end of it that i haven't heard yet, and I've been waiting to buy it for like a year now to hear those secret songs. and now i'll finally hear them :) i'll probably make another blog post with my thoughts once it arrives. (i don't know how long it'll take to come, the email didn't say... but i'm guessing it'll come in a week or two hopefully?? who knows with mbv lol)... i also checked how the tracklist works across the 2 CDs, and i really love it because the 2nd disc starts on the Tremolo e.p., which is perfect!!! i really want to own that original CD for that EP by itself, so having the 2nd disc start like that will kinda be like owning that cd but with extra tracks at the end. and the 1st disc starts with You Made Me Realise, which is really awesome too. i wish it didn't have the glider e.p. on that disc, though, bc i feel like that was the start of the next phase of mbv after YMMR and Isn't Anything... but yeah. maybe it'll make sense once i hear it in a row like that. (i don't really know how else they could've split it up, though, so i get why they did it like that.)

and speaking of shipping times, i forgot to mention that the BoC order i did will all be arriving at once, so once they start shipping orders for the new album next month it'll come in package for me with all 3 albums i ordered in one box!! it was a little cheaper that way, and i think it'll be worth the wait because me opening that box to see 3 BoC CDs in one is gonna be so hype.

alright... i know this blog post is already really long but i want to talk about the album itself too and some of my theories for the track titles and stuff.

but before we get to that i want to briefly mention that i showed my dad some BoC songs yesterday and told him about the news of the new album, and he liked the songs i showed him a lot! he particularly liked the songs i showed him off The Campfire Headphase-- Chromakey Dreamcoat and Dayvan Cowboy. he subscribed to their youtube channel too, and he even told me this morning that he played some other songs on his own! in particular, i think he played a fan music video for Everything You Do is a Balloon (or Happy Cycling? idk), and my mom saw it and she said she thought it was scary because they were wearing some creepy masks or something. i haven't actually watched that video so idk what they were talking about, but my mom gets creeped out by a lot of things so i don't take her too seriously when she says that. she didn't even like the Magdalena Bay music videos i tried to show her, smh...

(but yeah i think i've converted my dad to BoC-ism. mwhahahhahaha :D)

ok now for the album discussion.

a few people are saying that they don't like the new album cover because they think the font is too big or something, but personally i don't really mind the cover. it's nowhere near as good as the cover for MHTRTC, my favorite album cover ever, but honestly i think it works fine within their discography. it definitely has its own vibe amongst all the covers, though... a more bolder, a more in-your-face feeling. i wonder if that will be indicative of the sounds on the record... i really hope so, personally. with the name "Inferno", it having some crazy drums and intense moments, perhaps even more intense than any other moment in their discography, would be perfect. and pretty fitting for the times we're living through right now.

in fact, thinking about it, that REALLY makes sense. honestly with social media and the way it pushes everything into your face, this being their most overstimulating album yet would be a perfect reflection of the constant information overload that everyone faces every day from their devices.

i also heard somewhere that this album was gonna have a lot of vocal samples? and i know their other stuff has a lot of that, but maybe they'll incorporate it on a level we haven't seen before to really reflect that over-the-top vibe that seems to be happening here.

they also seem to be leaning a lot into the more horror, culty aspects of their sound, similar to Geogaddi. the promo videos for the album have a lot of cult-y elements, like candles around the BoC logo, church pews, the VHS tape and Tape 05 had reference to televangelists and cults and stuff, and it's been said that this album is gonna have a darker ambient sound like on Tomorrow's Harvest, so maybe they'll take the dark ambience of that album and make it more energetic? who knows...

and we also need to talk about those track titles. they are... something else. they feel different to other BoC albums... more explicit? i guess? lemme just write down some that stand out to me...

Track 8 & 11: "Acts of Magic" and "Into The Magic Land". these 2 tracks both have the word "magic" in the title, so my theory is that they compliment each other maybe? especially considering that "Acts of Magic" is only a minute long, so it might an interlude before the other track comes on 3 tracks later. maybe it'll be like a little teaser for the other song. idk i just have that feeling about it? or maybe they just really liked the word "magic" now, who knows. i like that bc i hope this album is a very magical listening experience :)

Track 12: "Blood In The Labyrinth". this is probably the most evocative track title of them all to me, explicitly mentioning something as graphic as blood itself. i remember seeing a post about how this might be referencing the minotaur in the labyrinth story or something, how it relates to kids dying... that would fit with the posters, for sure...

Track 13: "Deep Time". just wanted to mention this one because it reminds me of one of my favorite albums, Ceres & Calyspo in the Deep Time. cuz yknow. the deep time. i'm really excited to hear what this'll be.

Track 14: "All Reason Departs". the longest song on the album, at 6 minutes 14 seconds. this one is probably gonna be a doozy. it reminds me of how Jacquard Causeway is the only song on Tomorrow's Harvest that's over 6 minutes long, and that song is one of my favorites on that album, so i'm expecting this song to be a lot to take in. that title sounds really ominous. it reminds me of how everything feels nowadays... with all this misinformation being spread everywhere... maybe this song will reflect that...

Track 15: "Arena Americanada". another longer track towards the end... this one reminds me of the VHS tape with how they showed that circle looking cult building, with the red carpet with white lines? maybe this is a reference to that and how people gather in the arenas to hear the televangelists? or it could be about divided politics? everyone is in an arena against each other? hmm

overall a lot of these track titles paint a very vivid picture of things... dark, graphic, existential, spacey feelings... i'm SO EXCITEDDDDDD it sounds great! i don't think I've ever analyzed a track list this much before an album released before!

and yeah i think that might finally be everything i have to say about this album! wow that was a lot. see you when i get my package :)