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Boards Of Canada Return: Lead Single “Introit” / “Prophecy At 1420 MHz” Precedes New Album Inferno
Boards Of Canada return with the two-part lead single "Introit" and "Prophecy At 1420 MHz" ahead of Inferno, out 5/29 on Warp.
After a tease-by-mail VHS and months of cryptic signals, Boards Of Canada have finally delivered the proper first taste of Inferno, their first record since 2013s Tomorrows Harvest. The duo rolled out a two-part opener today: a tiny, 36-second “Introit” followed immediately by the full-bodied “Prophecy At 1420 MHz.” Its the kind of measured, slightly uncanny reentry that will make long-time fans breathe a little easier.
“Introit” functions exactly like its name impliesa brief hinge into the albums atmosphere. Then “Prophecy At 1420 MHz” arrives: a midtempo groove with an ominous, high-tech sheen that feels lifted from a late-’90s spy thrillerits tension amplified by a computerized narration that sits over the beat like a transmission from somewhere just out of view. Its not the dusty, hip-hop-tinged psychedelia of their earliest records, nor the spacious ambient searching that marked parts of their later work. It does, however, sound like Boards Of Canada returning on their own termsfamiliar and foreign at once.
Theres also a new video directed by Robert Beatty, the artist and cover designer whose work has been a visual reference point for a lot of contemporary electronic music. The clip accompanies the pair of tracks and deepens the releases uncanny, analog-meets-digital mood.
Inferno lands 5/29 on Warp. You can pre-order the album %%LINK:https://bleep.com/boards-of-canada-inferno?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_campaign=BOC%20-%20Inferno&_kx=2D7QJBd5ulgEIjpairOIWLhMRuScHKOvL0VR8HcgAJk.Rwheqg|here%%.
Listening events and the rollout
The rollout has been deliberately tactile: last month the Scottish duo sent a mysterious VHS tape to fans and shared brief musical excerpts before the formal announcement. Now the campaign moves into the real-world phase with seven album premieres, called the Inferno Sessions, on 5/22 across Tokyo, Berlin, Barcelona, London, Glasgow, New York and Los Angeles. Local record stores around the globe will host listening parties on 5/28, giving audiences a chance to hear the record collectively before its official release.
If youve been waiting for new Boards Of Canada for the better part of a decade, these two opening tracks will feel like both a callback and a recalibration. The bands signature unease remains intact, but so does an appetite for new textures and broadcast-age paranoiathe precise ingredients that have kept listeners leaning in for years.
