After its initial wave of innovation, featuring the near-invincible trio of Aphex Twin, Squarepusher, and Autechre, London's Warp Records label has, some think, experienced something of an identity crisis. Recent efforts to expand its sound without merely retreading its innovators' contributions have led warp to sign groups like the avant-garde hip-hop collective known as the Antipop Consortium, as well as the occasionally Portishead-esque Broadcast. Another such band to recently join the Warp roster are the Boards of Canada, essentially ambient musicians who nonethless aren't afraid to explore other textures and ideas outside of the pre-established intelligent dance music canon. Because their programmed rhythms aren't as complex as, say, Luke Vibert or Squarepusher, however, some fans of forward-thinking electronic music might be quick to dismiss them, as I initially was; the first time I heard this album I didn't think it was that special. But, on subsequent listens -- this being a headphone album if there ever was one -- the details of the songs began to appear in a washed-out landscape of synthesizer hum and drone.

Melody, somewhat surprisingly, is the band's strong point. Layering what sounds at times like the old, depleted keyboard sounds from grade-school filmstrips and at others like the secret sounds made within a power plant and combining them with deceptively simple sub-bass and rhythm sounds, Boards of Canada are able to build on the foundation laid down by Aphex Twin's "Selected Ambient Works, Vol. 2". "Orange Hexagon Sun" and "Sixtyten," which benefit from creative, atmospheric sampling, are particularly successful at this, though (somewhat strangely) it's many of the album's shorter tracks, which have a tendency to flow into each other as if conducting a dialogue, that make the most impression. At times, listening to this album's like hearing the "Logan's Run" soundtrack on a distant radio station while driving through a tunnel; you're perplexed and fascinated by what you've heard but there's something always out of grasp. So you put the CD in again in hopes of it becoming clearer, though it never quite does -- but you don't mind.

Though I don't own it, I should add that the "Hi-Scores" EP is actually (from what I've heard) even better than this, and that a new album is supposed to be arriving in a month or so. It'll be interesting to see what they do next.