The year is 2026, and yet, the culture climate of a dystopian sci-fi film horror rendered in a modern light is more relevant than ever. For decades, Boards of Canada have been a mood mirror for whatever times the enigmatic Scottish electronic duo have chosen as their moment to reemerge, though in retrospect, what we’d all probably give today to delve ear-first into a sublime bout of spliced-and-melted psychedelia or washed ambience as our soundscapes in a less hellish reality.

Inferno, the fifth studio album and first new material in 13 years from brothers Mike Sandison and Marcus Eoin, firmly finds them entrenched into this ultra-fucked dystopian digital vortex. The reference points to mankind’s false prophets (and perhaps, by our own responsibility, those who’ve bought into their grifter gospels) who seem content racing us into this direction are unavoidable dialogues found throughout, making themselves known as early as the listen’s start on “Prophecy at 1420 MHz” where an alien voice conceived of technology announces itself as a god. A new form of spirituality, designed by an algorithm and the billionaires who stand to make even more off your blind worship of them.

From that point on across the 70-minute listen, we’re brought further into this future-come-quickly dark galaxy. Samples featuring displays of hyper-religiousity and occultism make sense within the heat index of BoC’s redesign of merging vintage space age synths into our physical plane. Live drums and guitars become synergized into the digitization (“Hydrogen Helium Lithium Leviathan”), all the while found recordings of creepy vocals (the Jesus freaking of “Father and Son” and scientific recontextualization on “The Word Becomes Flesh”), buzzing flies (the ethering vaporization of “Memory Death”), and even the (end of?) the human heartbeat (“I Saw Through Platonia”) mean something in foretelling the fate of our nature.

Boards of Canada’s aural art is a hypnotizing mirage of aural pleasures, especially when signaling its intricate framework through a much bolder, higher resolution than the previous work. One would hope, however, that their next transmission — whenever that next happens, if at all — might deliver an escape route from this bad place. Until then, Inferno is a fascinating hell to live with.

Highlights: “Prophecy at 1420 MHz”, “Hydrogen Helium Lithium Leviathan”, “The Word Becomes Flesh”

Boards of Canada’s Inferno is availabel now on Warp Records.

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