| release_date=13 Feb 2002(Japan)<br>18 Feb 2002(Europe)<br>19th Feb 2002(USA)

''[[Geogaddi]]'', [[Boards of Canada]]'s second full-length missive since 1998's ''[[Music Has the Right to Children]]'', is without a doubt the group's most controversial record. Released suddenly in 2002 with little or no promotion, the record made its official debut in six churches scattered across the world: London, New York, Tokyo, Edinburgh, Paris, and Berlin. Only one interview (conducted [[Interviews#2002-02-23:_NME|via e-mail with NME]]) was given in connection with the release ([[wikipedia:geogaddi|Source]]).  

Pared down from an extraordinary 90+ tracks to a total of 23 (one of which is silence), ''[[Geogaddi]]'' has been described by [[Boards of Canada]] as ''"a record for some sort of trial-by-fire, a claustrophobic, twisting journey that takes you into some pretty dark experiences before you reach the open air again. It has a kind of narrative"'' ([[Interviews#2002-03:_OOR|OOR, 2002]])   

<blockquote>''"[[Geogaddi]] was kind of exorcising demons, and even after we'd set out to do a record like that, smack in the middle of working on it, 9/11 happened. I remember there were a few of us in the studio that day, and we just ended up glued to the TV for the whole day. I think the months after that pushed us into making a darker record, as I'm sure it did with a lot of bands."'' ([[Interviews#2005-10-20:_Playlouder|Play Louder, 2005]])</blockquote>

A common sentiment expressed in reactions to ''[[Geogaddi]]'' is summarized very well by the following Amazon.com customer's review of ''[[Geogaddi]]'':

''"A person can't listen to a BOC disc without feeling that there is something baleful in their music. These guys are weirdos (from  the interviews they've done), which doesn't take anything away from what they may be trying to accomplish (make good music). I believe they are trying to do something more than just make good music. They are working for the side that I'm not on, so it would be deleterious to my soul to listen to the influential grooves they lay down. The evil is blatant"'' ([http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A3CIR4JF9UD3QI/103-9694767-9179813?ie=UTF8&display=public&page=2 Amazon, 2003]).

''"...all the mystery and magic and all this kind of nonsense that built up around the last record [Geogaddi] got to a point where it was just silly. People were understanding things from our music that we didn't put in there and were saying there was an evil undercurrent to everything. And we are not like that at all. It was a theme that we wanted to pursue on that record but people have understood from that that we always put secret, dark, sinister, and satanic things in our music. And that became more important than the music itself."'' ([[Interviews#2005-09-26:_Pitchfork|Pitchfork Media, 2005]]).

Yet despite their surprise with the public's reaction to their records (particularly ''[[Geogaddi]]'' and ''[[In a Beautiful Place out in the Country]]''), [[Boards of Canada]] have done little to allay the fears of those troubled by the content. The references to the [[Branch Davidians]] are difficult to dismiss, and many subsequent decisions on the brother's part (such as the original Trans Canada Highway release date as well as the TCH trailer micro-site) have only further cemented their quasi-satanic image rather than eased debate.  

As [[Marcus_Eoin_Sandison|Marcus]] explained to URB Magazine:  

''"[w]e're interested in all kinds of subjects, and I suppose we went through a patch of looking at cults and the mass mind control of religion and so on. We read a lot and pay attention to cultural events, but we view everything from a distance. We're up here in our observation point, gathering up data about all the weird shit that's happening in the world and spewing it out in some way in our music and visuals. The Davidians thing was about the shock of seeing the way the U.S. authorities handled it all."'' ([[Interviews#1999-02:_URB|URB Magazine, 2002]]).  

''"[w]e're not Satanists, or Christians, or pagans. We're not religious at all. We just put symbols into our music sometimes, depending on what we're interested in at the time. We do care about people and the state of the world, and if we're spiritual at all it's purely in the sense of caring about art and inspiring people with ideas."'' ([[Interviews#2002-03:_OOR|OOR, 2002]]).

''"When we were discussing the length of the silence [Warp Records owner] Steve Beckett actually suggested to take it to a total 66 minutes 6 seconds, because then everyone would think it's the devil who made the album. And we just laughed."''

*The main riff in [[The Devil Is In The Details]] is supposed to relate to a well known mathematical equation.

Interviewer: ''"Does "Music Is Math" have anything to do with the mathematics and geometry that run through nature and, consequently, art, music and architecture?"''

[[Michael_Sandison|Mike Sandison]]: ''"We've been interested in these things for a while, but on this album, we thought it'd be fun to put it in as a theme. The golden mean is nothing new in architecture and music. All through history, there have been guys like Mozart who got into the Masonic knowledge and were fascinated by this stuff. On ''[[Geogaddi]]'', there's a vague theme of math and geometry and how they relate to religious iconography."''

The album contains 23 tracks which may relate to the "23 Enigma", a belief that all events are connected to the number 23.  The belief is held by many who practice Discordianism, a parody religion  centred around the "mindfuck" principle and the book "The Illuminatus! Trilogy".

''"[i]t can have several meanings. We have our own definite idea of it, a combination of words that describe an idea we had at the time of writing it, but we want listeners to make their own minds up"'' ([[Interviews#2002-02:_HMV|HMV Magazine, 2002]]).

 

  [[Michael_Sandison|Mike Sandison]]: ''"Usually, our titles are self-explanatory, but this record's title is a composite that has more than one meaning. We have a meaning we understand from it, but it's up to listeners to choose their own meaning. I suppose the nature thing has an indirect effect on us while we're writing, because we're out here in the country most of the time. We're both heavily interested in science, too, which crosses over into nature and probably comes through in the music."''

 

 

'''Gaddi''' is the name of a nomadic Hindu tribe from Himachal Pradesh, in northwestern India. They are widely respected for their honesty, friendliness, and peaceful lifestyle. Crime is almost unknown in Gaddi villages. ([http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5625318 NPR News article about the Gaddis])

 

'''Gad''' is a Biblical name, belonging to one of the Tribes of Israel, a son of Jacob, and a prophet of David. The prophet Gad is most notable for delivering to David the choice of three punishments from God in 2 Samuel: three years of famine, three months of fleeing from enemies, or three days of plague in your land. David allows God to choose, and 70,000 of his people die in three days from plague. ([http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=10&chapter=24&version=31&context=chapter 2 Samuel 24:11-15]) The other Gad was the seventh son of Jacob and the founder of the Israelite tribe also named Gad; interestingly, like the modern Gaddi tribe of India (see above), the tribe of Gad were also nomads.

'''Gad''' was also the name of an ancient pagan god worshipped during the Babylonian exile in the sixth century BCE. Gad is described as the god of fortune, and the word ''gad'' itself refers to ''luck'' in Hebrew; its root is in the ancient Hebrew term for ''to divide'' or ''to share'' (as in fate being "meted out").

* Regarding the cover itself, [Brian Cypher] observes that if the image is inverted, then the cover becomes predominantly turquoise. This might perhaps reflect what BoC hoped to accomplish with ''[[Geogaddi]]'', as being in some respects the "inverse" of "Music ..." as respects the overall mood of the album, and so on.  

==Tracks==