Boards of Canada - "Geogaddi"

"Geogaddi" is the sophomore LP from mysterious electronic duo Boards of Canada.  "Geogaddi" is not your typical electronic record in the sense that it does not purely rely on synthetic sound.  "Geogaddi" and Boards of Canada in general bring a particular "warmth" and "life" to their music through the use of light instrument sampling and vocal samples and loops in their music.  This album in particular is noticeably darker in terms of mood when compared to every other album in the Boards of Canada discography.  Reception for this album is generally very favorable, but "Geogaddi" is certainly a fan favorite.  It was released on February 18th, 2002 through Warp Records on CD and vinyl LP.

Thankfully, track-listings remain solid and intact through most releases of this album.  The only on that differs is the Japan release of the CD.  It contains a single bonus track at the very end of the album, but is usually not considered necessary material when listening to this album.

The original CD release is still fairly common, and can be found at any decent music shop for the standard price of a new CD.  There does exist a sort of limited special edition CD.  It does not contain any additional tracks, but it does come in a hardbound cover with some extra artwork.  Decent copies can be found for roughly $30, it is not exactly rare by any means.

Finally, we come to the vinyl LP version of the album.  The album is separated into three LPs with five playable sides.  The B side of the third LP has a bit of artwork etched onto the vinyl.  There is a sort of a flaw in the packaging of the album.  The packaging comes in the form of a gatefold.  One of the LPs is stored in one side of the gatefold, and the other two are stored in a slightly larger pocket on the other side of the gatefold.  This became a problem later on when older copies of the album began to tear along the seam due to the weight of the two LPs in one pocket.  Despite this flaw, copies of this album would regularly demand prices of around $200 dollars for an acceptable copy.

Very recently, the vinyl LP release of the album was reissued by Warp Records as part of a massive vinyl reissue of every major Boards of Canada release.  It is now available again for retail price ($25).  The packaging of this release is different from the original.  As opposed to the gatefold of the original release, the packaging of this reissue folds out into three separate panels.  Each LP is stored in one of the panels, effectively eliminating the flaw of the original pressing.

Despite the reissue, the original pressing is still highly valued among collectors due to the different packaging.