Boards of Canada's "INFERNO" listening party: a personal retrospective (of sorts)

So the new Boards of Canada album came out two months ago. If you ask me, it's their best yet, which seems to be a sentiment that few share. Either way, I had been anticipating this record for quite some time (their last releases being a mixtape in 2019 & a remix from 2021), and was glad that they finally decided to release something within my lifetime.

I was also incredibly fortunate to attend one of the listening parties for the album. Not one of the major ones that happened a week before the album's release date, but a smaller-scale one the day before release. 

The day the dates for the listening parties were announced, a friend of mine contacted me, and I remember feeling incredibly excited that there was to be at least ONE listening party in my city (which was something I hadn't expected, having yet to meet a BOC fan in Alberta, much less in Calgary). This would've been May 12th, and the next day I called up my local record store (Melodiya Records, if you're wondering. If you're ever in Calgary GO THERE, they are AWESOME.) just to get some more details. 

Lemme skip forward a bit to the day of the party (because literally nothing happened in-between). I double-check to make sure that the party's being hosted at Melodiya, and that ended up being fairly wise because I found out that it had been relocated at the last minute to "Hot Wax". Wasn't really bothered, since it was nearby and I was already gonna be in the neighborhood, but still, I wonder what would've happened had I not called ahead of time!

So it's like 3 PM, I'm at YYC (I had to drop off someone there), and before I head to Hot Wax, I decide to quickly duck into a secluded bathroom to take a piss. Literally the next stall over I hear a dude "getting freaky" to Facebook Reels. I decided that Alberta was a lost cause as a province and got the hell out of there. That right there was a humbling experience. Anyway, after some driving, I finally arrived (with my dad in tow) to Hot Wax. Nice place. Very nice place. They had a lot of records there that I hadn't (and still haven't) seen elsewhere: some Devo, Pavement, a bunch of Guided by Voices (almost all of the pre-Matador stuff!), and a lotta interesting used records that I unfortunately did not pick up. Either way, I had arrived like 2 hours early (it was like 4:30 I think? And the listening party started at 6) so I had quite a bit of time to kill! 

Eventually, the proprietor of this fine establishment walks in with a giant cardboard box (I think it had the BOC logo on it? Not sure) and sets it down on the counter. And inside is a BUNCH of copies of Inferno on vinyl and CD. As it turns out it seemed like they had only one copy of the deluxe edition (for those unaware it has the bonus track "Vol. 4 - P. Primers - 177 Giraud's Mirror"), and that copy belongs to yours truly because he was first in line. Not even joking, I bought the album without having heard it. 

So at LAST 6 PM comes (before I forget, there was quite a sizable crowd, about 16 people, counting me? That's 15 more than I expected) and the album starts playing out of the speakers hooked up around the store. "Introit" and "Prophecy at 1420 MHZ" blow our minds just like they did when the single dropped a few weeks prior. And then "Hydrogen Helium Lithium Leviathan" hits and we damn well KNEW we were listening to the album of the decade. By the time "Father And Son" came on, everyone had bought the record.

Some more observations:
- I remember quite a few brows being raised when "Acts of Magic" and "Deep Time" hit; they'd been the tracks in the Inferno trailer and Tape 05 respectively so we immediately recognized them. 
- Dude in front of me looked like Karl Pilkington. He seemed to enjoy "Blood in the Labyrinth". Keep doing what you do, man, I salute you.
- Some random kid and his mom walked into the store (probably because they saw 16 white people awkwardly standing around) and asked what we were doing. Store owner replied that it was a listening party. Literally the next song that came on was "The Process", which is probably the WORST intro to BOC possible LMAO
- After the last track "I Saw Through Platonia" ended, there was like a 5 minute standing ovation.

Overall, that was probably one of the best, wildest days of my life. I shall not soon forget the kindness and respect that the other attendees had towards the music, and I eagerly anticipate the next BOC release (which, tbh, is probably coming out in like 2060).