Still a little too slaphappy with their samplers, tripped-out Orb-meets-Eno vignettes weave through songs that only sometimes stand on their own. On the minute-long “Dandelion,” for instance, Leslie Nielsen is found narrating a children’s educational film on deep sea diving — a cliché mastered by The Orb, that BOC is very guilty of perpetuating. Even when they’re fitting or cute, these samples come across as a cheap shot. That said, more worthy instrumental interludes (“In the Annex,” “I Saw Drones”) round the album into a singular experience.
On Geogaddi, BOC has toned down the cheese. Gone are the obvious Music Has the Right crowd-pleasers like “Roygbiv.” Geogaddi’s standout moments (“Music is Math,” “1969,” “Alpha and Omega” and “Dawn Chorus”) aren’t as flashy and leave detached melodies to drone their way into our collective cerebral cortex. The disc is unassuming psychedelic soul that sounds as though it were made on the second day of a designer drug binge, grasping meaning and beauty through a haze of emotional fallout and sleep deprivation.
E-mail Robert Gorell at letters@metrotimes.com.
