Inferno

In April 2026, before Boards of Canada had announced a title, unlabelled VHS cassettes turned up at addresses that had bought from Warp, and posters went up in cities. A website they had used during the Tomorrow’s Harvest campaign came back with the words “nobody home...” in English and in Morse. On 16 April they shared a clip called Tape 05, the first new music in thirteen years. It ended up on the album as Deep Time. Warp announced Inferno on 22 April. The album came out on 29 May 2026, catalogue WARP496, recorded at Hexagon Sun in the Pentland Hills, mastered by Matt Colton at Metropolis in London. It is the fifth studio album, the first since Tomorrow’s Harvest in 2013.

The vinyl liner credits the writing to Mike Sandison, with Marcus Eoin credited alongside him as a player, a designer and a recorder. Streaming services credit the duo. Guitars and live drums sit with the synths. About half the tracks are instrumental. The others speak in sampled mouths: a sermon, a documentary conversation from The Jesus Trip, Hare Krishna chanting, a line of Aleister Crowley, a description of an embryo. Robert Beatty directed the video for Introit / Prophecy at 1420 MHz, released on 7 May. Listening sessions ran on 22 May in Barcelona, Berlin, Glasgow, London, Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo. The day before release, White House social accounts posted a clip that used a piece of Deep Time. Warp answered that neither the label nor the duo condoned the unauthorised use of the music for political messaging.

Reviews split in a useful way. Metacritic’s aggregate, from 21 critics, sits at 85. The Skinny’s Lewis Wade heard a dark reaction to sinister times. Resident Advisor’s Sasha Geffen heard some of the most placid music the duo have put out, set against the turmoil of the moment. The Guardian’s Ben Beaumont-Thomas called it a disappointment and stuck in the past. The Financial Times’ Ludovic Hunter-Tilney heard the drums and guitars as gothic, and thought the apocalyptic themes hurt the music. No interviews followed the announcement. Rolling Stone described the marketing as a noisy anti-campaign, and reviewers were given streams that could be played only three times. The red vinyl came with a hexagon flexi of an extra track. The Word Becomes Flesh also plays over the end credits of the A24 film Backrooms, out the same day. You do not need the campaign to hear the record. You do need it to understand why a Scottish duo who had been quiet since 2013 reappeared as a set of tapes, a condemnation, and eighteen new pieces.

Sources

• Inferno: Warp, 29 May 2026, Hexagon Sun, WARP496, the April campaign, the White House clip, Warp’s response, credits and reviews.
• Warp release page: 29 May 2026, formats, tracklist.