Kiln

Without knowing anything about Kiln — which is made up of Kevin Hayes, Kirk Marrison, and Clark Rehberg III — it seems strikingly obvious that they are outdoorsy types. Each song on meadow:watt unfolds (and often refolds) like a vast intricate landscape, with many of its fjords and inlets staying hidden until the third or fourth listen. Since their formation in 1994, Kiln have crafted a sound that's somehow overtly digital and undeniably organic at the same time, like a robotic daffodil or a mountain river whose ebb and flow is controlled by an immense mechanical conductor. This may be due to the fact that, despite Kiln's use of guitars, drums and found sound, they filter everything through a vintage Neve 8068 console (a classic piece of kit that's basically porn for sound engineers). meadow:watt serves as a great reserve for anyone who thought that Boards of Canada's Tomorrow's Harvest wasn't up to scratch. Both groups produce nostalgic, ambience-laden IDM, but where BoC's roots lie in hip-hop, Kiln's seems to have evolved from Krautrock, lending to a more improvisational sound and natural flow. Perhaps the most important difference, however, is that while BoC appear to be getting worse with time, Kiln, as proven by meadow:watt, are getting better.