Quality control has never been much of a problem for Boards of Canada. With only three full-lengths and three original EPs to show for its 11-year discography, the duo has magnified its legacy at least partly by indulging in generous spells of inactivity. The infrequency of BoC's output has not only fed into the mythos of their carefully cultivated brand, it's also engendered a level of trust that's served as a consolatory point of pride for fans who've felt shut out by the duo's otherwise total remove from the peripheral obligations (live shows, videos, interviews) of being a musical act.

That trust, combined with the relegation of some of Boards' most transcendent material to low-flying EPs (the quartet of tracks on 2000's stopgap In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country ranks as one of their finest song cycles anywhere) is why those of us who weren't bowled over by the airy acousticisms of The Campfire Headphase saw legitimate chance for restitution with this new release.

Sadly, Trans Canada Highway isn't just Boards' slightest effort yet, it's their flimsiest. Of its 28 minutes, five belong to the recycled album track "Dayvan Cowboy" and another nine to Odd Nosdam's wandering remix of the same. That leaves 14 minutes of new Boards material spread out across four tracks, two of which clock in around a minute-and-a-half. No matter how you do the math (and god knows, BoC fans will), it's hardly in keeping with the riches of the Hi Scores or Twoism EPs, and certainly not with In a Beautiful Place.

There's still great material here-- there's just not enough of it to congeal into any meaningful whole. The best of the bunch is the first of the new songs; with its asthma inhaler-synths, warbling melodies and easy, clanging rhythms, "Left Side Drive" is vintage Boards-- spacious and gorgeously arranged. Also great is the incandescent minute-long interlude "Heard From Telegraph Lines", which could loop for another five without overstaying its welcome. Slightly less memorable are "Skyliner" (which, despite evoking the thumping rhythm of Geogaddi's "Gyroscope", feels distinctly like a B-side) and the barely-there ambient shudder of "Under the Coke Sign", which might have been better served as a connector to two darker, more befitting tracks.

As alluded to above, "Dayvan Cowboy" is the star of the show, appearing not only in remixed form, but as the backing track to Boards of Canada's first official video, included on a bonus DVD. While the spellbinding promo (which relies heavily on archival footage from Joseph Kittinger's breathtaking 1960 skydive from just outside the Earth's atmosphere) helps to dissipate the song's lingering trip-hop odors (tell me you don't half expect Terry Callier to start singing when those strings kick in), the remix doesn't really do much aside from make half-hearted ambient and drone-inspired allusions to its source material, making for a fittingly anti-climactic finish to an EP that never properly gets off the ground.