Music Has the Right to Children

Boards Of Canada | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 22, 1998)
• Original Release Date: September 22, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Matador Records
• ASIN: B000009VOM
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (191 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,794 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #18 in Music > Indie Music > Dance & DJ > IDM
  • #89 in Music > Dance & DJ > IDM

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Like dust motes dancing in hazy afternoon sunlight, the compositions of Scottish duo Boards of Canada seduce listeners by illuminating almost imperceptible elements flitting through the cluttered cosmos. Though their saturated hip-hop beats and deployment of timbres as tactile textures recalls Autechre, Boards of Canada are distinguished by sweet melodies and a fondness for using vaguely familiar sounds outside of Western harmonic tradition--snippets of party conversations, bouncing Ping-Pong balls--to function as emotional triggers. Despite its sonic watercolor washes and childlike exclamations of "I love you" ("The Color of the Fire"), Music Has the Right to Children is not some yellowing document scribbled by glassy-eyed, loved-up rave casualties. This exemplary, evocative recording almost hovers above any fixed point on the time line of pop-music history. --Kurt B. Reighley

Product Description

Music Has The Right To Children is their most successful Warp/Matador release. An electronic album that appeals to rock kids. 18 tracks.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, strange, mysterious music (reissued), July 22, 2004

By 

Crashy88 "crashy88" (Level 2) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Music Has the Right to Children (Audio CD)

This is the album that introduced most of us to Boards of Canada's unique sound back in 1998, now back in a slick digipak reissue from Warp. "Music has the right to children" is probably the best introduction to Boards of Canada's distinctive music. For me, it's still their best overall, and one of my all-time favorite albums: a moody, shifting analogue synth-sample-and-beat fest, by turns funky and melancholy, full of rare beauty. The unusual samples and frequent use of "backwards" elements (and the cryptic packaging) give great touches of mystery and humor to the proceedings, although have also given rise to all kinds of strange ideas about Boards of Canada. Ignore the timid, small-minded conspiracy theorists and paranoids who fret about these things, and enjoy the music!

It's hard to pick a favorite track, but the one that always makes me stop and repeat it is "Rue the Whirl": swirling synths and a decent beat, quite simple in some ways, but it's that repeated organ stab used as a rhythmic device that really gets me. "Telephasic Workshop" is another standout (more rhythmic use of non-percussion sounds), the transition between "Bocuma" and "Roygbiv" still gives me goosebumps, "Aquarius" very fine, but it's all good, it's all great. The original US release added a "bonus track" called "Happy Cycling" from BOC's "Peel Sessions" EP, and it is again included on this reissue for the whole world to hear. This track is fine, but better in its original context on "Peel Sessions"; as a whole, I think the album makes more sense ending as it did originally with "One very important thought" (a track sadly even more relevant now in 2004 than when it first came out). "Happy Cycling" or no, "Music has the right to children" is a great album: BUY IT!

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a hazy and dreamy place, November 29, 2000

By 

Bones (Buffalo NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Music Has the Right to Children (Audio CD)

I've always been a big fan of electronic music, but this album, while retaining all the required bleeps, clicks and beats of the genre, transcends its counterparts by being so subtly beautiful. That's an important thing to remember, however: this album is subtle--no instant gratification or adrenaline rushes that would leave you dancing to a raging beat. It's a gradual kind of listening experience, and concentrates on quiet, persistent melodies that weave in and out of the foreground, and the beats are gradual and soft for the most part--like some of the more gentle songs from aphex twin. The technical excellence is there, like the afore mentioned idm god aphex twin or the likes of autuchre or even orbital. But there is something very candid and childlike in some of these songs-- like roygbiv or aquarius--that remind one of the innocence of childhood, and hazy memories of eating cheerios while watching saturday morning cartoons, catching grasshoppers, and playing in the park immediately come to mind. But other songs like telephasic workshop sound much more grown up (my favorite) begins crackly and muffled like an old favorite record, but gradually works itself up to a beat-intensified frenzy, with really cool voices lapping over one another as they compete with a beat that gradually overtakes them. One of the best electronic albums I have. On a side note, if you like Boards of Canada, and want something similiar but more mellow, try Biosphere or Selected Ambient Works II by Aphex Twin. But if you like something a tad more beat-oriented and deconstructive and desolate, try Autechre. A little more ambient, like the shorter tracks on this album, try Pete Namlook--sure to please!

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Original, November 29, 1999

By 

Giuseppe A. Paleologo "gappy" (Riverdale, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Music Has the Right to Children (Audio CD)

The first full-length album of BoC is a masterpiece of sorts. The material is accurately chosen and sorted in a way to resemble a "mini suite". The music shows influences from various musicians, but always manages to be original. "Telephasic Workshps" is a bit of "My life in the bust of ghosts" (especially "Mea Culpa"); "Turquoise Exagon Sun" has trip-hop overtones (of the Portishead variety). Electric piano and Moog (with additional sound treatment) are ubiquitous, providing a pleasant progressive (say, Tangerine Dream) and/or electric jazz touch to the songs. And are the numbers in "Aquarius" a little quotation from "Einstein on the Beach" by Glass? Overall, I would play the influence of Autechre (and AFX) down: it is present in the rythm programming, but not overwhelming. BOC is not rythm-driven as Autechre or AFX, but rather melody-driven. In fact, what I most liked in this CD is the beauty of the progression of the chords. The melodies are original and never trivial. Sandison and Eoin seem musicians-turned-musicians and not DJs-turned-musicians. This is what makes a BOC piece so easy to recognize and fresh.

A recommended CD for any fan of high-quality electronica who wants to listen to something different than the usual suspects.