Customer Reviews

Music Has the Right to Children

5 star:		(137)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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!

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!

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.

I'm not one to go dishing out the five star reviews with casual disregard, but this album really defies superlatives.
On music has the right to children, BOC have tapped into all the strangeness and magic of early childhood memories. The songs envelop the listener with sounds and textures that seem so familiar, that they could almost be memories. I know that much of the music has been culled from those old educational videos of sperwhales mating and what not, but BOC have created something entirely their own with it. Their beats are intricate and often innovative, listen to the chopped up voices on the fourth track, but never too demanding for meditative listening. The sounds swoop and crackle in a really human way. I wish everyone who thinks there's no heart and soul in electronic music was forced to listen to this album until they ate their words!!!
But this album and listen to it late it night. It'll take you places you've long forgotten about, like a patch of nettles on a Summer's day or climbing a skeletal tree on a windy wet afternoon, hands cold and covered in dirt. I swear you'll never hear anything else like it, Until the next BOC release of course.
Five stars, and I really mean it!!!!!!

Were you a kid in the late 70's and early 80's? Remember Narnia and Atari 2600 and the theme to St. Elsewhere? If so, Music Has The Right To Children will feel nostalgic. I got immersed in this album at the same time I happened to be reading Into The Wild. They went beautifully together. (no, that's not a plug for Amazon.com). Both transported me back in time, high into the mountains, and to vast contemplative spaces.

If you're a fan of Aphex Twin or Brian Eno's early ambient work, acquire this cd; one track sounds suspiciously like a song from Brian Eno/ David Byrne's My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts.

Start to finish, this album is truly artistic while unpretentious, which I can't say the same for much of Aphex Twin's work. And no matter how many times you listen, Music Has The Right To Children holds a mystique. Thus is Boards Of Canada

... and writing a great novel is easy, you only need a pen and paper and you just have to put one word after another.

Boards Of Canada's first full-length is a beautiful work, encompassing some of the most evocative and sweet synth lines ever committed to tape. Similar to the early work of Aphex Twin and Autechre, the duo blends soft melodies with catchy trip-hop beats, creating ever-evolving complex soundscapes ("An Eagle In Your Mind", "Telepashic Workshop"), soothing compositions ("Turquoise Hexagon Sun", "Pete Standing Alone") and child-like digital age funk ("Aquarius"). Other highlights include "Sixtyten", which would sound perfectly at home on a hip-hop record and "Roygbiv", the group's signature ambient pop song.

Filling between these tracks are minute-long tunes, which delight as much as the longer ones, showing just how much attention Boards Of Canada are paying to detail. The only disappointment comes from the exaggeratedly repetitive "Rue The Whirl", which only manages to save itself toward the end. Thankfully, when taken in context with the other songs, it's hardly more than a simple distraction.

What truly makes this record tower above all its peers though, is its sense of melody: no other IDM artists have managed to create such consistently memorable (and enjoyable) set of songs. Thus, the record's appeal is universal: it's perfect if you wish to familiarize yourself or a friend with the genre.

Ultimately, "Music Has The Right To Children" is a very satisfying release, and it overshadows nearly every IDM album to have appeared in the last few years. It is highly recommended for anyone.

On vacation one year, i was in a local mom and pop record store, and saw this album, i didn't know who Boards of Canada was or even what style of music it was. i picked it up solely on the album cover, i thought it strange, all the faces blurred out in anonymity the whole picture washed in a relaxing hazy green color. Prior to Boards of Canada my only exposure to any form of electronic music was random songs i've heard throughout the years by the likes of Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, Chemical Bro., etc. None of these bands really pushed me into checking out electronic music. So when i popped this in, i was in for a pleasant surprise. i never thought electronic music could be so emotional (not in the pejorative 'emo' sense), i always thought dance music, techno, all the same crap. But this album really opened my eyes to a whole new world (and genre) of music.

From the opener, i knew this was something different the hazy washed out synths the vaguely hip hop beats, the melancholic warbling melodies . All culminated to a very strange sense of nostalgia, this album reminded me of being a child. Maybe it was all subliminal with the cover and title, but they are very fitting to the album. The album sways back and forth between short vignettes and longer pieces. From the chopped up vocals of Telephasic Workshop, to the detuned synths in ROYGBIV, this album has a little for everyone. My personal favorite on the album is one of the shorter songs, track 13 'Olson'. The synth and piano sound wonderfully decayed, like they are being played for the first time in decades after being forgotten in some attic.

i won't normally give an album 5 stars, unless i really think everyone could get into it at some level. This album is a must own for fans of electronic music, and even if you don't really like electronic music, check this album out, it may change your mind. It did for me.

Honestly, I don't even particularly like IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), but I find myself listening to this album constantly. From the title of the album and its various tracks ("Roygbiv," "Sixtyten," "Pete Standing Alone"), it's pretty clear that the major theme of the album is childhood. BoC juxtaposes warped and distorted sounds from old gradeschool documentaries from the 70's and 80's against hip hop beats to capture the feelings of uncertainty, mystery, and fear associated with childhood. Don't ask me how it works, but it does.

Music Has the Right to Children has the ability to recall vague, surreal memories of kindergarten playgrounds and all the polarized feelings the listener associates with that time in his or her life. At times the album is warm and inviting ("Telephasic Workshop" and "Aquarius" are two tracks that spring to mind), but for the most part the various tracks of the album have somewhat cold and sinister undertones (A little girl is sampled saying "I love you" in "The Color of Fire," and it always gives me the chills).

In my opinion, what is great about Music has the Right to Children is that it is able to so effectively conjure all the complex memories of childhood emotions without ever sounding like twee. At no point does this music ever remind me of the songs I learned when I was a kid. The music is deep, brooding, and at times even scary, but it never looses sight of its intention. Honestly, I think several tracks (namely "Rue the Whirl" and "Happy Cycling") are a bit repetitive and meandering, but for the most part the album definitely succeeds in the sheer range of feelings it is able to achieve.

My personal favorite tracks are the consecutive "Bocuma" and "Roygbiv". "Bocuma" is a distorted, swirling, ambient track that uses a simple documentary sound sample and turns it into the mystery of something like seeing a balloon drift in the sky for the first time or a dragonfly lighting on a dandelion. It is abruptly interrupted by the bold, sinister first strains of "Roygbiv," which first evokes a feeling of fear, but quickly becomes one of the most beautiful tracks on the album.

It's an album that takes a little effort to completely enjoy for what it is, a masterpiece, but it's also one that anyone should be able to understand. The buyer should bear in mind that BoC albums are often extremely hard to locate in chain stores, so it would probably be best to order this album online, at say, amazon.com, for instance. :)

There are two factors to consider when I say that the music on Boards of Canada's "Music Has the Right to Children" is full of some of the warmest music available today, and not just in the field of electronica. The first it that the two members of Boards of Canada come from a snow-filled region of northern Scotland. The second is that Boards of Canada put out music on Britain's Warp and Skam labels, both known for their cutting-edge IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) releases, much of which has a decidely inorganic, or 'cold' feeling to it.

Unlike fellow Warp artists like Autechre and Aphex Twin (with whom I have often seen Boards compared), these two Scots create electronic songs which, while rich in electronic texture, harken back to the late 1970s, specifically the music of public television (Boards of Canada are named for the Film Boards of Canada, which produced a number of documentaries in the 1970s). Still, the music is always looking to the future. A combination of warm synth loops, intricate electronic and hip-hop flavored beats, and a myriad of sounds and voices (but not words) create an extremely tasteful and innovative blend of electronica that makes one feel like a child (especially if one was born in the 1970s).

While certain tracks like 'Smokes Quantity' and the very mellow 'Turquoise Hexagon Sun' are culled from earlier hard-to-find British releases, most are specific to this album. The build-up of textures in 'Telephasic Workshop' is one of the album's highest points, as is the short but anthemic 'roygbiv,' and the majestic 'An Eagle In Your Mind.' There are really no throwaway tracks on the album, and it works equally as well as background music as it does as album to listen to intently.

"Music Has the Right to Children" is an album I have yet to get tired of. It's been in heavy rotation on my stereo for well over a year. Boards of Canada have been making music together for over a decade, and while this is their first release available in America, let's hope there are many more.