Music Has the Right to Children is the debut studio album by Scottish electronic music duo Boards of Canada. It was released on 20 April 1998 in the UK by Warp and Skam Records and in the US by Matador. The album was produced at Hexagon Sun, the duo's personal recording studio in Pentland Hills, and continued their distinctive style of electronica, featuring vintage synthesisers, degraded analogue production, found sounds and samples, and hip hop-inspired rhythms that had been featured on their first two EPs Twoism (1995) and Hi Scores (1996).The album received critical acclaim upon its release, and has since been acknowledged as a landmark work in electronic music, going on to inspire a variety of subsequent artists. It has been included on various best-ever lists by publications such as Pitchfork and Mojo.
The sound of robots learning how to emote. Atmospheric ambient and quite affecting for electronic music. Instantly enjoyable and feels like with repeated listens this could be brilliant. Rating: 3.5/5 Playlist track: Roygbiv Date listened: 29/09/22
Indeed, one of the best electronic albums of the Nineties and of all time. Favorites are Telephasic Workshop, Sixtyten, Turquoise Hexagon Sun, Roygbiv, Rue the Whirl, Aquarius & Happy Cycling.
Halfway through and I think I've got the hang of this now. Palliative care music for former ravers. I don't need to listen to all eighteen tracks.
Will Wright would be furious considering whoever did spore's soundtrack just ripped this off lmfao
"Music Has the Right To Children" by Boards of Canada (1998) Never heard of this album or this duo. First, about that title. The duo has stated that the titles of their works are significant, and that “‘Music Has the Right To Children’ is a statement of our intention to affect the audience using sound.” Well, as laudable as that may be as an artistic objective, the bluntly metaphysical claim that music has the “right” to “children” has a quaintly pompous and yet menacing tone (not to mention a certain lack of sensitivity to those frustrated in their desire for children or the pathology of those who reduce children to instrumentalities as an exercise of their “rights”). A musician may and should “intend” to affect the audience, but it’s hardly a “right”, especially when the artist expresses it toward human persons (the “children” to whom the musician has a “right”). Maybe I’m misunderstanding this, but please don’t object that I’m reading too much into it. This musical endeavor self-consciously begs to be ‘read into’. If you can’t stand the heat, get off my couch. Interesting cover art. Faceless Scots in bell bottoms. I’d be the guy on the far left. If you’re not allowed to have a face, turn away. It’s a fitting image for the Covid-19 pandemic era, although that was obviously not the intention. No lyrics here, so all the poetic clues are in the titles, most of which seem to be intentionally opaque and unevocative (like ‘inside jokes’—hardly a means of affecting a audience). Synth beats and sampling, it’s like Scottish hip hop. Mind boggling (or, as they say in Scotland, moind boag-lin’). Now about that sound: “Wildlife Analysis” - no structure, no categories, thus no analysis. And where’s the wildlife? Unless we’re the wildlife. Or you’re the wildlife. Or it’s actually “wild” “life”. About those beats—hey, we’ve got guys in America who can do all that stuff with nothing but tongues, teeth, and microphone. After listening to a few tracks, I think I finally get it. You gotta be stoned. I’m glad I listened to this before I die. 1/5
This has been one of my favorite albums for a long time and it was good to see it come up.
welp. we're in a cult now
what a beautiful album, I’ve been a fan of BoC for a while now and this album always gives me goosebumps when I hear it it’s such a perfect mix between a loose, dreamy atmosphere and a raw, hard, tactile electronic experience I don’t know how else to put it, this album is really something special, everybody should listen to this 10/10
Prime lying on a hill at 3am in Pimavera territory
This one is hitting me at the right time. All these vintage synth sounds are right up my alley. Perfect workday listening. And just anytime you want something that can be listened to intently, or ignored. It's good either way. Definitely going to check more out from this band. Wish someone would have showed this record to me when I was REALLY into Radiohead's Kid A and Amnesiac-era records. Since this was out just before those were released.
Boards of Canada? More like Bored-s of Canada. 2/5 for the potential to be a decent album in different situations
Stuck this on whilst having a cup of tea and some breakfast this morning. I imagine that is how boards of canada intended it to be listened to. I struggle with this hipster end of the dance/electronic spectrum. I just don't get when you'd listen to it and what you'd get out of it. Souless, Joyless, outright boring music. On one fucking track some women just starts counting. edgy. 1/5
This was just perfect today. Lofi tunes I can listen to in the background of whatever else I'm doing are a fantastic way to get me to play your album over and over. 5 stars, my friends!
Love boards of Canada. About time we had some ambient. 😁
Double dose nostalgia on this one. One for the Canadian documentaries that I grew up with, and another dose from listening to this album new. Great fun!
Very good electronic sound. Ambient music for reading or computing.
Fantastic - music from a parallel timeline. Fave track - "Turquoise Hexagon Sun"
COOL
I've very fond memories of this album, it opened me up to a world of leftfield electronic music that my young Britpop addled mind never even knew existed. And in later years it was my go-to to help nurse my "morning after" mind. It's aged really well too, which a lot of similar albums from the era definitely haven't.
Okay okay, interessant, weiß nicht ob ich die Art von elektronischer Musik so sehr feiere. Gut im Hintergrund wird ihr glaube ich nicht gerecht, ist schon nicht schlecht, denke ich
This is a 3.5 for me. I'm familiar with BoC, but my go to album has always been Campfire Headphase. I was happy to get the push to listen to this album again since it's been a while. It's good, but I don't really get the hype. I never did. Sonically this album is a trip worth the listen, but I probably won't come back to it too often (3 stars). Extra point for being so influential. I can think of several artists I like that site this album as inspiration. Maybe one day it'll break through to me.
Love the album cover and title! Maybe one of the best titles yet. I wasn't getting into it until Telephasic Workshop grabbed me. I'll explore this album in another state of mind in the future...even dropped TW into the Broccoli Alien Mix :)
02/02 - Yesterday I worked on developing door details for the Drum Storage Building as well as some professional development toward AXP. I had a good conversation with Jake on how to address questions that might come up during the week (work on creating a list and asking for someones time in advance to go through the list). He also helped me with breaking down Project Management hours. I thought this album was okay, definitely different then the types of beats I would listen to today. It seemed to be missing a lot of base but I thought it was very unique in style regardless.
Very 90s, minimal chilled electronic. Pretty easy to listen to but after first few tracks I'm not that bothered about it. Nothin particularly wrong with it but it just did nothing for me. 2/5
Good grief this album is boring. Slow, ambient, thoroughly unenjoyable. I can't find a single redeeming quality off this album.
Fuck Ziggy Stardust. This is the one!
This is like music you'd put on in the background while you listen to other music.
So I stole part of a review on this album because because I CBF writing my own. Written by Maya Kalev for factmag.com, the article is called "One very important thought: Boards Of Canada’s Music Has The Right To Children at 15" I recommend it. The bit I stole goes like this: "Despite its name, Music… is about as grown-up as records get: an adult meditation on childhood, concerned with play, naïveté and nostalgia, all tinted with rosy pastoralism. But it’s also devilishly subtle, intricate and emotionally mature. That’s surprisingly rare in electronic music, most of which is concerned with the physicality of dance, intellectual weight, or the evocation of atmosphere rather than a holistic experience. By introducing themes of suppression, solitude and grief into Music…’s evocations of childhood, Boards of Canada created a record that was pretty but seldom precious, more faithful to experience than kitsch idealism. This ambiguity has endeared Music Has The Right To Children to its hordes of fans over time: as its listeners grew ever further away from the childhood it evoked, the album, bizarrely, became more relevant."
Great electronic and loungy album
Who? What? How havn't I heard this before? Feels like the father of electronic, trip hop, electronic music rolled into one. Just awesome, like a downbeat, low key, non showoffy Mr Scruff.
1998 Ambient; Similar Artist - Aphex Twin
The album is a bit sketchy and I prefer Geogaddi, which is much more coherent. But every time one's attention is fading they come up with some great music on this album as well like Telephasic Workshop. It is a shame that other electronic music which is of equal or higher quality (think Max Cooper or Dominik Eulberg) never shows up in lists like these.. What one can do with electronic sound is so much more than what you hear here.. nevertheless, highly influential album, so 5 stars.
Already one of my favorite electronic albums ever. It's truly one of a kind.
Ambiance heaven
Excellent vibes using found-sound spectacularly, with maybe just a hair of bloat.
Moody, introspective, and thought-provoking. This is rare stuff right here. Perfectly captures a mood, and takes you on a journey from start to finish.
One of my favorite albums of all times, and one of the most listened to.
My favorite electronic music so far.
Beautiful, dreamy album I've over for a while
Cool
this album is really unique it's literally perfect the instrumentals on every song sounds very good the way that this album makes me feel it's incredible I have nothing to complain about this 10/10
Even when listening for the first time, Boards of Canada feels gauzy and nostalgic, as if half-remembered from childhood. Every song is a gem and this album is their masterpiece.
Really pretty awesome. Some amazing sounds in a full on immersive electronic experience. You can see the influence and impact that it had.
Fundamentally pure and true. Excellent
An unabashed 10/10, certainly worth listening to before you die. “Orange!”
Interesting how the responses in most 2/5 and 1/5 reviews actually tell you this is an important album. Some people can't handle the "uncanny"--and *Music Has The Right To Children* is all about the latter: you don't know if you're in the future or the past; you don't know if you're an adult or a child; you don't know if you're in a dream or awake in the real world, and you don't know what it is exactly you're supposed to be feeling. You're floating in purgatory. You're "in limbo", to use the name of a Radiohead track from another album that probably owes a lot to Boards Of Canada... One *great* 4/5 review tells it better than I would ever write it myself. This is the sound of robots slowly learning how to "emote". In this day and age where AIs now create art and are having meaningful (yet slightly unnerving) conversations with you, *Music Has The Right To Children* is like a prophetic statement. That album cover could as well have been created by one of those AIs. There's the same twisted, slightly off-kilter logic in that artwork as the ones found in those utterly "artificial" creations seen online today. The fact that humans from the nineties actually created said artwork blurs the line between humanity and technology, about the animate and the "inanimate". Just look at this cover: it can trigger the same feeling of alienation and "displacement" in your human brains as those weird AI creations today. And the music does the same. So the album is not only about fictional robots, as great as that line from that 4/5 review was. It's about us humans and our relationship to time, technology, and "art in the age of mechanical reproduction" (say hello to Uncle W. Benjamin here). It's very "mundane", but that's the point, because nothing is sacred anymore in the digital age. Time is diluted, expanded. Lengthy dirges abound, and they can send you in one of those intermediate "states". Retro-futuristic sonic landscapes give you a sense of nostalgia for a future that hasn't happened *yet*. Objectively, a lot of those trip hop and chill-out club beats are clearly dated, but more than twenty years later, that "dated" thing ironically adds to the overall experience. This album aged extremely well partly because some of its components *have* aged. You can't write a sentence like that about a lot of albums. Which proves it is one-of-a-kind. To conclude, *Music Has The Right To Children* works like a Rorschach blot. It is a canvas with apparently "unclear" intents emotionally speaking, and where you can therefore project your own feelings, whether they're anxieties, dreams, pessimism, optimism, or even boredom with yourself. And this is exactly where those 1/5 and 2/5 reviews were so interesting to read. In a few lines, you can sense the sort of person who wrote how displeased they were about the experience, understandably so in some cases--you need to be in the right mindset to enjoy weird stuff like this anyway. And if you read between those lines, if you pick up certain words and turns of phrases, it becomes abundantly clear that the experience actually affected some of those reviewers in a somewhat positive way. They may not like *Music Has The Right To Children*, at least right now, but they took the time to try something different, admitted how nonplussed they're feeling about it, and then gave their own feelings the benefit of the doubt (and sometimes, they did the same thing with the music, in a somewhat fascinating mirror effect). In a world where algorithms "break down" and decide what you're *supposed* to enjoy or not as if we ourselves were a string of ones and zeros, such "undecided", ambivalent experience is a precious glitch in the machine. And the fact that such welcome subversion comes in the form of electronic music from another era is itself a very ambivalent, "undecided" plus. That's how "meta" that album can get. And if you're in the right state of mind, this will repeatedly slap you hard in the face. Until the point where you don't have one anymore, maybe. Number of albums left to review: 721 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 140 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 68 Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more important): 76
One of my all time favourite electronica albums! This was so original when it came out and still sounds fresh to this day. Essential listening in my opinion.
Stellar
Do you know the scene in Parks and Recreation where Tom Haverford falls in love with the painting and is like "It's beautiful. I've been looking at this for 5 hours now". That sensation for me is this album. I've no interest in this kind of music, I don't think I'm gonna listen to this again in my free time, but it really felt good. I can't point my finger on it, there are tracks that make relax completely and tracks that make me feel like in a dystopian nightmare trying to survive (I really felt like I was in the Danganronpa's world at certain point, which is a weird good thing to say). The amazing title and borderline disturbing cover of the album really blend well with the songs. Honestly, I really didn't expect to give this rating but here we are.
5 stars, have loved this one since highschool
First “hauntology-esque” record Kind of a strange way to listen to an album: a few songs on the way to work, and the final few on the way back home after barhopping with coworkers. I really think this album is special as listened to in its entirety (rather than in the individual beats/songs)- although each time I returned to the album it took me to a similar contemplative mood. HL: “Turquoise…”, “Rue the Whirl”, “Aquarius”, “Pete Stands Alone” February 1, 2023
Classic of the IDM genre. Personally I'd put Geogaddi above it but they're both fantastic. This album is such a vibe.
I was listening to a lot of Blonde Redhead when this was released. This album opened up a new era in music for me, expanded my mind toward more electronic-laden chill music. I discovered Arovane around this time and started listening to other stuff that I had previously shied away from. Super chill, get shit done - or get nothing done music.
lovely
These electronic albums have consistently been some of the best so far, and this is no exception. I usually listen to my albums before school starts. This fits that for a mellow electronic mood; it could be ambient music if you didn’t want to pay attention to it. Overall, an amazing album.
Big fan of this duo. Though this isn't my number one fave album of theirs, it belongs on the list because it's such an amazing debut.
I have listened to this album more than any other EVER. It is my bedrock. Electronica full of sun dappled childhood memories. Melodies that ache with nostalgia. Dream on. FIVE
Ну каааааайф. Вообще не ожидал такой музыки в 1001, но очень рад, что так получилось. А ещё советую послушать ep max hot salad'a (одна из любимых епишек), потому что в обсуждении я его очев упомяну. А для этого альбома я слишком много раз доставал телефон, чтобы добавить песень в плейлист, так что меньше 5 поставить просто не могу
Слушал бесчетное кол-во раз (спасибо Ивану Злобину за наводку!). Альбом, как и группа просто пушечные: очень психоделичная электронщина, которую можно слушать как на фоне, так и внимательно вслушиваясь в партии
Это восхитительно, прекрасно и великолепно. Альбом точно запомнится надолго; его можно слушать с собой внимательностью, а можно включить на фон во время рутинной работы. для любителя музыки такие работы — отдельное удовольствие
Super cool album! Very industrial electronic! Really dig the vibe to this whole album and can just veg out and listen along to this one. A lot of these songs could be really good beats for old school hip hop to be on top of the tracks! Enjoyed both the band and the album!
электронная музыка, которая кристаллизует реальность, которая сделана из кварца и слюды, морской пены и полиэтилена
This album is one of the greatest electronic albums of all time. It includes elements of psychedelia, trip hop, ambient, and more experimental music. It also incorporates unsettling elements that serve to disorient the listener. This album has been so influential that it almost sounds routine to modern ears. However, it is a landmark album that is essential listening.
Really easy to see the influence that this had on Techno going forward, especially in the less dance oriented material. Very smooth mellow album that's easy to listen to
Ett av de bästa albumen som finns för att gå omkring och se på andra människor.
I 🧤electronic music
Love it!!!
never heard this before but I like it a lot . This is its own thing and is simply lovely
My heart jumped a bit when this came up for the day. It's a pure classic that I go back to again and again. One of the best in any sort of electronic genre.
Ah, I do love me some BoC... Good old downtempo electro-psych. This album in particular has always commanded my attention. Album opens with some very BoC aura sounds. A roaming synth playing through some hazy fog; evokes something of some colorful light roaming through space. An Eagle In Your Mind follows on with a warbly synth plus stumbling, ever-evolving drum. Some spoken word samples in the background add to the already eerie vibe. The "I Love You" sample always kills me. Feels so out of place, and yet... This song in particular is everything I love about BoC; slow building aura music that makes you slightly uncomfortable, while also wrapping around you like a blanket. The Color of the Fire, once again dips heavily into the "I Love You" sample. This time opening up with a super slowed down and spread out rendering. The stuff of nightmares. Uncomfortably paired with some moody synth aura and twinkling electronic bells. It is as if they deliberately made this song to induce a bad trip. Would absolutely do drugs to this and regret it. Telephasic Workshop ditches the majority of the eerieness in favor of a fairly straightforward drum and bass number with a strange (awesome) syncopated vocal track serving as a percussive element. All throughout, things are held together by familiar synth tones and background vocal samples that make it clear we have not left the BoC universe. Second favorite song so far after An Eagle In Your Mind (I'm a whore for a slow build). Sixtyten features a very hip-hop infused beat with boom-bap drums and a vocal sample featuring at the center of the rhythm. This song jams end to end. Turquoise Hexagon Sun starts out so very pretty. Trip-hop infused beat lead by some angelic keys that just never stops moving. On this song, I think I realize what I like so much about BoC is the lived-in feel that they create with their songs. Every song is kind of homey and cluttered in a delightful sort of way. This song in particular makes me think of walking through a not-long abandoned house on a sunny day where the blinds are mostly drawn, but there is enough light shining through so you can see the dust floating about. Hard to explain, but there it is. A couple of short sandwich tracks separate this and obvious standout Roygbiv. The simplicity of the lead synth line with the drums is only enhanced as the track builds with successive layers. Such a pretty, forceful song. Rue The Whirl is an aptly named track whose main loop feels like something unwinding over and over again. Paired with a punchy drum beat, this feels like something that should be rapped over, or at least bobbed to very confidently. Aquarius gives way to a sprawling number with a funk-infused base line and cowbell(?) marking time. Seems music fit for the intro of a porno, that is until the creepy samples start rollings. For some reason, the sample of the woman counting just works amid all the other sample layers. God I love BoC. Vocal samples just keep getting better -- One Very Important Thought busting out the government PSA about serving as a juror. Album closes out with Happy Cycling, which has one of the more unnerving backing synth lines on the album (which is saying something). But I mean come on... that seagull sample? How? Absolute classic electro-psych album. Guaranteed to lull you into a sense of safety and then induce nightmares in children and grown men alike. I love everything about this album from front to back. While they have a distinctive sound and aura, BoC are able to jam a lot of ideas and permutations into this environment. This album is truly timeless. Hard to believe it is 25 years old. 5/5.
Devine to listen to with headphones.
Oh la dingz
such good shit
I have heard of Boards of Canada and thought I knew their genre, but either they changed to something very different or I knew nothing about them. This was way more interesting and engaging than expected. A wonderful journey… trancelike at times… and definitely something I will be revisiting!
This was new to me. I listened and I really liked it. I had thoughts that it wasn't as interesting as some of the other albums of this sound that we have heard and was going to rate it down for that. Then I figured that if I wasn't comparing it to the other albums that I must hear before I die, then I would love this one. So, ...
Although I don't think I ever get excited about this genre, there is much I loved about this album. It's hard for me to really stay engaged in the long, ambient bits, but when I pull them back into consciousness, these are really, really good. I love the mix of seventies synthesizer and hip hop beats.
Pretty pivotal album for a certain aesthetic of electronic music that is still influential to this day. Not every track on here is one I'd listen to in isolation, but the atmosphere and vibe of the album is almost perfect for what they are going for. There's a lot of little subtle and reserved sound choices that really make certain things stand out, in a way it's sort of like good ambient: you can really listen to them deliberately a get something completely different out of it than if you passively had this in the background, which is also a valid listen. It's background music that is there for you to listen to it more deeply when you have the moment.
The music of my dreams. Precisely the hazy world I want to stay lost in forever. Ideal for introverted headphone rides late at night. Rich, deeply textured, evocative, and hypnotic, to the point of practically being intoxicating - all without ever being overbearing. An exquisite example of what electronic music can do when freed from a purely dance oriented context.
Na
banger
chill blip bloop music is my jam
Great electronica to listen to while working, really enjoyed that album as a synthead
sweet
Just a great listen all-around. The album ebbs and flows with really good pacing, mixing really chill IDM beats with some harder, more normal electronic songs. I feel like I could wake up and play this album every day and it would be a great start to my day! 9/10
One of my more favourite albums as of late. Great to have on whilst working or in the background. Smooth, consistent, made with care and attention. I'm a big sucker for electronic that is able to see where things are going and almost predict futures that don't yet exist, and this album does that to a T.
Fantastic
I believe this is the duo's most acclaimed album. A very chill electronic/trip hop/ambient record. Weird samples and I think seminal. I prefer Geogaddi but I think that's subjective. This is still a great album for focusing, night drive, being wired into the dystopic future nightmare that is the future present. Very alien hip hop/trip hop beats. Odd vocal samples and spacey alienating synths. Definitely a must listen to get into the weirder side of electronic music.
Bought this album at Academy of Sciences. Heard about it through Amoebas Recommended vinyl collection staples... Used to zone out to this at work... ROYGBIV is legendary
fond fond memories and an easy 5 star
Listened to this staring syraight ahead whilst moving backwards on a train. Sesame Street samples a highlight
Iconic
Loved it. Great experimental and instrumental album. Easy to listen to.
Ультра абстрактно, но при этом хрустяще, вайбово, хайпово, велико. Это такая, ранняя, но очень чёткая при этом электроника. Я б совершенно не удивился если бы этот альбом я встретил в группе IDM или где-нибудь ещё. Пять звёзд, это мега хайпово и я хочу под это играть в майнкрафт.
Plug laced my shit with the shadow dimension polyhedron fungus. I'm blown away. I can't believe I've never heard this before. It's hard to describe, but something about this screams "Early Internet Era" to me. The futuristic, yet strangely creepy vibes of early Geocities websites, also the strangeness of early Internet animations like Salad Fingers. I can also hear some Silent Hill 2 in this. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Akira Yamaoka was a fan of these guys - the beginning of "Smokes Quantity" is literally "Black Fairy" from the SH2 soundtrack. Motherfuckers almost moved me to tears. I feel like I just relived my entire childhood in the span of 60 minutes. Has to be 5/5.
Plaza sésamo
A+, favorite album.
Loving the ambient grooves
I’m afraid I fw this one.
Gosh and blimey! This is an absolute tour de force and one of my favourite albums. I've listened to thousands of albums in my 50+ years and I know quality when I hear it. You're all tone-deaf and ignorant ;-)
Something about this album in all its simplicity that I absolutely adore. The album cover suits the music so well.