Boards Of Canada – Music Has The Right To Children

A strong cult-status fave among IDM fans, perfect downtempo! :)

Context helps to understand the longevity of this act's popularity. When the album first dropped, it found immediate reception care of the groundwork that Warp Records and the adjacent Ninja Tune had put in years prior. Certainly Ninja Tune's own Coldcut are a big part of the foundation that BOC built on top of.

But that was that. They were successful and wonderful and influential in these spaces. But then the internet came along, along with a sense of nostalgia for the pre-digital era. BOC and this album in particular played strongly to that sense of a previous era that might not have existed, but felt real. The idea of tapes, or analog synths, of bricolage and snatches of sound all added to the mystique and aesthetic. And now, as we can even see in these reviews here on Discogs, the backlash from the bemused and bored, trying to understand what the fuss is, and raging needlessly into the void. The same void that BOC fans happily drift in on more pleasant journeys.

My copy of this cd, variant 7, has label printing identical to the one on this 2002 version: Boards Of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children rather than the one in the photos here. It also has no mold SID code that I can find. I believe this is the copy I bought originally in 98, but who knows.

So, I suppose what I'm wondering is: do those of you with variant 7 have a similar label or is this some weird hybrid?

While some do not share the enthusiasm in respect to this album,i certainly do. Not because i can rationalise
about a outstanding musical achievement - or the lack there of - but because this album just klicked with me
on a emotional level. It simply hit the nerve on a very deep and basic level. It still does that today.
I dont compare this album to any other,its to unique for that. Especially its underlying concepetional
simplicism makes it appealing to me.

98 videos?! I know they have this cult following but it'll take a week to listen to at this rate!

This has to be the best BoC album. Nostalgic, dreamy, ambience mixed with good beats and unusual samples. An essential album for electronic music buffs.

I think that this band and their albums are boring as shit. How do I know? Whenever I put one their discs on, I feel like turning it off! Go back to the 70's & 80's and discover the delights of Cluster, Eno or Harold Budd. Pure analog synth recorded directly to tape is a luxury most people in the 90's don't have a clue about.

For me this is the best Album By Boards of Canada, very deep, emotional, melancholic and dark. "Music has the right to Children" is a perfect soundtrack for my current life, the sunny days, the old and desert streets where i wander, my job door 2 door...and a melancholic atmosphere in the zone where i live. My favorite music is :"An eagle in your mind", very deep and melancholic. The rest of the Album provides different kinds of experiences such as being surprised by ghosts e.g. "Sixteen" . This is definitely one of the most prominent Albums within its genre. Certainly a highly recommendable Release in my opinion.

Boards of Canada's debut, MUSIC HAS THE RIGHT TO CHILDREN, was a revelation when it was released, and remains a revelation today. Mixing modern production and child-like innocence, this album has a dreamy, ethereal quality which set the standard for IDM at the time. The crunchy hip-hop beats of "An Eagle In Your Mind" counterbalance the quiet atmosphere atop it that grows increasingly mysterious, while "Telephasic Workshop" brings in disembodied vocal snips as a rhythmic element. The deceptively simple melodies add a fascinating, modal quality, and the various interludes between the longer tracks help to keep the mood light, from the proclamations of love on "The Color Of The Fire" to the factory-inspired chug of "Triangles & Rhombuses." "Rue The Whirl" has a thick chug that leads into the more psychedelic, trippy funk of "Aquarius." "Pete Standing Alone" goes back to chunky beats and bucolic harmonies, while "Open The Light" introduces an epiphantic joy. But the track that stands out the most is the achingly beautiful "Turquoise Hexagon Sun," with its crystalline melody and melancholy glow. A magical album through and through.

I can describe this outfit very simply. Minimal repetitive loops strung together by non-sensical interludes over trip-hop beats.