Boards Of Canada
Music Has The Right To Children
1998
Profoundly nuanced, beautiful and memorable as a piece of art.
The prevailing opinion, it seems, is that the album is supposed to be a sort of coming-of-age story through music. Not a concept album exactly but intending to imitate a certain non-visual maturation aesthetic from conception to loss of innocence. I don't see that exactly, the clips of children and adults speaking and laughing (often in indiscernible or nonsensical fashion) don't seem to have much in common with each other or follow even a loose narrative.
Unlike most electronic, artificial drum-driven music I've heard, the percussion used here is creative and often varied. It's far from the typically oversized, rattling blasts of KICK - SNARE - KICK - SNARE I hear unqualified DJs playing so often. The tone of the record is very sedate, even psychedelic at points. The sophisticated mixing of the percussion is a perfect accent to the intertwining keyboards which are constantly swirling and winding spooky melodies amid odd background audio of either spoken word or people moving about just out of sight.
The first half of the album ends about the time "Roygbiv" kicks in with a dirty, bass-heavy groove and hip-hop influenced drums. The back half more or less follows this change of the guard with more aggressive percussion and a killer funk groove on "Aquarius".
"Music Has The Right To Children" may take some time getting into but once you give it a few spins it will become a classic.
Best Tracks: "Telephasic Workshop", "Roygbiv", "Aquarius"
The prevailing opinion, it seems, is that the album is supposed to be a sort of coming-of-age story through music. Not a concept album exactly but intending to imitate a certain non-visual maturation aesthetic from conception to loss of innocence. I don't see that exactly, the clips of children and adults speaking and laughing (often in indiscernible or nonsensical fashion) don't seem to have much in common with each other or follow even a loose narrative.
Unlike most electronic, artificial drum-driven music I've heard, the percussion used here is creative and often varied. It's far from the typically oversized, rattling blasts of KICK - SNARE - KICK - SNARE I hear unqualified DJs playing so often. The tone of the record is very sedate, even psychedelic at points. The sophisticated mixing of the percussion is a perfect accent to the intertwining keyboards which are constantly swirling and winding spooky melodies amid odd background audio of either spoken word or people moving about just out of sight.
The first half of the album ends about the time "Roygbiv" kicks in with a dirty, bass-heavy groove and hip-hop influenced drums. The back half more or less follows this change of the guard with more aggressive percussion and a killer funk groove on "Aquarius".
"Music Has The Right To Children" may take some time getting into but once you give it a few spins it will become a classic.
Best Tracks: "Telephasic Workshop", "Roygbiv", "Aquarius"
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