Track Listing

1. Wildlife Analysis
2. Eagle in Your Mind
3. Color of the Fire
4. Telephasic Workshop
5. Triangles & Rhombuses
6. Sixtyten
7. Turquoise Hexagon Sun
8. Kaini Industries
9. Bocuma
10. Roygbiv
11. Rue the Whirl
12. Aquarius
13. Olson
14. Pete Standing Alone
15. Smokes Quantity
16. Open the Light
17. One Very Important Thought
18. Happy Cycling

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37405 in Music
• Released on: 2004-03-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .15 pounds

Customer Reviews

Beautiful, strange, mysterious music (reissued)
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!

The best BoC album, with appeal beyond the usual IDM crowd
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. :)

Is there such a thing as life changing music? Maybe. Maybe not. But this is an excellent album nonetheless.
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.