''Music Has the Right to Children'' is the debut
studio album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
by Scottish
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
duo
Boards of Canada
Boards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, formed initially as a group in 1986 before becoming a duo in the 1990s.Hoffmann, Heiko.Pitchfork: Interviews: Boards of Canada (Septemb ...
. It was released on 20 April 1998 in the UK by
Warp
Warp, warped or warping may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Books and comics
* WaRP Graphics, an alternative comics publisher
* ''Warp'' (First Comics), comic book series published by First Comics based on the play ''Warp!''
* Warp (comics), a ...
and
Skam Records
Skam Records is an independent electronic music record label based in Manchester, England, founded by Andy Maddocks around 1990. Skam also runs a smaller sub-label called 33.
History
Skam's first 12-inch single is rumored to have never been off ...
and in the US by
Matador
A bullfighter (or matador) is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter and describe all the performers in the activit ...
. The album was produced at
Hexagon Sun
Hexagon Sun is an artistic collective based in the Pentland Hills, Scotland. The confirmed members are Mike Sandison, Marcus Eoin, Peter Iain Campbell (a.k.a. "PIC"), Simon Goderich (a.k.a. "goderich"), Mark David Garrett (a.k.a. "mdg"), Rachel St ...
, the duo's personal recording studio in
Pentland Hills
The Pentland Hills are a range of hills southwest of Edinburgh, Scotland. The range is around in length, and runs southwest from Edinburgh towards Biggar and the upper Clydesdale.
Etymology
The name is first recorded for the farm of Pentla ...
,
and continued their distinctive style of
electronica
Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to r ...
, featuring vintage
synthesisers, degraded
analogue production,
found sound
Found objects are sometimes used in music, often to add unusual percussive elements to a work. Their use in such contexts is as old as music itself, as the original invention of musical instruments almost certainly developed from the sounds of nat ...
s and
samples, and
hip hop-inspired rhythms that had been featured on their first two EPs ''
Twoism
''Twoism'' is the first EP released by Boards of Canada, on their own Music70 record label in 1995. It was a self-financed cassette and record distributed privately. Major public releases would not happen until 1996's ''Hi Scores'' EP on Ska ...
'' (1995) and ''
Hi Scores
''Hi Scores'' is an EP by Scottish electronic music duo Boards of Canada. It was released by Skam Records in 1996. It peaked at number 34 on the UK Dance Albums Chart in 2006. "Turquoise Hexagon Sun" would later appear on the duo's 1998 debut st ...
'' (1996).
The album received critical acclaim upon its release, and has since been acknowledged as a landmark work in
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
,
going on to inspire a variety of subsequent artists.
It has been included on various best-ever lists by publications such as ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
'' and ''
Mojo
Mojo may refer to:
* Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* MOJO HD, an American television network
* ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film
* ' ...
''.
Background
The members of
Boards of Canada
Boards of Canada are a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, formed initially as a group in 1986 before becoming a duo in the 1990s.Hoffmann, Heiko.Pitchfork: Interviews: Boards of Canada (Septemb ...
, brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, had been creating music together as early as 1981, layering synths over
cassette
Cassette may refer to:
Technology
* Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback
** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...
recordings of
shortwave radio
Shortwave radio is radio transmission using shortwave (SW) radio frequencies. There is no official definition of the band, but the range always includes all of the high frequency band (HF), which extends from 3 to 30 MHz (100 to 10 me ...
. Throughout the 1990s, the band were members of the
Hexagon Sun
Hexagon Sun is an artistic collective based in the Pentland Hills, Scotland. The confirmed members are Mike Sandison, Marcus Eoin, Peter Iain Campbell (a.k.a. "PIC"), Simon Goderich (a.k.a. "goderich"), Mark David Garrett (a.k.a. "mdg"), Rachel St ...
artistic collective based in
Pentland Hills
The Pentland Hills are a range of hills southwest of Edinburgh, Scotland. The range is around in length, and runs southwest from Edinburgh towards Biggar and the upper Clydesdale.
Etymology
The name is first recorded for the farm of Pentla ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
, and released self-produced cassettes produced in small quantities and given to friends and family members. According to Eoin,
"We'd been recording in various forms of the band as teens through much of the '80s, and already had a big collection of our own old crappy recordings that we were really fond of. Then, around 1987 or 1988, we were beginning to experiment with collage tapes of demos we'd deliberately destroyed, to give the impression of chewed up library tapes that had been found in a field somewhere. That was the seed for the whole project. In those days, everyone used to have drawers full of unique cassettes with old snippets from radio and TV, it's kind of a lost thing now, sadly. To me, it's fascinating and precious to find some lost recordings in a cupboard, so part of it was an idea to create new music that really felt like an old familiar thing."
In 1996, the band completed their first wide release, the ''
Hi Scores
''Hi Scores'' is an EP by Scottish electronic music duo Boards of Canada. It was released by Skam Records in 1996. It peaked at number 34 on the UK Dance Albums Chart in 2006. "Turquoise Hexagon Sun" would later appear on the duo's 1998 debut st ...
'' EP, and began sending it out for record labels to hear. Sean Booth of
Autechre
Autechre () is an English electronic music duo consisting of Rob Brown and Sean Booth, both from Rochdale, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1987, they are among the best known acts signed to UK electronic label Warp Records, through which all of Au ...
heard the EP, and suggested that the band get in touch with
SKAM Records
Skam Records is an independent electronic music record label based in Manchester, England, founded by Andy Maddocks around 1990. Skam also runs a smaller sub-label called 33.
History
Skam's first 12-inch single is rumored to have never been off ...
, whose first release had been Booth's ''
LEGO Feet
''Lego Feet'' (also referred to as ''SKA001CD'' or simply ''Ska001'') is the sole self-titled studio album by Lego Feet (a predecessor to British electronic music duo Autechre), released in 1991 by Skam Records
Skam Records is an independent ...
'' album in 1991. SKAM released ''Hi Scores'', and invited the band to produce a full-length follow-up. At the same time, the band established a relationship with
Warp Records
Warp Records (or simply Warp) is a British independent record label founded in Sheffield in 1989 by record store employees Steve Beckett and Rob Mitchell and record producer Robert Gordon.Southern, Richard (2003) "Label of Love: WARP", X-RAY, ...
, who also wished to release an album by the band. As a compromise, the album would eventually be jointly released by both labels.
Production and recording
The album was recorded in the duo's studio in Pentland Hills, which had been described as a "
bunker
A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. ...
" by various media publications. The duo described this as "just an exaggeration on the part of the record label" in an interview around the time of the album's release.
The album features the duo utilizing samplers, intentionally detuned vintage synthesizers,
drum machines and reel to reel tape recorders. It also incorporates a wide variety of samples, including several from the children's television program ''
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...
'' in tracks such as "The Color of the Fire" and "Aquarius". The track "Happy Cycling" samples the sound of the
red-legged seriema
The red-legged seriema (''Cariama cristata''), also known as the crested cariama and crested seriema, is a mostly predatory terrestrial bird in the seriema family ( Cariamidae), included in the Gruiformes in the old paraphyletic circumscriptio ...
from
Vangelis
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou ( el, Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου ; 29 March 1943 – 17 May 2022), known professionally as Vangelis ( ; el, Βαγγέλης, links=no ), was a Greek composer and arranger of ...
' score for the 1976 documentary ''
La Fête sauvage
''La Fête sauvage'' (''The Wild Party'') is an original score album, by Greek composer Vangelis (as Vangelis Papathanassiou in some releases), from the 1975 documentary about animal wildlife ''The Wild Nation, La Fête Sauvage'', by Frédéric R ...
.
During the production of the track "Rue the Whirl", the studio's window was left open, and the sound of birds was accidentally recorded into the track. The duo decided that the track was enhanced by the natural sounds, and left it in.
"Smokes Quantity" first appeared on ''
Twoism
''Twoism'' is the first EP released by Boards of Canada, on their own Music70 record label in 1995. It was a self-financed cassette and record distributed privately. Major public releases would not happen until 1996's ''Hi Scores'' EP on Ska ...
'' in 1995, and several other tracks previously appeared on the duo's 1996 limited release ''
Boc Maxima
''Boc Maxima'' is a limited-release studio album self-released by Boards of Canada on cassette in 1996 via their label Music70. The album preceded their more public releases on Skam and Warp. Many of its tracks were reused on their early EPs ...
'', albeit in different forms. "The Color of the Fire" first appeared in a shorter form on ''
A Few Old Tunes'' as "I Love U". The short vignettes appended to the end of "Triangles and Rhombuses" and "Sixtyten" predate the album and are sourced from the duo's own library of shorter tracks and demos, which they have sampled throughout their discography.
Music and style
In interviews, the band has identified
Devo
Devo (, originally ) is an American rock band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs (Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a ...
,
Wendy Carlos
Wendy Carlos (born Walter Carlos, November 14, 1939) is an American musician and composer best known for her electronic music and film scores. Born and raised in Rhode Island, Carlos studied physics and music at Brown University before moving ...
,
DAF, TV and film soundtracks,
Jeff Wayne
Jeffry Wayne (born 1 July 1943) is an American-British composer, musician and lyricist. In 1978, he released ''Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds'', his musical adaptation of H. G. Wells' science-fiction novel ''The War of ...
,
Julian Cope,
My Bloody Valentine, 1980s pop music, and
Seefeel
Seefeel are a British electronic and post-rock band formed in the early 1990s by Mark Clifford (guitar, programming), Daren Seymour (bass), Justin Fletcher (drums, programming), and Sarah Peacock (vocals, guitar). Their work became known for fu ...
as influences of the album's sound.
According to Eoin, the band was uninterested in the styles of electronic music that were popular at the time of the album's creation, and that creating dance music was not a priority for them.
According to the band, the album's titles contain "cryptic references that the listener might understand or might not," many of them personal to the band.
"Our titles are always cryptic references which the listener might understand or might not. Some of them are personal, so the listener is unlikely to know what it refers to. "Music Has The Right To Children" is a statement of our intention to affect the audience using sound. "The Color Of The Fire" was a reference to a friend's psychedelic experience. "Kaini Industries" is a company that was set up in Canada (by coincidence in the month Mike was born), to create employment for a settlement of Cree Indians. "Olson" is the surname of a family we know, and "Smokes Quantity" is the nickname of a friend of ours."
"Pete Standing Alone" shares its name with the main character of the documentary ''
Circle of the Sun
A circle is a shape consisting of all points in a plane that are at a given distance from a given point, the centre. Equivalently, it is the curve traced out by a point that moves in a plane so that its distance from a given point is const ...
'' directed by
Colin Low and released by the
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...
.
Album art and packaging
The album cover is a modified version of a family photo taken at
Banff Springs in
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
, Canada.
According to Sandison,
“If there's sadness in the way we use memory, it's because the time you're focusing on has gone forever… It's a theme we play on a lot, that bittersweet thing where you face up to the fact that certain chapters of your life are just Polaroids now.”
The original CD was released in a traditional
jewel case
Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage.
Jewel case
...
, while the 2004 re-release was packaged in
digipak
Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage.
Jewel case
A ...
format.
"Happy Cycling" was mistakenly left off 500 copies of the initial North American release of the album despite the artwork indicating that the song was included. The vinyl record was released in a gatefold sleeve with a sticker that wrote the band's name in
braille
Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...
attached to it.
Critical reception
The album received extensively widespread acclaim upon release.
In 2014,
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
called it "a landmark for electronic listening music that was widely copied."
''
Fact'' called it "an adult meditation on childhood, concerned with play, naïveté and nostalgia, all tinted with rosy pastoralism," but "also devilishly subtle, intricate and emotionally mature."
''
Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
'' described the album as "nestled somewhere in between the warm hues of 1970s
flocked wallpaper and the sleek electronic sheen of the future."
''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
'' stated that the duo "tapped into the
collective unconscious of those who grew up in the English speaking West and were talented enough to transcribe the soundtrack."
Legacy and influence
Since its release, the album has frequently been included in lists of greatest albums of all time. ''Music Has the Right to Children'' featured at number 26 on ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
''s "The 150 Best Albums of the 1990s" list, as well as number 2 on its "50 Best IDM Albums of All Time" list released in 2017. It was ranked number 91 in ''
Mojo
Mojo may refer to:
* Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* MOJO HD, an American television network
* ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film
* ' ...
'' magazine's "100 Modern Classics" list. The album was also included in the book ''
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die
''1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die'' is a musical reference book first published in 2005 by Universe Publishing. Part of the ''1001 Before You Die'' series, it compiles writings and information on albums chosen by a panel of music critics ...
''.
The album has been noted as a major influence on the
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...
genre. Reflecting on its 20th anniversary, Sean O'Neal of ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' noted that "it practically created its own subgenre, inspiring a legion of artists who had similar goals of getting inside your head."
''
Fact'' magazine identified
Lone,
Gold Panda
Derwin Schlecker (born Derwin Dicker, 1980), professionally known as Gold Panda, is an English electronic record producer and songwriter.
Early life
Derwin Schlecker was born as Derwin Dicker in 1980 in Peckham, London and was raised in Chelmsf ...
,
Lapalux
Stuart Howard, better known by his stage name Lapalux (short for "Lap of Luxury"), is an English record producer from Essex. He is known for his experimental use of texture and wonky, off-kilter beats. He has released three LPs to date and has r ...
,
Tim Hecker
Tim Hecker is a Canadian electronic musician, producer, composer, and sound artist. His work, spanning atmospheric ambient albums such as ''Harmony in Ultraviolet'' (2006), ''Ravedeath, 1972'' (2011) and ''Virgins'' (2013), has been widely cr ...
,
Leyland Kirby
The Caretaker was a long-running project by English ambient musician Leyland James Kirby (born 9 May 1974). His work as the Caretaker is characterized as exploring memory and its gradual deterioration, nostalgia, and melancholia. The proje ...
,
Bibio
Stephen James Wilkinson (born 4 December 1978), better known as Bibio, is an English musician and producer. He is known for a distinct analog lo-fi sound, and for working in a diverse range of genres, beginning in folktronica and ambient and ...
,
Four Tet
Kieran Hebden (born September 1977), known as Four Tet, is an English electronic musician. He came to prominence as a member of the post-rock band Fridge before establishing himself as a solo artist with charting UK albums such as '' Rounds'' ...
, and
Ulrich Schnauss
Ulrich Schnauss (born 1977) is a German electronic musician and producer based in London, England. He is best known for being a member of Tangerine Dream from 2014 to 2020.
Biography
Ulrich Schnauss was born in the northern German seaport of ...
as musicians directly influenced by the album, calling it not "just a classic album or many people's personal favourite," but also "an artifact in its own lifetime, a present-day relic that recalls an innocent time in more ways than one."
Track listing
Charts
Certifications
References
External links
''Music Has the Right to Children''at
Warp
Warp, warped or warping may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Books and comics
* WaRP Graphics, an alternative comics publisher
* ''Warp'' (First Comics), comic book series published by First Comics based on the play ''Warp!''
* Warp (comics), a ...
*
*
{{Authority control
Boards of Canada albums
1998 debut albums
Warp (record label) albums
Skam Records albums
Matador Records albums
Ambient techno albums