Boards of Canada
Music Has the Right to Children
[Skam/Warp/Matador; 1998]
Rating: 8.3
Boards of Canada are two Scottish guys-- Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin--
who've been recording experimental music in various forms since their childhoods.
Consequently, their sound is completely fucking bizarre. Allow me to elaborate:
the band's American full-length debut, Music Has the Right to Children,
sounds like the music you hear in dentist's offices-- sort of easy listening,
Muzak-type instrumentals-- but much more ambient and ethereal, and occasionally
with strange, heavily psychedelic percussion.
The album is also incredibly fluid; it's often difficult to determine where
one track ends and another begins, allowing you to take in the album as a
whole instead of as individual... er... experiments? Of course, it does have
its standouts-- the gentle, spacecraft theme song "An Eagle in Your Mind", the
vibe-powered "Turquoise Hexagon Sun", "Roygbiv" (this record's answer to Land
of the Loops' "Multi-Family Garage Sale"), the drugged-out, surreal funk
track "Aquarius"... in fact, practically every track over two minutes in
length is a standout, and the rest of the tracks exist merely to provide
stability and continuity for the album as a whole.
Music Has the Right to Children stands as an excellent example of what
UK label Warp is doing for modern electronic music. Let's face it-- we've
come a long way since Switched on Bach. But have we come a long way
since Ninja Tune or Mo'Wax? Friends, we have now. Warp has taken a handful
of killer acts whose only common trait is that they're electronic-focused,
and created a sound that is both distinctly Warp, and yet completely
unpredictible. Take a look at their roster if you don't believe me--
Squarepusher, Red Snapper, Autechre, Plaid, Aphex Twin... what other
electronic label can boast that kind of diversity?
By creating ambient music that's actually stimulating-- something that's
so unbelievably rare among ambient acts-- and mixing it with elements of
jungle and psychedelia, Boards of Canada are not only pioneering an entirely
new genre, but also paving the way for more stimulating ambient/electronic
groups that will hopefully become increasingly prevalent in the new millennium.
After all, electronic drug music has got to evolve past The Orb at some point.
Why not now?
-Ryan Schreiber, October, 1998