Music Has the Right to Children

Studio album by Boards of Canada

Released

20 April 1998 (Europe)
20 August 1998 (U.S.)

Recorded

Hexagon Sun studio
Pentland Hills, Scotland

Genre

IDM, Ambient, Trip-hop

Length

62:58 (Original UK edition)
70:42 (1998 & 2004 edition)

Label

Warp, Skam, Matador

Producer

Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin

Boards of Canada chronology

Aquarius
(1998)

Music Has the Right to Children
(1998)

Telephasic Workshop/Roygbiv
(1998)

Music Has the Right to Children is the debut public album of the Scottish electronic music duo Boards of Canada. It was published by Warp Records and released on 20 April 1998 in Europe and 20 August in the United States. The album was produced at the Hexagon Sun, the duo's personal recording studio.

The songs utilize a number of field recordings and intense sound manipulation.^[1]

1 Track listing
2 Trivia
3 Reception
4 Notes
5 External links

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Wildlife Analysis"	1:17
2.	"An Eagle in Your Mind"	6:23
3.	"The Color of the Fire"	1:45
4.	"Telephasic Workshop"	6:35
5.	"Triangles & Rhombuses"	1:50
6.	"Sixtyten"	5:48
7.	"Turquoise Hexagon Sun"	5:07
8.	"Kaini Industries"	0:59
9.	"Bocuma"	1:35
10.	"Roygbiv"	2:31
11.	"Rue the Whirl"	6:39
12.	"Aquarius"	5:58
13.	"Olson"	1:31
14.	"Pete Standing Alone"	6:07
15.	"Smokes Quantity"	3:07
16.	"Open the Light"	4:25
17.	"One Very Important Thought"	1:14

Bonus track on 1998 U.S. Matador release and 2004 Warp re-release
No.	Title	Length
18.	"Happy Cycling"	7:51

Trivia

"Smokes Quantity" first appeared on Twoism in 1995, and many other tracks appear on Boc Maxima, 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 songs appended to the end of "Triangles and Rhombuses" and "Sixtyten" predate the album and were later featured on the unofficial compilation Old Tunes, Vol. 1, where they are separate tracks.
"Sixtyten" is how one would say "70" in the French language. 70 is the smallest weird number. A track found on their next album is called "The Smallest Weird Number" and is possibly a reference to the Boards of Canada's own music label, Music70.
"Pete Standing Alone" is the name of a Blood Indian who is the subject of a documentary produced by the National Film Board of Canada.^[2] It is also featured in many episodes of the BBC's motoring show Top Gear.
"Roygbiv" is a mnemonic for colours of the visible spectrum.
The track "Rue the Whirl" appears in the "Mettle" episode of Spaced.
The track "Rue the Whirl" appears in a 2007 Mercedes Benz advertisement
The track "Kaini Industries" was covered by Bibio for the Warp Records compilation Warp20 (Recreated) in 2009.
The track "Aquarius" uses a sample from Galt MacDermot's "Aquarius" from the soundtrack of the 1979 musical film Hair.
The track "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.

Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Pitchfork Media	(10.0/10, 2004 re-release) ^[3]
Allmusic	^[4]
Slant Magazine	^[5]

The album received widespread acclaim upon release.^[6]^[7]^[8]

It was ranked #91 in Mojo's 100 Modern Classics – "[T]hey took electronica into space. Cleverly referencing the esoteric side of '70s Test Card music in all its trippy glory."

Q Magazine called it "[A] thing of wonder....The aural equivalent of old Super 8 movies...".

Notes

^ Ariel Kyrou & Jean-Yves Leloup (1998). "Two Aesthetes of Electronic Music". Virgin Megaweb. http://bocpages.org/wiki/Interviews#1998-06:_Virgin_Megaweb. Retrieved 2006-11-22.
^ National Film Board of Canada (1982). NFB: "Pete Standing Alone". National Film Board of Canada. http://www.nfb.ca/trouverunfilm/fichefilm.php?id=13730&v=h&lg=en&exp= NFB:. Retrieved 2006-11-23.
^ [1]
^ Allmusic Review
^ Slant Magazine Review
^ John Bush (1998). "Music Has the Right to Children Overview". All Media Guide, LLC. http://www.allmusic.com/album/r354861. Retrieved 2006-11-22.
^ Sal Cinquemani (2002). "Music Review: Music Has the Right to Children". Slant Magazine. http://www.slantmagazine.com/music/music_review.asp?ID=255. Retrieved 2006-11-22.
^ review at Pitchfork, 2004

External links

Music Has the Right to Children at the official Warp Records website
"Roygbiv" at the official Warp Records website
Music Has the Right to Children at Discogs
Music Has the Right to Children at MusicBrainz

Boards of Canada

Michael Sandison · Marcus Eoin

Management	Warp Records · Skam Records · Music70

Purported early albums	Catalog 3 (1987) · Acid Memories (1989) · Closes Vol. 1 (1992) · Play by Numbers (1994) · Hooper Bay (1994)

Studio albums	Twoism (1995) · Boc Maxima (1996) · Music Has the Right to Children (1998) · Geogaddi (2002) · The Campfire Headphase (2005)

Singles & EPs	Hi Scores (1996) · Aquarius (1998) · Orange Romeda (1998) Roygbiv/Telephasic Workshop 10" (1998) · Peel Session TX 21/07/1998 (1999) · In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country (2000) · Trans Canada Highway (2006)

Live recordings	Live @ Warp10 (1999) · Live @ Lighthouse (2000) · Live @ ATP (2001)

Related articles	Discography · Matador Records · Hexagon Sun Collective · Music70

Old Tunes	Old Tunes Vol. 1 (1995) · A Few Old Tunes (1996) · Old Tunes Vol. 2 (1996)