17. ORANGE. 18. 19. 20.
April 20, 2018 8:43 AM   Subscribe

The debut album from Boards of Canada, Music Has The Right To Children, turns 20 today.

At that time, the reigning aesthetic in electronic music was crisply digital, frenetically hyper-rhythmic, and futuristic. But the Scottish duo quietly and firmly abstained from these norms and conventions. Michael Sandison and his differently-surnamed brother Marcus Eoin came up with something completely different: a hazy sound of smeared synth-tones and analog-decayed production, carried by patient, sleepwalking beats, and aching with nostalgia. (Pitchfork)

Music has the Right to Children is ultimate background listening. I mean that in the most tremendous way possible. It functions exquisitely when you are listening intently, and when you are not. (Audioxide)

So how does Boards Of Canada’s music still resonate outside that particular space and time? After all, their sonic approximation of childhood mystery feels specifically analog: the sound of distortion and warping that comes from weathered film and copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy cassette dubs, specific to particular media experiences of the ’70s and ’80s. Anything that worn-sounding, it seems, must have passed through many sets of hands and eyes and ears, creating a sort of collective subconscious that places certain signs of weathering and aging into tactile, audible reflections of the fallibility of memory, and the things we evoke to help sustain what we have left. Childhood and the nostalgia that it accumulates for later in life isn’t just about the action figures we can buy on eBay or the cartoons a couple clicks away on YouTube — it’s about the things we can’t access anymore. (Stereogum)

And whilst you can hear the likes of Aphex Twin, Brian Eno and early hip-hop in their genetic code, the way Michael and Marcus constructed and pieced together this collection of downtempo and ambient electronica felt unlike anything that had come before. (Clash)

BOCPages has a rundown on the samples, influences and attempts to decode the meaning behind each name of the album. Tracklist (with fan-made videoclips, or on Spotify):
  1. Wildlife Analysis
  2. An Eagle in Your Mind
  3. The 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
posted by lmfsilva (34 comments total) 43 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oh wow.

20.

I'm old.
posted by Annika Cicada at 8:46 AM on April 20, 2018 [13 favorites]


(Also released in the same day: Mezzanine by Massive Attack. 20-04-1998, Probably one of the best days in electronic music history)
posted by lmfsilva at 8:46 AM on April 20, 2018 [15 favorites]


As I opened this post I was listening to Tycho, who owe BoC a heavy debt.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 8:50 AM on April 20, 2018 [4 favorites]


A few years ago I spent a couple of days in Yellowstone and had this album on repeat pretty much the whole time. It just seemed to fit so perfectly with the environment.

I'd always idly wondered about the provenance of the last track and thanks to this post, now I know!
posted by jontyjago at 8:52 AM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


This is one of my all time favorite albums. I still listen to it regularly.

I remember one of the first times I heard it, listening to the CD on my Discman while walking to a friend's loft in Williamsburg.

In summary, I am old.
posted by slogger at 8:57 AM on April 20, 2018


Now that the show is over and we have jointly exercised our constitutional rights. We would like to leave you with one very important thought. Sometime in the future, you may have the opportunity to serve as a juror in a censorship case or a so-called obscenity case. It would be wise to remember that the same people who would stop you from listening to Boards of Canada may be back next year to complain about a book, or even a TV program

If you can be told what you can see or read then it follows that you can be told what to say or think. Defend your constitutionally protected rights. No one else will do it for you.

Thank you
posted by Artw at 8:58 AM on April 20, 2018 [16 favorites]


god this album is still so good
posted by halation at 9:01 AM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


Now it’s all grown up and can have children of its own.
posted by ardgedee at 9:11 AM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


I discovered Boards of Canada in my senior year of high school, and their music made a huge impact on me. I developed a deep interest in psychedelics and the occult during my college years, and I made a bunch of found footage films that tried (poorly) to reach for the kind of chronological frisson that this album pulled off perfectly.

There's a lot going on in this music.
posted by One Second Before Awakening at 9:27 AM on April 20, 2018


Just listening to this again and newly reminded how great the stuttering beat is in Telephasic Workshop. What's going on there technically? It sounds like there's two related but different music tracks being swapped between at about 200 bpm or something.
posted by Nelson at 9:36 AM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


I love Boards of Canada, but I was a little kid when this (and Mezzanine) came out. I cut my teeth on these through good ol' piracy when I was younger, so I wish I could have been able to get "the real thing" at the time. Thanks for posting!
posted by Freeze Peach at 9:52 AM on April 20, 2018


Don't forget no. 18. Happy Cycling, which was a 'bonus track' remember them?

One of the albums that changed my life.
posted by gyusan at 10:03 AM on April 20, 2018


Also released in the same day: Mezzanine by Massive Attack. 20-04-1998

Wow.
posted by bongo_x at 10:10 AM on April 20, 2018


orange
posted by exogenous at 10:29 AM on April 20, 2018 [11 favorites]


The favorite record of every guy I slept with in college! I guess I should finally get around to listening to it.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 10:31 AM on April 20, 2018 [6 favorites]


Mezzanine is still the one I think of as the “new” Massive Attack, so really ready to dry up into a skeleton, crumble into dust and blow away on the wind.

(The tour for it was AMAZING)
posted by Artw at 10:41 AM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


17. ORANGE. 18. 19. 20.

Ok, here's the perfect place to ask this. There's another BoC song that may be a single or other oddity that uses a variation of this sample, except it's "YELLOW", and I think it's in the Skam Records release of Everything You Do is A Balloon, except, it's probably not and the track I have is probably a mislabeled MP3 or something.

Anyone? Looking for the proper track title/album or release. A lot of my MP3s from that era are questionably tagged.

Just listening to this again and newly reminded how great the stuttering beat is in Telephasic Workshop. What's going on there technically? It sounds like there's two related but different music tracks being swapped between at about 200 bpm or something.

I've tried counting and dissecting this beat pattern a few times, and as far as I can tell it's some variation of a straight 4-count or 8 count with a whole lot of swing syncopation and triplet beats and stuff.

The downbeat or backbeat is placed oddly, and there's a lot of kick drums and fills in untraditional places giving it that doubled up stuttering, not unlike a breakbeat. It is technically a breakbeat, the snare/clap accent is on the meter while the kick drums syncopate from that.

If you wanted to experiment with a beat pattern like this I'd start with a 4/4 or 4/8 pattern then intentionally throw the kick drums off and out of phase by a count, then crank the "swing" parameter way out there. Build some fills and bridges where the kicks land on most of the 1 count beats between the snare/clap accent, and run it through a tightly timed beatmatched delay.

As for tempo, my count is just about spot on 100 BPM, so your guess of 200 BPM isn't actually out of spec, you're just counting doubles instead of the actual 1-count.

It helps not to overthink these patterns too much. The producers usually are not. The production process is usually as simple as "Woah, save that weird pattern, it sounds cool." after messing around with a drum machine or DAW, and then sometimes you go "Hey, that sounds even cooler if you chop it up and loop it in this random way, and then you can fill in even more beats and drum kicks like this.."

And the next thing you know you're triggering your sampler with copies of the same weird beat pattern and you're mixing them all together through some other effects and reverb chain to get it all to gel like a jello salad and if you happen to be Boards of Canada you're pretty much done, because a lot of this is all about the quality of your sources (in this case, vintage synths, found sounds, effects) and your aesthetic process and production style.

Which is why even with the same patterns and knowledge it's almost impossible to just rip off Boards of Canada's sound and style. There's a lot of organic chaos and magic going on behind the scenes that's all about the process of producing studio electronic music.

That process can be undefinably ethereal and unique to the the artists involved.
posted by loquacious at 10:50 AM on April 20, 2018 [8 favorites]


I often wonder if a lot the cool stuttering beat matched effects in the 90’s (thinking this and squarepusher etc) were more the work of gated sequencers and gated midi sync and less programmable pattern sequencers.
posted by Annika Cicada at 11:05 AM on April 20, 2018


Great post. Love BOC.
posted by 4ster at 11:29 AM on April 20, 2018


There's another BoC song that may be a single or other oddity that uses a variation of this sample, except it's "YELLOW"
I think the track you're referring to is Alpha And Omega from Geogaddi. The "YELLOW" only occurs once or twice but it's curiously prominent.
posted by steganographia at 11:40 AM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


Boards of Canada is one of the few groups I've bought every single album of. I love them unabashedly and they have soundtracked most of my twenties and thirties.

Also, every time I see or eat an orange, I think orange in the BoC voice.
posted by Happy Dave at 12:07 PM on April 20, 2018 [7 favorites]


Wow, as much as the Bros. Sandison have been a part of my life for the past two decades, this anniversary took me by surprise. Thanks for the post, lmfsilva!

I made a lot of friends via the Boards of Canada fanbase; for years, there were no official BoC shirts available, so around the turn of the millennium I took it upon myself to produce a few runs of "not-for-profit" logo tees. I spent a lot of time shipping shirts all over the world, and wound up with an entry on BOCPages...heady times, indeed!
posted by retronic at 12:31 PM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


yeeeeeeeeaaahhhh that's right

For me the already-aged quality of this album kinda makes it feel like 20 years ago is correct ; in a sense, it always felt 20 years old - a marinted, hazy smear of old memories, smells and sounds.
posted by sektah at 12:39 PM on April 20, 2018


> loquacious:
"the stuttering beat is in Telephasic Workshop. What's going on there technically?"

It's a two-measure Son Clave figure with a couple of note-rearrangements around beat 3 that alternate back and forth.
posted by rhizome at 12:43 PM on April 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


Whoops, got a little ahead of myself and forgot to account for the 'and' of 4. Same alternating note-jiggering on the 3, but it's the New Orleans Beat I was thinking of.
posted by rhizome at 12:50 PM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


17, 13, 23.
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:56 PM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


Which is why even with the same patterns and knowledge it's almost impossible to just rip off Boards of Canada's sound and style. There's a lot of organic chaos and magic going on behind the scenes that's all about the process of producing studio electronic music.

I think one of the "secrets" of BOC is that a large portion of their magic resides in the chords and melody. At this point a lot of people have figured out the basics of their aesthetic but copying the whole feel is something else.

I happen to think they've largely gotten even better since this album, but it's a milestone for sure.
posted by atoxyl at 1:34 PM on April 20, 2018


Also, every time I see or eat an orange, I think orange in the BoC voice.

I mean seriously what is it about that sample that is so damn entrancing

sometimes I'll just be sitting by myself and then say 'orrrrange' and giggle

pure magic
posted by FatherDagon at 1:44 PM on April 20, 2018 [3 favorites]


Because I am an Old, I didn't discover them until I subscribed to Apple Music a couple of years ago. They were one of the first groups I found as I began to explore "modern" ambient electronica. Thanks for the reminder—time for a relisten.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 1:58 PM on April 20, 2018


Thanks for the explanations of what's going on in Telephasic Workshop. I have the same problem understanding it I always do with music.. I know a lot about programming, and math, and patterns, and have played around with various step sequencers and stuff. But I know nothing at all about music so it's all a mystery.

While I'm here I want to mention Autechre is in the middle of releasing 8+ hours of new music, their NTS residency. First two parts have been streamed now and the third is just streaming right now. Folks are talking a lot about it over on Reddit.
posted by Nelson at 2:15 PM on April 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


I still cling to my 2003 eMusic MP3s of MHTRTC, downloaded in that brief time that they had unlimited downloads for $10/month. Stored at a bitrate of “occasionally”, they have a sweet burbly quality.

Also: iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii lllllllllllllllllooooooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeee yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyooooooooooooouuuuuuuuuuuuu
posted by scruss at 3:27 PM on April 20, 2018 [3 favorites]


orange
posted by Devonian at 10:31 AM on April 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


(Child’s laughter)
posted by Artw at 10:33 AM on April 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


yeah, that's right.
posted by ardgedee at 10:37 AM on April 21, 2018 [6 favorites]


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