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Music Has the Right to Children

by Boards of Canada

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Like dust motes dancing in hazy afternoon sunlight, the compositions of Scottish duo Boards of Canada seduce listeners by illuminating almost imperceptible elements flitting through the cluttered cosmos. Though their saturated hip-hop beats and deployment of timbres as tactile textures recalls Autechre, Boards of Canada are distinguished by sweet melodies and a fondness for using vaguely familiar sounds outside of Western harmonic tradition--snippets of party conversations, bouncing Ping-Pong balls--to function as emotional triggers. Despite its sonic watercolor washes and childlike exclamations of "I love you" ("The Color of the Fire"), Music Has the Right to Children is not some yellowing document scribbled by glassy-eyed, loved-up rave casualties. This exemplary, evocative recording almost hovers above any fixed point on the time line of pop-music history. --Kurt B. Reighley