Admittedly, my journey into the strange world of IDM, electronica and ambient music has not been a complex one. Whilst finding Aphex Twin, Burial, Squarepusher and the other entry level artists that pioneered these genres, I more than once tried to venture further out, and stumbled across the now classic Music Has the Right to Children by Scottish duo Boards of Canada.
Throughout the album, it’s easy to tell the duo want to say something, but honestly, it gets a bit tiring trying to understand exactly what that is. The entire album is filled with slow, heavy-stepping drum programs and drawn-out synths. Dissonant melodies keep this eerie energy, as if the listener will be doomed a few days later like some Japanese horror film. Everything feels slightly off, the album is in an uncanny valley of sound, and it quickly draws away any peace you might’ve had before clicking play. I can only assume, one would only make music so weirdly unnerving to put a message across, the chord progressions trigger a fight or flight reaction that feels like a warning, vocal chops of religious texts and medical documentaries start to chime in mid-way through the album, and it all just feels pointless, almost like the artists are laughing at the swarm of die-hard Redditors that are about to pull any sort of meaning out this random assortment of controversial sounding words.
The production, however, does feel like a winning point for Boards of Canada, they’re clearly veterans of their craft and there is real texture to each analogue synth sequence and crackly tape recording, but if you’re looking for some “roygbiv” nostalgic synth-wave vibes, you might want to skip this one before you get nightmares.
