BY THE ALIMOCHE TEAM
13 MARCH 2023
Scotland is home to many artistic greats; from comedic actors to painters to sculptors. But nestled amongst Scotland’s cultural fabric is the Edinburgh-based musical duo, Boards of Canada. Founded in 1986 and consisting of brothers Michael Sandison and Marcus Eoin, this band transcends musical boundaries and produces a sound reminiscent of past eras; amalgamating electronic paraphernalia with cross-cultural influences, from East to West. Putting a modern take on psychedelia and bridging the gaps between trance, spacerock, dungeon synth and progressive rock, Boards of Canada’s influence in the music industry cannot be denied. Through fearlessly experimental track layering and recording techniques, Sandison and Eoin concoct an otherworldly atmosphere transfixing the soul and igniting the radical spirit of 1970s-esque wilderness.
music has the right to children is the 1998 debut album, tackling key themes such as childhood, loss of innocence and nostalgia.
image source: boards of canada.
The 1998 debut album, Music Has the Right to Children, is proof of Boards of Canada’s eclectic genius. Through a beautifully varied range of samples, from insect sounds to snippets from Sesame Street, the fleeting nature of childhood and a hiraeth for the past is fashioned from the bittersweetness of nostalgia exacerbated with age and wisdom. This loss of innocence can be further detected from the counting sequence in “Aquarius”, a quasi-spiritual experience with verbally-incorrect numbers, challenging our perceptions on time and memory itself. Welcoming listeners into a sonic age of Aquarius, this track is particularly striking through the depth of its bass and robotically ethereal single word statements fading in and out of the background. Aquarius is further made special through the repeat sample of children laughing, conjuring up childhood memoirs amidst the corporate soullessness of late-stage capitalism.
The electronic oscillations in Aquarius are again used in An Eagle In Your Mind, yet adds a gritty edge to the album; if Aquarius can be likened to sonic satin shibori ribbons, An Eagle In Your Mind can be likened to genuine leather; lacking the delicate ebbs and floes of Aquarius but bringing its own textural qualities. Guided through the first half of the track by a muffled narration from Hugh Miles’ documentary “On The Tracks of the Wild Otter”, a sense of natural brooding is instilled into the listener, almost jaded against the flowing electronic sea. Seeking protection for the otter cubs, the subject of said narration, we are forced to confront the walls we construct to protect ourselves and our inner vulnerabilities from a world of storms, of rough seas, of protecting our inner children against the harshness of a cruel world. Here, our outer selves are the mother otter, and our inner selves are her cubs, and it is our individual moral and spiritual duty to care for both. The “I Love You” following the otter monologue is reminiscent of many aspects of life. From a cultural standpoint, it conjures up the traditional Scottish fire of love and passion, for a sense of home, both in the country and the inner self, but also forms the basis for a confession of undying love. “With or without cubs/I Love You”, powerful imagery of an eternal promise; between a couple or between a country and its citizens, or perhaps between the past and the future; the beauty of Boards of Canada’s neo-psychedelia is in its openness to interpretation dependent on circumstance and character. In essence, Music Has The Right To Children, and simultaneously Souls Have The Right To Transcendence Through Music. Further background samples include an almost slowed yet disco-esque background aura, shimmering oversized sequins in the cozy glow of manufactured nostalgia, of the fantasies of the childhood mind, iridescent beetle wings sparkling to themselves in the tapestry of life. Exaggerating the slowing of imagination through abandoning the childhood self in exchange for a corporate persona, An Eagle In Your Mind causes us to question the initial abandonment trigger; why do we sell our souls in the name of growing up?
this whimsical fraternal psychedelic duo has changed psychedelia forever; bringing a wave of neonostalgia to the 21st century.
image source: pitchfork.
These are only two of the incredible myriad of tracks present on the album, which elevate the human psychological response to the effortlessly curated samples peppered in Boards Of Canada’s discography. Influencing generations now and hereafter, and upcycling history to create a unique shade of sentimentality for the past yet leading listeners into a new direction for the future, Boards of Canada’s legacy is everlasting in showing us another world is possible through utilising the radical social attitudes of the past to influence the present, of seizing the opportunity to tap into our inner children during this age of Aquarius and closing our minds to the void that is the endless cycle of capitalist grisaille.
Check out Boards of Canada here: http://www.boardsofcanada.com
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