9.2/10
Overview:
A dark, moody listen, punctuated by soaring moments of warmth and elevation. Music Has the Right to Children immerses the listener in aquatic, industrial, and sometimes hostile feelings; it’s barren and alien, yet lo-fi and familiar. Many tracks are repetitive. Many tracks are/contain interlude, but multiple listens reveal an album which is very much alive, constantly pulsing, gyrating, and building to moments of sincere emotion.
Notable tracks:
Track 1: Wildlife Analysis
Straight away the listener is beamed into the eerie tonal centre of Music Has the Right to Children. The synths are cheerful and wide-eyed, they swirl and meander, droning and ambient. The track should have a calming effect, but the lack of any fixed rhythm twists its melodies into continuous spirals, both playful and unsettling.
Track 2: An Eagle In Your Mind
The cheerful whirling of Wildlife Analysis suddenly gives way to a minor drone. Subtle at first, the drone builds as the listener is introduced to the first percussion of the album- a scratchy, tetchy drum loop, slowly embellished with vocal samples uttering half-words and cryptic phrases. An Eagle In Your Mind feels arid, lifeless, stuttering- yet at 4:15 it comes alive- a perfectly-toned synth line emerges from the ether, complementing the initial drone in strange harmony.
Track 5: Triangles & Rhombuses
Fade in (surprisingly) upbeat drums and (surprisingly) groovy synth line. Something of an outlier on the album. The fun starts at 1:25. Without reason, the groove fades away, and is replaced by something amorphous, amphibious. The swampy synths seem to prod and question the silence around them, before resigning twenty seconds later, submerged once again underwater…
Track 8: Kaini Industries
Kaini Industries is percussive without percussion. The synth lines echo out like a sonar, or a warning message from a remote arctic outpost. First contact will sound like this.
Track 10: ROYGBIV
Fading in from the calm of Bocuma- the iconic baseline with ‘that’ tone breaks the peaceful atmosphere, commanding the listener’s attention. Tracks 8&9 also offer riffs; it feels that they could develop into fully fleshed out ensembles, yet they settle into interlude. This time, on ROYGBIV, the riff is too authoritative to slip away. The drums, the sharpest, iciest on the record yet, crash in at 0:22. The full arrangement arrives eight bars later, a complex weave of synth lines and anachronous sampled piano hooks- major- but moody when underpinned by the huge bassline. ROGBIV is over before you know it; the listener wonders how 2:32 could pass so quickly.
Track 15: Smokes Quantity
Apparently named after a friend of Marcus Eoin (of Boards of Canada). Quantity. Smokes Quantity opens with a classic BoC whirling, lo-fi, industrial synth haze, this time gyrating between two tones off kilter. The boom bap drums thud in, somehow aligning with the sketchy ground rhythm. A dark, moody track that stands alone as a great piece of trip-hop. Smokes Quantity is progressive, alien, but simultaneously lo-fi, retro-found; a strong reflection of the album as a whole.
Shed Location 