Boards of Canada is the Most Overrated Electronic Duo

Background info about me: I have hated children ever since I was a child. Plain ambience is typically boring. Redundancy isn't fun for me to listen to. I believe using the same formula of redundancy and ambience doesn't make a good album. I compose electronic music, even though it's not the greatest. My favorite electronic artist is Plaid.

People who like Boards of Canada:
1. People who like this type of music
2. Pretentious, elitist hipsters

Most people who like Boards of Canada:
Pretentious, elitist hipsters

I must first say that I appreciate Boards of Canada for the nice sounds and tones they produce. So, I am not 100% against Boards of Canada. I am sure they put a lot of effort in making the right atmospheres. But, that's all it really is: atmosphere/ambience. I have never found Music Has the Right to Children, their supposedly best album, attractive to listen to. I took the effort to listen to it today, and I am overall confused as to how BoC could even be considered the best "IDM" artist (even though BoC creates ambient music). Pretentious, elitist hipsters like to call any electronic music they listen to IDM.

I am going to categorize all of the songs of their album MHaRtC.
Good:
"Sixyten" - This song has some cool sounds in it. I like the drums and everything. Wow, this is very good. Why can't the rest of the album be this good?
"Telephasic Workshop"
"Rue the Whirl" - It barely made it in the good category. If I weren't being so nice at this very moment of time, the drum redundancy wouldn't have passed. BoC has their nice sound in this song, and the ending sounds pretty cool.
"Olson" - I wanted to put it in the "Songs BoC completely messed up" category because I know a meathead with the last name of Olson, but I decided not to. The ambience in this song is very well done. This is earotica.
"Open the Light" - This song elucidates happy sounds and makes me feel good. The atmosphere is so good, the chords are so good.

Bad:
The Color of the Fire: What is this hellish thing I am listening to? If every child murderer with a decent taste of music had listened to this song, then their actions are understandable. I would exempt them from killing the children because this song sucks so bad, and it makes me hate children.

"Wildlife Analysis": If this were an analysis of a child playing in traffic, it'd be a good song. But, this is clearly an analysis of a child in the wilderness trying to pet a raccoon. BoC could have at least extended the analysis until the raccoon hurts the child and teaches it a listen.

"Pete Standing Alone" - The chord used in most of the song sounds too familiar and mediocre. And it feels like the same thing over and over again. I would never listen to this again. Some of these songs just go nowhere at all.


Songs BoC completely messed up:
"Roygbiv": It'd actually be a good song that I'd listen to often if it didn't have an obnoxious six-year-old saying "play" a hundred times in the song.

"An Eagle in Your Mind": It's basically the same thing the whole song. It should be 1/3 the length.
Triangles and Rhombuses: I'd rather hear the whole song. The ending makes no sense too.

"Aquarius": This sounded so cool, so awesome, like it was going to be the best song on the album, until the stupid children came in. Wow, child, you can count, you precocious rat.. What a big deal. Why don't you go do something useful with your life and learn how to tie your own shoes and make dinner? Maybe I won't be sadistic in front of you if catch on fire. However, that's only a maybe.

Okay:
"Bocuma" - This song sounds decent, but it's almost the same thing the whole song. 1:36 of redundancy. BoC's cool, synthy sound is all that gives it any worth to be heard.

"Turquoise Hexagon Sun" - This song has a title full of imagery with erudite vocabulary to attract pretentious, elitist hipsters. Other than that, the notes that play through the song are nice sounding. But it's not that hard to make something that sounds nice. The same drum loop is used throughout most of the piece too. That's boring.

"Kaini Industries" - If I weren't judging this song for what it is, I'd put it under the "bad" category. This song is just some screwy synth making some cool noises. Like, Triangles and Rhombuses, the ending makes no sense at all.

"Smokes Quantity" - It has a nice atmosphere. That low synthy sound that descends and ascends is cool sounding but pretty lame if you actually think about it.

Overall Score I give:



Now that I've categorized the songs, it is evident most of the songs are not in the "good" category. This category can range from good to excellent, and I know only two can be considered excellent.
Most of this album is boring and redundant, and it goes nowhere. It's the same formula for almost each song: redundant drums, redundant melodies, and lack of complex musical effort at all. It doesn't take a master musician to find a chord to manipulate for five minutes.
The majority of the people who listen to this like to fit in with the IDM/pretentious, elitist hipster scene. I recommend those who deify BoC as an IDM god check out other electronic artists. Hell, check out another electronic genre. If you want some good downtempo, which is similar to ambient, listen to Lost Horizons by Lemon Jelly. If you like IDM, I highly recommend Rest Proof Clockwork by Plaid. Trainer is my second favorite by Plaid, but some of the songs are quite repetitive, which makes me not like the album as much.

I hope some people can agree with me that Boards of Canada should have never been so acclaimed.

reply to post by catswithbigpaws


I have found that there is only seldom a correlation between skill and fame. It might as well be a matter of timing or location, but more often than not, it's a matter of money.
In some sense all commercial musicians are overrated, cause when compared to the vast ocean of musicians out there, you will most likely always be able to find someone who does it just a little bit better.

Either way, it doesn't matter.
Just like you have nationalist who always think their country is the best, and fanatics who worship and follow their idols without question, there will always be some pretentious douches trying to convince your that their favorite band, is the best.

Bottom line is, that it is pointless to debate. There is no standard by which you can measure one song, nor can you accurately compare one song to another.