Two classic electronic albums recently celebrated 25 years since their release, Moon Safari by Air and Music Has The Right To Children by Boards Of Canada.
Loved both of these at the time, myself (and everybody else I knew) played them them to death. Especially at after club “all back to mine” sessions. Moon Safari in probably suffered a bit through being overplayed, and opened the door to a lot of generic “landfill” chill out acts and “Now That’s That I Call Chill Out” type compilations.
Music Has The Right To Children was a bit more leftfield and had more darkness surrounding it (Edinburgh seeped into the sound). Even now, you can find new things in it when listening through headphones and it doesn’t seem to have dated. My favourite of the two.
Only ever bought/listened to Moon Safari so will stand on the sidelines for this one.
Fight, fight, fight!
Moon Safari is one of my all time favourites so easy again, though I do love both albums.
Moon Safari is more evocative to me. It pretty much defined a period in my life when nothing really mattered. The music itself seemed to reflect all of that. I heard it everywhere though and it became a bit annoying for a while. I’d already bought Modular Mix (only discovered recently that was a Gil Scott Heron sample. Who knew?), Casanova 70 and that bonkers Super Discount comp (which still sounds ace!).
MHTRTC is probably my favourite though. It was the first time (to me anyway) I’d heard a decent body of electronic music that just worked as a whole album (ambient works aside).
Oh you bastah! 
I CANNOT CHOOOOOSSSEEEEE!
Never really got BOC, I know I should and I’ve tried but its never got through.
Moon safari was hammered back in the day but I haven’t listened to it in probably 15+ years. I think it may have suffered from overplaying or maybe it was just very much of its time.
For me premiers symptomes was the best thing Air did, no slightly irritating sexy boy or Kelly watch the stars.
Having just looked back at the track list for Moon Safari I think I might have to give it a nostalgic listen later.
easy choice for me - “music has the right to children”.
i really liked “modulor mix” and “casanova 70” when they were released, and i suppose there were parts of “moon safari” that i liked. but - there was a thick river of cheese that ran through it. enough so that i never even bothered buying a copy of MS - i don’t think i could get through a full listening of it without rolling my eyes.
on the other hand, MHTRTC sounded like alchemy - there were hip hop beats, odd samples, stretched-out VHS warbles, noises that appealed to my grew-up-in-the-70s synth fascinations. an MPC and a surplus of filmstrip-synced cassettes.
i was (and still am) a big autechre fan, and in 98 they released “LP5” which was the first of the autechre albums to become nearly impenetrable - you could recreate some of those tracks by dropping a box of paperclips into the gears of a photocopier. so i was extra grateful that warp found these guys, who were doing something similar to what autechre started but invested deeper into much organic, more humanistic songs and atmospheres.
so, for me - boards of canada’s debut by a country mile
MHTRTC by a mile!
MHTRTC, no contest. Love BOC and find Air pretty bland.
MHTRTC by a country mile. I still remember when I first heard “Aquarius” and like someone else said even after all these years there are so many layers and new things you can pick up on if you listen closely. I do get a little shiver when “La femme d’argent” comes on but over the years Moon Safari, while lovely, seems more derivative. Like @CobblerBob said Premiers Symptômes is peak Air but I have a soft spot for Talkie Walkie too…
I think the problem for me with Air is they inadvertently kicked off the whole Big Chill vibe.
If you look at Zero 7 for E.G. their entire 1st album is basically Air’s La Femme D’Argent…
However, what I would say is listen to Sexy Boy on a good system, the bassline is phenomenal.
I love Music has the right also, so I can’t come out for one vs the other, I just can’t…
I will have to check out that Boards of Canada, never heard it, but around this time I liked the Kruder & Dorfmeister remixes album and I listened to it in the car this week and still sounds great to me. I suppose that could be a separate thread, K&D Sessions Vs Endtroducing Vs something else…
Endtroducing vs whatever, do not!
The whole album on a high end system sounds fantastic. So does “Music … “ by BOC mind you.
Beat me to it on this comment…must have listened to Sessions more than any other album around '98-99. Says a lot for my ‘lifestyle’ at the time!
On this one, hard to disagree with the influence Moon Safari had out into the years that followed, for good or bad. Music on the other hand was something more new sounding to me at the time with the drum patterns and samples. If it’s about still going back and listening to it now, then Boards of Canada probably shade it.
Chuck K&D vs Shadow over the fence @don_milano - then take cover
Good question. I’d have to go ‘Music has the…’ as that’s the one I bought on release.
I’d echo the general overexposure comments re Air and all the copycats they spawned. Especially as I worked at certain high st record store and I heard it over 5 zillion times.
However, I did pick up an original copy a couple of year back which I’ve still not played but I know enough time has passed that I’ll appreciate it when if goes on- maybe today infact!
Both too familiar to listen to for me, same with the 2 in the previous round really but was more of a Boards fan rather than Air.
Orange
MHTRTC is the better album, but Moon Safari is the more nostalgic, emotional choice for me, purely for it soundtracking a certain time I enjoyed.