“Roygbiv” by Boards Of Canada

"Roygbiv" belongs to Music Has the Right to Children, the debut album Boards of Canada put out in April 1998 through Warp and Skam in Britain and Matador in the States. Marcus Eoin and Michael Sandison share every credit on it, writing and producing it themselves, and the album was made at Hexagon Sun, the Scottish duo's own studio out in the Pentland Hills.

The record's recipe had been simmering since the Twoism and Hi Scores EPs: vintage synthesisers, analogue sound deliberately worn thin, found sounds and samples, and beats that owe a debt to hip-hop, all of it drifting past like a half-remembered afternoon. The album was hailed on arrival and has since hardened into a landmark of electronic music, one that turns up on all-time lists from Pitchfork and Mojo and has fired up plenty of artists since.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.