Latest revision as of 17:22, 30 September 2026

"Telephasic Workshop" is the fourth track on Boards of Canada's debut studio album, Music Has the Right to Children. It was also released as a promotional single, backed with "Roygbiv".

Comments[edit]

• Perhaps a reference to telophase, a part of cell division; the idea of a biological "workshop" [DC].
• Perhaps also a reference to the Children's Television Workshop, who make Sesame Street (which BoC have frequently sampled).
• Telephasic: Tele: Of the mind, phasic: synchronized. This may be the meaning behind "Telephasic Workshop"; a meditative environment in which two or more individuals attempt to share a telepathic vision or idea. [Skytree]
• [Ken Stewart] - a possible reference (which seems more plausible than either of the above) to the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, where interesting music and sound effects were produced for various TV programmes like Dr Who. It is located at Maida Vale where, incidentally, BoC recorded their Peel Session.
  • As Ken suggests, the "radio-" part of "radiophonic" becomes "tele-" (from "television", as opposed to radio; also sounds like "telly"); while "-phonic" becomes "-phasic". In greek, "tele" means "from afar", "at a distance", and "phonic" means "relating to, or having the nature of sound, especially speech sounds" (Greek "φωνη", meaning "sound", properly, "sound of the voice"), while "phasic" means "relating to the production of speech" (from Greek verb φημι, "to speak"). So "telephasic" is "speaking at a distance", but the word is also a kind of analogue, in its construction, to the word "radiophonic" (→"telly-phasic").
• This might also reference Blue Öyster Cult's (also known as B.O.C.) "Workshop of Telescopes"

Samples / Lyrics[edit]

• A recurring voice, starting at 0:00, which might be saying "Ritual-Rit-Rit, Rit-Rit-Rit-Ritual"
• A chopped up voice sample seems to be saying "eight-eight-eight-eight-eight-you-don't-know-you-don't-know" around the end where the bass drums gets heavy.
• Starting at 4:01 there a Scottish accent which may be saying "yer no gonnae" which, when translated, means "you are not going to..." [Steven Harran]
• From 4:28, somebody shouting who may be saying "twenty cent", "come this way", or "somebody say" is heard in the left channel.
• A recurring voice sample seems to be saying "very personal moment" in the chopped up speech samples. Starting at 3:09, can be heard clearly at 4:26, 4:44 and 5:44 Discovered by user bonzoello.
• The chopped-up voices during the song may be saying "now this is very irresponsible".
• A slightly slowed-down male voice that may be saying "bordering Canada"^[1], "border of Canada", or "order in Canada", 4:40 and 5:18. This could be sampled from episode #13 of "The National Wonders Of America" at 1:07 as a narrator is talking about Glacier National Park (U.S.) which borders the nation of Canada, but it is not definitive. For example, the audible breath following "Canada" in Telephasic Workshop is not present in this sample, and conflicting dates imply that this was either aired after MHTRTC was released, or this sample must have been included on extremely short notice before release, which may be unlikely.
• A pitched-down male voice saying "a barrier-a barrier-a barrier" that is heard in the right channel preceding and following both instances of the "bordering Canada" sample.

Trivia[edit]

Videos[edit]

See Also[edit]

• Peel Session
• "Roygbiv"
• Sesame Street

External links[edit]

• Children's Television Workshop

References[edit]

1. ↑ https://x.com/Y0rk_0/status/2104678398618636670