POSSE! YOU KEEP THE SPIRIT ALIVE! It's the 1990s ELECTRONIC ALBUMS poll results!

How can you rightly overrate something?

Pretty sure the only Autechre record I've heard in full is Incunabula and it wasn't really that interesting to me, moving away from melody was probably a good move because they weren't really that great at it.

Their melodies are gorgeous and they didn't really move away from them till Confield.

LP5 was my number 1. The first time I heard it I thought they were taking the piss - a track like Fold4,Wrap5 felt like pure cockwaving: "look what we can do" etc... But the fact this track sounds like it's speeding up and slowing down at the same time is only a superficial gimmick that belies how beautiful it is. That's why LP5 is their very best album - it's that perfect biting point between techgeek indulgence and aesthetic indulgence. There are so many moments on this album that make the hairs on my neck rise, my eyes prickle a little: The musical-box coda on Rae; the way Vose In sounds like someone rapidly fading a radio in and out; 'Is it washable?'; the fucking strings on 'Arch Carrier' (possibly my favourite bit of electronic music in the world). There isn't a moment on that album that isn't fascinating, thrilling. The whole thing is a puzzle to be unravelled and I'm still hearing new details in it some 13 years after the fact.

Pretty sure the only Autechre record I've heard in full is Incunabula and it wasn't really that interesting to me, moving away from melody was probably a good move because they weren't really that great at it.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 1 November 2012 09:56 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Incunabula isn't really representative of Autechre's main body of work. It's very much a warm-up album in the vein of Artificial Intelligence-era Warp. Good for nostalgia's sake, with several cool, almost jazzy, spaced-out moments. Their evolution from Amber through to Confield is one of my favourite career-runs from any act pretty much.

Oh, and saying they weren't good at melody = madness

We need geirbot to arbitrate this melody dispute.

I'm basically going solely on Incunabula here. I do like Clipper and Arch Carrier but I've had 15 years or so to explore further and I haven't been motivated to do so.

I don't dislike Autechre but the number of amazing albums that will not make the cut because every fucking 90s autechre album will be on here is pretty ridic.

There are 22 albums to go...

While it's quiet..

I did get Squarepusher's "Feed me weird things" album as a 'freebie' back whenever (it was old by then too), didn't get it at all.

Anyone know if it's supposed to be a 'wow' album or not? etc?

There are no 'wow' Squarepusher albums. 'Hard Normal Daddy' is probably the best but none of them belong anywhere near this list.

that's a bit harsh, I think. He can be a bit free jazz noodly, but Hard Normal Daddy is p great. Vic Acid EP is the single best thing he did though, IMO.

Fair enough, thanks.

At his best he's pretty good but not 'best of the 90s' good (and he won't be in the list given that things like 'Bytes' and 'The Richard D James' album have already placed).

Hard Normal Daddy was joint 50th, but yeah, he won't place again I shouldn't think. He's also very good live.

While it's quiet..

I did get Squarepusher's "Feed me weird things" album as a 'freebie' back whenever (it was old by then too), didn't get it at all.

Anyone know if it's supposed to be a 'wow' album or not? etc?

― Mark G, Thursday, 1 November 2012 11:13 (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There are no 'wow' Squarepusher albums. 'Hard Normal Daddy' is probably the best but none of them belong anywhere near this list.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 1 November 2012 11:14 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

He is a real hit'n'miss artist and I agree there's no such thing as a consistently brilliant Squarepusher album (and yeah, HND is the closest he ever came to one). That said, there's probably only one or two SP releases that I'd say have no redeemable features, it's just he eschews quality control for prolificism. I'd happily compile a career-spanning best-of. 'Feed Me Weird' things is like a lesser HND basically.

Squarepusher, 21 tracks 1996-present

Theme From Ernest Borgnine
Cooper's World
Chin Hippy
Fat Controller
A Journey to Reedham (7.am Mix)
Full Rinse (featuring MC Twin Tub)
Come On My Selector
My Sound
Ruin
Shin Triad
Iambic 5 Poetry
Tomorrow World
Mind Rubbers
My Red Hot Car
Do You Know Squarepusher
Menelec
Welcome to Europe
The Modern Bass Guitar
Open Society
Square Window
Unreal Square

I'd guess that most of the Warp is out of the way now, except Incunabula, Frequencies, Music Has The Right To Children and the Aphex Twin records? I mean the shadow cast by Warp over 90s albums-based electronic music is massive but there's a shitload of other stuff I want to see place more.

Well, I fully expect a few Underworld albums to place yet.

and orbital of course ..

I don't expect Incunabula to place somehow.

If Incunabula places it would be absurd. (I think I only listened to it once or twice, but it seemed like easily the weakest Autechre album.)

Yeah it's not really considered a classic by anyone other than early-Warp/AI fans.

What about Mo'Wax? Will anything place from that?

What about Mo'Wax? Will anything place from that?

― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Thursday, November 1, 2012 12:05 PM

Entroducing maybe? Or is that too hip-hop and not electronic enough?

Incunabula is one of their best and should place Top 10.

I wouldn't think it's as popular here. Incunabula is a great training wheels Autechre album and it has held up better than I thought it would but I wouldn't put it ahead of their other 90's albums (besides maybe Chiastic Slide?)

Guessing dubnobass/Second Toughest/Beacoup Fish all put up a strong showing here? Good job ILX

I think it's a shame to dismiss Incunabula because its sound design is less sophisticated than some of their later albums. Anyway, I'm a complete sucker for pretty much all early-to-mid 90's Warp back catalogue. No sign of the Boards yet. No doubt they'll have at least one entry in the Top 10 ('Music for Children' I'm hoping...)

one of the most redeeming features of ILX (in my opinion) is that they don't rank BoC very highly

then again, who am I kidding :(

One think that struck me while compiling the results for the album poll was how utterly Brit-centric they were. I guess American producers didn't release a lot of albums in the 90s, and as for albums from other major electronic music countries (Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Japan, etc), it seems ILXors don't much care or know about them.

― Tuomas

This is an interesting point. Hawtin, Derrick Carter (both dj mixes) and Kenny Larkin were about the only non-Brits on my list which is crazy really (stupidly forgot the Paperclip People album...doh!) Were there no Detroit albums of note during this period?? Would be nice to see Nightime World Vol 1 get a place.

No Seefeel?

I have my own list of excellent Japanese albums for this but it seems a little self-defeating to vote for them knowing that no one else knows of them

you could start a thread?

I'd love to see some Seefeel place. I agree that Autechre is a little overrepresented here and a little overpraised in general. I'm sad that Dettinger's Intershop wasn't even nominated (though it's my own damn fault for totally missing the leadup to this poll). Does anybody else know that record? Some of the most elegant, gorgeous "ambient techno" (and some just straight-up ambient) ever made, IMHO. Very much in the vein of Las Vegas by Burger/Ink in spots. I'd be floored if Hong Kong and Biokinetics weren't in the top ten.

I could never get into Squarepusher, not even a little.

I'd also like to see Consumed by Plastikman.

And Every Man and Woman is a Star by Ultramarine.

(Ha, sorry, I know this is annoying; I'm just bummed I didn't vote!)

you could start a thread?

― make like a steak and beef (dog latin), Thursday, November 1, 2012 10:09 AM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I already have!

linky?

Japanese New Wave listening club - new albums every Monday

S/D: Japanese Techno

I only started one of those and a lot of it is outside the 90's but it's not the kind of thing I'd bother voting for here. I kind of subconsciously assumed that really only UK-centric albums were going to be represented here. Not that the UK really ISN'T the center of this in the 90's but still.

22. Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do (Warp Recors, 1995)
116 points, 6 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/icarebecauseyoudo.jpeg

http://open.spotify.com/album/0VG7XLJ8gSynEQDVnpHNNU

I Care Because You Do is my favorite, because it's got a good balance of pretty, soothing tracks with the noisy/chaotic/
goofball ones.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), 8. joulukuuta 2003 15:22

...I care because you do is the nostalgic choice because i bought it when i was 14 and it was quite an experience to hear it at that age with almost no context at all (it was mentioned ina small sidebar in SPIN).

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), 9. joulukuuta 2003 1:18

my cats seem to appreciate Dillinger Escape Plan and I Care Because You Do. Meaning they open their eyes for a few seconds to look around and then go back to sleep.

― superultramega (superultramarinated), 9. maaliskuuta 2004 3:35

So there didn't seem to be an "IDM" thing till about 1995/6 when albums like I Care Because You Do and Tri Repetae came out - before that it was probably just seen as another brand of ambient of techno or whatnot.

And even by this point, it was about playing with dance's parameters. I used to love ICBYD because it was like a collection of speculative short stories with a twist in the tale - the best IDM stuff for me worked like a collection of "What ifs?" - "What if I make a techno tune that sounds like an asthma attack?" "What if I change the time signature?" "What if I slow it right down?" "What if I make it sound like Bjork" "What if I make a whole album out of a bird cage" etc.

― Post-Manpat Music (dog latin), 1. elokuuta 2011 18:25

i often feel like there was a general focal shift, not just in electronic music but in pop music as a whole, from the UK to Europe and the US come the end of the 90s.

If you were living in the UK maybe, not in the rest of the world.

I didn't vote because I only signed up to this site last week I think. If I had I would have gone for 'Neptune's Lair' by Drexciya

Drrexciya>>>>>

When it comes to techno, it seems German techno didn't get popular in the UK and USA before the turn of the millennium...? I was listening to a lot of German electronic music in the 90s, and it was pretty popular here in Finland (people like Westbam or Sven Väth were in the top 10 on Finnish charts), but whenever I try to discuss it on ILX, I get only a handful of comments (and they're usually from non-Anglo posters).

If you were living in the UK maybe, not in the rest of the world.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 1 November 2012 15:34 (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Sure, sure. I probably didn't explain myself that well TBH, but these days I find myself pleasantly surprised when a producer I like comes from the UK, whereas in the nineties it felt more like the norm, with the UK holding fort with its Prodigys and Orbitals and Underworlds and Chems, and before that the entire M25 acid house scene etc. A lot of European dance felt cheesy and commercial, and the US didn't seem to know what to make of electronic music a lot of the time. I associate dance music in the 2000s as being much more Euro (and to a lesser extent US)-lead.

(save for things like dubstep/grime of course)

No I agree with you in dance music terms, probably not in wider terms.

21. Various - Metalheadz presents Platinum Breakz (FFRR, 1996)
118 points, 5 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/platinumbreakz.jpeg

what does this cd sound like today? i would assume horribly dated?

― cutty (mcutt), 25. helmikuuta 2004 21:27

"rider's ghost", innit and no, it sounds remarkably un-dated, really.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), 25. helmikuuta 2004 21:27

Rufige Kru's VIP Rider's Ghost opens the set. And in no way is this dated. Sounds superwow, to my ears.

Lemon D's In My Life is simultaneously tender and brutal.

― paul c (paul c), 25. helmikuuta 2004 21:32

well now

i had wanted at first to vote for "unofficial ghost", which might now be my favorite drum and bass track of all time. repeated listening to "unofficial ghost" in 1996 turned me on to the mind-warping possibilities of techstep. i love how doc chops the hell out of the synth swells, so that they just keep billowing out eternally into space. the finer doc chops the synths the more they fill the room, like chopping a little strip of paper into a chain of dolls. having perked our ears, he teases us with all sorts of sound effects occupying different little corners of sound: method man sounds like he's speaking from deep in a tomb, then the sample is suddenly drenched in echo so we're in the tomb with method man. at the same time the establishing beat: a rigid stepper that sounds like the exhausted breakbeats that idm-leaning techno dudes were pushing at the time (subhead, landstrumm, swordsmen, beltram).

all this time we're sitting still while he's setting up the soundstage. out of nowhere, he hits us with a flat, thick wall of impossibly dense, warped bass. this bass fucks with you on two levels. first of all it's smeared so thickly over those rigid, static breakbeats that it really challenges your perception of time. second of all it's right up in the mix, sort of dry compared to everything else. at this range, it sounds like the bass is coming out of your body, pushing you along to the beat. now that you're moving he switches up the beat, alternating between an impossibly "hot"-sounding sample and a more traditional sounding amen break. the "hot" cymbal and snare hits sound impossibly cramped against the rest of the sound; alternating with the reverb-y amen sets up areas of pressure and release. for a while he plays with cramming the hot sample into the same space as two or three simultaneous bass bombs, then he alternates that by setting the amen break against the ghost of a rave siren.

for awhile these two (three?) strategies rub up against each other. then the bass drops out and it's just those rushy noises, like rave sirens from mount olympus, up against the dubby amen break, which is given a little more space to breathe, and it's like racing out of hot, dark tunnels and onto vast and starlit peaks.

it's a masterful track.

― moonship journey to baja, 10. elokuuta 2010 5:40