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

Snivilisation was always forgettable for me. and what's wrong with "Music Has the Right..."???

SAW1? Seriously? It's okay, it's got some lovely moments but it's not even in the top 3 Aphex albums let alone best electronic album of the '90s. The second side drags along quite a lot and it's a really inconsistent record compared to SAWII.

what's wrong with "Music Has the Right..."???

for me it'll always be one of those "four star albums given five star status by indie rock P4k worshippers who don't really know better" (see also: In an Aeroplane Over the Sea), I support its inclusion in the top 50, but if it makes top 5, you must be joking

SAW1 is a better record and one I think tends to represent the genre in a primordial way, as Thermo says "you can pull out almost any track from that album and hear a blueprint for a decade's worth of electronic music". I mean I get it. It doesn't really hold up so well today; I'd say even Dig Your Own Hole feels more relevant now. I would put it in the top 20, but thats it. But ILX really, really loves this record.

I like BF and dubno... equally. I've gone on at length with the issues I have with 2nd Toughest... and won't repeat them hear

every Orbital album from Brown through The Middle of Nowhere is amazing

Music Has a Right... is fucking great and I fully support it hitting top 5 if it does

where is artists of color

down at the bottom of the results, right where I expected they would be

Frogbs offtm. As if people are pretending they like BoC cos of some indie agenda. Pfork didn't even exist when this came out anyway. I do prefer Geogaddi slightly, but MHTRTC set the stage. It's too easy to look back and say it wasn't all that, especially in the light of hauntology and chillwave, but other than a few ghostbox releases, nothing like it had really come out before.

Pitchfork has been around since... 1995? 1996?

also, I love Music Has... to death but the entire Ninja Tune roster had been mining that territory for years, only with fewer samples of children

The special thing about MHTRTC is the muffled sound, a bit like magnetic remanence decay. Like the film deterioration on the cover, it pretty directly presses the nostalgia button in a lot of brains.

Eh I dunno, the main reason I liked it so much was because it was like a more cohesive version of the DJ Krush mix disc on Cold Krush Cuts, plus "Turquoise Hexagon Sun"; innovation/being something NEW never even crossed my mind, rather it hit me like a refinement of something I'd already been enjoying for the past two to three years

MHTRTC is a beautiful album, at the time the nostalgic public broadcast theme sampling thing really sounded quite different from what anyone else in the field was doing

wow i was listening to that dj krush thing - and dj vadim and wagon christ and lots of other sleepytime trip hop - but when it came out it really felt to me like BoC were coming from somewhere else

part of it is probably that THS was on the Bento Box compilation I'd been playing to death circa 97-98 so I was already tying it to stuff like "Mod You" in my mind back then, years before the album came out:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-Bento-Box/release/44028

I've always said 310 were doing a similar thing as BoC (sepia-toned, breakbeat-based headphones music where nostalgia mixes with underlying creepiness) in the late 90s/early 00s, except that they had a more unique sound (BoC still owns a lot to the 90s Warp sound, besides the nostalgia thing there's nothing particularly original in their production), but few people were paying attention to them.

5. Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 (Apollo, 1992)
232 points, 10 votes, 2 first place votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/saw8592.jpeg

this is such a special album, could conceivably vote for at least half the tracks

another album i didn't srsly take an interest in for years despite liking most of the rest of afx, but i'm mystified in retrospect because this is such a transparently brilliant record

the gossamer synths and electro insistency create a lighter-than-air driftiness that's really unplaceable, not kosmische but not of this world (whereas the second selected ambient works is very much a chthonic creature)

nothing gets close

― The Managing Director of Being (nakhchivan), 29. syyskuuta 2010 15:02

SAW2 is a classic piece of canonical garbage. everybody owns a copy but nobody listens to it.

― TOMBOT,

Nicely put. I did have a few months of intense listening and it was very special, but 85-92 was a little more outgoing, and somehow connected meaningfully with the rave experience, if I may be so silly as to say it.

― moley, 29. lokakuuta 2008 7:24

i love how scratchy, old and weird 85-92 sounds

― the sir weeze, 29. lokakuuta 2008 15:28

SAW1 makes me immensely happy and brings make too many good memories of being in London and my conversion from serious student to clubber; SAW2 is rewarding, but not immediate in the same way as SAW1.

I listened to both this week, and SAW1 wins.

― Nik (Nik), 9. huhtikuuta 2004 23:29

you have to love that one track that is a complete rip off of Discreet Music by Brain Eno. I really lived in the record for a while a year or two ago. amazing what you can do with a matrix 6 and ms20 and a sampler.

― Disco Nihilist (mjt), 6. marraskuuta 2006 2:51

to my knowledge, I've still never heard this

prob more accurate: I've probably heard it twice way after the fact and don't remember a thing about it

Hi Scores is still my favorite ever BoC release.

And the Brown Album is SO freaking good, so amazing. It's my favorite Orbital by a margin.

In Sides
Brown
Snivilization
Middle of Nowhere
Wonky
Green
Blue
The Altogether

IMO

4. The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld (Big Life, 1991)
237 points, 10 votes.

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

Would still be CLASSIC even if it hadn't been totally imprinted on my head by so many nights of spiritual/psychic voyage in high school and college. One of the ultimate soundtracks to any extracirricular activites you may be up to. Also, sounds strangely undated to my ears, but again, I'm probably not the best judge of those things.

CLASSICK, CLASSIQUE, PURE CLASS

Also, amazingly after all these years I'm still not the slightest bit tired of Rickie Lee's mantras. "they ran on forever...."

― rentboy (rentboy), 1. toukokuuta 2006 14:35

Again The Orb's 'Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld' has *all* these sounds: crickets/birds/insects/churchbells/spaceships/lawnmowers/rain, you name it, it's there. So any thematic tape should have a track off that album.

― Omar, 30. heinäkuuta 2001 3:00

The Orb, even if only for Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld, even if only for disc two of that. An album to convince you that it's better to be half-asleep at 6am than rolling your tits off on two pills at 3am.

― Lukas (lukas), 4. huhtikuuta 2003 21:53

I have always loved this album, but it took the oxycontin haze of post- operative convalescence to discover exactly how much. It was at that point that the second half of the first disc became my favorite stretch.

― Tim F, 30. huhtikuuta 2011 0:50

i only ever had the one-disc but so classic, awesome gateway drug for stoner teens in the early '90s

― s1ocki (slutsky), 1. toukokuuta 2006 22:08

oh shit I forgot about ultraworld, totally deserved

I think I just can't resist Brown's momentum and focus. In Sides probably has more "moments" for me, and higher highs, but it's a real sprawl compared to Brown, which I feel like I could listen to over and over.

I predict MHTRTC at #1.

Wait, what about Carl Craig's More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art???

Happy about the last two. Both worthy top ten's.

Now, since I didn't disqualify any nominations, I think the next entry might be a bit controversial...

3. DJ Shadow - Endtroducing..... (Mo Wax, 1996)
276 points, 13 votes.

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

I do like Endtroducing like you do. Great album. I've never thought of Endtroducting as a hip-hop album, though. Or trip-hop. Always seemed to me to belong more in the tradition of something like Godspeed You Black Emperor, this kind of grand, symphonic mood music.

― Mark, 14. lokakuuta 2001 3:00

From beginning to end it's genius. Best played at 2.00 in the morning, lights low. I find it a really emotional listen, there's a almost ghostly atmosphere around some of the tracks (Stem, Midnight, Steam). The Tangerine Dream sample is just beautiful.

― Dr. C, 14. lokakuuta 2001 3:00

I think the thing to remember about DJ Shadow is that he's a goth. He just uses turntables, is all.

― Ned Raggett, 15. lokakuuta 2001 3:00

i just realized that i should have given a bit of my own opinion when i asked. i think that shadow's legitimacy is a matter of context. 'turntablism' as a whole makes for rather boring rap music, but for rather interesting 'electronic' music (and that's how it's classified in most record stores, whether shadow likes it or not, and his non-pop album aesthetic stakes him decidedly out of the rap camp). i hate the critics who insist on revering turntablism for bringing the oh-so-essential 'live' element back into black music, because 1) it's just playing records, and live rapping is much more 'live' than that, regardless of how much you scratch, because the rapping is created entirely by the rapper and 2) black people don't listen to 'turntablism' anyway.

another point against him is that he falls into the 'only-thing-with-a-beat-at-an- indie-kids-house' camp that tom put the beastie boys in, and he's become the default torch-bearer of the dj element in 'real hiphop' beloved by jurassic 5 fan. mention grandmixer d.st and you'll get a blank stare, but mention shadow and you're sure to find someone to let you in on the secret that 'all the good rap is underground'. blech.

of course i can't blame shadow for that, and taken for what it is, his output is mostly fantastic. if this was a search and destroy, my verdict would be to search 'endtroducing' and early singles (and i still maintain that the unkle album is asorely underrated pop album, but i wouldn't advise one to 'search' for it) and to destroy his stereotypical indie production on solesides cuts. but this is classic or dud, so i have to say he's classic.

oh and ned, re: the goth connection, i think there's a good bit of truth to that, although the 'wasn't he famous once' comment is a bit harsh considering there hasn't been a new album with the man's name on it in five years. wait and see.

― ethan, 18. helmikuuta 2001 3:00

'Endtroducing...DJ Shadow' is the greatest album of all time in my worthless opinion. I love it because it strips so much away from what the definitions of music and albums is/are seen as but this does not result in a lack of imagination, creativity or provocation of an emotional response from the listener. Its an intense, deep and thoughtful piece of work that runs the spectrum of moods with a surreal yet dark edge juxtaposed with the occasional humourous quirk.

― , 23. heinäkuuta 2002 3:00

Nothing controversial about that

Maybe not, I guess the real controversy will come with #1.

new order hit #1?

It is Bentley Rhythm Ace, isn't it?

it must be scooter

So far, all of the Top 10 are records I played over and over at the time and loved dearly.

Still listen to some of them now in fact.

Chill Out???

Ah, whoops; missed it there at #8.

Very surprised Biokinetics hasn't made it.

have a strong emotional response to scanning the album covers in this thread

2. Orbital - In Sides (Internal, 1996)
290 points, 12 votes, 2 first place votes.

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

If there is one dance/electronica act that is undeniably classic, then Orbital is it. "In Sides" is the best album of the entire genre.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), 23. lokakuuta 2006 23:13

InSides for pretty INCREDIBLE MAJESTIC 'OMG IT'S THE RAPTURE AND I'M FLOATING UP TO HEAVEN' living room listening

― ledge, 13. kesäkuuta 2008 15:03

Glad you lot inspired me to get In Sides yesterday, I've listened to it three times today and it's fucking great. I love how lots of the tracks don't really reveal themselves till several minutes in. Both parts of Out There Somewhere make me feel like I've bosched two or three incredibly mongy pills, with the ketamine coming out a couple of minutes before the end of part two.

― chap, 14. kesäkuuta 2008 3:01

i recall 'In Sides' being described as their darkest album at the time of its release, in reviews...possibly by the Hartnolls themselves - the 'alien abduction' concept behind OTS fits there - and there's 'P.E.T.R.O.L.' (does anyone know what it actually stands for? a nice acronym would be Polluting Environments That Rely On Love) - i just find the whole album incredibly melancholic, sinister...even morbid at times, but still a very beautiful thing - obviously there are unbridled euphoric 'sunshine' moments such as the kick off bit in 'The Girl With The Sun In Her Head', the satisfying plod of 'Adnans' generally and certain parts of 'Out There Somewhere' but i still get an overall vibe of intense broodiness from the Hartnolls on this one more than any other album they've done.

― stevem (blueski), 30. huhtikuuta 2003 14:13

yeah that's no surprise

bosched two or three incredibly mongy pills

Frogbs offtm. As if people are pretending they like BoC cos of some indie agenda. Pfork didn't even exist when this came out anyway. I do prefer Geogaddi slightly, but MHTRTC set the stage. It's too easy to look back and say it wasn't all that, especially in the light of hauntology and chillwave, but other than a few ghostbox releases, nothing like it had really come out before.

I'm not saying it's part of an indie agenda nor that people are "pretending", I just think it ticks enough boxes of what the indie/p4k crowd likes and has a status that kind of transcends its genre and therefore a lot of people who consider it one of the very greatest likely have no clue that say, Radio-Activity was doing this kind of thing twenty years prior.

I didn't even vote for 'In Sides'. Need to dig it out and re-access.

yes, yes you do.

can we just see #1 so that we can finally unveil the full list? it'll be great to see what this list looks like without any idm or air/dj shadow/st. etienne obvious '90s canon stuff (not that i hate all idm or air or etienne or w/e)

Okay, here's the number 1:

1. U2 - Zooropa (Island Records, 1993)
322 points, 15 votes, 1 first place vote.

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

U2, Zooropa. I bought it the day it came out while on my lunch break (I was working at a mall then), and listened to it on headphones. That night I went on my first-ever date; I'm a late bloomer--I was 18, it was the summer after I graduated high school. Nothing particularly sexual happened that night but driving to a movie theater in outer St. Paul on a beautiful clear day with the sky spread out and that album playing on her car stereo is something I'll carry with me to my grave.

― M. Matos, 26. heinäkuuta 2001 3:00

I agree, for once, with what Jason said--Zooropa is the place to look if one wishes to hear the most clear-cut influence Eno has exerted on U2 to date. Listen to "The First Time," "Lemon," and "Dirty Day" for the best examples of this (and the title track for a glimpse of what Joshua Tree would have sounded like if Eno had more actively stepped in, as he did on this album).

I think the key to understanding their relationship is understanding that Eno involves himself with U2 (as with any band he's produced) as much or as little as he sees fit.

― matthew m., 9. syyskuuta 2001 3:00

I remember being really excited in middle school when Bono said he'd continue to "fuck up the mainstream" after winning the Best Alternative Album for Zooropa.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), 18. tammikuuta 2004 19:21

There's a real cold mekanik quality to a lot of this stuff, Zooropa esp, which I like. I hear both the Berlin/Bowie/Eno influence and the influence on Radiohead now.

― sund4r subramanian (sund4r), 24. lokakuuta 2004 23:50

Bono of course, he killed the pope by playing zooropa backwards on loop to him so he could get his job.

― cavern (cavern1), 7. huhtikuuta 2005 14:48

laaaaame

That is f'cking ridiculous, sorry.

lol