PEOPLE OF THE NATIONS, DANCING TOGETHER! It's the 1990s TOP 100 ELECTRONIC TRACKS poll results!

man I REALLY should have voted in this

fuck you, busy life

Jaguar is WAY too low, just one of the most amazing tunes ever.

Can't wait to see where "Children" places on this list

Did anyone nominate Aqua?

Ace of Base

Guru Josh

fingers crossed for "The Key, The Secret"

Stunned at that placing for 'jaguar' tbh.

Careful, Tim could drop some science on you about how polls work, vis a vis populist favorites vs trad classics. You don't want to find yourself besmirched. Questioning poll results is strictly verboten.

would it be better if we swapped out Derude with Rampage - "The Monkees"?

I'd like to see the science that explains this one away.

43. Galaxy 2 Galaxy - Hi-Tech Jazz (Underground Resistance, 1993)
464 points, 7 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/hitechjazz_zps52f84851.jpeg

http://youtu.be/tljseZ1Q0UM

Hi,

Hi Tech Jazz from their "galaxy 2 galaxy"
double ep is one of my favourites

Yours
Jan

― Jan Geerinck, 29. marraskuuta 2002 0:34

I have to give it up for Hi-Tech Jazz. It takes the whole deep house sound set and takes the form and lays down a sampler horn part than just screams I am somebody. Everything on that track is perfect, programming, writing, arrangements. Love the 808 perc breaks and the acidline break has to be one of the best acid lines in dance music. I loved the way he used it to play a jazz solo that was a bitch to program.

― Display Name, 21. kesäkuuta 2007 11:03

i was wondering where the hi tech jazz love was - i was listening to that and Galaxy2Galaxy today. never tires.

― jed_ (jed), 8. toukokuuta 2005 3:39

It is a shame that Hi-Tech Jazz doesn't have the profile of Jupiter Jazz because it is so much better. Jupiter Jazz seems very concise whereas Hi-Tech Jazz seems a lot more sprawling and ambitious. It is one of those records that is so advanced that it is intimidating. How do you get to a place mentally where you can conceive and execute musical ideas like that.

It is raw and expressive, but there is more sophistication in any 16 bars of that track then there are in any random 50 tracks that get gushing praise on the 2008 bobbins thread. Mike Banks is easily one of the 10 top musical minds of all genres that came out of Detroit. He is second only to Juan Atkins as far as Detroit electronic music is concerned.

― Display Name, 30. toukokuuta 2008 6:22

... huh

I would have picked "Funky Guitar" or "Hot Music" over this in a heartbeat

My favourite Detroit tune. Perfect.

42. Sub Sub featuring Melanie Williams - Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use) (Robs Records, 1993)
467 points, 8 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/aintnolove_zps53a7a39d.jpeg

http://youtu.be/oBj-u98Nce8
There's a music video on Youtube too, but the sound is crappy.

Am I the only who listens to a lot of this disco-house stuff and think '"Ain't No Love" by Sub Sub, only not so good'??!?

― Old Fart!!!!, 20. marraskuuta 2001 3:00

wasn't 1993 when Sub Sub released 'Aint no love aint no use'?

I think they were better as Sub Sub than as the bastard Doves..... zzzz.

― russ t, 19. helmikuuta 2003 16:28

CLASSIC, HELLO EARTH? 'Ain't No Love' by Sub Sub beats this though.

― The Irrelevant Man (Negativa) (Barima), 18. toukokuuta 2005 17:50

Barima that's totally unfair seeing that 'Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use)' beats every song ever! (Although Bizarre Inc get bonus points for not turning into sodding Doves at least.)

― The Lex (The Lex), 18. toukokuuta 2005 17:53

Acen scraped in at 94 and this cracked the top 50???????

My hopes for more Acen are probably doomed.

41. Moodymann - I Can't Kick This Feelin' When It Hits (KDJ, 1996)

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/icantkickthisfeelingwhenithits_zps9aa7e67c.jpeg

http://youtu.be/32TOGD-HxzQ

'I Can't Kick This Feelin When It Hits' is a damn good in...

― martin (martin), 9. elokuuta 2004 14:51

Just listened to Moodymann's "I Can't Kick This Feelin' When It Hits" again and I realized this track would be awesome to listen to when you're "in the zone." With its locked, repetitive groove and sleazy cut up vocals.

― dan138zig (Durrr Durrr Durrrrrr), 19. maaliskuuta 2012 4:10

Whenever I hear ""I Can't Kick This Feelin' When It Hits" played out it sounds pretty amazing in exactly this way, though it also sounds more upbeat than I would have expected from home listening.

― Tim F, 19. maaliskuuta 2012 5:05

"ICKTFWIH" loops the chic sample at the beginning for a bit, but then rapidly degrades it basic-channel style down to the heavily filter "gonna do gonna do gonna do" loop until it turns it into a soft drone. then he introduces whole new beat sample on top of it and lets that beat ride for a while over the drone. the whole thing is so much hazier and more textured than the mike clark track. i would say the first time i heard it, well after i was acquainted with filter house, was one of those OMG brain-melting moments you have maybe once a year or so.

― moonship journey to baja, 16. heinäkuuta 2008 2:40

Gotta agree with Vahid's comment there, I'm not the biggest fan of filter house, but this track is like Gas compared to it, there's so much depth and texture in the groove.

Sorry, forgot the points for that:

467 points, 9 votes.

Can't say I'd describe moodymann as filter house though, more deep house / re-edit territory. Great to have high-tech jazz appear in top 50, such a superb track.

damn, this list is getting pretty real

Careful, Tim could drop some science on you about how polls work, vis a vis populist favorites vs trad classics. You don't want to find yourself besmirched. Questioning poll results is strictly verboten.

― brotherlovesdub, Wednesday, December 19, 2012 4:49 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sorry bsd, silly posts tend to bring out the patronising dick in me.

i can't kick this feeling when it hits is like thinking through or moving through some banal but still overwhelming problem from start to finish all in 15 minutes and all you're left with is zen buzz.

40. Orbital - The Box (Internal, 1996)

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/thebox_zps7a1b9759.jpeg

http://youtu.be/9o6OMp-OeV0

If I could vote for a single moment it would be the transition between boxes 1 & 2.

― ledge, 13. maaliskuuta 2012 17:27

Fuck yeah it is. Orbital is the best music to run to ever. Oooh I used to love running in the dark in the suburbs to the sound of the entire Box EP...I can hear it in my head right now.

― Bimble (bimble), 15. lokakuuta 2004 7:41

But then there's the harpsichord bit on the single version of "The Box" - I can feel a Top Ten Orbital Moments coming on, all of which start with "That bit where...".

― Mike (mratford), 29. huhtikuuta 2003 22:56

Can we get some love for the insanely long version of "The Box?" I happened to pick up the 2 disc In Sides in the summer of '96 and it turned my head around all summer. Oh, the days when I somehow randomly bought music that was absurdly great.

― r. geary (rgeary), 1. toukokuuta 2003 2:10

I do think The Box EP was the closest thing to what I might have called a real surprise from them, a broadening of the horizons. It takes a special kind of band/artist to grow to that extent, it might even take a certain brilliance they simply don't posess, and how could we fault them for that? Surely none of us are even a smidgen as brilliant as they are.

― Bimble (bimble), 2. heinäkuuta 2004 12:23

Awesome poll Tuomas!

...I say coming home from drinks. But still.

love that tuomas' polls pack the added punch of finnish month names

39. The Sabres of Paradise - Wilmot (Warp Records, 1994)
486 points, 7 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/wilmot_zpse034d0e0.jpeg

http://youtu.be/DUxZz4lVRfA8

Wilmot

Track ID: Sabres of Paradise - Wilmot

37. (tie) Dillinja - The Angels Fell (Metalheadz, 1995)
487 points, 9 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/theangelsfell_zps11072fef.jpeg

http://youtu.be/HW_ReouVI94

The few tracks I know from his mid'90s output - espec 'The Angels Fell' and 'Ja Know Ya Big' - constitue the finest D&B I've heard. He took bass in directions no one ever had before, or since.

― stevo (stevo), 9. kesäkuuta 2004 22:17

um I all hypertense/jittering & etc last night, & to "calm" myself I was sitting in the dark listening to this jungle/etc tape I'd made myself & sorta forgotten the tracklisting - the first three were "Atlantis", "Where Do You Fit In?", "Renegade Snares (FP VIP remix)", & I was completely lost in the beats/etc, a lot closer than I usually listen to anything when I've got nothing stronger than coffee in my system. Next track - Dillinja's "The Angels Fell". The bass entering in that track almost seized up my respiration, I swear.

― Ess Kay (esskay), 17. maaliskuuta 2003 5:31

1st place: The Angels Fell (does not need what it has not got - kind of a darker dreamier successor to my favourite casual b-more based jungle stepper 'The Burial'. also fun if you think of the two-note bass signature as like Nelson Muntz laughing thru a megaphone connected to a mile-long steel tube pitched at -12...also demonstrates Dillinja's not immediately obvious playfulness, which usually comes thru the brass hooks and is more evident on 'Warrior Jazz' and the Sade-sampling 'Promise'). And the other two tracks on the release are strong enough to clinch it.

― god of tosh (blueski), 10. elokuuta 2010 15:25

i've been thinking hard about this one guy, and is it really fair to vote for "angels fell"?

some large percent of the greatness of the track must be down to vangelis' "blade runner blues"

― moonship journey to baja, 11. elokuuta 2010 0:16

That's sorta like saying it's not fair to vote for anything with an Amen break though, isn't it cuz some large % of the greatness belongs to the Winston's drummer?

― Fig On A Plate Cart (Alex in SF), 11. elokuuta 2010 0:28

"Angels Fell" is distinguished by one of the best programmed rhythms ever though - if it was awesome cinematic intro followed by standard amen choppage I think this might be an issue.

― Tim F, 11. elokuuta 2010 0:53

37. (tie) Basement Jaxx - Rendez-Vu (XL Recordings, 1999)
487 points, 9 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/rendezvu_zpsbb58fe4c.jpeg

http://youtu.be/6LvFUC-198s

Though there's nothing quite as insistent as "Rendez-Vu" and "U Can't Stop Me" still sound to me, I still think it's ace. That's my summer encapsulated, then ...

― Robin Carmody, 2. heinäkuuta 2001 3:00

"'Rendez-Vu' = immediate satisfaction."
- Eric H

I don't even remember sending comments, but I know I could've done a whole lot better than that. I should at least mention that the fuzzy friction of the last chord in the flamenco's four-chord progression in the intro is like pulling what you think is a pubic hair out of your mouth and discovering it's pull-n-peel red licorice.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), 7. marraskuuta 2004 11:13

'rendez-vu' is also one of my top 10 'when i first heard it i really was like WTF?!?!' tracks of all time

― stevem (blueski), 4. tammikuuta 2004 2:59

No comments on the last three tunes?

The last four are all tracks I liked and bought in the 90s, but even then they would have struggled to get into my top 100. Listening to them now I just can’t hear what I liked about them in the first place, sorry to be a miserable so-and-so.

Trip II The Moon will definitely place but I'm overjoyed to see Sub Sub in here, such a fucking great record. Weirdly you don't actually hear it around very much relative to a lot of other charting vocal house from that era.

I love exemplary genre tracks but it's nice to see The Box and Wilmot so high - both are one-of-a-kind records.

"So High" = inside the top 40.

Plainly, there's a lot of awesome music to come.

Again, thanks for the slow roll-out, it's like an advent calendar, but a bit faster, or something..

If I had a theme tune, it would be Wilmot. I'll never forget seeing Two Lone Swordsmen DJ a seamless set of vintage dub which they somehow segued into techno using this track - one of those life-changing musical moments.

It's good to see Hi-Tech Jazz place so highly as well, although I'd never expected it to finish above Jaguar.

Pleasantly surprised by the handful of records I've never heard, or even heard of, given how much of the 90s I spent immersed in dance music. So much more fun than the albums poll, which was basically albums I knew and liked + a ton of Autechre.

36. AIR - Le soleil est près de moi (Source, 1997)
490 points, 8 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/lesoleilestpresdemoi_zpsca1f1b6b.jpg

http://youtu.be/yjb9Mn7_IHs

(Can't find any ILM posts on this one, but obviously people like it.)

Matt otm re: sub sub. I've never heard that Moodymann track before - I like it, but 15 minutes of almost exactly the same thing is a bit much.

35. Dem 2 - Destiny (Sleepless) (Locked On, 1997)
493 points, 8 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/destiny_zpsa5d6fdd6.jpg

http://youtu.be/48zg8o-XzPA

Odd realisation re: Dem 2's "Destiny"

Great Air tune, probably one of my very favourites by them.

Yassssss, to Dem2.

YES YES YES YES

34. Carl Craig - At Les (Planet E, 199?)
503 points, 10 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/atles_zpsc6fc1839.jpg

http://youtu.be/vm6pm5mCLXg

under his own name'at les' is stunning

― michael wells, 31. toukokuuta 2001 3:00

Can't believe no-one has mentioned "At Les" yet!

That record for me summed up a era of beautiful emotional techno music

― blue, 22. helmikuuta 2003 2:05

so many good tracks

at les, microlovr, rushed, dominas, stam, throw the list is almost endless.

― jed_ (jed), 21. maaliskuuta 2004 1:46

Search: all versions of 'At Les'

― Omar, 30. toukokuuta 2001 3:00

"Destiny" hell yeah!!!

very pleased with the amount of 2step in this poll

Does anyone know what's the exact release history of "At Les"? I can't find any info on it been released as a single, so it doesn't seem like CC had on his own record before 1997 (on "More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art"), but it seems to have appeared on this compilation as far back as 1993...

"doesn't seem like CC had it"

The Virtualsex compilation is regarded by some as the best techno LP. Stefan Robbers 'Foreign Dimensions' is such an amazing track, which was also exclusive to it.