POLL: Mojo's 50 Greatest Electronic Records

But Hot Chip invented the dance / pop-rock crossover! Without them, we wouldn't have such luminaries as... Delphic?

What a fucking bizarre list.

Some Bizarre?

no.

Anyway, this reminds me, I picked up a copy of "Son Of My Father" by Giorgio last week!

Suuuuuuuun of MaFather! Moving I was grooving I was wig Wam Bam!

Yeah, it's like there are whole decades they just completely ignored in favour of rock groups that used "electronic elements."

This is the most frustrating thing ever. Not so much in terms of this list since a) seems like they're going for an earlier focus, b) it's fucking mojo, it's not like I got my hopes up when I read the thread title. But it makes me think, for instance, of an "electronic" music "festival" that used to be annual in Toronto that was essential a series of daytime/evening sit-down/stage concerts by rock bands that incorporate a keyboard or a drum machine. bane of my fucking existence.

I'm not getting the 'rock bands that use a keyboard a bit' on the list really.

I do see a bunch of reggae, hip hop, etc.

And a majority of actual electronic albums.

Sure, a whole host of stuff is missing, but. And really, was there no more than four *influential* albums after 2000?

Before you all waste a lot of energy handwringing please remember this is a list in MOJO MAGAZINE.

in favour of rock groups that used "electronic elements."

Really? Considering this Mojo and not Mixmag or The Wire, there are surprisingly few: Radiohead, NIN, New Order, Bowie, Roxy, Neu!

Though I'm less interested in defending or criticising the list than wondering what other people would have put in there. "Influence" is a tricky one because it pretends to at least some objectivity. By that reckoning I'm not sure how you could omit Daft Punk.

(Re: Rock bands, I only just clocked Animal Collective at the end - that's an odd choice - the 00s in general is a weak spot)

Gotta say those early 21C choices are pretty terrible. I don't consider Merriweather Post Pavilion to be an "electronic" album really.

xpost

Mike Oldfield will be furious.

Lennie De Ice, We Are I.E. 12-inch, 1991

^^ this is the only thing i've never heard of at all. what is it?

It's an early jungle record - arguably the first, though these things are always arguable especially the rave-to-jungle transition.

Augustus Pablo, King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown LP, 1976

?? electronic?

I know, I know it's Mojo, but unless you count a tape delay as electronic, I'm not understanding.

went for the Prodigy. Much of this list is either incredibly stuffy, boring or just not electronic enough

seems like a pretty well-plotted midpoint between 'stuff that won't scare the regular reader horses' and 'stuff that will get people jawing about it on msgboards etc, even if it's to say it's shit and our mgazine is stupid' (cf Whiney's "Skrillex is one of the best guitarists of all time" thing)

No one has danced since 1991.

DL, it was a complaint specifically about the representation of the entire decade of the 00s':

Burial, Burial LP, 2006
Radiohead, Kid A LP, 2000
LCD Soundsystem, Losing My Edge 12-inch, 2002
Hot Chip, The Warning LP, 2006
Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion LP, 2009

That is basically 80% rock bands with electronic bits. And considering what happened during the 00s, that's just bizarre. But point taken that Mojo writers are unable to grasp the concept of even addressing any music recorded within (now) - 20years no matter what the genre.

(Yes, I know LCD Soundsystem is a bloke, but I pretty much consider him a rock band with electronic bits. That may be unfair.)

Oh right I see what you were saying. Yeah the 00s bit is weak. No need for both LCD and Hot Chip, who are working in the same area, and no need for AC at all. Trying to think what the best options for that decade would be.

oh that's definitely what he is, to his detriment, though at least they've chosen an early single when this wasn't so much the case

xp

i don't even know where to start with the best 00s options because there are so many

pretty much anything except those choices really.

xp Oh go on. Off the top of my head I can think of tons I like but not a watertight "influential" record - I'm sure I'm forgetting something obvious.

I mean obviously the most Mojo-friendly artist that had the most influence over "stuff I actually listened to" was The Knife. But that's my prejudices showing, I could easily complain about the lack of Lindstrom if we're noting the complete absence of the scando-scene here. I mean, WYGIGT is totally Mojo-friendly! It's practically prog!

It's just hard to think of stuff that would pass the "wouldn't want to scare the horses" WRT Mojo readers. It's hard to think in Mojo-speak.

felix da housecat
ricardo villalobos
ellen allien
michael mayer
lindstrøm
basement jaxx
sweet female attitude
dizzee rascal
the knife
booka shade

etc

ha xp

Okay, the Knife is good. What about mix CDs? I could just about imagine 2ManyDJs or even Immer being good choices for this.

xposts

if you're not picking mix CDs (or, latterly, online mixes) you're just not doing a list like this right

i was thinking of fabric13 but immer's obv great as well

2manydjs need to be put under a stone where we can forget they ever happened though

Yes, any of those would have worked. As it is, two-step, grime, electroclash/electro-house, minimal, mash-ups, post-80s house music and cosmic disco/Balearic are all invisible.

Total lack of any French house stuff at all. Totally o_0 at exclusion of Daft Punk and all their groovy children.

It's especially weird because the 80s/early 90s stretch is diligent about noting the origins of house, techno, electro, jungle, etc. After that any interest in the roots of key genres just evaporates and it becomes about big home-listening albums that Mojo readers will own. If you can have Lennie De Ice (and rightly so) then why not the subsequent equivalents?

Mojo are archeologists of music, stuff has to be layered down deep and documented so much so as to be footnoted with proper annotations in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (not even Wikipedia) before they feel comfortable including it.

Hitchin has had a big "retro-hipster" thing going on for some time, which is pretty prevalent for a small town - mostly people in their late-30s and up wearing polka-dot skirts, and rockabilly shirts etc... Cue lots of people who are young enough to know better complaining about the term "Classic House" being used on a flyer for a DJ night mostly featuring vintage garage/punk/reggae etc...

Still haven't heard that first Oval record, but I thought that either 94 Diskont or Systemisch would have been the obvious picks there?

Even if they were going to go down the indie dance route it's pretty funny they went to all the trouble of including both LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip and left out Screamadelica.

We've already established that Kid A was this generation's Screamadelica. No need to include both.

if you're not picking mix CDs (or, latterly, online mixes) you're just not doing a list like this right

Possibly, but then if the caveat is "records" or tracks as they are now, surely this could be done.

Influential? translates as "I did a hit with this one" towards "ooh, well he did that, we can do similar.."

I'd choose Murk "Amame (when you're ready)" but that's just me right?

I'm glad Lennie de Ice is in there, even if I didn't actually hear that record until about 1997. There are 16 different mixes on Spotify!

I had a look at the covers gallery on the Mojo website to see if there had been a Roxy cover (no) and it's very telling who their big sellers are. In order of frequency:

The Beatles (21 times!)
Pink Floyd
Oasis
Bob Dylan
Led Zeppelin
Rolling Stones
The Who
Nirvana
Sex Pistols
Bob Marley
Neil Young
Radiohead
Paul Weller
New Order/Joy Division
The Smiths
The Stooges/Iggy
Bruce Springsteen
The Clash
REM

In summary, this ain't no Booka Shade crowd.

Only other cover stars on the electronic list: Massive Attack, Kraftwerk (twice), Bowie (three times).

Once I got past the idea that this should be electronic dance records, I voted Stevie, just like I should.

We've already established that Kid A was this generation's Screamadelica. No need to include both.

Given what I know of Mojo, isn't that actually the argument for including them both?

KLF albums, just don't even feel that those are the best of that artist

nah this is the right choice, both in excellence and influence

(and yeah Losing My Edge is one bloke, a sequencer, and a drum machine that he's playing while he sings)

(and yeah Losing My Edge is one bloke, a sequencer, and a drum machine that he's playing while he sings)

He's not playing it, he just presses a button and it does it all for him, LOL!

OK, under those conditions, by the Mojo definition, LCD Soundsystem isn't even an electronic artist, he's a "rapper" so he still shouldn't be on the poll.

Amazing restraint in not including the Beachy Boys and the Beatles band.

It's not even the correct TERRY FUCKING RILEY record either.

Which would you prefer? I think Rainbow is my favourite.

I like "In C" best, because I have one and I have not heard the others.

It's not electronic though.

lol sund4ar read the next line of that post

Oh ha, I didn't remember who Teddy Riley was tbh. Had to look up the reference.

And, yeah, In C is acoustic.

tbf I thought MC was making a sincere statement but then went for the dadjoek anyway, to get max value from the post

This poll is forgiven. Seriously, crüt, never before?? It's so your thing.

― emil.y, Tuesday, August 14, 2012 7:59 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's kind of the perfect album

― drawings by teen cultists (Crabbits), Tuesday, August 14, 2012 8:49 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

both OTM

music is a retrograde, obsolete "art" form to begin with, but any of you who vote for a recording on this list that has even a single non-electronic instrument on it (even in "samples") should immediately be erased.

Remember when Skrillex was named one of the best guitarists of all time by Spin magazine

Skrillex is superior to any music featuring a guitar. That said, he should be killed.

Harsh but fair

i almost feel like it is my duty to make that the board descrip

Presumably intended to distract from issue 1 of "Electronic" magazine.

Skrillex is superior to any music featuring a guitar. That said, he should be killed.

― Banaka™ (banaka), Wednesday, August 15, 2012 4:33 PM (4 hours ago)

Harsh but fair

― pun lovin criminal (polyphonic), Wednesday, August 15, 2012 4:34 PM (4 hours ago)

i have no idea why, but this just about killed me

if only

― r|t|c, Thursday, July 19, 2012 7:05 AM (51 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

banaka <3 <3

"compiled and annotated by Martin Aston, Sonny Baker, Mike Barnes, Jenny Bulley, Andy Cowan, Danny Eccleston, Ian Harrison, Dorian Lynskey, Andrew Male, Paul McGee, Kris Needs, Andrew Perry, Jon Savage, Joseph Stannard, Dan Stubbs, Jonny Trunk, Kieron Tyler, Stephen Worthy."

Scooter was robbed.

Yes, but at the end of the day, it's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

oxygene was robbed -- then again i don't have a dog in this fight because i didn't vote.

eh

woah this is weirder than the poll

id listen to a cassette of "blue lines" "world of echo" and phuture back-toback right now. everything else still would cause me to throw up.

N.b i would begin with Phuture

Skrillex is superior to any music featuring a guitar. That said, he should be killed.

― Banaka™ (banaka), Wednesday, August 15, 2012 7:33 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Would have voted Bambaataa or Silver Apples.

Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion LP, 2009 3

Fuck off.

Funniest thing must be Neu! s/t finishing second in a poll on electronic records when it isn't an electronic record.

Stupidest list ever? Where are Boards of Canada, where are Autechre? Half of those albums have hardly anything to do with electronic music. Low? Roxy Music?