Best 90s electronic music duo

BoC and Plaid are a toss up. The former made better albums, the latter better singles.

listened back to 'double figure' recently and it has not aged well

::head explodes::

I have so much love for FSOL and GC but then like, Orbital and the Chemical Brothers were embarrassingly important to me at the time. I just think BoC are too obvious to vote for. Oh my head hurts. I don't think I can make this decision.

Many of them I love, but only one do I adore.

Orbital ftw.

Had thought either boards of canada or autechre, but global communication have 'The Way' and also that remix of Azymuth, so going to go for them

Keep meaning to give B12 another go but never get round to it....most of the others on the list haven't dated so well or were just plain not good to start with

autechre

I kind of don't "get" Autechre, which is weird considering the 3 years of my life I spent listening to pretty exclusively IDM

Yeah, I've softened on them slightly, but my feelings on Autechre are pretty well documented.

I pull out Tri Repeatae every year or so and get really, really bored by about track 4. Though "Eutow" is still incredible. I wonder what I'm missing.

autechre, of course. this poll is basically my winamp playlist as a teenager, but autechre, unlike most of them, remain one of my favorite... duos.

Frogs, you might like either their earlier, more techno-y stuff or the melodic turn they've taken as of late:

Early:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wraDrKHP0tE

Recent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WJr3baPOtU

write in for Basic Channel

Mouse on mars for sure but sadface.jpg

Sadly lacking Everything But The Girl. Still. FSOL is best, second only in production skills to possibly the duo of Goldie and Rob Playford.

voting Plaid in lieu of Basic Channel

IMO it's hard to beat Bytes by Black Dog Productions aka Plaid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JhbXk-suKo

i'm predicting Daft Punk takes this despite lack of stanning in the thread

Also worthy of consideration:

Pan Sonic
Porter Ricks
Burger/Ink

LEFTFIELD

Is this still a thing? ... And was it a thing before the 90s?

I would say that Cluster and Cabaret Voltaire are two obvious forerunners.

clivilles and cole

kruder and dorfmeister?

Yeah, I've softened on them slightly, but my feelings on Autechre are pretty well documented

would be interested to read, where would that be?

plaid out of these but mouse on mars easy pick over any of them

haha none of the ones i was expecting to see are in the list, i automatically thought of male/female trip-hop duos like portishead, moloko etc

of these, b jaxx and it's not even close

Best 90s electronic music duo (non knob-twiddlers edition)

Maybe we can pit the winners of the two polls against each other in an ultimate showdown?

Voted Autechre but Matmos came close.

Got to be Global Communication. On-selon mi-mos and The Way (Secret Ingredients mix) are two of my all times of the 90s.

one of the problems with coming up with answers to this is i have no idea who was a duo and who wasn't, most of the time! 90s dance acts were shadowy, amorphous shapes hunched behind racks of equipment and frankly i wasn't looking at them when i was dancing.

Oh, this is so Matmos. Glad Mouse on Mars were missed, to be honest, or it would have been a heart-wrenching decision. Boards of Canada come second on this list, but there are a fair few that I like a lot.

Dynamix II (since the studio albums are 90s)

yeah so my pick as you might have guessed is autechre, by a country mile. after that orbital, and i'd prob hand the bronze to tls just for the fifth mission lp. honorable mention to most of the rest, sorry boc you could've been a contender but it was diminishing returns after the beautiful place ep.

Even Beautiful Place was 2000 though, wasn't it? I think of BoC as a 00s group, predominantly.

Would've said Orbital at the time but it's definitely Autechre now.

basement jaxx. ilm didn't exist in time for their debut obvs (and possibly not even for Rooty?) but i still recall the release of Kish Kash being greeted like the second coming on here bitd.

xxp i'm kind of amazed to find MHtRtC (quintessential boc lp imo) was as late as '98! i'd somehow retconned them into being contemporary with the other warp usual suspects (i did see them supporting autechre errr '96?, to be fair).

in '96

I definitely think of B0C as being second-wave Warp.

BoC.

internet tells me it was prob early '97.

I definitely think of B0C as being second-wave Warp.

Yeah, I remember when Music Has the Right to Children came out, I didn't really understand what the hype was about, since they didn't seem to be doing anything that hadn't been done in the previous 5 or so years. That album had exactly one track (the one with the chopped-up vocal bits) that sounded fresh and new to me. I'm still not sure why they became the poster boys for this sound, but whatever.

The past 2 or 3 times that I've dug out an Autechre album just to check that I still hate Autechre, I've ended up thinking "hey, this isn't so bad, actually." And today when I did it, I was all "hey, this actually sounds pretty cool."

At what point do I have the "Celine Dion on Pandora" moment where I have to admit "actually, OMG I think I like Autechre?"

daft punk still retain some cred.

global communication are prob the best here, tho why/how they are listed alongside a few of the novelty acts here is beyond me.

I still don't get Autechre, but I've not tried to get tham again in at least 7 years, so...

tho why/how they are listed alongside a few of the novelty acts here is beyond me

a duo, the same two from beginning to end, both knob-twiddlers, in the 90s. not sure who is really 'novelty' here except for the lol crystal method, who may have been big in the states at the time idk.

All I know Crystal Method from is "Trip Like I Do" and that ridiculous Spawn soundtrack, I don't think they were very big in Europe... They were like a second-rate US version of the Chem Bros, right?

Air has always seemed like a novelty act to me, but I guess most of you would disagree. Also, it's weird seeing them and Basement Jaxx listed as 90s acts, since most of their major works came out in the 00s.

my take:

Air: they built their career on a mountain of bullshit, then released one stellar album (Talkie Walkie)
Autechre: I never really cared about these guys
B12: see Autechre
Basement Jaxx: one of my absolute favorite acts up until Scars
Boards of Canada: Music Has A Right To Children is amazing but I feel like they are a direct influence on The Weeknd
The Chemical Brothers: one dip of quality surrounded by some of the greatest dance music ever
The Crystal Method: okay lol, seriously? I mean, I love "Keep Hope Alive" as much as the next person but come on
Daft Punk: ultimately, they never topped Homework
The Future Sound of London: I admire these guys more than I actually like them, if that makes sense; "Paupau New Guinea" is all-time tho
Global Communication: see Autechre and B12
The Grid: okay now you're just fucking with us
Leftfield: OVERRATED BULLSHIT
Matmos: I am embarrassingly unfamiliar with their music
Orbital: hands down, one of the greatest musical acts of the past 25 years
Plaid: see Autechre, B12, Global Communication
Röyksopp: they're pleasant enough but ultimately... eh
Two Lone Swordsmen: I know them by name rather than by music

okay now you're just fucking with us

yeah but you never know when someone's gonna go "i can't believe you left [act you've barely heard anything by] off this poll, they changed my life!"

even though he did it 1000x better than anyone else excepting squarepusher, maybe

aphex twin could've stopped after doing both volumes of the selected ambient works and it would be enough to place him over autechre

Best 90 electronic music duo: THE FINAL BATTLE

re analords, I mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2F-GF3Hx7s

the bit around 2:40 is one of my favorite AFX moments

Flim and the Richard D. James Album are still all-time for me.

Flim, yes, but RDJ really hasn't held up for me lately

We played I at record club a few months ago and I loved it, though the two of us who knew it well agreed that it sounded far less radical than we remembered.

I don't give a monkey's if a record sounds radical, I care if it sounds beautiful, or moving, or if it makes my ears sit up and go boy howdy. All of which RDJ does.

wow @ results, really thought one of the bigger names would take it. also the crystal method got a vote, arf.

haha who voted for The Crystal Method

I guess we won't know

I don't give a monkey's if a record sounds radical, I care if it sounds beautiful, or moving, or if it makes my ears sit up and go boy howdy. All of which AE does.

dere u go.

i didn't vote but if i did it would've been chems

lol results

I pull out Tri Repeatae every year or so and get really, really bored by about track 4. Though "Eutow" is still incredible. I wonder what I'm missing.

― Estimate the percent chance that a whale has ever been to the moon? (frogbs), Monday, April 2, 2012 11:56 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Alright, I decided to crank it in my car and I think I figured it out; where do you go from here?

onwards and upwards

envane is a nice lead-in to chiastic slide, if a bit more dancefloor friendly (kinda) than that or tri repetae; if chiastic is too weirdly crunchy then skip on to lp5.

chems really snubbed

Right on - will do. I have their first two as well and generally enjoyed them but now I'm starting to realize why they're spoken of so highly here. The music on TR really feels monolithic at points, especially on headphones, but given more space it's incredible just how much there really is to *hear* on it. My problem is that I'd focus more on the abrasion of it, especially up front (still don't like "Stud", by the way). Besides maybe Aphex Twin I haven't really heard anything like this so yes I'll be on my way to checking those out!

guys guys

i forgot funkstorung

Funkstörung was a German Autechre whose work was at least half remixes of Wu Tang, Bjork, etc...right?

yeah, I think they had like two singles/videos that had some minor hype and some interesting packaging design but all their best work was remixy stuff

Nah I rate their (all original) appetite for disctruction album, autechre esque but with a stronger electro vibe, real rapping n everything.