Best 90s electronic music duo

it's kinda pastiche to my ears

pastiche maybe, but it doesn't sound a damn thing like its inspirations. and the transformation c. 3:40 is one of the most amazing moments the 90s produced, genre notwithstanding

they're kinda like a techno version of tortoise

do not say such terrible things

i mean yeah, w the insistent subtleties, but listen to the way the bounceback echoes complete the melodic phrases in the 2nd half, so nice

and tortise never jammed half as hard, unless remixed by sensible people

negative jamming going on here but still one of my fave ae mixes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkHIVu06Nh8

I really like Plaid, or big chunks of their first three albums at least at least (wildly inconsistent), but I don't think you can deny the tweeness, or at least the playfulness. I mean bits of Not For Threes sound like they're actually trying to make their equipment sound like a petting zoo.

Agreed.

So many fine electronic music duos here! (but not The Crystal Method) - Based on 90s work alone, tho, I think these would be my POV+1

Boards of Canada - my vote; their 90s shit was dope & MHTRTC can't really be topped here imo
Air - early singles + Moon Safari are all-time
Autechre - def the best overall 90s career arc
Daft Punk - Homework, I mean..
Basement Jaxx - not as good as Homework, but nevertheless quite good.
Plaid - if these guys are underrated, they shouldn't be.

I would also have ranked Mouse on Mars & maybe Kruder & Dorfmeister among these prob

Incredibly I've never heard an Orbital album. I'm assuming the earlier stuff is more detroit-y/bleepy? What should I get?

you really should hear a couple. Orbital 2 is their first "classic" album and yeah it is more straight acidhouse/detroit, but way more complex than their early works. Snivilisation and In Sides are more symphonic and experimental, and IMO those are the ones they'll be remembered for. You should probably pick up one of those three tanuki

thanks!

I think genre boundaries don't really matter in terms of home listening, but they're important in clubs. Differences in dance genres tend to be rhythmic rather than sonic

just a massive no. this, like a horribly large chunk of the stuff upthread, is just incessant pandering to some normative midpoint between all genres.

you don't have to be a purist to acknowledge that purism is a large part of dance music and that lots of great dance music is born from its ideals.

Lots of great choices here. Would've gone for Ae but felt TLS needed a vote.

Plaid haterz can go suck a fuck tbh.

gross

love that autechre/tortise track so much!
haven't heard it in years.

the late great is saying all the things I know to be true but try to deny about late-period artists. the guy who still releases as "the black dog" has some mixes on his site that are by far home listening "dark" stuff that I kind of like but I really have little to no interest in his original work :/

that collection of early black dog stuff from the last few years was good

chez & ron

just a massive no. this, like a horribly large chunk of the stuff upthread, is just incessant pandering to some normative midpoint between all genres

Yeah I mean the worst of this stuff (looking at you late Chemical Brothers albums) is appalling for this sort of self-conscious middleground positioning but at the same time "is this technically deep house or minimal?" is not the sort of question that really matters if you're just vibing out to something at home.

you don't have to be a purist to acknowledge that purism is a large part of dance music and that lots of great dance music is born from its ideals

Yeah I kinda acknowledged this in my point about scenes like funky as well.

chez and ron is a great answer

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

missed this as i was offline.
have to say the gang i listen to the most out of this lot has to be FSOL, hence the count of one they will probably get in this.
oh, and as for the grid, the best thing they ever released was the remix by global communication.
total ambient perfection that fits in very well with the global communication vs chapterhouse album.

autechre bc (even tho this sounds a little weird due to their 'dour' image) i've had more fun diving deep into their catalog than with anyone else on the list. a lot of it appeals to me immediately but a big part of this is evaluating and re-evaluating and re-re-evaluating albums. the nerd in me loves this stuff. fer instance, i'm still not sure if i like tri-repeatae all that much and it was the first one i heard!

orbital get a respectable 2nd place nod. and i probably like 'in sides' more than any ae release tbh.

Anyone interested in latter day Black Dog should check out Radio Scarecrow.

Very respectable digital techno for nerds with a dubstep influence ie catnip for me.

The chem. bros wins for me

power,precision and grace with acid friendly touch.

as a trance hater rock guy in 90's isra(trance)hell ,the chems, along with aphex,
prodigy &meat beat manifesto were my electronica of choise

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

pff

yes

if this poll was done on ilx ten years ago daft punk takes it over basement jaxx w/ autechre maybe not even getting third over boc right?

i never vote in any of these polls, despite commenting.

WOT NO MIKE N RICH but really I couldn't let this stand:

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

― lex pretend, Monday, April 2, 2012 12:23 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Portishead were 3+ people! (Barrows, Gibbons, and Utley, and maybe MacDonald.)

if this poll was done on ilx ten years ago daft punk takes it over basement jaxx w/ autechre maybe not even getting third over boc right?

Sounds about right. I didn't really see this result coming at all, there are one or two Autechre tracks I've liked but generally I find the early stuff pleasant but not particularly interesting whilst not really able to find a way into anything from Tri Repeatae onwards.

whereas i only deeply love the stuff from LP 5 onwards. the problem with the poll is that Ae are some prog/avant crunchy head music for me - "head" isn't the right word, what i love about the later stuff is its physicality of sound - but comparing them to say anybody making genuine dance music is a category mistake really

Yeah, it's not an unexpected result, given the commenting. But still. It feels kind of unfair that people went for the head music over the dance music. (Though despite all the cavilling on the thread, it was about "electronic" acts, not about "dance" acts so there you go.)

there is plenty of "dance" music i wd choose over "head" music depending on what day it is but it didn't appear in this poll really

Well it's a bit stymied by being specifically and only duos.

(And I'm not just saying that because I think Mr Twin would have wiped the floor with Autechre.)

Be an interesting one that - I kinda feel like a lot of aphex records haven't dated so good tho

That's not a poll I would trust myself to make.

Aphex Twin or Autechre pick only one:

o Aphex Twin
o I am stupid and should have rusty nails driven through my eardrums, but I prefer Autechre

perhaps SAWII is timeless but yes, some of his later, more famous records haven't exactly held up

I rest my case.

the aphex twins were the best electronic music duo of the 90s

I still encounter people who still think "they" are two people.

I rest my case.

what is your case, exactly?

the aphex twins were the best electronic music duo of the 90s

Yeah its probably actually the later 90s stuff that hasn't help as well

that was supposed to say "hasn't held up as well"

exactly, I do feel as though Autechre will probably hold up better. with Aphex, I'm hearing a lot of really cool or unique ideas that aren't really that much fun to listen to

I'm probably in the minority in thinking RDJ's post-2005 acid techno turn is the best stuff he's done