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

In dance music social demarcations are way more important than bpms.

i don't necessarily disagree but...in what sense? career longevity? critical reception? both? other?

As in I think the space between "At Les" and "Throw" in terms of the kind of contexts in which they work is actually more meaningful and impressive and worth representing on a poll than the space between (say) Amber and EP7.

Slowly moving back through these, Roy Davis Jr. - Gabriel - what a track, but I'm probably more of a fan of the Large Joints Remix. At least, am more familiar with that one from Sound of the Pirates mix.

Just realised I accidentally left 'Rendez-Vu' off my ballot so I'm doubly glad it placed.

Large Joints remix of "Gabriel" is all time.

My top Carl Craig vote hasn't placed so far, no idea if it will or not, this is a tricky-to-predict rundown!

This poll makes me notice the label Outer Rhythm for the first time.

never seen that sleeve for 'throw' before. more than deserving of it's place here, i voted '4 my peepz' instead tho.

As in I think the space between "At Les" and "Throw" in terms of the kind of contexts in which they work is actually more meaningful and impressive and worth representing on a poll than the space between (say) Amber and EP7.

it's hard not to see that as just boiling down to the love of dancing and surrounding culture over AE's primary values but that in itself is completely fair enough

30. Round Two - New Day (Mains Street, 1995)
522 points, 7 votes, one 1st place vote.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/newday_zps29e15b9e.jpeg

http://youtu.be/0H6UKryRa4E

Never been a massive fan of vocal house, but New Day is a killer.

― Discordian, 15. helmikuuta 2010 11:56

my favourite time to hear "new day" is midway in a long 4-6 hr set, so the hopefulness of the vocal and those airy chords shine through and elevate the room. it has a completely different effect if played at the end of a set, and appears to be a much sadder song

― anita bonghit (rionat), 15. helmikuuta 2010 13:36

Voted Round Two: New Day

Andy Caine sounds so so sad and forlorn: the frustration at the position he finds himself, unable to understand why a relationship is over, is perfectly captured in the finest break-up song in house.

― De que estas hablando? (Tannenbaum Schmidt), 15. helmikuuta 2010 21:17

round 2: i realized the new day in the last line is about moving on, not going back. such a for real break-up track but like opposite of hysterical, it's letting all those feelings develop and breathe.

― desk calendar white out (Matt P), 23. maaliskuuta 2012 3:23

ATTN Basic Channel and vocal house fans: who is Andy Caine?

Never been much of a house guy myself, but that's really nice.

29. Wink - Higher State Of Consciousness (Tweekin' Acid Funk Mix) (Strictly Rhythm, 1995)
540 points, 10 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/higherstate_zps0847e153.jpeg

http://youtu.be/1zkeEiUpEUQ

And sorry but Higher State is one of the best songs EVER.

― Ronan, 15. huhtikuuta 2002 3:00

i heard a mix of higher state while out one time which had the longest snare-rush breakdown i'd ever heard, just this minute build up to explosion. so for that reason alone, classic.

― jess, 15. huhtikuuta 2002 3:00

I first got into Orbital, and therefore into techno and electronica, through a free CD on the front of the Guardian (featuring Belfast, Impact USA, Sad But New and The Girl With The Sun In Her Head) in about 1996, so I wouldn't necessarily knock it...

Looking back, I was quite an astonishing rock-bigot until around then. That, Born Slippy and Higher State of Consciousness were what did it for me, I think.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), 22. marraskuuta 2002 14:14

"Higher State of Consciousness" natch (most fucked-up devastating climax evah)

― M Matos (M Matos), 28. tammikuuta 2003 12:36

That song makes me think of orgasms.

― Lara (Lara), 28. tammikuuta 2003 12:40

that song IS an orgasm

― M Matos (M Matos), 28. tammikuuta 2003 12:42

I remember back in high school, some friends of mine who knew nothing about acid used to call this tune the "orgasm song" too. They even knew the exact point where the orgasm began, it was towards the end of the tune, when the "crazy" modulation of the riff starts. People used to go nuts at that point, "THSoC" was a big hit.

Josh Wink may not have been the most original of producers, but IMO opinion on this tune he simply got every element right, so it remains the platonic ideal of a 303 tune to me, even moreso than "Acid Trax" or "Acperience".

Overplayed now but the first time I heard it — a girl I knew came to my room at university with the 12" and said "Listen to THIS" — I'd never heard a noise like it. Great example of a secondary remix totally eclipsing the original - I can't even remember what the first version sounds like.

opposite to the above, i was a bit of a snob about this at the time but it now has a pleasant nostalgia about it.

I remember him doing an ambient set at Tribal Gathering in what must have been '95, climaxing with HSoC. Awesome. White dreadlocks NAGL though.

tho i'd still prob never listen to it by choice.

xp

and 'never trust a white man with dredds' has always been one of my rules-to-live-by.

28. Pépé Bradock & The Grand Brûlé's Choir - Deep Burnt (Kif Recordings, 1999)
542 points, 8 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/deepburnt_zps728d9579.jpeg

http://youtu.be/MCWoa3fHCBo

my favourite french record is pepe bradock's 'deep burnt', possibly the finest deep house record ever made. ooh, those strings. makes me tingle just thinking of it; which i do, often.

― michael wells, 30. toukokuuta 2001 3:00

Deep Burnt -- now there's a contender for favorite track of the '90s (house or otherwise). I could listen to that push broom shuffle and those swirling effects all day.

― Andy K (Andy K), 18. syyskuuta 2002 12:12

that is the beauty of "deep burnt", stevem. it works in either context. imagine, if you will, you've been dancing four hours solid, you're tired, the beats are starting to lose your attention. silence, that beat, the strings, pulling you back up and along until they kind of melt into interference at the end. eyes closed. no?

― michael wells (michael w.), 14. marraskuuta 2002 16:58

If I like Pepe Braddock ('Deep Burnt', especially), I would love... ?

I'm glad Deep Burnt made it so high, such a simple and elegant tune, the deepest deep house tune of them all?

TOO LOW!

i figured if there were no comments from me on this one then i must've spent my entire time on ilm not talking about music i love.

god that tune is just the best, takes me to another place every time

Thread delivers again. First time I've heard this and what a sweet tune.

Probably the best poll/ballot roll-out since the "fifties" one.

I thought the Saint Etienne poll was pretty good.

oh they've all been good

Really starting to heat up! Thanks for your work Tuomas

27. The KLF - What Time Is Love (Live at Trancentral) (KLF Communications, 1990)
549 points, 10 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/whattimeislove_zpsb7b56901.jpeg

http://youtu.be/3UlxmOHC1SA

Best KLF/JAMMs/etc Single - POLL ENDS FRIDAY 11 MAY INNIT

What time is love?

Wooooo Wooooooo

if the "pure trance" version had been nominated it might have been my no. 1.

X-post.

Such a superb track.

And KLF too!

Someone did nominate the Pure Trance version, but that one is from the 80s, so it was not eligible.

i momentarily forgot the premise of the poll.

the dance of the 00's totally kicked the arse of the 90s didn't it? these polls are great.

I first heard Higher State of Consciousness in the summer of 95 a month or two before it was released (or before it charted, anyway) in the Zap Club in Brighton - one of those magical moments where everyone went mad (though obviously it helped that most were in a, er, higher state of consciousness already). Like R2D2 gone wrong. I was obsessed with it for about a month, it sounds a bit gratuitous now.

Even though I'm a huge fan, I get why people were annoyed with how much Autechre showed up on the albums list (less room for other worthy contenders). Saying Carl Craig is more deserving because of all the different dancefloors he occupied (vs. variation in BPM/structure) I think is fair in terms of the tracks poll. Electronic albums (particularly the ones that made up the poll) - as I think we'll agree on - are much less about the dancefloor.

Again, I don't really want to argue that Autechre should have that many slots on the albums poll, but I could argue about the roll their albums have played in the larger context of electronic music/R&B. I hear their influence (direct or indirect) on a fairly wide range of artists I've listened to over the years: from the Neptunes/Timbaland era to Southern Hip Hop/Witch House, Pantha du Prince/Burial to The-Dream/The Weeknd...

Ok, I'm going to shut up now.

http://www.noveltyproducts.co.uk/images/products/982_Round_Bread_Roll.jpg
is this the roll their albums have played?

26. SL2 - On a Ragga Tip (XL Recordings, 1992)
554 points, 10 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/onaraggatip_zps2812a16c.jpeg

http://youtu.be/01KHO-WuOV4

15 (7) On A Ragga Tip, SL2 - were we on the train by this time? Maybe this was the closest I came to being one of the ravers who wormed their way into the countryside, gormless kid though I was. In context, a lovely gaping huge aerodrome hanger in a desert of quaintness and charm.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), 5. joulukuuta 2002 10:01

Haha I remember at the bus stop swapping tapes of DJ rave on feel da voibe whatever - but the thing to remember was that the ravers were the townies and the ENEMY, as were the popkids, so the thought of highschool me getting into it would have been absolutely ridiculous and in fact it is only NOW that double cd RAVE ON is available to me in the HMV sale for 3.99 that I have decided that ON A RAGGA TIP is the best song ever.

― starry (Groke), 4. helmikuuta 2003 20:20

I heard "On a Ragga Tip" for the first time in my life this past Thursday!! Holy CRAP

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), 15. marraskuuta 2003 21:38

(I am now mad at myself that despite quite rightly liking the Shamen and the Prodigy in 1991 I spent a good chunk of 1992-1993 being all "REAL music with REAL guitars". smh@me.) (man I hope On A Ragga Tip is on the '92 list) (is the MC on On A Ragga Tip really called R0nan F!tzgerald or is wikipedia being funny?)

― how do i shot slime mould voltron form (a passing spacecadet), 25. lokakuuta 2011 23:30

man, I bought this on a total whim when I was living in Germany solely because it was on XL Records

obviously that purchase made me very, very happy

Always always always rocks the party that tune. Any kind of party.

Greatest chart era ever? Every other tune's a massive hit, every one of them a total banger.

25. The KLF - Last Train to Trancentral (Live from the Lost Continent) (KLF Communications, 1991)
556 points, 8 votes, one 1st place vote.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/lasttrain_zps0439b44b.jpeg

http://youtu.be/6ifNTb1Xx_I

Oooh ...

the chord changes *between* the repetitions of the title (I'm sure you know what I mean) in the chorus of Donna Summer's "Love's Unkind".

About two minutes into the KLF's "Last Train To Trancentral": the same MC's self-aggrandisement as before, but the chord sequence is widening, the sheer sound is becoming fuller and fuller, and then the breakdown: a wide-open chasm, Hollywood's western relocated in, I dunno, Castlemorton or somewhere (but cooler, obviously). Then the song returns ... if there is one precise moment when I discovered pop's transcendence, that is it. And the samples from "What Time Is Love" and "3AM Eternal" on the song's last lap, as it were, are pretty awesome as well; the KLF had remade pop as one glorious self- mythologisation, and the rules were rewritten within each five-second sequence.

― Robin Carmody, 10. maaliskuuta 2001 3:00

I think I was awestruck, or something close to it, when I first heard the KLF's "Last Train To Trancentral" on the radio - the idea at a young age that anyone in pop was this intelligent, and this gifted, and had this many ideas.

― Robin Carmody, 30. kesäkuuta 2001 3:00

One of the KLF's great achievements was putting out, like, five singles from The White Room. The single versions are completely different from the album versions: generally faster, hookier - just more pop really. 'Last Train to Trancentral' is, to me, the epitome of this method: it's just hook after hook after hook, with a bonkers half-time breakdown and, at the end when it appears no more can possibly happen, a cameo dalek voice chanting 'Mu Mu'. Pop genius.

― Ben Butler, 23. helmikuuta 2002 3:00

Ooh! And make sure you have the "Live From the Lost Continent" mix of "Last Train to Trancentral"!

Stupid dance bands making 100000 different versions of every song.

― Mr. Snrub, 21. marraskuuta 2004 0:49

neither Destiny nor Gabriel(le) are speed garage tracks - the latter was a garage/2 step outlier but really unique

― nashwan, Thursday, December 20, 2012 6:05 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

surely you're talking about the Large Joints remix, which isn't the one in this poll

I always thought Last Train was considered the runt of their litter - delighted to see it above What Time Is Love?. And d'oh! The spelling always annoyed me, I always thought it should be 'Transcentral' - it was only when I saw the teleprinter tapping it out at the start of that clip that I finally saw the pun.

3am Eternal > Last Train To Trancentral > What Time Is Love

Though the degrees are very minor

Like what Robin says but I never liked their cynical cleverness and anything goes approach on what they were sampling.

Kinda true that the original "gabriel" was a bit of an outré draw for both the speed and 2step garage eras, it fit in with both vibes while fully belonging to neither.

"the dance of the 00's totally kicked the arse of the 90s didn't it?"

I respectfully disagree.

Regarding Gabrielle (Live Garage Mix), I think it’s a very unique track. On one hand it’s very deep house, but on the other, the highly swung percussion means it fits very well with 2-step.