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

it can't be autechre, there's no consensus track.

Also there's like 20 Autechre tracks nominated and there'll be mad vote splitting.

I reckon 'Little Fluffy Clouds' has a fairly decent chance of winning this.

arch carrier?

these are random stabs in the dark - i dunno what might win.

There are plenty of Prodigy tracks that could make it of course.

Or maybe this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=en-GB&gl=GB&v=IZDhCveQhOA

This, and the one upthread about the crowd tearing down the walls, just make me wonder why Sandstorm isn't the unanimous no.1. Imagine creating a record that can do that, you'd feel like god.

In my experience and these anecdotes the track is huge for people who weren't generally interested in the scene or genre it's taking its cues from (Trance and Hard House) at the time it came out. The love for it feels more ironic like it's a novelty hit (you're not 'supposed' to like or take seriously) - so much closer to 'Poing' than 'Storm' by Storm, big Gatecrasher anthems etc. This also explains the disdain for it compared to other hard monotonous but more credible bangers (altho I'm struggling to think of good examples from the same time as 'Sandstorm' as opposed to COUNTLESS from a few years before).

Sandstorm doesn't actually sound like anything else from the time either.

The only other Prodigy track that might possibly place is No Good, the idea of there being two tracks placing above Out of Space just doesn't make sense to me.

Other, less obvious tracks that might still show up due to being consensus picks among committed constituencies - 'Beau Mot Plage', 'Original Nuttah', Weatherall remix of 'Soon'.

All of these feel essential to me: No Good, Hey Boy Hey Girl, Age of Love, Rez, Hideaway, Your Loving Arms, Positive Education, Renegade Snares, Beau Mot Plage, Windowlicker, Soon, Da Funk, Papua New Guinea, Horsepower, Little Fluffy Clouds, Professional Widow. But they can't all place.

surely LFO before Horsepower

16. Kenny "Dope" presents The Bucketheads ‎- The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall into My Mind) (Henry Street Music, 1994)
639 points, 11 votes, one 1st place vote.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/thebomb_zpsf4039651.jpg

http://youtu.be/W7Hk3o_knvY

who are they? how could they drop 'the bomb', never to be heard of again?

― minna, 20. maaliskuuta 2002 3:00

they were a bit pissed off when The Bomb was a UK hit cos ended up costing them 30 grand for the Chicago sample

― michael, 20. maaliskuuta 2002 3:00

bucketheads "the bomb" : dancefloor :: grenade : swiming pool

― :|, 28. lokakuuta 2004 19:10

what's interesting is that early house does not have what blueski/tracer are talking about. Nor does ardkore/jungle/drum and bass/2-step garage: what those styles all have instead is a more advanced use of the breakdown where the beat cuts out for a while and then rams back in with astonishing force (in modern drum & bass the difference here becomes almost imperceptibly small, as the linearity of the beat means you can "hear" it even after it has cut out, thus mimicking some of the effect of the trance-style build-up breakdown).

Whereas with trance/french house etc. it's like the groove is abandoning you, but then it comes back to save you... there can be something almost metaphysical about the experience of a breakdown/build-up/release section on the dancefloor, especially if drug-assisted: it's like you've lost yourself and you're stuck waiting for the groove to help you find yourself, and you can hear it searching for you with flashlights around the edges, always circling closer, but you're not sure when the flashlight will suddenly fix upon you.

With disco - esp. say Larry Levan productions or in a different way Moroder - I'd say there's a lot of stuff which replicates part of this effect: with Levan stuff it's the way that layers are added and subtracted in order to create the sense of peaks and valleys in the track. But there's nothing like this specific trick with trance perhaps kickstarted.

Indeed, I thought to myself "surely Wild Pitch house would be the first time this trick was used in "proper" house music in a substantive, sustained and deliberate way?? Which at least coincides with early trance, and probably just predates it??" But then I went back and listened to Photon Inc's "Generate Power (Wild Pitch Mix)" and there's no breakdown section at all, let alone a build-up version of one - I had assumed there was because the use of layering in this track the whole way through is just out of this world - but, crucially, it's "out of this world" in a post-Levan sense, not a trance sense. If anyone can think of Wild Pitch tracks that actually do this trick that'd be interesting.

So maybe the use of EQing really kickstarted this in house. EQing, I think, formed the sonic highpoint for this tactic, and in some senses dealt a bit of a blow to trance by stealing and improving on one of the key weapons in its arsenal in the name of house music.

So then I thought perhaps an early example of this being done in a substantive/sustained/deliberative way in house would be something like The Bucketheads' "The Bomb". Still one of the best house tracks ever in its full fifteen minute version, and sounding so so current right now - and first and foremost the whole thing is an experiment in eliciting different types of anticipatory tension. Anyway, I listened to it again, and you can start to hear this idea (ahem) filter through, but still in a very limited and hesitant sense, it's still in a post-Wild Pitch (i.e. post-Levan) mode of adding and subtracting layers strategically, the EQing is very subtle. Moments at the eight/nine minute marks are very close to being build-up breakdowns, but fall short, I think, of what this thread is looking for - on a tangent, what this track does really well that's not done enough in house (and certainly not in trance) is cut from one groove to another suddenly and radically (going from the percussion and "Wooh! Wooh!" section to the disco/vocal section) - a trick which mimics some of the effect of the build-up breakdown insofar as the first section explicitly sets itself up as a prelude to something. But the lack of a proper build-up breakdown surprised me, and makes me wonder what the first use of this in a house context would be.

Around The World as well probably. Maybe Impact (The Earth Is Burning) if that was nominated.

(xpost - I totally forgot about that one and am completely delighted to see it).

Sorry, the final part of the post was cut off, that extra-long quote is from Tim F... And like so many extra-long posts by Tim, it's essential reading.

There are lots of good things here which I don't really have anything new to say about, but I'll just note that I saw Orbital live last week and Chime was so fucking immense and transcendent.

I say "saw live", I mean I couldn't really see them and I suspect none of it was actually live bcz I was behind the visuals dude's computer and everything was so perfectly synced without any intervention, but it didn't matter, it was still the best ~event~ I have been at this year.

Also I somehow missed On A Ragga Tip placing last night and am delighted to have noticed it this morning thanks to Matt DC's mention.

xp Of course. LFO. Yes.

Have we had Show Me Love yet? And was A Little Bit of Luck nominated?

Only heard the short single length versh of 'The Bomb' - and as Tim says incredibly tense, great account of all the shifts and turns the track is taking.

15. The Prodigy - No Good (Start the Dance) (XL Recordings, 1994)
642 points, 11 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/nogood_zps0aba5531.jpg

http://youtu.be/svJvT6ruolA

Spot on to select "No Good (Start The Dance)" over the obvious and tired choices from the Prodigy's "rock'n'roll" period.

― Robin Carmody, 5. helmikuuta 2001 3:00

summer of 94 i was 9 going on 10 and I remember hearing some older kids listening to this on their boom box in their garden and thinking, wow.

― Blackout Crew are the Beatles of donk (jim), 4. huhtikuuta 2009 2:06

but i think it'll have to be no good for both the sample and the drum programming

― rentboy, 4. huhtikuuta 2009 5:08

'No Good (Start the Dance)' by a huuuuge margin. Whenever I put that song on, I end up listening to it on repeat at least 10 times.

― sous les paves, 13. syyskuuta 2007 11:17

I remember hearing this on the UK chart rundown in the week it went top 1 and it just sounded the most massive, terrifying and exhilarating thing I'd ever heard. Their stock fell pretty soon afterwards and the fact that they stopped playing No Good live shows how bad they became at spotting what they were good at. They were actually proud of jettisoning it, when it was the perfect bridge between their earlier and later sounds.

OTM. I pretty much grew up with the Prodigy, but when I first heard Jilted Generation it sounded like the most disturbing, dark, drugged thing (drugs! swearing! screaming faces coming out of silvery muck! EVIL!) to my 13y/o ears. Firestarter was good, Breathe was okay, but somehow when they actively tried to be daring and dangerous it felt like they were trying to frighten my granny rather than me. Something like Break and Enter didn't need Keith rasping all over it to sound edgy.

When we first heard it, I remember me and my friends being a bit disappointed by it, because even though we loved the helium rave tunes of 1991 and 1992 to death, dance music had changed so rapidly in a couple of years that those chipmunk vocals in "No Good" felt kinda dated compared to jungle. But soon we learned to accept and love it as the hybrid monster it was. (Though my favourite tune from this era, in fact my favourite Prodge tune of them all, remains "Break & Enter".)

(xpost)

Yeah Break and Enter is so good. Did it get nommed?

You're right about the helium vocals - No Good felt almost retro in the context of Jilted and the rest of what was going on in electronic dance at the time. Seems that every time I've had the errr.. pleasure of hearing any new Prodge tracks they sound like they're trying to do an update on No Good (and failing at it, suffice to say).

Break and Enter was nominated and did get some votes, but it only got to #111 on the list.

Also, it was #8 on your ballot, so you should remember. :)

Their stock fell pretty soon afterwards and the fact that they stopped playing No Good live shows how bad they became at spotting what they were good at. They were actually proud of jettisoning it, when it was the perfect bridge between their earlier and later sounds.

I saw them headlining the V97 festival and about halfway through their set Howlett teased the crowd with the opening keyboard stabs of 'No Good', then stopped and laughed. Then they played some boring Fat of the Land album track. Such a disappointing gig.

I think it was me who nominated Break and Enter, I had it at #11. I had The Bomb way up at #4 as well, surprisingly (given that I've hardly listened to it in years) - I just listen to everything I'm thinking of voting for and give them marks out of ten and then rank them, I must have really liked it that day.

The Bomb is so, so, so amazing. I only recently found the Chicago original, and though I love it and it's exactly the same as The Bomb, they are very different records and my love for them is not the same.

14. The Chemical Brothers - Hey Boy Hey Girl (Freestyle Dust, 1999)
667 points, 12 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/heyboyheygirl_zps95a87223.jpg

http://youtu.be/tpKCqp9CALQ

Chemicals got good again once they dumped those Shite Rockin Beats. I'll take the retro-rave of 'Hey Boy Hey Girl'/'Under the Inluence' over any of that Dig Your Own Anus.

― Omar, 19. lokakuuta 2001 3:00

Yeah Ronan, "Hey Boy Hey Girl" is great without the vocal sample, but as Ned notes sometimes words just have a purely aural purpose. HBHG *needs* catchphrases in order to become an anthem because it has less of a song-structure than the usual Chem Brothers fare. And I think HBHG actually works better as an anthem than as a cool-but-secret track. The reason the specific samples in HBHG work is that they're so meaningless, so of course any number of things could have been put in their place.

― Tim, 11. helmikuuta 2002 3:00

'rockefeller skank' was never a particular favourite of mine ('right here right now' on the other hand is IMMENSE) - i prefer fatboy slim generally (w/the usual caveats) but 'block rockin' beats' is one of the 3-4 chem bros tracks i unreservedly love (though not quite as much as 'hey boy hey girl').

― lex pretend, 3. marraskuuta 2008 11:53

Always found it underwhelming myself.

There was a bit of Beatles/Stones thing going on with the Chems and the Prodge at my sixth form. I was firmly in the Prodge camp.

Chems, and I'm happily surprised it's that song.

Also happy to see MAW represented, though I def prefer something like 2 dozen of their other various productions from the '90s.

I thought "Hey Boy Hey Girl" was pretty cool, at least compared to their earlier "rock" stuff, which I didn't care about at all (who wants to hear Noel Gallagher sing on a dance track?). On the other hand, Jam & Spoon's remix of Yello's "You Gotta Say Yes to Another Excess" did pretty much the same thing better in 1995.

13. Omni Trio - Renegade Snares (Foul Play Remix) (Moving Shadow, 1993)
689 points, 11 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/renegadesnares_zps6d656d17.jpg

http://youtu.be/p-JyF1Mf5Vo

Renegade Snares

xpost Wrong tempo, wrong thrust.

With few exceptions, most dance music sucks over about 130 BPM.

You must be American?

You must have no hips?

Great track, but Foul Play VIP mix is better.

Baiting aside, here's just about the only max-speed dance track I can think of that I love:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5Eerwdouc8

(Oops, sorry for embedding.)

I can dance with both my hips and legs, it depends on my mood.

Also, with some faster genres, like d'n'b, you can dance with your hip in "half-step" (i.e. moving it only to every other beat), or move your legs fast in "full-step" (i.e. to every beat), and even alternate between the two. It's fun!

(x-post to Eric)

youtu.be/RqvBaU_m1mw

Great track, but Foul Play VIP mix is better.

Whoops, look like posted the wrong video! It was indeed the "Foul Play VIP Mix" that got to #13. Here's the proper video:

http://youtu.be/RqvBaU_m1mw

12. Underworld - Rez (Junior Boy's Own, 1993)
698 points, 11 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/rez_zps9ef5263a.jpeg

http://youtu.be/F6Y7lcvubhU

a fair amount of their output is wank...but stuff like "Rez" and "Jumbo" are those moments when dance music just transcends itself...stunning......probably because Karl Hyde cuts out that annoying gibberish

― Michael Bourke, 4. joulukuuta 2000 3:00

After "Rez" I could just about forgive them anything.

― Stevo, 18. tammikuuta 2001 3:00

i dont see why 'rez' wouldnt qualify...it always stood out from most other Underworld tracks for me cos a) no lyrics despite its 'epic-ness' and b) it doesnt seem to have been designed primiarly for dancing because of the subtlety and the nuances of the track - its very pensive, pregnant even - building up to something but isnt sure what - it feels quite aimless tho its moving forward without realising it.....er, excuse the pretentious musing...(gets his coat and leaves)

or is 'rex' the first microhouse track? ;)

― stevem (blueski), 22. marraskuuta 2002 18:27

90)6.35 into Rez: the series of long swooshes has faded, and it's just the drums for half a minute, then the swirly twirly main bit wanders back into the room and notices the party's still going on

or

89)8.00 into Rez: and now it's dancing on the speakers.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), 15. tammikuuta 2004 18:10

Rez plods like a fule. Vid was aight

― blunt (blunt), 18. toukokuuta 2006 4:32

Needs: +3% pitch, -Goa mud

― blunt (blunt), 18. toukokuuta 2006 4:33

Now here's one where I prefer the more refined versions of this style UW put out later.

I know it's from 12 years ago but that Michael Bourke post is incredibly off the mark; Hyde is the reason why the group's endured in my opinion. Rez is one of the few instrumental tunes they did that really works.

11. Boards of Canada - Roygbiv (Warp Records, 1998)
712 points, 10 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/roygbiv_zpsac338f0f.jpeg

http://youtu.be/N_TOd7VnI44

'music has the right' took a while for me to love. much of it is classic but there are some boring parts. roygbiv is, of course, the highlight.

― gareth, 8. toukokuuta 2001 3:00

Manifesto of the Children of the Analog(ue) Baroque

Did anyone ever attend an elementary school built in the 1970's? Mine was, and I still remember the very colors and fonts on the wall. I still remember the huge white numbers painted over the ROYGBIV walls in the pod-like enclaves for each grade. kindergarten=ORANGE, first 1=yellow, 2=green, 3=blue, 4=purple, 5=red. Those letters were so cool too, lowercased and vertically arranged on the wall in the hallway entrance to each 'pod'. that school was so badass. everything was in lowercase letters, it was full of sunroofs, it had an atrium with a rocky pathway that cut through the plants, a very cool lunch room with long tables, 'psychedelic' trays, and chairs that were blue, orange, or black. we would hope to be in the same color chair as a pretty girl and make fun of the guy who was in the same color chair as an ugly one. That was when i was truly happy and content. When all that mattered was the playground, Children's Television Workshop, Star Wars, Atari or even the Odyssey 2, and Little League. We watched all the film strips and videos (remember those big discs that you inserted like a card) with the analog synths in the background. BoC bring it all back home. Their music seems to make me yearn for such nostalgia. However, the BoC music seems to pull those deja vu moments out of the deep chasms in our minds but we know very well we cannot go back to those days. There is a sense of detachment in the music of the BoC as well. It's a strange gestalt. I know someone out there has had similar memories and would have to agree. Some of us whether we know it or not are Chilren of the Analog Baroque. When George Lucas infected every child's mind. When Francois Truffaut communicated with little greys with an ARP modular. We proudly wore those ringer shirts with 3/4 length sleeves with the same color as the collar and a number 88. Our dads had mustaches and beards and wore corduroy pants while our mothers had sexy feathered haircuts like Charlie's Angels. Even Dolly Madison cakes had a cool logo(she was hot for a 2 dimensional face without a nose). We had the boardgame Operation, then Pong, then PacMan and then the Commodore 64. As children, we saw the death of John Lennon and Steve McQueen. Oh, those were much simpler days. Perhaps our best years are gone. When there was a chance for happiness. But we wouldn't want them back. Not with the fire in us now. No, we wouldn't want them back.

― bryan, 20. helmikuuta 2002 3:00

i nearly always find the beats a welcome addition, and BOC always seem to have valued electronic rhythm to a fair extent and they tend to prefer it heavy. it's usually one of the last things to come in, which can give the impression the track has been built to support the beat rather than the other way round, no? which is an understandable criticism if true, only i don't hear it as a big problem myself - i don't think it would make a significant difference to how i hear BOC. 'ROYGBIV' seems as good an example as any of the beat being useful, if only for the bit where the bassdrum drops out again just for 4 bars - that's possibly the best bit, but it couldn't work without the beat beforehand.

― $V£N! (blueski), 10. huhtikuuta 2005 19:05

roygbiv is a straight John Carpenter rip with breakbeats under it and a kid's voice.

― Alex in SF, 25. helmikuuta 2009 1:10

^^^ not an insult btw.

― Alex in SF, 25. helmikuuta 2009 1:10

If "new day" is the only basic channel/maurizio/etc track that places I will be severely disappointed (great as that track is). Likewise "the bells". Poll is way short on techno IMO! Though it has otherwise been awesome, obviously.

Been busy the last couple of days so just catching up now - had Angels Fell, Destiny, Energy Flash, The Bomb and the VIP of Renegade Snares on my ballot, v pleased that Renegade Snares made it so high up. Great results all round though, there's still a few in the top 30 that I haven't heard before.

10. Robin S. - Show Me Love (Stonebridge Club Mix) (Mega Records, 1992)
722 points, 13 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/showmelove_zps155be789.jpeg

http://youtu.be/O7k81MF6ByA

Help Identifying Late 80s - Early 90s Minimal Techno song

C/D: Robin S "Show Me Love"

"Show Me Love" was my #2, my favourite vocal dance track of the 90s (and probably of all time).

It's one of those cases where a remix has so utterly overshadowed the original version that most people think the remix is the original. Robin S.'s singing is undeniably powerful in both versions, but the original's backing track is a pretty standard piece of early 90s pop house, while Stonebridge stripped it all away and replaced it with a brilliant new track that's yearning, seductive and sleek. And even if that famous keyboard sound is a preset in the Korg M1 synth (you can hear it on William Orbit's 1989 remix of "Batdance", for example), you can't deny it's the way it's used in this track that makes it so effectice, the altering between the classic "woman scorned" diva vocals, the ravey hard bass, and the bits where everything is stripped down to the beat and the one ultramemorable riff that's somehow both wistful and uplifting.