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

YES! that was my orbital pick. gorgeous.

5. Aphex Twin - Windowlicker (Warp Records, 1999)
931 points, 14 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/windowlicker_zpsebd79229.jpeg

http://youtu.be/J639xIdgzQU

WINDOWLICKER: bitch-ass luke vibert ripoff or THE GREATEST SIX MINUTES IN THE HISTORY OF RECORDED SOUND?

Am I the only one who think the way the video uses the stereotypical black guys is rather, er, dodgy? Especially with Aphex as the white pimp saviour who "wins" the girls over them?

had suspected that would be number 1.

Thank god no.

I don't really get why Roygbiv would be seen as the outstanding track from that album (or Alberto Balsam from ICBYD for that matter). Not that I dislike either track.

I've felt this way more than a few times on this poll. Like "Hey boy hey girl" is a good track, but I had no idea people had strong feelings about it. Can't tell if I should revise my idea of consensus reality of if something weird is happening.

Obviously the list is mostly back-to-back unimpeachable stormers.

Am I the only one who think the way the video uses the stereotypical black guys is rather, er, dodgy? Especially with Aphex as the white pimp saviour who "wins" the girls over them?

― Tuomas, Friday, December 21, 2012 11:51 AM Bookmark

You are not.

'Roygbiv' isn't my favourite track off that BoC album but it's probably the catchiest, I can see why it'd stand out.

I am responsible for Halcyon's #1 vote. It was my very favourite song at 10 years old, then again at 16/17 (these days it hovers somewhere in the top 5).

Also, isn't the Windowlicker video supposed to be, uhhh... satirical?

Still holding faint hopes that at least 1 from Horsepower/Amazon/Terminator will make an appearance. These were all ones that I originally thought were shoe-ins to show up somewhere, but I guess I must have misread the hivemind a little.

Can't really argue with this top 10 so far though. Beau Mot Plage is one that I always forget is 90s, it fits so well with a lot of the mircohouse-leaning stuff that placed on the 2000s poll.

yeah Windowlicker seems to satirize that trope more than anything

4. LFO - LFO (The Leeds Warehouse Mix) (Warp Records, 1990)
946 points, 13 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/lfo_zpse246d70f.jpeg

http://youtu.be/cmYUlr599-I

L? F? O?

― Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), 3. huhtikuuta 2012 14:13

el ef ohhh... that shit doesn't quit. i am glad other people share my enthusiasm for this record! timeless and almost matchless, it was something so special. i mean, how many records came with warnings at that point for blowing out low end of speakers??? :)

― benoit, 6. toukokuuta 2005 15:40

I can see how LFO - "LFO" can be seen as some kind of techno track par excellence. I love it obviously, but it could also be in the dictionary next to the word "techno". The album was good, but nothing compares to that track.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), 6. toukokuuta 2005 19:27

can't the love of LFO bring us all together?

― gaz (gaz), 28. syyskuuta 2003 6:16

BOOOM.

(xxpost)

Yeah, I know it's satirical, but IMO it seems to only satirize some of the r'n'b/hip hop video cliches while still using the black male stereotypes straight; the humor doesn't really come from subverting the stereotypes rather than making fun of a genre.

Yeah, true.

Chris Cunningham is so so rub, and then there was a wacky-ness about the Warp crowd which came out in the worst possible way in the Windowlicker vid.

where's thomas bangalter's "outrun"?

3. Daft Punk - Da Funk (Soma Quality Recordings, 1995)
947 points, 15 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/dafunk_zpsb665f856.jpeg

http://youtu.be/IewQqGpdmh8

I still like Da Funk better than any of the songs on Discovery though. That song is the muthafuckin' bomb and there ain't no one who can tell me different. That's the best song ever.

― Ally, 6. kesäkuuta 2001 3:00

"Da Funk" until the day I die

― Lots of praying with no breakfast! (HI DERE), 18. helmikuuta 2009 7:13

re "alive 1997": the album opens with crowd noise. about one minute in, the synth riff for "da funk" comes on, and the cheer that goes up is hair-raising. by the time the breakdown of "da funk" starts, about two minutes later, the crowd no longer sounds like humans but instead like a pack of hooting baboons.

― vahid (vahid), 17. tammikuuta 2005 11:19

When "Da Funk" came out, even the radio DJs at my college were bagging on them.

― dleone (dleone), 30. heinäkuuta 2003 16:23

This is the thread where I sing along to "Da Funk"

unfuckwithable

The fact that I didn't vote for LFO means that I am of questionable value as a human being. Sorry.

I am listening to Set You Free (my #1) on the Gla-Edi train and the hairs on the back of my neck are standing up and this is the best tune ever.

And this poll has, for me, the best balance of education and nostalgia. Great stuff. Thanks Tuomas!

The tune which I was expecting to place somewhere, but am beginning to doubt will turn up, is Liquid - Sweet Harmony. I've been assuming Da Funk will be up there somewhere and feel pretty sure Show Me Love will be top ten.
― A Yawning Chasm (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Friday, 21 December 2012 10:10 (11 hours ago)

I reckon Sweet Harmony will place, people LOVE that tune.
― Matt DC, Friday, 21 December 2012 10:17 (11 hours ago)

Looking very unlikely now unless it's MUCH more popular than I thought

not a bad top 5 so far

did flylife not place either?!?

suspect BJ were the victims of bitch ass vote splitting. From memory I voted for "Same Old Show".

2. The Future Sound of London - Papua New Guinea (Jumpin' & Pumpin', 1991)
992 points, 15 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/papuanewguinea_zps148c62d3.jpeg

http://youtu.be/wfWMv8Y1V5E

"Papua New Guinea" is of course mindblowing.

― Tim, 25. helmikuuta 2002 3:00

"Papua New Guinea" = brilliant brilliant record. FSOL = bad band. No contradiction at all - it's a half-full/half-empty thing I suppose.

― Tom, 16. huhtikuuta 2002 3:00

"Papua New Guinea" stands up as a gorgeous pop record, whether it would work on a dancefloor (or in a chill out room) these days I neither know nor care.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), 8. joulukuuta 2003 4:36

'Papua New Guinea' seemed to have an incredible reverence about it long before the myriad of remixed and reinterpreted chapters and appendices (the Massey and Weatherall mixes from the original Jumpin' & Pumpin' single release are pretty wondrous, but then everything from that edition (inc. the 'Journey To Pyramid' and 'Short Dub' versions) is really). It's haunting Dead Can Dance echo is an illuminated, magnified dagger that cuts cold straight to the bone, while the breaks tumble and grind, unrepentant despite the extraordinary sensation of sorrow that engulfs the track (the flatline blip, the falsetto soul voice, a bassline that starts low and just takes one solitary step even lower) - extraordinary in how the sadness bursts into an unstoppable euphoria every time.

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), 9. marraskuuta 2004 21:48

Never expected this so high. Still not twigging what's no.1 either

Ah no, got it

pump it up

don't do it Tuomas I want this moment to last forever

how ironic that in a dance music countdown we are not getting a release

Then he'll drop Sandstorm again and we'll tear the thread up

he's trying to do a low pass filter sweep embedded with the reveal, hence the delay.

Which U2 track will it be?

he's working on a cash-in thread with all these results in a different order

i still can't for the life of me work out the number 1. there's 5 or 6 in my mind but i suspect it's something big daft and stoopid obvious.

This is going on forever

i am hoping for little fluffy clouds, because if it hasn't placed i will be SO SAD

Am reaching for the lasers, hoping.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wiz7SQrI4GI

come on, Oceanic

1. The Orb - Little Fluffy Clouds (Big Life, 1990)
1269 points, 21 votes.

http://i1326.photobucket.com/albums/u641/Lixenixen/littlefluffyclouds_zps73f3859d.jpeg

http://youtu.be/Kz4ounzGUFc

You don't see me writing this too often, but "Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld" could have done with a bit more drums.

"Little Fluffy Clouds" and "Perpetual Dawn" are classic though.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), 3. toukokuuta 2006 8:24

I have happy memories associated with Little Fluffy Clouds so I'll go with classic, even though I can't really remember what anything else on this album sounds like!

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), 3. toukokuuta 2006 11:54

I voted Orb, if only for the first album and even if only for "Little Fluffy Clouds."

― Spencer Chow, 27. joulukuuta 2007 12:48

yeah 'little fluffy clouds' is yoga flame

― banriquit, 30. maaliskuuta 2008 16:58

In July 1990, to the traditional sounds of an English summer – the droning of lawnmowers, the thwack of leather on willow – was added a *new* noise…

Happy 20th birthday, Little Fluffy Clouds.

― Born too beguiled (DavidM), 7. heinäkuuta 2010 18:28

And, as the final quote, proof of how much a person can change in 9 years:

"Little Fluffy Clouds" is a fitting title for the new age drivel the Orb represented. Give me dance music over head music anyday.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), 4. huhtikuuta 2003 11:22

I'm certain there was a music video of "Little Fluffy Clouds", because I used to see it on MTV's Party Zone, but it doesn't appear to be on Youtube.

thanks for this, tuomas

Never change, Tuomas. Thanks a lot, best genre poll ever!

My #74! I like it a lot, but felt queasy about it placing in a more dancefloor-oriented poll - I've never quite come around to Orbital/Aphex Twin kinda stuff, but I guess it was inevitable they'd do better than non-canonised MAW/rave/etc stuff. Thanks so much for the poll, Tuomas!

Yes, what NBS and IK said.