Darktremor's Favorite Albums of All Time
Submitted by darktremor on Sat, 07/01/2006 - 04:27
Tags:
- Alphabetically arranged:
- 4Hero - Parallel Universe [Jungle/Liquid Funk]
- Air Liquide - The Increased Difficulty of Concentration [Ambient/Ambient Techno/Minimal Techno/IDM]
- Akufen - My Way [Microhouse/Funky house]
- Aglaia - 3 Organic Experiences [Ambient]
- Akufen - My Way [Microhouse]
- Amon Tobin - Bricolage [Turntablism/Abstract-hip-hop/acid jazz]
- Animal Collective - Feels [Indie Rock/"Freak-folk"]
- Aphex Twin - The Richard D. James Album [Drill n' Bass/Really Demented Ambient]
- Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 1 [ambient/ambient techno/ambient house/IDM]
- Autechre - Amber [IDM]
- Banco De Gaia - Last Train to Lhasa [Classic Trance/Progressive House/Ambient Trance/Ambient/IDM]
- Belle & Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister [Folk Indie pop]
- Biosphere - Substrata [Ambient]
- Bonobo - Animal Magic [Abstract hip-hop/Ambient Funk]
- Bonobo - Dial M For Monkey [Abstract hip-hop/ Ambient Funk]
- Boards of Canada - Music has the Right to Children [IDM/Ambient]
- Brian Eno - Music For Airports (speciifcally 1-1) [Ambient]
- Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People [Indie Rock/Indie Pop]
- Can - Future Days [Krautrock]
- Cannonball Adderley - Somethin' Else [hard bop/cool jazz]
- Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica [Psychedelic Rock/Avante-garde/Free-jazz/Blues/Art-rock]
- Carla Bley & Paul Haines - Escalator Over the Hill [free-jazz]
- Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady [cool jazz/modal jazz]
- Charlie Parker - The Best of the Savoy & Dial Sessions [bebop]
- Claude Debussy - Children's Corner [Impressionism]
- DJ Shadow - Endtroducing... [Turntablism/Abstract hip-hop]
- DJ Tiesto - Forbidden Paradise 3 [Acid Trance/Classic Trance/Techno-trance]
- DJ Tiesto - In Search of Sunrise 2 [Epic trance/Anthem Trance/Progressive Trance]
- Don Cherry - Mu [free-jazz/world music/cool jazz]
- Farben - Textstar [Microhouse/Glitch]
- Faust - Faust [Krautrock]
- Global Communication - 76'14 [Ambient/Ambient dance]
- I, Cactus - I, Cactus [Chiptunes]
- James Holden - Balance 005 [Neo-trance/Progressive house/IDM/Minimal/Progressive Breaks]
- John Coltrane - A Love Supreme [cool jazz]
- John Coltrane - Blue Train [bebop]
- Klaus Schulze - Irrlicht (Thanks a lot Lukeprog!) [Krautrock/Space Rock/Ambient]
- Kompakt - Triple R & Friends [Microhouse/Micropop]
- Lee "Scratch" Perry - Revolution Dub [Dub]
- Legowelt - The Classics [Neo-electro]
- Lennie Tristano - Descent into the Maelstrom [free-jazz/cool jazz]
- Luomo - Vocalcity [Microhouse/Deep Techno]
- Massive Attack - Mezzanine [Trip-hop]
- Michael Mayer - Immer [Microhouse/Deep Techno/Dub Techno]
- Miles Davis - Kind of Blue [cool jazz/modal jazz]
- Mille Plateaux - Clicks + Cuts 2 [Glitch/Microhouse/Ambient/Minimal Techno/Hard Techno]
- Monolake - Hongkong [Deep Techno/Minimal Techno/Dub Techno]
- My Bloody Valentine - Loveless [Shoegaze]
- Orbital - In Sides [Ambient Dance/Ambient Trance]
- Orbital - Orbital 2 [Ambient Dance/Classic Trance/Ambient Trance/Ambient Techno]
- Orbital - Snivilization [Ambient Dance/Classic Trance/Ambient Trance/Sound Collage/Ambient Techno/Minimalism]
- Plastikman - Consumed [Deep Techno/Minimal Techno]
- Radiohead - Kid A [Indie Rock/IDM]
- Ricardo Villalobos - Achso [Minimal Techno/Ketaminimal]
- Ricardo Villalobos - Alcachofa [Microhouse/Minimal Techno]
- Ricardo Villalobos - The Au Harem D'Archimede [Minimal Techno/Ketaminimal]
- Richie Hawtin - DE:9: Transitions
- Sasha - Airdrawndagger [Progressive house/trance/Ambient trance/Ambient]
- Sasha & Digweed - Northern Exposure 1 [Ambient/Ambient Trance/Classic Trance/Progressive house]
- Shpongle - Are You Shpongled? [Ambient psy/psytrance]
- Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun [Indie-rock/Post-rock]
- Sigur Ros - Takk [Indie rock/Post-rock]
- Spicelab - A Day on Our Planet [Classic Trance]
- Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians [Minimalism]
- Steve Roach - Dreamtime Return [Ambient]
- Sufjan Stevens - Illinois [Indie pop/"Freak-folk"/Minimalism]
- The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat [Indie rock]
- The Future Sound of London - Lifeforms [Ambient/Worldbeat/Ambient dance]
- The Notwist - Neon Golden [Glitch pop/Indie pop]
- The Orb - Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld [Ambient house/Dub/Sound Collage]
- The Orb - Orblivion [Dub/Sound Collage/IDM]
- Thelonius Monk - Brilliant Corners [cool jazz/bebop]
- The Velvet Underground - & Nico [proto-punk/art rock]
- Tim Berne - Fractured Fairy Tales [Free-jazz]
- Tim Hecker - Radio Amor [Ambient noise/Glitch]
- Tuu - One Thousand Years [Ambient/Worldbeat]
- Ulrich Shnauss - Far Away Trains Passing By [Melodic IDM]
- Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman [Progressive house/Techno/Classic Trance]
Wow, The Au Harem D'Archimede is quite good! Now I need to get his other stuff. How would you describe his styles and contribution to contemporary electronic music? I'm quite uninformed about the whole genre. Who else should I check out along these lines? Who are his immediate predecessors?
Agreed, a funktastic album to the nth degree.
Lets see...immediate precessors...
The minimal techno, microhouse, and tech-house genres.
Immediate descendents...the entire "ketaminimal"/ketamine house genre of music (this stuff was unlike anything else [but his other productions] when it came out).
The closest albums to it are Ricardo's other albums, Alcachofa, Achso, his DJ mix Taka Taka, and Salvador. As well as his LPs: For Disco Only 2, and 808 the Bassqueen.
As for other recommendations in "ketamine house":
Dominik Eulberg - Kreucht & Freucht
Isolee - Wearemonster
Perlon - Superlongevity 4 (drifting into minimal techno here)
Microhouse suggestions:
Farben - Textstar (quite related, in fact, perhaps the most so of all of the non-Ricardo albums)
Michael Mayer - Immer
Triple R - Selection 2
Kompakt - Triple R & Friends (if the album doesn't appeal, at least check out the unbelievable Superpitcher remix of "The Dream of Evan and Chan")
Kompakt - Total 4
Akufen - My Way
Luomo - Vocalcity
Isolee - Rest
Minimal techno suggestions:
Monolake - Hongkong
Richie Hawtin - Transitions
Plastikman - Consumed
Luciano - Sci.Fi.Hi.Fi Volume 2
Basic Channel (just download everything under this tiny label. It's amazing, though unbelievably difficult. If it does nothing for you, turn it up. The louder, the better with this stuff, but it's far from stupid, pounding music: on the contrary, it's infinitely complex: the intelligence is just literally buried and obscured. Remember that when listening to it; try to find your way through the dense, seemingly monotone futuristic analog nanobot fog covering the detail. Or just get completely lost, and go into a trance. Either way, there's VERY much more than first meets the ear here. Oh, and no hooks. I don't mean there are weak pseudohooks, like uncatchy bad music, or that there is nothing but random noise, like musique concrete...I mean they've managed to create interesting, structured music with literally no hooks. Try humming a Basic Channel track later in the day. You can't. I have NEVER been able to do it, no matter how many times I've heard these records, or how many times I've tried. You just can't, and that's a brilliant accomplishment on Basic Channel's part. Especially considering you can hum along as you listen.)
That should do for a while :)
I'm interested to know what you would consider your favourite Microhouse album? I personally would say Immer although from your past comments I think you may say Textstar or My Way. I have had Immer for less time than the other two though so perhaps I'm still in that "honeymoon" period where I can't seem to get enough of it.
Another thing I wanted to know is whether you think the genre has peaked or is nearing peaking as a genre. Of course there is always the argument that a genre peeks pretty much at its creation.
Lastly, I was kinda surprised not to see Faust in there as you have most of your others high up from your Top 100 Electronic Albums list. Oh and Daft Punk- Discovery or Homework.
Yeah, I definitely forgot Faust. As to Homework and Discovery, I don't know if I'd call them favorites. It takes more than just being a greatest album, for an album to be a favorite. Great albums tend to become favorites, but aren't neccessarily. I have to get the random desire to listen to it a certain amount in order to call it a favorite. On those albums, I only get the random desire to listen to certain tracks off of them, not the entire thing. Although they're great albums, for sure.
Oh yeah, my favorite microhouse album. That's a tough one. I can't say, actually. Immer, Textstar, Vocalcity, Clicks + Cuts 2, Alcachofa, and My Way all fight for that position, for different reasons. Those are certainly the masterpieces though, and I'd consider all of them canon when it comes to microhouse. I often get the desire to listen to every one of them.
Oh and especially surprised not to see 3 Organic Experiences up there.
Yeah, I was surprised to have forgotten that one too. (I added it)
I adore Sasha's "Airdrawndagger."
One of the only albums I can listen to as a whole and can review as a whole.
I agree, it's lovely.
I just listened to Abakus' That Much Closer to the Sun, and it was a really good chillout/psybient album.
I've heard a couple of Abakus tracks, and I really enjoyed them; very relaxing. I'll download it, for sure.
Intrigued by both your comments on it, I downloaded it and I really quite liked it. It's nothing particularly special, but very listenable, good ambient dance music. (:
Yes, my thoughts exactly.
I personally feel it's probably the best downtempo album of all time, but that isn't exactly a hard thing to accomplish.
I don't know, I can name a whole bunch that I like more (if we're referring to downtempo in a general sense, which we must be, since I'd call it "ambient psy" rather than downtempo):
Shpongle - Are you Shpongled?
The Future Sound of London - Lifeforms
The KLF - Chillout
Air - Moon Safari
Air Liquide - The Increased Difficulty of Concentration
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right To Children
I could name a hell of a lot more. I find it pretty good, but not something I'd put under one of the best.
I can't disagree that all of those are better then Abakus' album, but I wouldn't consider them downtempo.
Are You Shpongled? is psybient, Lifeforms ambient/classic trance, Chillout ambient house, Music IDM and I'm waiting until I buy Concentration before I listen. Moon Safari is sorta close, but I don't consider it downtempo, ambient pop maybe?
I think of downtempo as a genre, which is hard to describe. Sorry.
I was sort of going by the Ishkur definition (of all slow, innovation based electronic genres in the morphous IDM/ambient/Nu-jazz/chillout/new age/trip-hop/ambient dance universe). Although other definitions put downtempo as more of that acid jazzy abstract hip-hop type stuff (like Bonobo). I'd most put Abakus as psybient (aka ambient psy), which is actually where I first ran into it (on the DI psybient channel). I find it sort of silly to try to classify the slower electronic genres too much though, there is too much bleeding between them (IE: is Boards of Canada IDM? Or Illbient? Or Ambient? Is Abakus psybient? Or "chillout"? Or ambient dance? Or downtempo?). As a rule of thumb, I try to avoid using downtempo as a label in particular as simply because it has just about no accepted meaning.
I guess you are right, it is technically psybient, although I personally don;t think it is 'psy' enough next to Bluetech, Entheogenic and Shpongle.
There should really be a "Darktremor's Favourite Trance Albums of All Time" thread. All I found on the web even resembling a list was the one they had on amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/10-Best-Trance-Albums-Ever/lm/2C0W9CF8662U9
...even though I don't know where to download the gatecrasher albums from. Anyways, this is a request to you Darktremor to make a Best Trance Albums Ever thread.
OK. But trance isn't a very album-based genre.
Pretty much the only Trance albums you need are early ones. Any dutch superstar DJs make awful ones e.g. Tiesto - Parade Of The Athletes. Gatecrasher don't make albums, they make shoddy mixes which are a million apiece. A list like that where all the mixes (not albums) are essentially compilations with 2 sec mixing between the songs (which are the same 50 fluffy anthems everytime) is pointless as they are the same awful products repackaged in a different way 'mixed' by a different DJ.
Agreed. And there weren't even that many classic albums...
Maybe a few by Oliver Lieb. Anything else good from that period was either mixes or compilations, or so uneven as to not be worth geting in whole.
hmmm ok...i didnt know that, thanks. but aren't all albums filled with songs that have 2 second mixing in between? i thought the main point of albums were the tracks themselves, not the mixing...
True, all albums do something like that, but very few trance artists can be consistent enough to put out good albums, for some reason.
Trance isn't an album genre. The tracks often don't stand well on their own, especially multiple tracks in one producer's style.
Most actual artist albums aren't mixed. Lieb on his L.S.G. albums is one of the few who does and 2 of those 5 albums aren't actually Trance anyway. It takes quite a lot of skill and a bit of luck with available track selection to pull off mixing between songs that lasts a considerable time, say 2 mins. When mixing lasts longer than 2 secs the start of one song and the end of the other become unclear and the entire DJ Mix becomes almost like a single track. Even better sometimes this 'track' gives the listener the impression of being taken on a journey. Best example of this in Trance: Sasha & Digweed - Nothern Exposure. On that there is impeccable mixing, impeccable track selection and impeccable track ordering.
Which is exactly why it's on my favorite albums list: it's amazing.
As for artists mixing songs together, I see it more on the indie rock front than in trance. Although Ricardo Villalobos' latest album (Fabric 35) is all of his new tracks mixed together - seamlessly, I might add. It's very good.
wow.i actually went through all of your ambient and trance lists and downloaded those all albums.but i love these albums as well. u have a great selection.wow man, u must be a music addict like me. i love sigur ros.
kamaya painters-collected works
global communication-76 14
Sunlounger-another day on the terrace
Juno Reactor- Bible of dreams
ATB-Trilogy ( CD2-specialy awesome )
Consider adding ATB-Trilogy final chapter to your best ambient songs of all time list.
76'14 - definitely going on. I love that album.
The others are OK, but I wouldn't call them favorites of mine. Except for Sunlounger, which I've never heard. I'll give it a listen for sure.
Anything by Ricardo Villalobos is amazing. Also I think that ( ) is Sigur Ros's best album and one of the best post-rock albums ever...
I agree, he is one of the best minimal artists of all time (and Hawtin and Herbert are really the only competition for that title).
nice list! love some of the choices and also stealing some of them...
Cool, enjoy :D