____twoism

thedisavowed wrote:It's rEEEEEAAALLY easy to start getting dishonest when making lists like this. I'd imagine a lot of people have albums on here they admire more than they like. I find my mainstays are often different than my 'essential list'.

that's why I dunno if I wanted to participate in this one, the term "essentials" is being played with quite loosely it seems.
I listed a few quick which I thought were essential to the genre but I myself also thought was a legendary record.
But as Rodheh said he doesn't see the point in having essentials, he doesn't understand how an album can be considered "great' if you yourself don't exactly think it's the best or exactly like it.

I can see where he's coming from in that I think Sgt. Pepper's is one of the weakest Beatles records, and I've gotten so much flak from people about this.

coffee grapes wrote:Beck - Guero - This is the only release by Beck I own. I can't say much about the rest of his discography, as I have never been able to quite get "into it". But this album is great, tons of catchy songs, great for singing in the car, and the lyrics in this I think are brilliant. Scarecrow for instance, or Farewell Ride.

I really don't wanna do this because I love you man but... really? Guero pales in every single way an album can in comparison to Beck's other work. Yeah it's great but man the song writing, the cohesion, the originality, none of it is as on point for Beck as it usually is. If this were released by any other band this would be a fantastic record but for Beck this is pretty much middle of the road.

Bowery Electric - Beat, 1996, Triphop / Indie Rock / Ambient



A Silver Mt. Zion - "Born Into Trouble As The Sparks Fly Upward"., 2001, Post Rock / "Chamber Music"



The Olivia Tremor Control - Music For The Unrealized Film Script "Dusk At Cubist Castle", 1996, Indie Rock / Psychedelic Rock



Can - Ege Bamyasi, 1972, Krautrock



Faust - Faust, 1971, Krautrock / Experimental Rock / Avant-garde



Swans - Filth, 1983, No Wave / Industrial Punk



Speedy J - Ginger, 1993, IDM / Downtempo / Ambient



Paavoharju - Yhä Hämärää, 2005, Freak Folk / Psychedelia / Ambient / Folk Rock (they cite Boards Of Canada as an influence btw)



Popol Vuh - Hosianna Mantra, 1972, doesn't really fit into any genre



Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, 1998, Indie Rock / Folk Rock



Pan Sonic - Kesto (234.48:4), 2004, Noise / Industrial / Downtempo / Ambient / Musique Concrete (in my opinion the greatest electronic music album ever made)



The Pop Group - For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?, 1980, Punk / Free Jazz / Funk / Dub



Various Artists - No New York, 1978, No Wave



Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band - Safe As Milk, 1967, Blues Rock / Psychedelic Rock



Silver Apples - Silver Apples, 1968, Experimental Rock / Psychedelic Rock



Bola - Soup, 1998, IDM / Downtempo / Ambient



This Heat - This Heat, 1979, Experimental Rock / Art Rock / Avant-garde



Stars Of The Lid - The Tired Sounds Of Stars Of The Lid, 2001, Ambient / Drone



Stereolab - Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements, 1993, Indie Rock / Post Rock



The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat, 1968, Art Rock / Proto-punk / Experimental Rock



Mercury Rev - Yerself Is Steam, 1991, Psychedelic Rock / Indie Rock

^ big ups for Stereolab and OTC, lovely choices.

Impossible. Too much essential albums. Oh well.





















Oh man..just something..Tried to post something what has been meaningful for me in the past and still is. Not so new stuff. More later maybe.

all i have that is "essential" to say, at this point

the more "essential" albums we post, the less "essential" starts to mean..

powershoes wrote:

<3

coffee grapes wrote:I'll admit maybe Guero shouldn't be on my essential albums list, it was more that I was listening to that album non-stop when I made the list. But, compared to other Beck albums, it's definitely my favorite. Maybe the music isn't anything groundbreaking, but I feel the writing of the lyrics is really incredible and projects a lot of emotion.

it just seems he's trying to reach for the lightning in a bottle of the perfect blend of upbeat accessibility/left field weirdness of Odelay again, when he's clearly in another place and mood. After you make an album like Sea Change you can't go back, you can only go forwards, which is why I'm happy he made Modern Guilt and The Information, both of those sound like logical steps made after Sea Change, rather than trying to reach back in time and be what he used to be.

thedisavowed wrote:It's rEEEEEAAALLY easy to start getting dishonest when making lists like this. I'd imagine a lot of people have albums on here they admire more than they like. I find my mainstays are often different than my 'essential list'.

....What?

Rodheh wrote:

thedisavowed wrote:It's rEEEEEAAALLY easy to start getting dishonest when making lists like this. I'd imagine a lot of people have albums on here they admire more than they like. I find my mainstays are often different than my 'essential list'.

....What?

Like having an album because it is Jimi Hendrix's psychedelic masterpiece with awesome artworks but never really listening to it ever or anymore.

Disavowed's observation gets to the heart of the matter. Is a true classic a perpetually listened to album? For instance, I listen to a vinyl copy of Bob James' "Lucky 7" at least once a week because I really interface with the feeling. I sincerely doubt anyone here considers it a classic album, . Its like having Earl Grey tea around and enjoying it. Chai would be just a phase, but its considered a classic, so Chai is Jimi Hendrix to me. So I submit "Lucky 7" as a classic album using the new criteria. There it is:



What the fuck, right? Now that's out of the way, here is Soft Machine's "Live at Paradiso 1969"



This album has a stupid cover but I have listened to this many many times over the last 14 years. It never gets old to me, because they do not have any horns for this one and it is live. They run through the entire vol.2 album at 100 miles per hour with nothing with distorted bass, waves and waves of titanic wah organ and wild jazz drumming. Vol.2 the regular album is kind of a mess with all the production efforts. The songs are strange with changes I have never heard before or since.

thedisavowed wrote:It's rEEEEEAAALLY easy to start getting dishonest when making lists like this. I'd imagine a lot of people have albums on here they admire more than they like. I find my mainstays are often different than my 'essential list'.

Absolutely spot on.

Lens Larque wrote:

Rodheh wrote:

thedisavowed wrote:It's rEEEEEAAALLY easy to start getting dishonest when making lists like this. I'd imagine a lot of people have albums on here they admire more than they like. I find my mainstays are often different than my 'essential list'.

....What?

Like having an album because it is Jimi Hendrix's psychedelic masterpiece with awesome artworks but never really listening to it ever or anymore.

Disavowed's observation gets to the heart of the matter. Is a true classic a perpetually listened to album? For instance, I listen to a vinyl copy of Bob James' "Lucky 7" at least once a week because I really interface with the feeling. I sincerely doubt anyone here considers it a classic album, . Its like having Earl Grey tea around and enjoying it. Chai would be just a phase, but its considered a classic, so Chai is Jimi Hendrix to me. So I submit "Lucky 7" as a classic album using the new criteria. There it is:



What the fuck, right? Now that's out of the way, here is Soft Machine's "Live at Paradiso 1969"



This album has a stupid cover but I have listened to this many many times over the last 14 years. It never gets old to me, because they do not have any horns for this one and it is live. They run through the entire vol.2 album at 100 miles per hour with nothing with distorted bass, waves and waves of titanic wah organ and wild jazz drumming. Vol.2 the regular album is kind of a mess with all the production efforts. The songs are strange with changes I have never heard before or since.

I've certainly seen those who romanticize an album just because it looks cool and is considered a classic but I wasn't sure if Twoism's members would be the kind to do something like that.

Rodheh wrote:I've certainly seen those who romanticize an album just because it looks cool and is considered a classic but I wasn't sure if Twoism's members would be the kind to do something like that.

well i certainly like to assume that the people who listed albums have actually heard them.

Just one for now, but it's a doozie:



and Volume 2:



These tunes are still startling after 60 years (some recorded in 1947). Monk recorded most of his masterpieces in these early recordings; he produced a few more in the 50s and 60s (such as Work and Eronel) but this is the absolute essential selection.

THE COMSAT ANGELS - SLEEP NO MORE (1981)


Our Secret -
Eye Of The Lens -

If I had to boil it down to five albums I think everyone should hear (excluding Boards) it would be;

Pink Floyd - Meddle
Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music for Airports
Stars of the Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline
Mumford and Sons - Sigh no More
The Beatles - Revolver

In no particular order of preference.

Art of Noise - Daft
B12 - Time Tourist
Autechre - Incunabula
Kraftwerk - Computer World
Lackluster - Container

25 years of enjoyment and counting!

Here are just some what I class as MY essential albums, id be lost without them on my ipod etc..

Its cool to see the diversity of peoples taste in music on this forum, BOC fans are not of the closed minded variety, this pleases me....



Super furry animals - Rings around the world (If you get to see the DVD of this album then you are in for a real treat, make sure you watch / listen with 5:1 surround if possible)



Bucket head - Giant robot



The Beta band - Heros to Zeros



Clark - Empty the bones of you



Mr. Bungle - California



Pearl Jam - VS



The Cure - Disintegration



Orbital - Insides