____twoism

Let's compile a library of essential records, to raise awareness of great music other may not have heard. You can list as many as you like but they have to be particularly essential to be included, this does not necessarily mean that they have to be landmark albums i.e Sgt Pepper they can be as obscure as you wish but should offer something interesting or eclectic to the array

We can assume that BoC's catalogue can be a given, so don't include any of their releases.

Go go go!

Jim O'Rourke - I'm Happy and I'm Singing and a 1 2 3 4
Jim O'Rourke's "I'm Happy and I'm Singing and a 1 2 3 4" has the former Wilco/Sonic Youth-er sitting down with a laptop and performing. It's a mere three tracks, but they're among the more hypnotic tracks I've ever heard, a cold digital take on what is otherwise generally Boards of Canada territory.

David Bowie - Outside
Outside is one of those albums that could only have happened in the 90s- I don't mean that in a deragatory Sugar Ray/Free Radicals kind of sense, but more in a "David Bowie enlists Trent Reznor to remake Diamond Dogs sense". It's a brooding and anxiety inducing album with some of his best material of his career on it, especially the tracks "I'm Deranged", "Hallo Spaceboy" and "Strangers When We Meet", the latter of which could almost be a B-side from Low or Heroes.

Massive Attack - Protection
I get crap from Massive Attack fans for liking Protection better than Mezzanine, but Mezzanine falls apart after the first time through Exchange- Protection keeps it together, with instrumentals like "Weather Storm" and "Heat Miser" as well as excellent songwriting on the title track and tracks like Sly and Karmacoma. It also doesn't suffer from the "too much of the same" problem that causes most people to not remember much of what 100th Window sounds like, nor the guest stars distracting from the actual music like Heligoland. The only non-essential bit to this album is the live cover of the Doors "Light My Fire", which starts no where, throws around one of Lee Perry's flying cymbals, and ends up no where.

Broadcast & The Focus Group - ... Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age




In all honesty, I recommend everything Broadcast ever released in their unfortunately short career; but I think that their 2009 collaboration with the Focus Group was one of their greatest achievements.

My experience with this 'mini-album' (of almost an hour in length, so take that definition with about 15 sachets of salt) was that, initially, I found it really rather forgetful, in its disorientating noisiness... but a fascination with what exactly was being done kept drawing me back, and I came to notice moments of real beauty within this chaotic collage. And later still, I came to appreciate the chaos surrounding the moments of beauty, and learned to appreciate the album in its entirety as a complex, weird, dark listening experience.

I definitely recommend it if you like Geogaddi, as its borne of the same interest in looking with skewed nostaglia at a dark and distorted past... or if you liked the collage-like structure of cLOUDDEAD's self-titled EP compilation.

Biosphere - Substrata - Quite possibly the best ambient album ever released.

Canyon Country - There's a Forest In The Fire - By the same guy behind Freescha.

Freescha - Kids Fill The Floor - Speaking of Freescha.

88Marquis - 1992 In An Igloo - A great album by Twoism's own.

Infected Mushroom - Classical Mushroom - An amazing psy-trance album.

Lemon Jelly - '64 - '95

That's just a few off the top of my head. I'll post more later.

Eh, my tastes in essential albums wouldn't be really accepted by this community.


But I can say Amorphous Androgynous/FSOL - Tales of Ephidrina is quite good to have if you like old ambient techno.

SAW
Hard Normal Daddy
Liquid Swords
Since I Left You
Revolver

Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - One of the best albums ever released. I loved it back then and still love it now.

My favorite album of all time.

Although, for most people it probably won't click. It's a bit harsh.

Rodheh wrote:My favorite album of all time.

Although, for most people it probably won't click. It's a bit harsh.

I have that album. Boy is it negative. "a bit harsh" is an understatement. I don't listen to it very often. Good music though.

747Music wrote:Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness - One of the best albums ever released. I loved it back then and still love it now.

2nd this one.

747Music wrote:

Rodheh wrote:My favorite album of all time.

Although, for most people it probably won't click. It's a bit harsh.

I have that album. Boy is it negative. "a bit harsh" is an understatement. I don't listen to it very often. Good music though.

Well, I mean, it's not too harsh compared to "pure" industrial music, so that's why I say that. Compared to the sort of music this forum was created to discuss, then I can see how it'd be more than a bit harsh.



I got another album to add. You guys should check out Start A People by Black Moth Super Rainbow if you already haven't.

Rodheh wrote:

747Music wrote:

Rodheh wrote:My favorite album of all time.

Although, for most people it probably won't click. It's a bit harsh.

I have that album. Boy is it negative. "a bit harsh" is an understatement. I don't listen to it very often. Good music though.

Well, I mean, it's not too harsh compared to "pure" industrial music, so that's why I say that. Compared to the sort of music this forum was created to discuss, then I can see how it'd be more than a bit harsh.



I got another album to add. You guys should check out Start A People by Black Moth Super Rainbow if you already haven't.

Ah, I see.

And yeah, BMSR! Awesome stuff. My favourite off the album is "Hazy Field People". Just fantastic stuff.

Start a People is definitely my fave BMSR album, but I wouldn't call it essentials.

If I was going for my personal favourite albums I wouldn't be posting like Kid A or SAW or anything like that.

I thought it was stuff like, corner stones from which a good music taste can blossom, or albums which done a lot for music.

Well from what I can tell, "essentials" is indicative to an album that, to you, is a favorite and essential listening, as in you're going to be significantly impacted by it and your thoughts on music would be considerably different had you not heard it. These may or may not apply to everyone the same way they do to you, and that's why it's good to find who shares your musical opinions and whatnot.


Whether it needs to be something you'd pick up from some corner store or otherwise, I have no idea why that'd make a difference.


In terms of something having had a lot of influence, I'm not sure I'd call it essential either. I see lots of people who have lists like "the greatest albums of all time" and "my personal favorite albums". This makes no sense to me. What's the difference? Then I see that on their personal favorites they put exactly that, their favorites of all time. Truly, these are your "best albums" if you think about it. However, they then have another list called the "greatest albums" where they have things like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heats Club Band (or if it's a purely electronic-loving person, SAW 85-92) and then they say things like "even though these aren't my personal favorites they are the best based on lots of things". Why? Not because they feel like they're the greatest albums of all time, but because other people CONSTANTLY say they're the greatest albums of all time. People yell at you and comment with hostility on your blog if you don't list the obligatory ones as the greatest albums of all time, like if I were to make a "greatest albums" list of mine and have The Downward Spiral and Geogaddi at the top.


I don't like this, so I don't do it. I really like Start A People. It's my favorite by BMSR, and it has a great demonstration of their style broadly, with lofi, hifi, loud beats with quiet melodies, loud melodies with quiet beats, ambience, vocoders...just a whole lot of stuff. I'd recommend it and say to me it's "essential".

Rodheh wrote:Well from what I can tell, "essentials" is indicative to an album that, to you, is a favorite and essential listening, as in you're going to be significantly impacted by it and your thoughts on music would be considerably different had you not heard it. These may or may not apply to everyone the same way they do to you, and that's why it's good to find who shares your musical opinions and whatnot.


Whether it needs to be something you'd pick up from some corner store or otherwise, I have no idea why that'd make a difference.


In terms of something having had a lot of influence, I'm not sure I'd call it essential either. I see lots of people who have lists like "the greatest albums of all time" and "my personal favorite albums". This makes no sense to me. What's the difference? Then I see that on their personal favorites they put exactly that, their favorites of all time. Truly, these are your "best albums" if you think about it. However, they then have another list called the "greatest albums" where they have things like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heats Club Band (or if it's a purely electronic-loving person, SAW 85-92) and then they say things like "even though these aren't my personal favorites they are the best based on lots of things". Why? Not because they feel like they're the greatest albums of all time, but because other people CONSTANTLY say they're the greatest albums of all time. People yell at you and comment with hostility on your blog if you don't list the obligatory ones as the greatest albums of all time, like if I were to make a "greatest albums" list of mine and have The Downward Spiral and Geogaddi at the top.


I don't like this, so I don't do it. I really like Start A People. It's my favorite by BMSR, and it has a great demonstration of their style broadly, with lofi, hifi, loud beats with quiet melodies, loud melodies with quiet beats, ambience, vocoders...just a whole lot of stuff. I'd recommend it and say to me it's "essential".

agree with you 100 percent. right down to start a people, that album is transcendent.

i guess i could list some albums as essential but I don't care about discussing what's essential as much as I care about the albums that mean the most to me on a personal level. and if i were to list them you'd all just really not give a shit and I wouldn't blame you!

Some albums I can throw on the table.

Infected Mushroom - B.P. Empire; I love the somewhat dysfunctional sci-fi sound to some of the songs. Something I didn't anticipate as the first IM album I listened to was Vicious Delicious.

Blockhead - Uncle Tony's Coloring Book; The opening track reminds me of all those school house rock cartoons I saw as a kid, the overall feel to the album is kind of old schoolish but with a good nostalgic feel too. Also, I can't tell you how much I love the album cover.


The Beatles - Let It Be; I'm mentioning this one because I feel too many people refer to this album as their worst when I think it's one of their best. It has a very older style feel considering it's predecessor was Abbey Road.

George Harrison - All Things Must Pass; George is awesome, end of story.

Twoism-ist wrote:

Rodheh wrote:Well from what I can tell, "essentials" is indicative to an album that, to you, is a favorite and essential listening, as in you're going to be significantly impacted by it and your thoughts on music would be considerably different had you not heard it. These may or may not apply to everyone the same way they do to you, and that's why it's good to find who shares your musical opinions and whatnot.


Whether it needs to be something you'd pick up from some corner store or otherwise, I have no idea why that'd make a difference.


In terms of something having had a lot of influence, I'm not sure I'd call it essential either. I see lots of people who have lists like "the greatest albums of all time" and "my personal favorite albums". This makes no sense to me. What's the difference? Then I see that on their personal favorites they put exactly that, their favorites of all time. Truly, these are your "best albums" if you think about it. However, they then have another list called the "greatest albums" where they have things like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heats Club Band (or if it's a purely electronic-loving person, SAW 85-92) and then they say things like "even though these aren't my personal favorites they are the best based on lots of things". Why? Not because they feel like they're the greatest albums of all time, but because other people CONSTANTLY say they're the greatest albums of all time. People yell at you and comment with hostility on your blog if you don't list the obligatory ones as the greatest albums of all time, like if I were to make a "greatest albums" list of mine and have The Downward Spiral and Geogaddi at the top.


I don't like this, so I don't do it. I really like Start A People. It's my favorite by BMSR, and it has a great demonstration of their style broadly, with lofi, hifi, loud beats with quiet melodies, loud melodies with quiet beats, ambience, vocoders...just a whole lot of stuff. I'd recommend it and say to me it's "essential".

agree with you 100 percent. right down to start a people, that album is transcendent.

i guess i could list some albums as essential but I don't care about discussing what's essential as much as I care about the albums that mean the most to me on a personal level. and if i were to list them you'd all just really not give a shit and I wouldn't blame you!

Go ahead.

Julian Candy wrote:Infected Mushroom - B.P. Empire; I love the somewhat dysfunctional sci-fi sound to some of the songs. Something I didn't anticipate as the first IM album I listened to was Vicious Delicious.

Hell yeah man. BP Empire is amazing. Infected Mushroom ftw.

Bonobo - Dial M for Monkey

The album changed my whole perspective on music; got me into a lot of new and different stuff, so I have to say this is very essential to me. The bass lines flow through you and the melodies and the beats hit you just the right way. It's one of those albums that really takes me back to the place in time that I was when I first started listening to it.

PART ONE


Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd - The moon and the melodies.




Kelpe - Sea inside body




Flying lotus - 1983




Ulrich Schnauss - Far away trains passing by



Amon Tobin - Out from out where




Jonny L - Sawtooth




Stereolab - Chemical chords




Tobacco - Maniac Meat




VHS Head - Trademark ribbons of gold




Autechre - Tri Repetae



Palmbomen - Moonchildren



Royksopp - Melody AM




Boreal Network - DOS Image



Lemon Jelly - Lost Horizons




Wevie Stonder - The Bucket




Nightmares on wax - Carboot soul




Mr. Scruff - Trouser Jazz




Jefferson Airplane - After bathing at baxters




Daft Punk - Homework




Siriusmo - Mosaik




Dorian Concept - Trilingual Dance Sexperience




Jackson and his computer band - Smash




Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon




Dan Deacon - Spiderman of the Rings




Caribou (Manitoba) - Up In Flames




Luke Vibert - YosepH




Daedelus - Rethinking the weather




Prefuse 73 - One word extinguisher



Clark - Body riddle