Colin M Posted December 10, 2012 Author Share Posted December 10, 2012 Bump! Don't leave us hanging NB: Pretty sure I had R+S in my top 5. We'll be ending the suspense with the top 5 this week, I had a hectic weekend but we'll be back on track shortly. I'm just refreshing my brain on what they sound like before I get to spout forth about them On the "I wish I'd included that" front, I wish I had remembered The Black Dog's "Bytes", was listening to a couple of bits from it and it's up there with the other greats from that era. Maybe we could do a great albums that never made it list! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nizzy Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Maybe we could do a great albums that never made it list! I was thinking of the individuals or acts who made a significant contribution to electronic msic but never made a truly landmark album and thought the thread may continue with their recognition following the completion of the Top 30. Same with stand-out singles. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin M Posted December 10, 2012 Author Share Posted December 10, 2012 (edited) 5 Daft Punk Discovery (2001) Kraftwerk may have been the original pop robots, but Daft Punk took the concept and ran with it in presenting their second album. Having made a point of performing wearing masks to hide their own faces early on after breaking through to the mainstream, their image around the time of Discovery became the slicker robotic image we have come to associate with them ("funkadelic Power Rangers" as the NME described). Their music went through a similar transition, upgrading from the more rough and ready approach of their debut to a more polished and poppier sound. Daft Punk 2.0 was more dazzling and colourful than before, with more high end production values and a more focussed presentation - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger. As with any product upgrade there was initial dissent among fans and critics alike - on the face of it their world was suddenly more deliberately commercial and happy to indulge in the cheese factor that has "proper" dance music snobs scrabbling for their ordered collection of Basic Channel 12"s. Discovery though was a glorious pop explosion, where Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo capture and fashion a myriad of components into tightly reined mini-masterpieces. The opening four tracks alone comprise a terrific flurry of ideas demonstrating just how joyful Daft Punk's music can be. Lead single and infectious party anthem One More Time opens proceedings, before the magnificent Aerodynamic harnesses funk riffs and OTT Van Halen-esque guitar flourishes before unfolding into lush baroque electro that sounds like the ghost of J.S. Bach inhabiting the body of Giorgio Moroder. The filtered disco loops and adoringly corny lyrics of Digital Love can't help but raise a smile before the jerky android inflections of the aforementioned Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger take control. It's a stunning run of tracks that manage to fit in far more musical ideas than many pop groups muster up in multi-album careers. The skill of Daft Punk here is in combining those contrasting ideas that on paper just shouldn't work into an ultimately unique and trademark brand of music of their own - this is cyber disco for the 21st Century. Barry Manilow is looped to surprisingly great effect on the raw stomp of Superheroes, those baroque melodies appear again on Veridis Quo (try reading it slowly) and the slow 80s funk of Something About Us and smooth bed of synth on Voyager give some respite from the otherwise unstoppable energy that emerges from the album. The squelching P-Funk of Short Circuit breaks down into distortion towards the end, as if the overworked circuitry cannot handle the amount of information required to reproduce these tracks. Recovery occurs with the reinforcements of underground dance heroes Todd Edwards on the sample chopping Face To Face and house legend Romanthony on the closing epic Too Long. Discovery was a huge leap out of the 90s for Daft Punk, presenting a fantastic list of possible futures for dance music, synthesizing previous musics into a brave new world of pop music that the world could enjoy the struggle to keep up with. Most importantly though it's just a joy to listen to, demonstrating how innovative and wonderfully baffling pop music can be in the right hands. Edited December 10, 2012 by Colin M 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin M Posted December 10, 2012 Author Share Posted December 10, 2012 I was thinking of the individuals or acts who made a significant contribution to electronic msic but never made a truly landmark album and thought the thread may continue with their recognition following the completion of the Top 30. Same with stand-out singles. That's a good idea - there are loads of people who could be included and don't have definitive albums. Might be a nice change from focussing on the album too. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mambostaggie Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 I was thinking of the individuals or acts who made a significant contribution to electronic msic but never made a truly landmark album and thought the thread may continue with their recognition following the completion of the Top 30. Same with stand-out singles. Great idea, all through my album choices I kept thinking of amazing vinyls I've got which never appeared on a studio album or where the album was shite but had an absolutely belting track on it. In fact, I've got a good few already for my top 10. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nizzy Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 And there's number one on my last. People say music can transport you back to a particular place and time and they're right. I'm currently in Tenerife '04, but substituting a Geordie burd for a w**k. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bert Raccoon Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 Excellent write up of Discovery, one of my favourite albums. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mambostaggie Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 I never really got into Discovery, I think it was because it was 2001 and was at the peak of my techno snobbery. At the time I thought it was a big letdown after Homework, I will listen to it again now my tastes have mellowed out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breaking Decency Posted December 10, 2012 Share Posted December 10, 2012 I never really got into Discovery, I think it was because it was 2001 and was at the peak of my techno snobbery. At the time I thought it was a big letdown after Homework, I will listen to it again now my tastes have mellowed out. Same. Big fan of Homework. Will give Discovery another listen now! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantene proV Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Same. I gave Discovery a blast but it's no Homework. It may hang together as an album but Homework has much better highs for me. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Brilliant Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 It's poppy but if you're OK with that it's a masterpiece. So many albums in this thread I really like, even if they never had a look-in for my ten. For an 'indie c**t' I seem to be quite attached to an awful lot of these compared to the 'main' 50. Guns'n'Roses & the Manics.... :barf 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanky_ffc Posted December 11, 2012 Share Posted December 11, 2012 Inspired by this thread, I've just asked my sister to get me the Leftfield and Aphex Twin albums for Xmas. I've heard a decent amount of both but never thought to get their albums until now. Cracking thread, especially for those of us who weren't old enough to appreciate the albums first time around 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin M Posted December 12, 2012 Author Share Posted December 12, 2012 4 Air Moon Safari (1998) By its very nature, Electronic Music has always had an association with "the future". It's there in the titles, names, genres - Future Shock. From The Far Future. Memories Of The Future. Future Sound Of London. Future Garage. Throughout the various styles associated with Electronic Music are frequent links and themes presenting the music as the sound of future civilizations, somehow more advanced than other musics, suggesting that the listener is hearing something that they are doing well to keep up with, ahead of those stuck in present or, God forbid, even the past. But even by 1998, there were electronic sounds and instruments already intrinsically linked with certain facets of that past. Air's Moon Safari is soaked in the sound of Moog and Korg analogue synthesizers that soar amidst the lush arrangements. Those instruments and sounds had been in use in popular music for 30 years and Air's music looked back to records from throughout that time for influence to create and craft their take on pop music. There's an air of retro-futurism to this album - of looking to previous generation's sci-fi visions of the future that didn't quite come true and ended up seeming quaint yet still "cool". It's there not just in the synths, but in the space-age bachelor pad styling of the artwork. Every fucker owned Moon Safari. It became ubiquitous, the ultimate student coffee table album, the soundtrack to a thousand dinner parties, a go-to album for "chilling out" and "lounging" to. I know a bloke who, having done none of his Christmas shopping come tea time on Christmas Eve, popped into Tower Records (RIP) and picked up copies for everyone he knew. Even his gran. It just seemed impossible to resist. And why would you resist an album this good? Air (a French Band, as the cover made clear, as if you wouldn't be able to tell when listening) had honed and mastered their craft over a run of singles and EPs (gathered on Premiers Symptomes) combining live instrumentation with those synths and vocoders to put together a collection of utterly gorgeous songs and instrumentals that coaxed and caressed the ears. From its opening rhythm and bassline, La Femme D'Argent unfolds into a swell of seductive synths and piano. Sexy Boy is Moog-pop supreme, and the march of Kelly Watch The Stars welds itself onto your brain. New Star In The Sky is a lullaby as delivered by a robot from the Forbidden Planet. In Air's world, we could learn to relax and just admit that otherwise snubbed and maligned music from our parents' era might actually be, you know, pretty cool. Ce Matin-la could be Herb Alpert. You Make It Easy sounds like a French Carpenters. Moon Safari recalled so much great music, from Pet Sounds to Serge Gainsbourg, The Great Gig In The Sky to Jean-Jaques Perrey, yet pulled it all together to make something new, a luscious treasure of classic perfectly crafted pop whose reach will last as long as all of those other touchstones of the lineage. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mambostaggie Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 I had this in at about number 4, then took it out and replaced it with the hacker live, incidentally the hacker did a brilliant remix of Air - Don't be light, which used to frequently pop up in my old sets a good while back! Gonna give it a listen just now! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Brilliant Posted December 12, 2012 Share Posted December 12, 2012 ...a go-to album for "chilling out" and "lounging" to. My then-GF (now wife) gave me this record when I was 17. I never got around to playing it until I had tonsilitis and a desperate need for something to mellow me out. I've had a queasy relationship with it ever since, and always felt like I was missing out. Their subsequent albums, Virgin Suicides especially, I have loved since then. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin M Posted December 13, 2012 Author Share Posted December 13, 2012 My then-GF (now wife) gave me this record when I was 17. I never got around to playing it until I had tonsilitis and a desperate need for something to mellow me out. I've had a queasy relationship with it ever since, and always felt like I was missing out. Their subsequent albums, Virgin Suicides especially, I have loved since then. For me it really got played out. Not just because everybody really did seem to love it, but I think the kitsch/easy listening factor eventually wore a bit thin for me, and eventually I had just heard it far too much (while other stuff I have listened to every bit as much never seems to have worn thin). In listening to it recently I have fallen for some of its charms again - particularly the two tracks with Beth Hirsch on vocals. I do honestly think it's a great album, really well crafted and I do like that it is stlil a bit "out of time" - it sounds like all that great stuff from the 1970s yet somehow doesn't really sound like it could have been made any time other than the 1990s. I liked the Virgin Suicides ST (although I thought the film was all style and not enough substance, not that that is Air's fault!) but strangely that was the end of the road with them for me. I heard bits of the following one but never got around to following them any further. I dunno if that was because Moon Safari just seemed so played out at the time, because I suspect I'd like at least some of what followed. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Brilliant Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 For me it really got played out. Not just because everybody really did seem to love it, but I think the kitsch/easy listening factor eventually wore a bit thin for me, and eventually I had just heard it far too much I suspect that would've happened with me too. 10,000Hz Legend sounds like the kitsch/easy listening got dialled down a bit, and to pleaseant effect, but it isn't as cohesive. Agree about the film. Ghost Song though, DEESH!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundermonkey Posted December 13, 2012 Share Posted December 13, 2012 The last great Air album was Charlotte Gainsbourg's 5:55 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin M Posted December 13, 2012 Author Share Posted December 13, 2012 (edited) 3 Daft Punk Homework (1997) Completing a French hat-trick in our Top 5, Daft Punk's debut album statement is one of the key works in the history and development of dance music, a landmark release in its field, and one that crossed over to a wide audience. Named after a description of their previous band's music in a Melody Maker review, Daft Punk have since become cultural icons - sampled by Kanye West, referenced in an LCD Soundsystem song title, soundtracking Hollywood movies, video games and even an Yves Saint Lauren fashion show. In hindsight they were perhaps always destined for that status, and Homework remains a fascinating release, an album that intentionally straddles the divide between underground and mainstream. There was an enormous industry buzz surrounding Daft Punk before Homework was released. They had a run of great remixes of artists ranging from Ian Pooley and i:Cube to The Chemical Brothers and Gabrielle, and along with a few US producers (most notably DJ Sneak) were at the forefront of a specific trend at the time to loop and "filter" disco riffs. Daft Punk had already seemed to separate from the pack though, adding off-kilter elements that gave them an undeniably fresh take on the music - like the initially baffling triplet breakdown on the Gabrielle remix, or the seasick wobble of the infectious riffs on Indo Silver Club (included on Homework). Although the album was released amidst a renaissance of (particularly British) house music, there was still a sense that Daft Punk were breathing new life into underground music, that their take was particularly creative and original, while still indebted to numerous other big players in the scene (many of whom are listed in the shout-outs of Teachers). Homework is a rough'n'ready lo-fi patchwork, an engrossing page-turner of a sketchbook of ideas and hooks. There's an audible crackle from the low pass filtered vocal loop that opens the album on Daftendirekt, a rudimentary yet totally effective sleight of hand trick that allows the artist to control and create peaks in the music. The classic tech-house of Revolution 909 has a rough surface, as if we're somehow closer to the music, released before the final production varnish could be applied. You can practically hear the joins on the sample based house of the ironically named High Fidelity. This all adds to the thrill of Homework, a sense of hearing and feeling the creativity, where production finish and smoothed out surfaces don't matter. There's also a great sense of simplicity throughout - while rarely seeming minimal, the tracks on Homework succeed because of how infectious the ideas are. The sweet syrup of Fresh is filtered to sound like it's been rescued from an ancient C90, while the build from the bottom up construction of Phoenix still amounts to little more than drum machine, synth stab and bassline. Everyone's favourite endless loop Around The World has very little to it, yet in Daft Punk's hands is completely addictive. Da Funk is the Roobarb and Custard theme reborn over BDP's South Bronx before that monstrous searing acid riff takes control. Namechecking Brian Wilson and usually retaining a strong pop sensibility, it was no great surprise that Daft Punk reached the audience they did - the ideas and delivery were just too strong to fail. Yet one of Homework's great strengths is how it refuses to discriminate and differentiate between pop music and their underground precedents (God only knows what those pop fans reeled in by Around The World made of the brutal stomp of Rollin' & Scratchin'). That reach and unpretentious scope led Daft Punk to become revered by both the hardcore dance fans and wider crossover audience alike, a reputation that remains today. Edited December 13, 2012 by Colin M 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin M Posted December 13, 2012 Author Share Posted December 13, 2012 Might have overdone the metaphors on that one. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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