TheScarf Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 Fucking great thread. Some read. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin M Posted December 18, 2012 Author Share Posted December 18, 2012 Should have the number 1 up sometime tonight..... just trying to find the right words to describe "This Beat Is Technotronic" 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond Gord Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 Come on Colin; you can't keep us hanging on. This like one of those unnaturally long pauses before the winner of a reality TV show is announced. You've gone all Davina McColl on us. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin M Posted December 18, 2012 Author Share Posted December 18, 2012 1 Underworld Dubnobasswithmyheadman (1994) In the world of music, there can surely be no more divisive a word than "progressive". As a term in rock music it is used to label a movement towards more complex, elaborate, artistic works that incorporate different styles, time signatures and instrumentation in regularly longer form compositions, different from the established tradition. Prog Rock divides opinion like no other sub-genre - one man's epic work of genius is another's over-egged bloated self-indulgent turkey. Rock traditionalists value simplicity, they want the sound to be raw and primitive. The progressive fan sees this as limiting and too simple - the answer they are looking for is for more detail and something more "challenging" and "intelligent". Despite more recent critical reevaluation, Progressive remains a term that can send some running for the hills (where they presumably store their Ramones singles), faintly muttering about "chin-strokers". In dance music, the development of progressive house shares much in terms of intention with its rock equivalent. Tracks could be longer, long enough to "lose yourself in". Instrumentation could be more varied, arrangements could be fuller and more detailed than the primitive and minimal sounds of early acid house and techno. The music could incorporate different styles and sounds from an ever more accessible world, combining contrasting global cultures into one loved up movement. Today the description "progressive house" will divide as much as it does in the rock world - even though the line between genres is often fine. Dubnobasswithmyheadman is an album that the progressive tag suits to a tee. Partly because there's a pulse of progressive house that runs through it, usually attributed to new third member DJ Darren Emerson's input to the group. But if you look at the identifiers of progressive music, Dubnobasswithmyheadman ticks all the boxes - the tracks are long, evolving and slowly unravelling compositions. The arrangements and sound pallete are full and varied. It's an album that shifts style effortlessly yet always sounds cohesive, a party of variety yet always identifiably Underworld. Progressive house, stadium techno, ambient rock, dub adventure, impressionist poetry.... Dubnobasswithmyheadman is all of these things and yet none of them truly do it justice. It just is what it is. I'll be honest with you - I've never yet heard the first two Underworld albums. I am sure it's safe to say that in terms of reaching an audience both can be seen as false starts. The addition of Emerson to the core duo of Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, creating Underworld Mk II, seems to have brought the group into focus and Dubnobasswithmyheadman is the fantastic product of the new relationship. It followed a run of singles that were more hedonistic and club friendly, and while there's plenty of thump to be found within, it's an album that rewards headphone listening, honing in on the perfect detail of the tracks. The trippy pattern and bass throb of Dark and Long that opens the album hypnotically sets the scene. It's a slow burning masterpiece, the unfolding arrangement providing the perfect backdrop for Hyde's vocals. It's followed by the epic glory that is Mmm Skyscraper I Love You, where pounding drums, sci-fi synths and riffs form the backdrop to Hyde's half spoken, half sung poetry - part overhead conversations, part hippy love in, all cleverly and engrossingly formed. Hyde serves as a Burroughs inspired narrator to the album, introducing an array of characters via the song titles - Spoonman, Cowgirl, Surfboy, as if we're living in the dance equivalent of side 2 of Abbey Road (the original prog rock album?). Picking highlights on Dubnobasswithmyheadman is hard - the album flows majestically from start to finish, forming something far greater than the sum of its (independently great anyway) parts. Surfboy's drum machine pulse gives way to metallic clatter before pretty bleeps come to the fore. Spoonman is utterly hypnotic driving trance-like house, while Cowgirl is storming techno that sounds like it's designed to be blasted at tens of thousands of adoring festival ravers. Dirty Epic wouldn't sound out of place on Depeche Mode's Violator, yet is stretched out beyond mere synth pop sounding part stadium rock, part melancholic piano house genius. The rock link is heard further on the Floyd-esque Tongue, and the chilled looping grooves of River Of Bass, with echoes of John Martyn gone ambient electronica. It's fitting then that our number 1 is an all encompassing masterpiece, a perfect amalgamation of style and genre that represents the diversity of electronic music, not just in the glorious period of the 1990s that it was born from, but throughout the time period of all the albums nominated. Dubnobasswithmyheadman is progressive in the truest sense of the word, a brilliantly produced, arranged and delivered journey of sound, encompassing numerous styles and ideas yet always fusing them together naturally into a sound that Underworld made their own. It seemed to come completely from leftfield on its release, and still forms an entrancing listen to lose yourself in. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin M Posted December 18, 2012 Author Share Posted December 18, 2012 And with that I can confirm that there's no greater incentive to get your arse in gear than to be compared to Divina McCall. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond Gord Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 Good show Colin. Best thread I've read in a long time and a worthy winner. I'm already looking forward to the next one!!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundermonkey Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 Fine work Colin. These two polls in the music forum are my threads of the year. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin M Posted December 18, 2012 Author Share Posted December 18, 2012 Thanks guys, I can honestly say it was a pleasure. Appreciate everyone's patience as I took longer to do the top 10, and the writeups got progressively longer.... I think I was just enjoying myself too much! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mambostaggie Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 Wow, great album for No.1, didn't make my top 10 though. Gonna stick it on for a listen, hasn't been on in years. i was convinced that Screamadelica was going to be number 1. I've been waiting for it since the top ten started. Maybe people aren't classing it as electronic. Thanks for all the hard work Colin, this has been my favourite thread ever. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dundeebarry Posted December 18, 2012 Share Posted December 18, 2012 Mmm Skyscraper I Love You came on random shuffle as I walked home from a mate's tonight. "Epic glory" sums it up beautifully, Colin. Brilliant thread! It's been a real pleasure to read your writing here, Colin. Mucho respect to you, good sir. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantene proV Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 Yaaas! My #1 album was the overall #1. As the countdown progressed (slowly ) I thought it had missed the boat so I'm delighted other voters had the taste to pick it. Brilliant write-ups throughout Colin - I jotted a few paragraphs along with my votes but nothing of the scale and knowledge from yourself. To all those who haven't heard DNBWMHM yet, or not for a while, give it a blast. A more fully-formed, sprawling journey of a record would be hard to find for your ears. It was a bit of a game-changer back in the beginning of 1994. Maybe you had to be into dance back then to appreciate it as much as i do. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantene proV Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 Wow, great album for No.1, didn't make my top 10 though. Gonna stick it on for a listen, hasn't been on in years. i was convinced that Screamadelica was going to be number 1. I've been waiting for it since the top ten started. Maybe people aren't classing it as electronic. Thanks for all the hard work Colin, this has been my favourite thread ever. So was I. It never made my list as I took a firm line with the criteria so was glad others did too. Screamadelica is a wonderful album but not for this thread (was convinced folk were gonna put in Kid A too!) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotThePars Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 Have to agree with the other comments. Reading this has given me the perfect basis to dive much further into techno, house and everything else that so far has been limited to Erol Alkan ILT mixes (still a good start!) and the inspirations for the bloody EDM scene. Thanks, everyone who participated and particularly Colin M for the excellent write ups. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Brilliant Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 I have to say I had doubts - I wasn't sure this topic would have the legs to get going. Proved wrong most delightfully! A great read, an education in places: Something to be very pleased with Colin. Congratulations and thanks. Tied for thread of the year with the big Rangers (RIP) one, pre- about page 3000... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin M Posted December 19, 2012 Author Share Posted December 19, 2012 I think one of the best things for me about doing this was revisiting a number of albums from the 90s - it was a pleasure to go back to things I hadn't listened to for ages with fresh ears. Underworld, Leftism, Moon Safari, the Daft Punk albums, Jilted Generation, Herbert, all things I hadn't heard for a long time. Things like BOC and Aphex I know inside out but even thinking about what I'd say about them was great fun. The stuff I wasn't familiar with at all (Pryda, Big Bud, Lo-Fidelity Allstars, most of Chicane) were all quite different and I can honestly say I enjoyed discovering them. I pretty much expected to hate Pryda (sorry Marshmallo!) but it was different from what I expected, proving my own prejudices to me. I suppose a 30 is still fairly limiting - It feels sort of wrong to cover AI era Warp stuff like Aphex/Polygon Window and not also mention things like Black Dog, B12 and Autechre. I thought there might be at least one Plastikman album in there. The 2000s were perhaps surprisingly poorly represented - I'd have loved to have written up something on Burial or LCD Soundsystem, or guys like Theo Parrish or Ricardo Villalobos. Looking further back, I thought we might have more than one Kraftwerk album, and JustOneCornetto's list had some great entries from the likes of Tangerine Dream and Gary Numan. Just goes to show how spoiled for choice we were! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
groaninjock Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 I think one of the best things for me about doing this was revisiting a number of albums from the 90s - it was a pleasure to go back to things I hadn't listened to for ages with fresh ears. It was the same for me when I did the top albums thread - listened to loads of stuff I hadn't stuck on for ages like Green Day, Ocean Colour Scene, Pulp and REM. Great thread, some effort went into those write-ups! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diamond Gord Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 I think one of the best things for me about doing this was revisiting a number of albums from the 90s - it was a pleasure to go back to things I hadn't listened to for ages with fresh ears. Underworld, Leftism, Moon Safari, the Daft Punk albums, Jilted Generation, Herbert, all things I hadn't heard for a long time. Things like BOC and Aphex I know inside out but even thinking about what I'd say about them was great fun. The stuff I wasn't familiar with at all (Pryda, Big Bud, Lo-Fidelity Allstars, most of Chicane) were all quite different and I can honestly say I enjoyed discovering them. I pretty much expected to hate Pryda (sorry Marshmallo!) but it was different from what I expected, proving my own prejudices to me. I suppose a 30 is still fairly limiting - It feels sort of wrong to cover AI era Warp stuff like Aphex/Polygon Window and not also mention things like Black Dog, B12 and Autechre. I thought there might be at least one Plastikman album in there. The 2000s were perhaps surprisingly poorly represented - I'd have loved to have written up something on Burial or LCD Soundsystem, or guys like Theo Parrish or Ricardo Villalobos. Looking further back, I thought we might have more than one Kraftwerk album, and JustOneCornetto's list had some great entries from the likes of Tangerine Dream and Gary Numan. Just goes to show how spoiled for choice we were! This thread has reignited my love of electronic music and I've been discovering new(ish) music as well as rediscovering some old favourites. DNBWMHM was no2 on my list and was a worthy winner. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bert Raccoon Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 Well this has been fantastic. Some fantastic albums in this list and the write ups have been second to none and far better than anything you would read in a popular magazine. Like others it's turned me onto music that I'd perhaps missed out on the first time around like Lo Fidelity Allstars. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uberman Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 here's my 10 incase anyone's interested 1 Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Angles (electro hip hop) 2 Lo-Fidelity Allstars - How To Operate With A Blown Mind 3 The Orb - U.F.Orb 4 Front 242 - 05:22:09:12 Off (Belgian Industrial Mayhem, the numbers in the album title are coded with letters of the alphabet spelling Evil) 5 Kid Carpet - Casio Royale 6 Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85–92 7 Death In Vegas - Dead Elvis 8 Sheep On Drugs - Greatest Hits (industrial punky techno, not a compilation just the cheeky name of their debut album) 9 Chemical Brothers - Exit Planet Dust 10 Underworld - Dubnomasswithmyheadman 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dundeebarry Posted December 19, 2012 Share Posted December 19, 2012 Leftfield - Leftism Massive Attack - Mezzanine Chemical Brothers - Surrender Air - Moon Safari Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver Kraftwerk - Man Machine St Etienne - Fox Base Alpha David Holmes - Let's Get Killed The Knife - Silent Shout 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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