Best Ever Albums

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

Jimmy Dread — Sun, 30 Aug 2020 06:07:05 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 08/30/2020 10:07

Compilations you’re say? Can do you one better than that. A really deliberate mixed bag to give you some inspiration.

Might also be worth searching through the threads for the nominations for the BETH Tournament, which ground to an abrupt halt despite a boatload of fantastic picks.

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

babyBlueSedan — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 21:18:16 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 08/30/2020 01:18

Jimmy Dread wrote:

House and techno have been a major part of my life since the late 80s, so intrigued to see where your journey takes you. Whilst I missed out on golden age of rave/acid house in so far as I never lost nights partying in warehouses off the M25, I was always into the music, so be interested to see what you unearth from the British/European scene. Labels, as well as artists, are well worth digging around - R&S & Warp especially - and there are pioneers and bangers to be found all over the shop.

In the meantime, and to prove that Strings Of Life is (for me at least) the finest piece of music ever written/programmed I present to you...

Link

This is incredible. Derrick May is definitely the artist I've been most impressed with so far, to the extent that I'm astonished I had never heard of him (or Strings of Life) until starting this diary. Like I know there's a token list of electronic artists that most critics point to as their favorites but this song not being considered a classic outside of just the techno world is criminal.

I've done some poking around through compilations on RYM and I've found a few from Warp I plan to give a listen. I may search around on Discogs too though I've never really used it for discovering music before. If there are any comps you'd recommend feel free to throw them my way, just can't promise I'll get to everything. I've got a list of classic Chicago house tracks I've compiled from a few places but I haven't dug quite so deep into the British scenes yet.

Also that Indian techno album sounds intriguing, gonna have to give that a listen too.

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

Anonymous — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 18:05:01 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 08/29/2020 22:05

Everytime I listen to Derrick May, I experience so much joy. Thanks NoWaxy

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

Jimmy Dread — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 17:50:45 GMT

Author: Jimmy Dread

Posted: 08/29/2020 21:50

Techno started in India, don’t you know...

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Synthesizing: Ten Ragas To A Disco Beat by Charanjit Singh

House and techno have been a major part of my life since the late 80s, so intrigued to see where your journey takes you. Whilst I missed out on golden age of rave/acid house in so far as I never lost nights partying in warehouses off the M25, I was always into the music, so be interested to see what you unearth from the British/European scene. Labels, as well as artists, are well worth digging around - R&S & Warp especially - and there are pioneers and bangers to be found all over the shop.

In the meantime, and to prove that Strings Of Life is (for me at least) the finest piece of music ever written/programmed I present to you...

Link

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

RoundTheBend — Sat, 29 Aug 2020 12:45:01 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 08/29/2020 16:45

babyBlueSedan wrote:

RoundTheBend wrote:

Was curious on your take for Trickfinger?

I was always a bit shocked to hear one of my favorite guitarists ever decided to (or perhaps knew it would get a decent amount of publicity to say) start working in electronic music (for what at the time sounded like exclusively).

Kraftwerk is the only electronic group/artist I've been like wow to somehow, so I'm pretty ignorant to saying where he stands as such an artist. I know he's not regarded as the best. I thought it was pretty good. But in your honest opinion, was it kinda garbage?

Until today I had no idea that John Frusciante had an electronic side project. Wild. Just gave the first track from his first album a listen and I didn't think it was that bad, maybe just a bit simplistic. Kind of sounds like the first recordings someone would make if they just started working in the genre. Wouldn't be too excited to listen to the rest of the album but I wouldn't say it's terrible. Though the only electronic music I tend to really hate is unstructured ambient stuff. I can vibe to most things that have a beat.

Thanks for your take and this cool log - look forward to checking out more from it!

I think this was my favorite track of his I've listened to so far (sneaks a little guitar into, so possibly cheating... hehe):
https://open.spotify.com/track/4Elm4rRan98pxxLV4t3kP4?si=YN3zRR5RRwuFePGxiEotAw

But yeah the beats are definitely a little less "high bar". I did like the layers played with at times, but yeah beat sounds a bit old school hip-hop even.

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

babyBlueSedan — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 11:49:49 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 08/28/2020 15:49

RoundTheBend wrote:

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

RoundTheBend — Fri, 28 Aug 2020 00:40:50 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 08/28/2020 04:40

Was curious on your take for Trickfinger?

I was always a bit shocked to hear one of my favorite guitarists ever decided to (or perhaps knew it would get a decent amount of publicity to say) start working in electronic music (for what at the time sounded like exclusively).

Kraftwerk is the only electronic group/artist I've been like wow to somehow, so I'm pretty ignorant to saying where he stands as such an artist. I know he's not regarded as the best. I thought it was pretty good. But in your honest opinion, was it kinda garbage?

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

babyBlueSedan — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 18:04:22 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 08/27/2020 22:04

And with that, I'm wrapping up the Detroit techno portion of this journal. As you can probably tell, I was getting a less enthusiastic as things went on. While I did enjoy a lot of what I heard, and loved some of it, there were a lot of artists that stuck to a pretty core techno sound. And that sound isn't one I'm terribly fond if; I won't hide the fact that the majority of what I loved was the more maximalist stuff that sounded closer to house music and that a lot of the more mechanical stuff kind of grated on me. Still though, I'm really glad I went through the genre because while I always had a vague idea of the origins of techno I never really knew the details, and I think I learned a lot along the way.

As a kind of summary, here's my Best Tracks playlist for Detroit techno:

Rhythm is Rhythm - Strings of Life
Model 500 - Night Drive (Thru-Babylon)
Inner City - Good Time
Psyche - Neurotic Behavior
Jeff Mills - The Bells
Robert Hood - Chase
Anthony Shakir - Arise
Galaxy 2 Galaxy - Hi-Tech Jazz

My plan for this journal had been to go through one subgenre at a time, but I'm having second thoughts about that. It feels a bit weird to keep jumping through time periods, and I think going chronologically would help me identify influences better. So from here out I'm going to hop around between subgenres but go mostly chronologically. If there's a subgenre that's mostly known for a certain time period (thinking something like acid house in the late 80's / early 90's) I might do a kind of deep dive on that subgenre. But otherwise I'm going to keep things fresh by jumping around more. Next stop will be the origins of house music in the early 80's.

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

babyBlueSedan — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 17:53:44 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 08/27/2020 21:53

The Best?

I've been waiting to do this one for a couple weeks but wanted to do things somewhat chronologically.

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Lifestyles Of The Laptop Café by The Other People Place

(2001) This is the highest rated Detroit Techno album on RYM. Of course that's a bit of a silly distinction since so much of the best Detroit stuff isn't in album form. But still, I was hoping for something pretty impressive from one of the members of Drexciya. Aesthetically, this feels a lot like deep house. It's minimal and very repetitive, relying more on subtle dynamics than huge accents or staples. It's also much more subdued than most of the techno I've heard, though it's still unmistakably techno with its metallic sound. All the songs here are pretty interesting...for their first halves. But none of them really evolve over their runtime, instead focusing on the same idea over and over. This is also true of the vocal samples, which just kind of repeat again and again without changing. I do have to give it credit for sounding like something that would be good background music for an empty cafe, but for active listening it gets a little old.

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

babyBlueSedan — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 17:47:24 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 08/27/2020 21:47

Carl Craig

Finally getting around to what I promised so many days ago. I listened to a couple of Craig's albums, linked below, and I don't really have much to say about either of them. Part of the reason this took me so long to get to... I was interested to see where Craig went in the 90's since his work under the Psyche and BFC monikers was some of my favorite so far. It also sounds, at least to my ears, more futuristic than these two albums. I enjoyed Landcruising quite a bit, as it was a good mixture of atmospheric moments and harder ones. More Songs felt like a slightly worse version of Landcruising. Overall both were good techno albums that didn't stand out too much. I suppose that's both good and bad.

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Landcruising by Carl Craig

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More Songs About Food And Revolutionary Art by Carl Craig

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

babyBlueSedan — Wed, 19 Aug 2020 17:12:38 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 08/19/2020 21:12

Jazz Techno

While going back through what I listened to at the beginning of this project I realized that while I listened to stuff from two of the original members of Underground Resistance - Jeff Mills and Robert Hood - I never checked out any solo work from the third original member, Mad Mike Banks. After some digging I found this comp from one of his monikers, and after one listen I think it might be the best thing I've listened to so far.

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A Hi-Tech Jazz Compilation by Galaxy 2 Galaxy

From what I can tell this compiles recordings from as far back as the early 90's, and shockingly it's an UR release on a label that's streaming on Spotify! Wild. I was a bit worried going in as this is nearly two hours long, but it didn't feel it's length at all. Now, like with some other stuff I've listened to, I have my doubts as to how much this qualifies as techno. But instead of it having a large house influence - some tracks do, but not all of them - the strongest influence here is jazz. Some of these feel more like jazz songs than techno songs. I've never been a big fan of jazz because I was apparently home sick from school on the day they taught us the musical knowledge necessary to understand jazz. But I've always liked jazz in hip hop and soul: jazz with a beat under it basically. And let me tell you, that's exactly what this is. These tracks are incredibly lush and engaging, really hypnotic but also with tons of unpredictable jazz stuff happening. And I'm pretty sure the last track here has a piano that riffs on the piano line from "Strings of Life," though I might be imagining it.

Here are a couple of my favorite tracks from this comp. The first was originally in 1993, and this is the original version, not the version on the comp. It blows my mind that this was released in 93, it sounds nothing like the rest of what the UR crew was making back then. The second track is one of the more house-influenced songs and it also has a strong gospel influence. It reminds me a lot of the Moodymann albums I've heard.

Link

Link

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

babyBlueSedan — Wed, 19 Aug 2020 16:51:14 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 08/19/2020 20:51

guzguzgarbit wrote:

Drexciya have good and bad tracks, for me it's usually a mixed bag. Some tracks are very nice though... This one comes to my mind:

Link

Ooh, I do like this a lot more. Feels a lot warmer than the stuff I listened to; seems like several techno groups have gone for water-themed sounds and it's not really one I'm a fan of.

I suppose this is the risk of exploring artists through compilations: it's hard to know what's indicative of their sound and what isn't.

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

guzguzgarbit — Fri, 14 Aug 2020 15:57:02 GMT

Author: guzguzgarbit

Posted: 08/14/2020 19:57

Drexciya have good and bad tracks, for me it's usually a mixed bag. Some tracks are very nice though... This one comes to my mind:

Link

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

babyBlueSedan — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 18:14:29 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 08/12/2020 22:14

Backtracking

Whoa, two updates in one day.

One of the artists on my list to check out was Drexciya, who I saw listed on a few techno lists I checked out. They released an album in 1997 but upon further investigation they were releasing vinyl-only EPs back in the early 90's. Luckily a lot of that material was reissued recently, though it's scattered across four compilations that don't seem to be in any order. I gave the first one a listen and wasn't too impressed. Their whole act seems to have a water theme, with most of their record and track names referencing aquatic things. I'm not sure it comes out too much in their music, which is a bit hard to listen to. A lot of it is very percussion heavy, with very few synth lines. Not really my thing, but I want to highlight this song which is pretty ridiculous. I can't decide whether it's supposed to be intentionally campy or not:

Link

I probably won't be checking out the rest of their stuff. Going back also caused me to check out this track by Anthony "Shake" Shakir. I had seen he has a massive compilation of tracks that has good reviews, but it's not on streaming and is like three hours long so I was too overwhelmed to dive into it. However, this track is absolutely incredible. It's warm where other Detroit tracks are cold, possibly because it's another one of those tracks with a huge house influence. There's apparently a Steely Dan sample somewhere here but it's been too long since I've listened to Aja to recognize it. Regardless though this might just cause me to dive into the rest of that comp, or at least give some of the additional tracks a spin.

Link

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

babyBlueSedan — Wed, 12 Aug 2020 16:18:07 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 08/12/2020 20:18

Jeff Mills, revisited

I know I said I'd be covering Carl Craig next but I have a confession to make: I'm a dirty liar. I hope this doesn't torpedo my reputation.

I was watching a YouTube video that was in my recommended where producers were trying to identify techno tracks, and one of the tracks sounded really good. I was surprised when they revealed it was by Jeff Mills since I didn't recognize it from when I listened to some of his stuff. It turns out it's considered a techno classic and it's way better than anything else I'd heard from him:

Link

This is just fantastic. I think what differentiates it from the rest of Mills's work is that melodic synth line that really gives the track some added character. I still like the sound of the rest of the elements but it sounds so much complete with that there while a lot of his other tracks feel like they're missing something.

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

babyBlueSedan — Sun, 9 Aug 2020 14:45:22 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 08/09/2020 18:45

The Second Wave, Continued

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Azimuth by Kenny Larkin

(1994) By this point it seems like the Detroit sound had kind of solidified, with producers opting for a mechanical but still spacey sound, reminiscent of ambient techno. I hadn't read anything about Kenny Larkin and had just seen this album cover on RYM, which is why I added it to my queue. If you're a hardcore fan of this scene I'd recommend it, but not otherwise.

In preparation for this blurb I decided to do some research on Larkin and found that he released this track four years earlier. It proves once and for all that albums are the wrong way to explore the genre, as this is way more exciting than anything off of Azimuth. Maybe a bit more primitive in that there's not a lot going on, but I prefer these tracks to have big obvious beats than subtle ones.

Link

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Deep Space by Model 500

(1995) And we've come full circle. I was curious since the start what the first official album from Juan Atkins's Model 500 moniker would sound like given that it came out 5+ years after his early recording. Well, it's more ambient techno! Atkins seems to have been inspired here by the producers he inspired, as this is once again a lot more subtle and airy. The highlight for me is the third track, which is a vocal song. I don't really care for the vocals, but the beat is a lot more interesting than on the other songs. I guess it's hard to sing over ambient techno? I'd give the same recommendation for this album as the last one: fans of the genre only.

I'll be tackling Carl Craig next. Like with Atkins I'm excited to see where he ended up in the mid-late 90's, especially since he made one of my favorite albums I've listened to so far in this journey.

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

babyBlueSedan — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 22:58:40 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 07/29/2020 02:58

Robert Hood

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Internal Empire by Robert Hood

(1994) Next up we've got Jeff Mills's UR groupmate, Robert Hood. While Mills's work was minimal in the sense that it lacked dynamics, Hood's version of techno puts a different spin on the word. This is minimal in the sense that there's actually very little here; the quick bloops and relatively subdued drumming is a huge contrast to the driving, industrial sound of Jeff Mills. The word that keeps coming to mind is "primitive," though I think that has a negative connotation and I don't necessarily intend for it to. These tracks aren't fleshed out, but they're not really supposed to be. Here's a pretty good representation of the sound:

Link

While this was really enjoyable at first, my enjoyment quickly wore thin and this became a bit of a difficult listen. The simplicity is a draw but it's also a drawback as these tracks don't have a ton of variety. Hood also has a well-regarded EP called Minimal Nation that I listened to a couple tracks from, and if you can believe it it's even more minimal than this one. I was about ready to be done with this album when the last track hit, and I was pretty quickly pulled in again. This one's got a bit more going on than the other but perhaps more than anything it uses sounds that are a bit more robust. And...it actually kind of feels like a dance track? Like I promised last time I'll have a lot more to say about minimal techno eventually, and while I think picking out the nuances in the style can be a lot of fun this one lacks those nuances and relies a bit too much on skeletal rhythms. Still an interesting listen though to see how much Mills and Hood diverged in sound in such a short time period.

Link

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

babyBlueSedan — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 15:55:19 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 07/27/2020 19:55

I took a break from techno over the weekend because I was a bit burnt out, but after a weekend of listening to slowcore I'm back and ready for more. I'll probably start posting a bit more infrequently here though so I don't get burnt out again.

Jeff Mills

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Waveform Transmission Vol. 1 by Jeff Mills

(1992) Around the time Underground Resistance was releasing all of their kind of side project albums, Mills released this solo effort. It's unlike anything else I've talked about here. For the first time the mechanical sounds don't just sound like what you think robots sound like, they sound like actual machines hissing and scraping together. It sounds harsher, almost industrial, and yet the sound really doesn't overpower you; it's not uncomfortable to listen to. I would also say it has fewer dynamics than most I've what I've heard so far in that the songs have less range and thus feel a bit flat. On the one hand this makes it a bit less rhythmic and energetic, but on the other hand it makes it feel like there's more power behind the songs. Like with the UR songs I listened to, I think this is music that would sound better on the dancefloor than for casual listening.

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Live At The Liquid Room - Tokyo by Jeff Mills

That thought is confirmed with this set. If you think a live techno album sounds silly, give this a listen. You can feel the energy of the crowd, feel Mills playing on that energy as he decides which song to play next. You can hear the euphoria of the crowd when a popular song gets put on (appropriately, "Strings of Life" gets one of the biggest cheers). I think I'd have even more appreciation for this if I had ever been to a set like this and had any understanding of how Mills did all this mixing in real time, and of course knowing more of these songs would probably make it more enjoyable as well. But somehow, despite having the same general sound palette as Waveform Transmission, this is a lot more listenable and feels like it has more momentum behind it. The transitions between songs on the album are a bit jarring, but here Mills blends things together so it feels like there's endless momentum until the set is over. Which is likely the purpose, of course.

I gave a compilation from Mills a listen too but thought it seemed a bit flat and I stopped a few songs in; some of the songs appeared on the live mix and sounded much better. All in all I think Mills is maybe a bit too minimal for my taste, though perhaps it's just the way Mills's music is minimal (given that there's another artist I've really fallen in love with, who I'll get to eventually, that is even more minimal).

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

babyBlueSedan — Sat, 25 Jul 2020 15:09:25 GMT

Author: babyBlueSedan

Posted: 07/25/2020 19:09

guzguzgarbit wrote:

Great thread idea, I love your insights so far. �'�

Perhaps you've seen my techno chart? It might not be exactly your taste, but maybe you can find something...

May this thread goes on, I will be following it closely.

Hey, thanks! I hadn't seen your chart but just took a look at it and I think I'll add a few of these to my list. Was going to skip Carl Craig's first album but I'm guessing I shouldn't since it's first on your list.

Re: A Journey Deep Into the Bowel of House (and Techno)

guzguzgarbit — Sat, 25 Jul 2020 13:17:48 GMT

Author: guzguzgarbit

Posted: 07/25/2020 17:17

Great thread idea, I love your insights so far. �'�

Perhaps you've seen my techno chart? It might not be exactly your taste, but maybe you can find something...

May this thread goes on, I will be following it closely.