Hey all, so over the past year I’ve been slowly trying to catch up on all the electronic music staples that I know I’m supposed to listen to, and I’ve gone through a decent lil’ bit. But I’m sure there’s a lot left out there. So, what am I missing? What classics should I hear? What pioneers have I missed?
I especially enjoy Jungle and DnB, (not the same thing I know), but I’m open to trying anything and everything at least once.
Here’s what I’ve listened to so far that I think fits my criterea:
Richard D. James Album – Aphex Twin
Feed Me Weird Things – Squarepusher
Hard Normal Daddy – Squarepusher
Incunabula – Autechre
Autobahn – Kraftwerk
Gesang der Junlinge – Stockhausen
Twoism – Boards of Canada
Los Angeles – Flying Lotus
Untrue – Burial
I cant say if you are missing these, but I like them,
Computerworld - Kraftwerk.
Entire discography - DMX Krew
Music for the Jilted Generation - Prodigy
Needs Continuum - Karen Gwyer
Dummy - Portishead
Chubbed Up - Sleaford Mods
Mezzanine - Massive Attack
Eskmo - Eskmo
I mean, theres no ‘supposed to listen to’ dont fall for that snobbish nonsense. Listen to what you like the sound of.
The Future Sound of London - Lifeforms, Cascade, ISDN
Reload - A Collection of Short Stories
Global Communications
B12 - Electro Soma
Various Artist - Virtual Sex
Leftfield is a band that’s been very influença already in the 90s, yet I find their more recent album Alternative Light Source to be a fantastic journey through UK electronic music and album.
For my money the five best “electronic” albums of the last decade-ish are:
Skee Mask - Compro (Breaks, IDM)
Leon Vynehall - Music for the Uninvited (House)
Jon Hopkins - Immunity (Techno, IDM)
DJ Sprinkles - Midtown 120 Blues (Deep House)
Machinedrum - Room(s) (Footwork)
There was some other stuff that seemed better at the time, but these have held up the best IMHO.
Edit: Also Syro, but OP already knows Aphex Twin so I left it off
Chemical Brothers - Exit Planet Dust - Great first album here.
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing - This album is in a league of its own.
Mr. Fingers - Amnesia - Released in the 80’s, this is the first album of Larry Heard aka Mr. Fingers, who was a pioneer of Deep House in the Chicago House scene.
Luke Vibert - Chicago, Detroit, Redruth - This album is from 2007, so more mid-discography, but it is a great starting point, and one of my favorites. He has made music under some other aliases, such as Wagon Christ, which is pretty good as well.
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Moodymann - Silent Introduction - Released in 1997, I would describe this as Detroit-Electronic-Funky-Deep-House.
Coil - Love’s Secret Domain, Astral Disaster and Musick to Play in the Dark vols 1 and 2
Time Machines (aka Coil)- Time Machines
Tangerine Dream - Atem and Zeit
Laurie Anderson - Big Science
Herbie Hancock - Head Hunters
Mouse on Mars - Iaora Tahiti
Spring Heel Jack - Lee Perry EP
Pole - 1, 2 and 3
Harmonia - Deluxe / Musik von Harmonia
Éliane Radigue - Œuvres électroniques
Carter Tutti Void - f(x)
Add N to (X) - Avant Hard
Alec Empire - Destroyer
Ekoplekz - Reflektionz
Front 242 - 05:22:09:12 Off
For the more “classic” electronic music tradition, the book “Composing electronic music” by Curtis Roads (Oxford University Press) comes with a large number of sound examples on a companion website including a broad range of classic works, as well as a thorough coverage of recent sound generation and design approaches (not so much with a pop/dance focus though).
In 1977 i bought this record called Space by Magic Fly. It could have been Popcorn or Jarres Oxygene. But this was the record that got me into synthesizers as a kid. Gotta know your roots.
David Holmes-let’s get killed
Roni Size - New Forms
Grooverider - the prototype years or mysteries of funk
Tricky - maxinquaye
Richie Hawtin - artifacts
DJ Krush - the message at the depth
Fluxion - perfused
Silver Bullet - Bring down the walls no limit squad returns
Great start but it doesn’t go back far enough. These are some of the now a bit forgotten “pillars of music” that later electronic artists drew upon. As the man said above: “know your roots”:
Cluster - Soweisoso
Jon Hassell - Possible Musics & Aka/Darbari/Java
Can - Tago Mago
Steve Reich - Clapping Music, Drumming and Music for 18 Musicians (not electronic but highly relevant)
Terry Riley - Persian Surgery Dervishes
Suzanne Ciani - Buchla Concerts
Morton Subotnik - Silver Apples of the Moon, Wild Bull
Brian Eno - Music for Films
Kerry Leimer - Imposed Order (best ambient album of all time)
Bill Nelson - Sounding the Ritual Echo
Future Sound of London - Lifeforms
