Top 5 Records ::
Honorable Mention ::
These 5 records are some of the best and most influential IDM records made since the genre got its (questionable) name. They are each innovative and markedly different and are basically the forerunners of the specific sub-genre that they created (yes, even Funkstorung). The goal is to say a few words about each record, not specifically focused on justifying there existence on this list, but mainly some thoughts that run through my head regarding these records and their significance. Any self-respecting trainspotter IDM head should already own these records (grin) and can hopefully identify with some of my comments. If you don’t own these records you are really missing out on some key idm releases. Keep in mind that I intentionally limited myself to 12″s here. There is obviously a lot of great music (cd’s and lp’s) out there, but 12″s were chosen basically because they are usually the proving ground of new artists and styles, and that’s what the interest is here.
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Anvil Vapre :: Autechre. This record made circa Ae’s ‘Tri Repetae’ period is such a good example of the complete and total freshness that is Autechre. Containing the main and commercially known “Second Bad Vilbel” that has been played on the likes of MTV, Modulations, and Radio Stations around the world. This tracks video also being the first foray by now popular Chris Cunningham into making music videos. This crunchy piece of beastiality sets the mood for the rest of the record, which never ceases to amaze. The second song is probably my favorite track on the 12″, it never seems to get old. The wonderfully punctuated female voices throughout the song with the delicious chords make such a nice composition. Play this track loud while going 80 down the highway; nothing seems to be more right. Caution: this track has also been known to cause an uncontrollable head nod. The third track is actually one of the happier songs by Ae and actually probably the weakest track on the record (that might just be my penchant for the dark though). In regards to the fourth, this must be played very loudly on a system with great stereo to be truly appreciated, nonetheless a superb song. On headphones this piece rattles back and forth across the brain and punctures continuously deeper and wider, back and forth. Its very sexual, but then again I find a lot of Ae’s music to be very sexual. There’s nothing like having sex to some of their tracks, especially their remixes. Take note (I’m sure some of you have experienced this): out of most idm, women seem to dig Ae more than anything else. So next time you have a lady friend over, or male friend for all you hardcore women, put on some sexy Ae beats and let it do the work for you.
This record was picked because it exemplifies Autechre’s sound so well. In the hard anxious crunchiness of “Second Bad Vilbel’ I hear sections of ‘Chiastic Slide’ and Tri Repetae mixed together. As with the other songs you can get a good feel for what Autechre has accomplished up to this point musically. This 12” was chosen mainly because this record was the first distinct time someone had taken noise/crunchiness combined it with nice tempo skittering beats and encapsulated it into something that is so listenable and appealing. In closing, this record is extremely dope, that’s all I can say about it; this is a must for anyone into electronic music. period.
Hi Scores :: Boards of Canada took the scene by storm several years ago with this breakthrough record, no where have lush melodies and hip hop tempo idm been combined better than in the studio of Mike and Marcus. “Everything You Do Is A Balloon’ has to be my favorite track on this 12”, with “Turquoise Hexagon Sun” right behind that. Balloon being such a lovely piece of music, that couldn’t have been laid out any better, and Hex Sun embodying BoC’s sound so perfectly. The tracks from this record were instant classics, and adequately paved way for their full length on Warp/Skam a year or so later. This record basically combines some of the best tracks from the full length as well as some of their previous work that didn’t make the cut for the album. BoC has a habit of overlapping tracks from releases heavily, but with the quality of their music no one seems to complain.
There’s not really too much in depth one can say about the tracks. They don’t seem to be as complicated as an Autechre track, but there is something so fundamentally right about everything that is done in their tracks. It seems as if the sounds makes some kind of connection with the child we used to be (maybe its the samples of kids voices). “Hi Scores” the track, also on the Skampler CD, is another nice track, no major standout points but it still seems to fit together so nicely. Hexagon Sun, a track that idm and hip hop heads alike can identify with, the melodies on this track are near perfect, mixed with the voices and the heavily nodable break. “Nlagon” is another enjoyable track, BoC melodies mixed with a very 80’s type of beat, then thrown around a little bit to keep the interest, this track sounds very Skam to me, although the repetitive melody at the ending of the track can get a bit annoying. “June 9th” is another one of my favorite tracks, and shows off BoC’s more up tempo side, flashy beat and a great dynamic melody. “Seeya Later” is a lot more relaxed than some of their tracks, and takes the melody a bit to seriously. Once again the lush Balloon, this track gets the ladies every time, lush melody and dope breaks once again show why BoC is on top of the game. This is such a great record, made by some real great musicians, all of you naysayers stop nitpicking the programming and construction and just listen, these songs have the ability to take you away like no other.
Hangable Auto Bulb :: Aphex Twin. Though this might not be the first record in this genre (who knows when Aphex actually made this music), it still remains one of the earliest and best combinations of jungle/up tempo breaks/beats mixed with the melodies and sounds of IDM music. It was released in 1995 and at the time it was rather oddly received. Mostly because Aphex, nor any of the idm crowd, had ever really done anything like this before. Fortunately a lot of the people that were into the IDM scene at the time were also into the jungle of the time so this was a very pleasant combination.
The music is generally melancholic on this record, I can’t really go so far as to pick a favorite song on it. Though if I had to play one track from the record for someone, what would most likely be picked would be “Children Talking” a.k.a. the mashed potato song. The mood of the record from beginning to end could best be described as a downward slant. With the light hearted mashed potato song downwards to “Custodian Discount” and “Wabby Legs” sadly eerie melody and driving percussion.
This record is by no means the best thing Aphex has ever done, but still stands as an outstanding and very original 12″ when you look at it for what it is. In 1996, a year later, Squarepusher released ‘Feed Me Weird Things’ and really gave a devout and exciting feel to this sub genre of idm-oriented jungle. Also during that year Aphex morphed his style even more out of the jungle realm and into a more original and processed up-tempo realm with the ‘Richard D James’ album. Some of the track names on this record continue Aphex’s use of anagrams (based on Analogue Bubblebath) and some others have even snuck into my everyday speech (I often ask for a Custodian Discount). This music still remains truly unique in my mind, and I hope one day to be able to find the second in this series in some backwater record store for 2.99$, but until then I’ll be content to listen to this lovely expedition into hectic beats and lovely Aphex’esque melodies and sounds.
Funkenstort :: Funkstörung. This record, admittedly in the same ballpark as Autechre, often gets overlooked as simple copycatting. It shouldn’t be, this record literally changed my outlook on music. Those of you that insist upon their unoriginality look at it this way: Funkstörung brought German efficiency and precision and upgraded Autechre’s sound to a near science of melody and metallic punch. Obviously there is much room for argument on many subjects regarding the aforementioned, but I stand by my conviction that this is a good record based on this idea. A majority of the idm listeners out there haven’t yet realized that there is an entire sub genre semi-based around the sounds that Autechre so well exemplifies. Autechre was not the first one to create their “patented” sound anyway, Herbie Hancock and others were making similar music in and around the 70’s, before Autechre even had their first notion of b-boys and graffiti. Once again back to the subject, Funkenstort so aptly defines this genre of music, lush melodies, skittering beats, tricky programming and structure. Many people were taken by surprise by this release, and its difficult to really explain it but to me it was just such a great discovery. Anyway, the beat structures are similar between songs, the melodies and the overall layout and programming of the tracks is so sweet and delicious that I can’t get enough of it. These tracks so efficiently combine the beats with the melodies, it’s near impossible to imagine these tracks any other way.
Its very tough to pick out a favorite track on this record because each track is so strong, either “Storesender” or “Funktionstorung”. They both contain the wonderful darkness that I enjoy so much as well as a beat that warrants a fast and steady head nod. “StoreSender” breaking down so perfectly around 2:40 with a perfectly matched beat and melody, if idm heads were like jungle heads there would definitely be a rewind at this part. “Voi Gestort” and “Funkstille” are definitely more upbeat tracks on the record; the strength in these tracks is the beats themselves. The melodies aren’t the strongest on the record, but the beats are all over the place like oxygen.
It should be noted that one side of this record is played at 33 and the other at 45. I’ll preface the rest of this paragraph by saying that the following is all a matter of personal opinion and I can partially understand the opposing view. I see so many people who play Funkstörung (specifically this record and some MAS stuff) at the wrong speed, Funkstörung’s stuff is so much more enjoyable at the proper speed (this is not true for all records obviously). When you drop a moving little piece that’s supposed to be at 45 down to 33, you just get slow, chugging, barely hip hop, drivel. Enjoy the speed of these tracks, there’s already enough ambient with melodies out there.
In closing, a great record, changed my view of music, great melodies and great beats, started a nice little movement towards better enjoyable listening and less “we did it first” bullshit.
Cash :: Push Button Objects. I’ll start off by saying that this record is such a refreshing record to listen to, especially for those of you with hip hop roots. It is a perfect melding of the idm sound with hip-hop elements that make for some great music. This record predicted a strong and promising future for idm hip-hop music. Akin to BoC or Gescom, who have also made efforts at fusing the 2, but didn’t come as close as PBO did with his works. Though none of these tracks have a definite hip-hop beat, they have grabbed the hip-hop essence and mixed it with some great melodies and soundscapes. My favorite track has to be “Strifle”, once again a dark piece, but the record is a great listen on the whole. Especially because PBO stuck to a great format of creating these self-standing idm/hip hop tracks and then layered great melodies/sounds over the top. These tracks possibly have beaten out what a lot of Ninja Tune and Mo Wax artists have tried to do with making hip hop that is non jazzy but still remains melodious and interesting.
Similar to ‘Funkenstort’ there are relatively 2 light and 2 dark tracks on this record, that formula of light and dark seems to work well. “Trot” and “Lockligger” being the light, and “Strifle” and “Maercs” being the dark. The melodies on the darker tracks seem almost improvised but after a close listen you can tell they are formulaic. Which is a good thing because generally once you have listened to a lot of music, improvised stuff seems to be much more interesting to listen to because its so unpredictable to your systematically trained brain. Nonetheless these melodies retain a form while still meandering across the void of live creation. The more up tempo tracks, though sometimes edging on annoyingness, never really push the limit of tolerance, for even though the faster drums are present, there are still some of the darker sounds that permeate the track and keep it from being to upbeat.
The 2 key factors most important for this record retaining its hip hop qualities are that the beats on most of the tracks retain there original organic form, as well as the vocal samples that are cut into some of the tracks. Of the sub genre’s of idm represented in these 12″s, this one has been represented the least up to now in the IDM scene, and you can probably attribute it to the lack of or inadequate use of hip hop style vocal samples or the true organic flavor drums. This record really stands as the first entries into this type of fusing of the musical styles, and it stands strong as it is several years old and still very listenable to modern ears. I’ll end with what will be an immortalized idm phrase, so take heed all you idm playa’s, “no offense to a player, but you I don’t play”.
Digitalis :: This Isan 12″ get the honorable mention mainly because when I first heard it, I was really quite struck, never had IDM melodies broken down to their most basic and fundamentally enjoying elements before. The simplicity and beauty of this music is truly stunning. At times this music is reminiscent of Aphex, not necessarily with the sound of the music but with the pure power of the arrangement and melodies. The beats/percussion in the songs can best be described as extremely pleasant. All in all this is a great release that has been overlooked; its key lies in the luxurious melodies melding perfectly with the subtle beats. People that enjoy melodies should definitely pick this up if they haven’t had the chance.
In closing, this list is by no means all-inclusive, just a primer of things really. I hope you can track down these releases. Some quick tips regarding this: ‘Anvil Vapre’ is available in original 12″ format and on CD as a single and on ‘Tri Repetae++’ (US release 2xcd). ‘Hi Scores’ is available on 12″ and CD single, as well as several of the tracks are featured on the Boards of Canada full length vinyl/cd ‘Music Has The Right To Children”. ‘HAB 1’ is the hardest of the releases to track down, its only available in out of print 12″ format, and your best bet at finding one is probably Ebay. Funkenstort is only available on 12″ but was recently reissued and isn’t that hard to find. ‘Cash EP’ tracks were recently used in the Chocolate Industries cd ‘Dirty Dozen’, that’s your best bet at finding it because the Schematic 12″ is long out of print and near impossible to find as well as not being repressed. Digitalis was originally released on 12″ from Liquefaction Empire, but was recently repressed on CD and 12″ by Darla and is fairly easy to find.
