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Essential albums?

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15:15 / 04.01.04

So, I just got a broadband connection(yeah, bye bye social-life) and I discovered the wonderful world of BitTorrent.. In other words, im gonna boost my cd-collection

so, what would you consider to be essential albums? all genres.

16:13 / 04.01.04

blimey.. that leaves things pretty wide open..

I could probably recommend, like, 500 albums in a wide variety of styles that I'd consider 'essential'..

What kind of stuff are you into?

16:27 / 04.01.04

Hehe..thats the problem..Im into almost everything really..but lately I`ve been finding myself in a electronica/techno/dance chic..Aphex twin/chemical borthers-ish.. so maybe I could start there, eh?

16:40 / 04.01.04

I'm no expert on the genre but you could do worse than check out some Autechre stuff - I really like Chiastic Slide. If you can find a copy of it on there, the Rough Trade Electronica 01 is a excellent compilation. I know as soon as I've posted this I'll think of 20 albums.....

11:34 / 05.01.04

I also claim "no expert" status on electronica, but nevertheless my picks would be;

Cex - 'oops, i did it again' and Bogdan Raczynski - 'thinking of you', both of which inject a pleasantly unsettling dose of psychotic personality into the glitches and buzzes and beats..

And for a wide variety of fucking weird noisy 'tronica, go for some of Tigerbeat 6's many compilation albums and if you like what you hear, branch out from there..

uncle retrospective

11:59 / 05.01.04

I'm going to beat Sax to the Orbital pimping. Insides, for a dark, chilled out sound and the second album (with remind, lush and Halcyon.) It's as good as dance music gets. (IMHO)
If you like Aphex Twin, try Squarepusher, now that will fuck with you.

Oh and download Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division. That's as about Essential as it gets.

Mogwai Happy Music for Happy People
dEUS Worse Case Scenario
Iron Maiden Powerslave

I can keep going if you want. Jesus wait till Flux starts, your modem's going melt.

uncle retrospective

12:10 / 05.01.04

Speaking of Flux. Listen to Pavement’s Crooked Rain, it their easiest album to get into and rules with fists of steel!
Oh, At Action Park by Shellac. My Black Ass is just such a good song.

uncle retrospective

12:27 / 05.01.04

Last post here. Honest.
Anything by Atari Teenage Riot and The Destroyer by Alec Empire.

And brace yourself.

14:22 / 05.01.04

I second Shellac's At Action Park my favourites bits are the menacing build up/devastating crecendo in 'the crow' and the sheet metal almost funk intro to 'song of minerals' but it's all good. Also I'd recomend Geodadi and Music Has The Right To Children by Boards of Canada both of which are lovely. Other stuff that remains near the top of my pile... Entertainment! by Gang of Four. Scott 4 by Scott Walker. Go Plastic by Squarepusher. Flashlight Seasons by Gravenhurst. We Are DMX by The DMX Krew. Skellington by Julian Cope... I'll stop now or i'll be here all day

20:01 / 06.01.04

Front 242 - Tyranny For You
Front 242 - Geography
Kraftwerk - Radioactivity
Panasonic(Pan Sonic)- (get any thing)
Underworld - 2nd Toughest In the Infants
Throbbing Gristle - 20 Jazz Funk Greats

thats a good start

A

23:35 / 06.01.04

Get both Andrew WK albums. You won't ever need to listen to anything else.

02:56 / 07.01.04

Now, that's just not true. I own both Andrew W.K. albums and I can't stop listening to Mudhoney. So, yeah, get Mudhoney (Superfuzz Bigmuff or My Brother The Cow will do nicely). I know all of dick about electronica (except that you can dance to it), so I can't recommend anything on that front. And as far as essential goes, you can't get more essential that Ace Of Spades by Motorhead, unless you're talking about the Beatles or the Rolling Stones or the Who and shit like that maybe, but even then it's still pretty essential. Ooh, wait, Double Nickels on the Dime by the Minutemen; when I got that album it was all I listened to for like three months, it rules that much, what with it being all fun and funk-ay and still totally fucking rocking at the same time. And get I Ain't Marching Anymore by Phil Ochs, because Phil Ochs fucking owns!

10:32 / 07.01.04

Random stuff I consider 'essential' today:

The Replacements - 'sorry ma, forgot to take out the trash'

like the soundtrack to a non-existent John Hughes movie where everybody's getting wasted and stealing cars and beating up old ladies.. about the best teenage puck rock ever..

Oneida - 'anthem of the moon'

tis midnight when the druids gather at the sacred stones, put on some Can records and rock the fuck out!

Love - 'forever changes'

because it's a dark night album disguised as a sunny day album. And because it has some of most mesmerising musical arrangements and dramatic type songs ever heard. Which is a crap description, but so what..

The Sonics - 'Here are the Sonics!!!'

Actually, this is the best teenage punk rock ever. It's just crazy rythymic rock n' roll honed to perfection.. you'll dance your ass right off.

Black Sabbath - 'master of reality'

Starts with 'Sweet Leaf', ends with 'Into the Void'.. what more do you need to know?

Bikini Kill - 'CD of the first two records'

Ok, THIS is the best punk ever. "I'll win that Motley Crue mirror if it fucking kills me!"

Leonard Cohen - 'songs from a room'

because.. fuck it, just because you need it.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - 'live rust'

See above.

The Ramones - 'it's alive'

because it is the crowning achievement of all human culture.

Slayer - 'reign in blood'

because people who don't listen to metal don't know what they're missing.

I could go on like this forever, so just stop me when you've had enough..

03:52 / 08.01.04

Essential black metal, or most indicative of what black metal is rather than actual musical quality, which I guess is kinda the point.

Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
Darkthrone - Under a Funeral Moon
Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:53 / 08.01.04

So is this just a thread for making fairly arbitrary lists of "essential" albums? That's pretty liberating, really, as long as we make no bones abour how random and changeable these kind of mini-canons are... Here's five very necessary records, all of which are more or less perfect at doing what they do:

Isaac Hayes, Hot Buttered Soul
Le Tigre, Le Tigre
Manic Street Preachers, The Holy Bible
Ghostface Killah, Supreme Clientele
The Afghan Whigs, Black Love

15:57 / 08.01.04

That`s right Flyboy..fire away

19:57 / 08.01.04

Why do people keep saying that Burzum is essential black metal despite that fact that Burzum:
1. Sucks horribly, is godawful and has no redeeming musical qualities.
2. Is an outlet for a Nazi prick.
Promoting Burzum is akin to promoting Skrewdriver, they're both not very good bands that happen to be Nazis.
If you want essential black metal get some Living Colour.

20:41 / 08.01.04

An incitement to utterly random list making.. goodness, how nice..

hastily compiled Top 10 essential Stoner Rock:

1.Black Sabbath - Master of Reality
2.Hawkwind - in Search of Space
3.Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
4.Monster Magnet - Dopes to Infinity
5.Nebula - Atomic Ritual
6.Fu Manchu - the Action is Go
7.The Heads - Under Sided
8.Pentagram - First Daze Here
9.Sleep - Dopesmoker
10.Dead Meadow - Shiver King & Others

Strange Machine Vs The Virus with Shoes

23:20 / 08.01.04

Here are my own essentials (many of which would be approved by mojo readers but: wha the F**k):

The White Album - The Beatles
The Velvet Underground and Nico
The Stooges - Funhouse
Curtis Mayfield – Superfly
David Bowie – Low
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
The Clash - London Calling
Echo and the Bunnymen – Ocean Rain
Spiritualized – Laser Guided Melodies
Public Enemy – It takes a nation of millions.

02:22 / 09.01.04

Cop Killer. Some would say that the point of black metal is to not be very good and others would add that you have to hold fairly extreme views. Yeah, Burzum isn't very good, but then I'm not sure the other albums on that list are either. I think you'd be hard pressed to say they aren't essential True Norwegian Black Metal.

02:35 / 09.01.04

Eh, not really, Count Grishnach (sic?) strayed away from the truth with Burzum, I would have to say that Darkthrone are the only ones that really mattered. But I'm not really into black metal anyways, so it doesnt matter what I think.

Keith, like a scientist

03:16 / 09.01.04

If I was stranded on a desert island, I would like to have these:

Bjork - Homogenic
Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep
Beasties Boys - Check Your Head
Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
Polvo - Cor-Crane Secret
Handsome Boy Modeling School - So..how's your girl?
Ozzy - Blizzard of Ozz
Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind (sorry, whoever posted Powerslave...Piece of Mind is infinitely better...)
Chris De Luca & Peabird - Deadly Wiz da Disko
Boom Bip - Seed to Sun
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
UNKLE - Psyence Fiction
Runaways (UK) - Classic Tales
Orb - Adventures in Ultraworld
Orb - Live 93
Phonem - Hydroelectric
DM + Jemini - Ghetto Pop Life
Portishead - Dummy
Massive Attack - Protection
Pitchshifter - Desensitized
Linkin Park - Reanimation
Scorn - Vae Solis
Nirvana - Unplugged
Marvin Gaye - Anthology
Radiohead - Ok Computer
Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher

THE ABSOLUTE MOST ESSENTIAL ALBUM IN THE WORLD TO ME, THOUGH, IS:
Blackalicious - Blazin' Arrow

03:59 / 09.01.04

Well, Rakehell, I do believe that Emperor is, in fact, a very good and talented band that is true Norweigian Black Metal, and they also happen to not be Nazi pricks like Varg Vikernes is. I'd like to think that Barbelith would rather not be promoting utter shit put out by Nazi murderers.
Rizla, I know Dopesmoker is the longer version and all, but Jerusalem is the better version, it sounds a lot better and the extra ten minutes is crap anyway. And, sorry, you cannot have a valid stoner rock list if you do not have the Melvins or Mammoth Volume or Electric Wizard on there, them's the rules. Not to mention Saint Vitus, who also fucking rule in that good stoner way, as do Kyuss.

Essential albums that other people don't think are essential:

Sugar - File Under Easy Listening
The Milkshakes - 19th Nervous Shakedown [even though all these fucking new garage rock bands are just ripping off everything Billy Childish has been doing for the past 25 or so years, fuckers]
The Makers - Rock Star God
Guns 'N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Fugazi - Red Medicine
The Velvet Underground - Loaded [why does this album never get put on lists like this, seriously, it's their best fucking album]
The Dickies - The Incredibly Shrinking Dickies
Black Sabbath - Volume 4
Black Flag - My War
Slayer - Show No Mercy
Mammoth Volume - The Early Years
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Richard Hell & the Vodoids - Blank Generation
Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Get Happy
The Jesus Lizard - Liar
The Melvins - Ozma/Gluey Porch Treatments

04:53 / 09.01.04

Pointless lists? I can do that. I’ll even impose an arbitary limit of 6, just because.

So, my six utterly indispensible albums this week:

Odetta - Christmas Spirituals.
Stone Roses - Second Coming
Vanguard Great Bluesmen at the Newport Folk Festival
Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark
Pentangle - Basket of Light
Cannonball Adderley - Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

However! Be warned that I am Barbelith’s least cool frizzly hippy muppet. If you want a record collection that will get you lashings of respect and sex, pick another from this thread.

10:31 / 09.01.04

Well, Rakehell, I do believe that Emperor is, in fact, a very good and talented band that is true Norweigian Black Metal,

That's kind of what I was gonna say.. a lot of that 'classic' era black metal stuff just sounds stupid and funny.. but Emperor! Man, they really fucking destroy! I really love 'em actually, sad to say..

Although to take up rakehell's point, to a lot of black metal people, sounding hideous and unlistenable and claiming to hold absurdly extreme views is kind of the point..

Rizla, I know Dopesmoker is the longer version and all, but Jerusalem is the better version, it sounds a lot better and the extra ten minutes is crap anyway. And, sorry, you cannot have a valid stoner rock list if you do not have the Melvins or Mammoth Volume or Electric Wizard on there, them's the rules. Not to mention Saint Vitus, who also fucking rule in that good stoner way, as do Kyuss.

Yeah, I know I missed a lot of stuff out - I wrote that list in like a minute.. no Spirit Caravan either! God I suck.

13:59 / 09.01.04

Couple of sheer joy and genius mid-period Hip Hop LP's:

Pete Rock and CL Smooth - The Main Ingredient
The Pharacyde - A Bizare Ride to ...
Notorious BIG - Ready To Die
Nas - Illmatic
Gangstarr - Daily Operation
Diamond D - Stunts, Blunts and Hip Hop
Souls of Mischeif - 93 Till Infinity (which I don't have, arse)
Main Source - Breaking Atoms

14:32 / 09.01.04

Thanks for all the essentials! My broadband is bleeding i tell ya, bleeding!

14:38 / 09.01.04

damn you, Keith, you got to a bunch of those before i could. namely, Bjork, Dj Shadow, and Prefuse 73. i would also concur with Boom Bip even though i don't own Seed to Sun, based on his album with Doseone and his live set.

anyway, i don't know how anyone manages to survive without owning copies of the following:

A Tribe Called Quest, The Low End Theory
Boards of Canada, Music Has the Right to Children
My Bloody Valentine, Loveless
The Smiths, The Queen is Dead
The Orb, The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
Suede, the self-titled album
Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Wu-Tang Clan, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) and Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx
Shalabi Effect, The Trial of St. Orange

get some Legendary Pink Dots, too. there's a lot out there, so start with the Canta Mientras Puedas compilation.

14:41 / 09.01.04

damn you, Keith, you got to a bunch of those before i could.

oh, and i second Portishead and Handsome Boy Modelling School, too, as well as COp Killer's recommendation of Appetite For Destruction.

the Gorillaz self-titled album is also to be gotten.

20:28 / 09.01.04

oh, last post, i promise:

shudder to think, either funeral at the movies or pony express record.

uncle retrospective

06:08 / 10.01.04

The Polyphonic Spree for weird Texas hippy music and Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space by Spiritulized cause it's one of the best things ever.

14:20 / 10.01.04

I would echo London Calling, Bizarre Ryde II The Pharcyde, and Orbital.

I wouldn't go for Metallica's "Ride the Lightning". It's pretty ropey. "...And Justice For All" is much better IMO.

I would add Jeff Buckley's "Grace", any other stuff by him is most likely pretty great too. Also, you need some Faith No More in your collection, "The Real Thing" has some classic tracks, and a few weak ones, but is still essential overall. "Angel Dust" is well worth it too.

I have "Amber" by Autechre and I would consider that one essential too.

Pride and Glory (Zakk Wylde band) is a corker.

And don't forget to download some tracks by Leaders of the New School. As fun as hip hop gets. "Case of the PTA" is probably the best track.

Keith, like a scientist

20:03 / 11.01.04

dizfactor, you gotta get the Seed To Sun. OH MY. So so good, and with the customary lovely Ehquestionmark packaging design.

totally essential.

Crap, forgot about MBV. Of course!

20:57 / 11.01.04

Although to take up rakehell's point, to a lot of black metal people, sounding hideous and unlistenable and claiming to hold absurdly extreme views is kind of the point

The same thing could be said about punk rock in a defense to claiming something like Boots 'N' Braces by Skrewdriver to be an essential album. Holding ridiculous views may be a point of black metal, to some, but that does not mean that a blind eye should be turned to a very calculated Nazi viewpoint that Varg Vikernes (the only person in Burzum) holds, which, essentially, makes Burzum a Nazi band. And why is being a Nazi only "absurdly extreme" if the person hold the belief is metal, no one says that about Nazi punks. Nazis are Nazis and they fucking suck, end of story. And Burzum fucking suck anyway.

I wouldn't go for Metallica's "Ride the Lightning". It's pretty ropey. "...And Justice For All" is much better IMO

In my opinion "...And Justice For All" is when Metallica started their slide downhill, whereas "Ride the Lightning" has them at the top of their game.

If you want something that is really to be gotten, and for some reason I forgot this last time, it's probably the drugs:
The Make-Up - Save Yourself
The Nation of Ulysses - Plays Pretty For Baby

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

23:27 / 11.01.04

Handsome Boy Modeling School- So... How's your Girl?
Deltron 3030- Deltron 3030
Prodigy- Experience
Prodigy- Music for the Jilted Generation
Prodigy- Fat of the land
Alec Empire- Intelligence and sacrifice
The Cure: 17 Seconds
De La Soul- 3 Foot High and Rising
Outkast- Stankonia
Daft Punk- Discovery
Smashing Pumpkins- Mellon Colly and the Infinate Sadness
The Orb- Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
Dead Kennedys- Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Public Enemy- Fear of a Black Planet
Beastie Boys- Licence to Ill
Basement Jaxx- Remedy (I fucking love this)
Basement Jaxx- Rooty
Basement Jaxx- Kish Kash
System of a Down- Toxicity

more to follow.

DEVO!! no one has mentioned Devo, for shame. get "Q: Are We Not Men?" and "Duty Now for the Future" AT LEAST.

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