I feel sort of guilty making a new thread for this, but I think that we can all create a sort of beginner's guide to electronic music. I'm trying to encompass as much awesomeness as I possibly can, here's the list.


Air - Moon Safari and Talkie Walkie
Amon Tobin - Permutation
Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles (with Ellen Allien)
Aphex Twin - Pretty much anything, but Richard D. James album and Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Astral Projection - Dancing Galaxy
Autechre - Confield and Tri Repetae
Bjork - Homogenic and Vespertine
Black Sun Empire - Driving Insane
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi, In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country, and, of course, Music Has the Right to Children
Boom Bip - Seed to Sun
BT - Ima, ESCM, and Movement in Still Life
Calyx - No Turning Back
The Chemical Brothers - Dig Your Own Hole, Exit Planet Dust, Surrender, and pretty much everything accept the new one.
Crystal Method - Vegas
Cybotron - Clear
Dabrye - One/Three
Daft Punk - Discovery and Homework
Dizze Rascal - Boy in Da Corner
DJ Hidden - The Later After
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing... and The Private Press
Dntel - Life is Full of Possibilities
Fatboy Slim - You've Come a Long Way Baby
Fennesz - Endless Summer
Four Tet - Rounds
Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain
Herbert - Around the House
Hybrid - Wide Angle
Infected Mushroom - Classical Mushroom, Converting Vegetarians, though they're latest sound sucks.
Isolee - We are Monster
John Oswald - Plunderphonics
Juno Reactor - Beyond the Infite, Labyrinth, and Transmissions, but everything is good.
The KLF - Chill Out and The White Room
The Knife - Silent Shout
Krafwerk - Autobahn
Krust - Hidden Knowledge
Leftfield - Leftism
LTJ Bukem - Logical progressions: volume one
M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us
Manitoba - Up in Flames
Mathew Dear - Leave Luck to Heaven
Massive Atack - Blue Lines and Mezzanine
Michael Mayer - Immer
The Notwist - Neon Golden and Shrink
Orbital - Orbital 2
Pantha du Prince - This Bliss
Portishead - Dummy
Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher
Primal Scream - Screamadelica
The Prodigy - Fat of the Land
Radiohead - Kid A
Roni Size - New Forms
Royksopp - Melody A.M.
Shpongle - Nothing Lasts...But Nothing is Lost
Squarepusher - Feed Me Weird Things, Hard Normal Daddy, and Music is Rotted One Note
Tricky - Maxinquaye
Venetion Snares - Doll, Doll, Doll Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett, and My Downfall in particular, but most of his stuff is insanely good.
Zero 7 - When it Falls


There ya go.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Mike Angelo,

If you are going to add electronic with vocals, you need to have Kid A on there, even without vocals, it's a must.

Get with that Detroit/Chicago sound buddy...

...although I guess that's hard to do without adding comps to the list.

Mezzanine definitely needs to be included
Also, if you have Daft Punk's Discovery, Homework has to go in there too.
how about:

Fatboy Slim - You've Come A Long Way Baby
Leftfield - Leftism

quote:

Venetion Snares - Doll, Doll, Doll and My Downfall in particular, but most of his stuff is insanely good.

i am curious as to how you can include "my downfall" but omit the companion album (previously released, and just plainly a better album) "Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett". this is one of my favorite albums of all time and it does not get enough credit.

quote:

Originally posted by krugulitis:

quote:

Venetion Snares - Doll, Doll, Doll and My Downfall in particular, but most of his stuff is insanely good.

i am curious as to how you can include "my downfall" but omit the companion album (previously released, and just plainly a better album) "Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett". this is one of my favorite albums of all time and it does not get enough credit.

I would reply by telling you that, I haven't listened to Rossz Csillag Alatt Szuletett nearly as many times as I've heard My Downfall, so I feel better suggesting that album. I do agree, that it is excellent, however, I just haven't given it as much attention as it deserves, unfortunately. I love almost anything by Snares, though.

Absolute must-haves:

Fennesz- Endless Summer
Isolee-We are Monster
m83- Before the Dawn Heals Us
Manitoba- Up in Flames
Zero 7- When it Falls

on a more trip-hop side, must haves are
Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain
Tricky - Maxinquaye

Mike, you can also add "shrink" next to neon golden

and "Vespertine" next to Homogenic!

Tri Repetae > Confield
This list needs more Underworld and Oval! Good Job, though.

quote:

Originally posted by hudson:
Absolute must-haves:

Fennesz- Endless Summer

Oh yes. Godly album.

Other suggestions to fill out some of the gaps:

Matthew Dear - Leave Luck to Heaven
Herbert - Around the House
Akufen - My Way
Hybrid - Wide Angle
BT - Ima or ESCM - if you're going to have any trance on the list you need something by BT
The KLF - Chill Out and The White Room are both absolutely essential
Michael Mayer - Immer
Cybotron - Clear
Dizzee Rascal - Boy in Da Corner - if Primal Scream and Bjork are on here, why not?
Paul McCartney - McCartney II

OK, I'm half-joking on the last one. It didn't influence anybody. But some of the tracks on it are eerily prescient. It's my pet forgotten album.

Ditto for some Chicago and Detroit stuff too, though I'm not sure what - I mentioned the Cybotron album but we're still lacking in 80s techno that I can't think of off the top of my head.

I'm more of a Chicago House fan which is why I love to throw out Phuture (303) but House and Techno albums from back then are nowhere near as strong as mixes (and this generally still holds up).

One album that I feel still really holds up and will for a long time is Orchestra of Bubbles. I love that album so much.

quote:

Originally posted by odysseyandoracle:
Hybrid - Wide Angle

YES.

quote:

Originally posted by odysseyandoracle:
BT - Ima or ESCM - if you're going to have any trance on the list you need something by BT

Movement in Still Life is his best trance album in my opinion.

quote:

Originally posted by odysseyandoracle:The KLF - Chill Out and The White Room are both absolutely essential

Also yes, though I prefer The White Room.

Another album that really needs to be included is the amazing Plunderphonics by John Oswald.

quote:

Originally posted by Everyoneanindividual:
Tri Repetae > Confield
This list needs more Underworld and Oval! Good Job, though.

AGREED.


Anyhow, I'd also consider:
Autechre's LP5
Luomo's VocalCity
Isolée's Rest
Basement Jaxx's Rooty
Everything but the Girl's Walking Wounded
The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
Brian Eno's Another Green World
FSOL's Lifeforms (doesn't include "Papua New Guinea," which is perhaps their most celebrated track and is a MUST)
Max Tundra's Mastered by the Guy at the Exchange
Plaid's Double Figure
Oval's Diskont94
The After Dark Compilation
Tim Hecker's Harmony In Ultraviolet
Jean-Michael Jarre's Oxygene
Kraftwerk's Computer World
Leftfield's Leftism (*must be seconded!)
The Field's From Here We Go Sublime (also check out his remixes of The Honeydrips, Familjen, and Marit Bergman)

I have Oxygene on vinyl!

But, yeah, I really dislike The Orb.

And can we really put Brian Eno on this list? If we can, then why not Nurse With Wound and some noise. That's the problem with a "Beginner's Guide to Electronic Music," what needs to be included? It helps if we break it down by actual genre... or else we get into classification wars (like with indie and alternative)

I guess my initial impression of this beginner's list, is that it is a great place for someone to start who is new to the genre... by listening to the albums listed, they would get a good overview of what directions electronic music goes in, and perhaps find a particular flavour they enjoy to explore further. If anything, I'd probably simplify it by removing a few albums that are of a similar style of electronica.

quote:

Originally posted by oidistism:
I guess my initial impression of this beginner's list, is that it is a great place for someone to start who is new to the genre... by listening to the albums listed, they would get a good overview of what directions electronic music goes in, and perhaps find a particular flavour they enjoy to explore further. If anything, I'd probably simplify it by removing a few albums that are of a similar style of electronica.

Yeah, the albums I listed were merely suggestions -- just to be considered but not necessarily included in a "final list" -- if we ever, in fact, get around to creating one.

This could actually work, it'd be cool to have a 'final list' to refer those unfamiliar with the genre to. Thanks for all you're help guys and keep 'em coming.

I think Jglass may be right and instead of simply removing artists or albums that are alike, we should simply categorize everything into subgenres, even if it will be a huge pain in the ass.

quote:

Originally posted by JGlass:
I have Oxygene on vinyl!

But, yeah, I really dislike The Orb.

And can we really put Brian Eno on this list? If we can, then why not Nurse With Wound and some noise. That's the problem with a "Beginner's Guide to Electronic Music," what needs to be included? It helps if we break it down by actual genre... or else we get into classification wars (like with indie and alternative)

I'm not sure what Kool Mike's intentions were, but I viewed this as being a list for electronica and not electronic music per se, despite the title of the thread. If we tried to do an entire history of electronic music, we'd have to include people like Varese and Wendy Carlos and the Silver Apples, and seeing as this subforum is Electronica/Dance that doesn't really fit - these are very interesting artists within themselves, but probably not what someone who stumbles onto this thread is looking for.

My own obvious answer to that is what the heck IS electronica, because clearly there's undanceable music that gets that label (e.g., Venetian Snares, who are I think justifiably on the list).

I'd also say that early ambient has more to do with new age than electronica, due to the lack of a strong rhythmic component.

My own gut assessment is that at some point in the late 70s or early 80s disco turned into electronica and everything before that is at best an outlier or an influence.