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Journal sielwolf's Journal: The Canon ('81 - '01) 88

Journal by sielwolf

I've been thinking about this part of the James Murphy article:

At the same time, I get really angry when people get angry about there being a canon. White Male Canon thing. I always thought a canon's a great way to start cause then we can argue against it. The internet, I read a story on the internet-- "Fuck Shakespeare." What? That's an interesting argument only because you have Shakespeare. If you don't have that canon, there's nothing to talk about, there's total chaos... But being past all of that, I had to find what I loved about music, I had to dig farther... I think a canon is important, but you have to grow into it.

So, shall we define the canon then? Post at the top and comment below each defending or flaming each.

The only rules:

  1. The Canon SHALL COVER only 1981 to 2001. Before that everything is kinda nostalgic and pre-singularity of music that Mr Murphy talked about. This is the tough era where the indies exploded the number of choices. And anything within the last four years is a bit of a wash (i.e. no perspective).
  2. The Canon SHALL contain Albums Only. This kind of slants it against hip-hop, techno and other club genres but that's the breaks. The problem is if we start saying how important a single is, an album can be included just because it had one good song instead of being front to back important.

Other thoughts:

  • The Canon SHOULD be as small as possible. None of this "Put in the entire Minutemen's catalog". That's lazy and cheap. The idea is that someone should be able to grok the entire last 20 years of music in the least amount of albums.
  • The Canon SHOULD NOT be determined by mainstream or critical appeal. Does Nevermind belong in here? Or is it more of a yardstick (i.e. the maypole everyone danced around, burning their Mr Big discs to)? This should be shit people would pop in the deck in their car or in their house. Not mere historical oddities that gather dust. However...
  • The Canon SHOULD NOT be a desert island list. Well, not exactly. Loving an album is important but putting it on here because it was audio panty remover doesn't cut it.

Other than that, gouge away.

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The Canon ('81 - '01) More

The Canon ('81 - '01)

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  • Killer singles. New Wave while being a bit goth, a bit bluesy. "World in My Eyes", "Personal Jesus", "Halo", "Enjoy the Silence", "Policy of Truth".
  • Sad, complicated. Audio Film Noir. Beth Gibbons sings as both wounded song bird and threatening femme fatale. This is classic Trip-hop. MA's Blue Lines and No Protection sound like bad Manchester rap. The beats on here are remarkable: hypersampled spy movies slowed down beyond recognition.

    Nobody loves me, it's true.
  • The bridge between the Black Album and Master of Puppets. "One" is desperate standard metal fodder. But how many tracks like this get frat boys yelling for an encore about some half-alive senseless cripple? "Blackened", "Shortest Straw". The only problem with this album is the shit mix.
  • The album that both ushered in sample based music to the mainstream and killed it. Dense layers of referential material courtesy of the Dust Brothers. "Shadrach", "High Plains Drifter", and the masterstroke, "B-Boy Bouillabaisse" 12 minutes of channel hopping madness. Suddenly everyone got anal and started listening to the radio. Vanilla Ice got hammered by Queen.

    Funny. Now Missy Elliott quotes "Copywritten so don't copy me". Ironic as the sample and the break form the foundation of her very bread an
  • None of their albums achieved the perfect mix of psychosis, environmental paranoia and political Armageddon. "Spazmolytic" with the awkward non-rhyming of Ogre. All dangerous empty places. The flourishes (the pipsqueak in "Tormentor", that two bar bass solo in "Nature's Revenge"). "Grave Wisdom". Perfect Industrial in that it reflects back the bale image of society, not just dances along with big fucking double kicks of drums.

    And it is almost clubworthy. Not any violent 'scapes of noise here. Ensare
  • The year after The Chronic dropped and we were about to be blessed with Doggystyle, Tribe penned this masterpiece. Apache was looking for a Gangsta Bitch. Warren G was out to regulate. The West Coast, right?

    Wrong. Every gat pulled, switched flipped there was a strong bluesy complete portrait. "Award Tour" set off the transformation: from the Jungle Brothers afrocentrism of the late '80s to the new reality of the '90s. The cool was not just a hard image backed up with harsh possibilities. The collec
    • 1994 I think my Mom was over here visiting from Sweden and she got hooked on Gin and Juice. Funniest thing ever having her sing along to that.

      Aquiring Midnight Marauders as we speak to see what I missed. Lost interest after Bonita Applebum and Left my wallet in el segundo a few years earlier.

    • dick snot. Butt crust. Get over here!
      • "Metro Riders, take note. The red line will be running Single Track to Shady Grove. Thank You for your patience."

        What about "The Coming" by Busta? Or is it enough to have the Leaders of the New on "Scenario"?

        And YO, SCENARIO is def-tip shot out the 'canon' baby!

        DAMN.

        How 'bout the ROOTS?

        And what about "STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON"? (and include GWAR "scumm dogs" as a rider to that)

        And What PE? "Fear of a black Planet"?

        • Fine... make a post for each and throw them up there. I ain't no librarian :p

          I don't think The Coming. His thing was covered by being sort of the wacky crossmember between Tribe and Biggie. I love his album but it isn't canonical.

          The Roots... I could see that. But which: Illadeph, DYWM?, Things Fall Apart?
          • Fine... make a post for each and throw them up there. I ain't no librarian :p

            Well, I wanted to dialog some stuff out under TRIBE before adding them up top.

            YEs, I believe "Scenario" covers it.
            For The Roots, I'm thinking Illadelph 1/2; but do you have any arguments in favor of Do you want more?
            • I like "The Scenario" but it is kind of a party jam. Even though it has Busta's break out as a dungeon dragon. But Charlie Brown and that other dude just never made it. Q-tip could stand up to him; Phife had his moments. I just think Midnight is the perfect blend of adolescence and new adulthood.

              For The Roots, I'm thinking Illadelph 1/2; but do you have any arguments in favor of Do you want more?

              Hmmm, I always found the two a push. I always liked "? vs. Rahzel" but for more of a freestyle expo sen
              • I like "The Scenario" but it is kind of a party jam.

                You say that like its a bad thing that would preclude one from inclusion into Teh Cannonxz0rz.

                I dunno, I think it was really hype; lots of people loved it, and is a definite snapshot in time.

                But Charlie Brown and that other dude just never made it.

                hahaha! Dinko D probably LOVES hearing that! (its true...)
                • Not that it's a party cut but that it is not a foolproof club anthem. There are much better party songs out there. "Tear Tha Club Up '97", "Tootsie Roll", Youngbloodz "Damn", Clipse "When the Last Time". I guess its a good one (nice beat so you can just listen to the throb with the vocals low in the mix and it still sounds pretty good) that is probably timeless and its on a good album to boot.
        • balh blah blah.
        • And What PE? "Fear of a black Planet"?

          Yea gotta have Public Enemy in the Canon somewhere.

          The question is should it be It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back or Fear of a Black Planet?

          It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back was the breakthrough album that changed hip-hop forever. But Fear of a Black Planet is Public Enemy at their musical and artistic peak.

          (As a side note I must say I'm not much of a rap or hip-hop fan. What I do like tends to be considered old skool and is mostly East Coa
  • That LP didn't leave my record player for 6 months straight, and it only rarely got flipped to the B side.
    1. Where The Streets Have No Name
    2. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
    3. With Or Without You
    4. Bullet The Blue Sky

    DM's Black Celebration was also in heavy rotation at my house, as well as Kissing to be clever. Boy George is a musical genius, and I have gay taste in music.


  • I was thinking about posting something like Paul Abdul's, "Forever Your Girl" and trying to be all serious, but that kind of thing is beyond being typed with a straight face.

  • I was tempted to put Cowboys from Hell on here. That was the point Phil went from spandex clad poseur to the heroin shooting, alcohol swilling psychopath who should have had shirts made that said "Dead for 15 minutes and Loving It". Fast fast fast fast. It was thrash and speed but killed over and over with a blue collar violence. It wasn't abstractly medieval or Lovecraftian. This wasn't Eddie or some big stage show shit. It was four dudes in front of a wall of speakers getting all fucking Texas in yo
  • Ok so maybe Paul's Boutique didn't kill the sample album. And a good thing too. Here you have a hip-hop release that people would think is just some trip-hop/rock/instrumental thing and they'd choke on themselves when they find out that it's ALL SAMPLES. Perfectly blended into tapestries of sound so complete you can't tell the difference.

    "Changeling" How many songs do you know that have a 15/16 time structure? "Building Steam from a Grain of Salt", "Midnight in a Perfect World". Kind of like Pantera,
  • "Not ambient; but not a dance album. Huh?"

    The expectations of what electronic music were had changed. There was that complexity to "Digerridoo" and "Polynomial-C" that let people the song was one or the other. But here?

    It starts on the perfect tone. It pierces right through "Acrid Avid Jam Shred". That wonderful burbling drum break that sounds like a straight two bar split but comes up with a wonderful complexity sort of dancing on the edges. It was part classical beauty of Brahms ("The Waxen Pith")
    • Cut it down to 90 BPM and "Mookid" is Boards of Canada.

      i'm such a dork that i actually slowed the track down to about 90 bpm. the resemblance to boards of canada is pretty uncanny. the pitch-bent sound doesn't really fit with BoC, but the structure, both harmonic and rhythmic, is just like BoC.

      if you don't have a wave editor i'll happily email it to you for comparison.
  • Really? C'mon. People try to deny this album will STILL get busting moves at the Safeway to "Billie Jean". A murderer's row of songs (and now you get the Deluxe Edition cd with Michael holding the baby tiger).

    Bad kind of floats. But this here is just. Goddamn. Remember when Pop music was like this?

    The album that taught people how zombies dance. Shit, you break out that leather thing and start doing that junkie shoulder jerk? GAME OVER.
    • Can't argue with this. There was a reason Jackson was considered 'The King of pop' and this album is it.

      For some reason when I think of this album I can't help remembering Weird Al's Eat It video. That one still brings a smile to my face.
  • If this record doesn't happen, shit, get Henry Turtledove to rewrite the last quarter century. The effects would be akin to someone going back and time and stepping on a butterfly or strangling baby Hitler... it is THAT big. There is no New Order, no Trent singing on The Crow soundtrack, that one hit mobster shitcan group Orgy would still be bussing tables. No Manchester. No 25 year biopic on Ian, no 24 Hour Party People.

    "A Means to an End" is my jam. This might be the perfect song.
    • Isn't Closer disqualified by virtue of being initially released in 1980?

      I can think of quite a few albums from say '78, '79, and '80 that had much to do with defining the sound for the next 25 year or so.

      Off the top of my head The Police's Zenyatta Mondatta, Talking Heads' Remain in Light, Van Halen's Van Halen, David Bowie's Scary Monsters, The Clash's London Calling, or Blondie's Parallel Lines all deserve mention.
      • Damn... why did I think it was '81? I think we have to stay with the rules. Where would we be without them? CHAOS!!!

        If Closer's out, I guess we go with NO Power, Corruption & Lies. "Age of Consent" and "Your Silent Face".

        I'd also think Bowie Let's Dance might be more appropriate to the decade. Then you get some retroactiveness with "China Girl".

        VH 1984 might be a good pick. But it might have to be offset with Motley Crue or something.
  • I'm cursed. When I watch Headbanger's Ball the ONE song I'll usually stop TIVO for is the Soulfly rendition of "Roots Bloody Roots". Shit WHY DID THIS BAND BREAK UP?

    Rage Against the Machine were a bunch of Ivy League wangs. This is the real agitpop. System of a Down should be thanking their lucky stars. Brazilian jungle monstrosity. Out of the industrial Amazonian slag pit of Sao Paulo. Miles and miles of slums so bloody that the rich go to work in Helicopters.

    This is indigenous uprising. AIM. Ab
  • This is reallyl hard. And because of my age, I have a more 90s bent.

    The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness
    Dr. Dre - Chronic
    Michael Jackson - Thriller
    Garth Brooks - Ropin' the Wind
    U2 - The Joshua Tree
    Jay-Z - Hard Knock Life, Vol. 2
    Metallica - Metallica
    Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do
    Beastie Boys - License to Ill
    • Garth Brooks - Ropin' the Wind
      Dr. Dre - Chronic
      Beastie Boys - License to Ill

      Got no problem with that.

      Jay-Z - Hard Knock Life, Vol. 2
      Metallica - Metallica

      Hmmm. I guess my thinking is that there's a debate about Jay's Vol. 2 and Reasonable Doubt as to which is better, making it hard to chose one or the other. And even those get paired up against Illmatic, The Infamous and Ready to Die. It is a part of the genre but not out there defining that New York counterpoint to West Coast G-funk. Not that all
      • Yeah I had a lot of similar thinking with the New York 90s hiphop disc. As you say, they all cover the same territory. Though I chose Vol. 2 cause it did a few things that make it stand out:
        1. Huge commercial success, launching an empire of Roca-related things. Many would do this, Carter and Dash probably did it the best.
        2.Floss. Big time. It changed the direction of attention while still keeping the newyork attitude of importance of flow and narrative.

        The other thing is my list is only like half comp
    • The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness

      I'd say Nirvana's Bleach or Nevermind were far more signifigant. Without Nirvana alt-rock would likely still be stuck in a college radio ghetto. It is easy to forget that Cobain was quite likely one of the best rock songwriters of the last 30 years with all of the hype and mythology surrounding both him and Nirvana. For me it is hard to choose between Bleach or Nevermind as being the more signifigant album. Bleach has all of the core elements t
      • You can also say with Bleach was that it let Sub Pop become insta-millionaires by selling off the rights. That became the new indie dream: no longer did you just want to put out a bunch of vinyl that you had to lick stamps on yourself and send to 5000 people across the world. It wasn't "selling out" it was "cashing in": money for nothing and the corporations having to kowtow while you stay unchanged (or so they hoped). Putting out a 12" or a comp of local bands was just the first step in becoming a VP
        • I don't see Sub Pop as having 'sold out' so much as having 'bought in'.

          The money they made off Nirvana and the other bands in their catalog that hit it big around that time let them develop a lot more stuff and do a much better job at promotion of the artists they signed.

          Note that Sub Pop is still around, still independent and still signing local bands.

          Then again perhaps my impressions are colored by being aquainted with some of the people who were working at Sub Pop back in the day.

          Also that I believe
  • Hip-hop is so volatile that it lives and dies on the "twice as bright, half-as-long" edge. The demand is for the most sharp tongued summarization of bravado or street tales done up in the latest wares... only for them to evaporate in a few short months.

    Consider how many MCs were name dropping Tommy or Bo Jackson. What was once "Oooh!" became "Ugh *eyes roll" to "Huh?" This foundation, on the disposable party jam, met its match with Rakim Allah.

    With some guy from the Bronx called KRS-One, Rakim elevated
  • Grimy was always the New York sound. That stutter in the stereo speaker paper from the Boom Bap. You could list DJ Premier on here but that isn't the point of the Canon: this is the convergence of artist, production, time and space.

    "Redrum. I verbally assault with the tongue. Murder One. My style shocks, knocks you out like a stun gun"

    Nothing was really ever the same since. That harsh cartoon horn, the finger snaps. The breaks that seemed to escape out of the very earth. The Wu-tang was completel
  • Outerspace white boy backpack nerd rap. Anticon, Anti-pop, Edan, Company Flow, Def Jux. Big Dada in the UK. Krush in Japan. Love it, hate it, hip-hop has gone universal and this is one of the first albums to extend the vanguard over the horizon. Hip-hop shattered the navel-gazing and cast itself into the stars. Sure, Outkast might be talking about ATLiens but here is a conceptual masterpiece the likes Pete Townsend could barely comprehend: futuristic porno doctor from the year 3000 travels back in ti
  • My personal preference is to Document. It's darker in that Southern Gothic way that was the hallmark of early R.E.M. But you can't really go wrong with this. We got a dozen Crash Test Dummies and DMBs and John Mayers because of this album right here. The sort of big exposed personal that would be the cliche of the '90's.
  • Mmmmmm. Babymaking music. Her smooth buttery voice like a muted clarinet. It weakens you. The sort of way Marvin used to. Interesting in that this is the counterpoint to Whitney (and through her Maria Carey, Christina and the whole get of octave rollercoasters). This is pure damaged (yet tantalized) R&B.
  • Everything mentioned heretofore is unlistenable crap. So, I will mention something good. The fantastic "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables" by the Dead Kennedys. Which is disqualified, because it's from 1980, but what's a year between friends?

    It's everything that good music is. Funny. Fast. Furious. Biting. Hard. Non-repetitive. Clever. Loud. Intelligent. Revolutionary.

    Kill the Poor ! Lynch the Landlord ! California Uber Alles ! I Kill Children ! Holiday in Cambodia !

    Dead Kennedys kick ass a baker'
  • How was "TV Party" the single off of this? Why did they make a video? Wierdest thing to watch.

    Of course this album is more important than just making Henry Rollins Hollywood career...

    And you want to know why?

    Let's just say a little label called SST. Funny, idiotic, juvenille, angry. Punk should've been a progression from this, the Stooges and, I dunno, HD. Both musically and fiscally. *Checks the hardcore playing on Headbanger's Ball* How did we end up here?
  • is it cheating to pick the 2 disc retrospective, strategies against architecture II? there needs to be some neubauten in the canon. if i can't pick that, i would choose halbermensch, as it contains the essential neubauten tracks "seele brennt," "yü-gung," and "Z.N.S."

    strategies against architecture II also contains those songs in one version or another, but also covers much more of the essentials from the early neubauten years. either that's cheating or it's craftily taking what's important from t
  • front by front is my choice for 242's inclusion in the canon. it's not my favourite album they ever put out, but it's the one every person should have heard and understood.
  • i agree with your hint: "Other than that, gouge away," and nominate doolittle for the position of the pixies' contribution to the canon.

    you think i'm dead, but i sail away on a wave of mutilation.
    • not Surfer Rosa?

      Both are good though.

      I'm also thinking Husker Du needs an entry, both because their stuff was good and for the influence it had on 90's alt-rock.
      • surfer rosa isn't bad, but doolittle is even better, imo.

        yeah, i remember hüsker dü.
        • Well the problem is should the canon have an artist's breakthrough album, their best work, or their most influential work.

          Certainly Surfer Rosa counts as the Pixies breakthrough and was probably somewhat more influential. Now if it or Dolittle were the better album is subject to debate. I lean toward Surfer Rosa but only because I'm more familiar with it.
          • i think for the purpose of this canon, it is more important how the album fits in with music than with they artist's catalog.
  • somebody give the lord a handclap. for mbm it's going to be 99%, which is a great album, although not my favourite mbm. meat beat must be included because they are a perfect example of the way hip hop didn't have the same cultural ties in the UK as it did in america. they heard what urban american black culture was doing with the recycling of music and understood it without feeling tied to trying to stay within the same frame of cultural reference. they heard it and took it as a great idea that they cou
  • why is the world in love again?
    why are we marching hand in hand?
    why are the ocean levels rising up?
    it's a brand new record for 1990
    they might be giants brand new album, flood
    • I'd've been tempted to say Apollo 18 for the simple fact it has my favorite TMBG song "Spider" but Flood is where it begins and is like the Pixar of albums: anyone regardless of demo can appreciate its traits. Atom and his Package wouldn't really be anywhere without that.

      He is our hero.
      • i actually almost chose apollo 18 because it is the bridge between TMBG's two-man sound and the TMBG full band sound. it was the first album with the full band, but the over all feel is still pretty close to the early work. it's possibly more important as a TMBG album, but flood had more impact on music in general imo.

      • "Spider, he is our hero.", "Spider, musssht stop!"

        That so takes me back to high school. Being embarassed by my friends that were singing it in line for Taco Bell in our cafeteria. Weird.

  • for FSOL i nominate their ambient masterwork, lifeforms. excellent ambient that is accessible enough to have direct influence beyond its niche audience.
  • I wrote a paragraph trying to convince myself that Mind was the album. That was the one that had the outrageous tour with KMFDM (where En Esch jumped out of a burning building and broke his arm), Trent opening and Martin Atkins on the drums.

    But Psalm 69 is so definitive. The guitar blitzkreig of "N.W.O", the title cut, "Just One Fix" with Burroughs in the video, Gibby in "Jesus Built My Hotrod". It was political, all about heroin, apocolyptic. Dark satire. "Scarecrow" is fat wide and mean. This was a
  • DAMN DAMN DAMN DAMN THE JAM!!!

    oh yes my high and mighty selecta raise it up raise it up and rinse it out!
    • This covers all dark step and perhaps even a wide swath of tech step, too. I think you could STILL drop this track and get respect from the crowd.

      I'd also nominate Congo Natty's "Junglist" in both the Ragga and Jump Up category. Perhaps not as influencial as "Shadowboxing", this was still certainly the jam and could be considered representative.

      Maybe even Adam F's "Circles"...
      • I was considering saying Roni Size + Reprazent New Forms but that is one double disc that definitely should be one. Not only that but it is divorced from the underlying math of the Drum and Bass. The same reason why I don't dig Goldie or Rap: just not the get up amen feel.
        • "Bahamadi-di, epitome of M.C." - yeah new Forms is cool and cross over and I would recommend people get a reduxed copy of it. Don't know if its ready for cannonization (patron St. of Breakbeat?)

          Then maybe just the Roni Size "Breakbeat Era" single (not their album Ultraobscene, which is totally fucking overproduced)- because its also got an "amen" version!

          speaking of goldie/playford; what about "Innercity life"? Its been played ta' fuck out, but does the very fact that its included on an MTV comp give i
          • The first way I thought about it was "95% of the population would like this album." The Canon would be an example of transcending genres, etc.

            But then I also thought that it might be more like the following: at 11:59 pm, December 30, 1980 an astronaut is shot into space to, I dunno, fly around the rings of Saturn. This is a 20 year journey where he will only have communication with the controllers at NASA. At precisely 12:00 am, January 1, 2002 he touches down at Edwards AFB, jumps out of his spacecraf
  • I was contemplating DP's Homework but where both of these albums spoke of a slick unachieved 1970's modernism, only this one lead out to a whole genre of sound. "Sexy Boy", "Kelly..." First it was a bit too instrumental in parts for some. Then it was funky and cool but not in a "wait wait wait play that again... man, that's fuuunnkkkeee" way. Le Punk is bigger, louder, bassier, easier to manage in the headspace.

    The cooldown aesthetic found an impossible continental edge here. There is no Zero 7 without
  • Rio, Hungry like the wolf, Save a prayer.

    Legendary

  • Before listening to this album, pick up Laibach's Jesus Christ Superstars and listen to their cover of "The Cross". Unbelievable that this soul drenched tune can still ring through the baritone of Czech industrial.

    Ok, now you can listen to this masterpiece. Perfect Paisley Park material. This is when Prince was on some next level Charlie and the Chocolate Factory thing. You had this sense that there was some magical purple palace out there where they made this unbelievable music. All wierdly costumed
    • I agree with putting Prince in the Canon but I would go with ether 1999 or Purple Rain probably because I'm more familiar with those albums and the tracks from those two were everywhere when I was in high school.

      Purple Rain probably gets the nod over 1999 because it was more of a concept album but still not too weird.

      Still I can't argue with your selection of Sign 'O' the Times as most critics think that album is where he hit his artistic peak.
  • I'm not sure what to nominiate here but there needs to be something along the lines of Tears for Fears, Simple Minds, The Thomson Twins, or Wham!/George Michael here. This is the sound that pervaded my high school and the radio during the years '82-'86 (especially the latter half). "Shout" or "Don't You Forget About Me" were practically anthems for my generation.

    The problem is I really can't say what the definative album of this sort of pop/new wave is.

    Suggestions anyone?
    • Well Songs from the Big Chair might do well (matching well with Rio already mentioned). It was really the thunderous thick anthem album of that time. But probably something a little more, irreverent too. Wham! might work.

      There's also a need for Whitney Houston or Janet. Probably Def Leopard, maybe Motley Crue.

  • The KLF (Score:2)

    by ces ( 119879 )
    Two albums by them come to mind:
    Chill Out for being one of the pioneering ambient house albums. Though I have to admit this is among my least favorite of The KLF's work, but then I'm not much for ambient either.

    White Room for being a classic acid house album and the successful culmination of the scam that was the KLF.

    If I had to pick one I'd make the nod to White Room but only because it is among my favorite albums.
    • a classic acid house album

      Truly it was a classic, but not really acid house, no.

      Unfortunately, there aren't really any "acid house" albums that aren't compilations, so it seems hard to come up with something to fit that. Or did Phuture release an album in a limited edition of 50 or something?

      • Well I'm not a big follower of the house scene but I do know the KLF had a big impact back in the day. All the DJ types and musicians I knew were listening to their stuff and raving about it.

        I'd heard "White Room" refered to as 'British House' or 'Acid House' so I went with that.
        • To be fair, I once called Deee-Lite's first album "acid house" in public. Lazlo Nibble [swcp.com] gave me the slapdown gently. Acid House is much closer to minimalist "bleep" electronica than what the KLF did. Which, again, you're right it was a huge influence and definitely deserves being in the canon.
  • Actually the full album title is (Who's Afraid Of?) The Art of Noise! but it wouldn't fit in the subject line.

    Synth-pop meets eletronica, meets found sound, meets sampling with a bunch of off the wall twists.

  • I don't like OK Computer. At all. And I find the AFX notions in Kid A humorous if it wasn't for the fact people had been biting RDJ since... '94? And that was just when the critical sphere got its hooks in.

    Pablo Honey was the unsure footsteps of a ten month old. Too excited with an American sound, the sort of mockery that defined Bush.

    But The Bends... was an album. It was a classic Anglo melancholy... or does it just seem that way now? "Fake Plastic Trees", "Just". When the early 90's euphoria die
  • And I'm late to the party so sue me.

    The Orb - Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. The REAL ambient dub/house kickoff. And yeah, LX and that Pastie guy were working together before that, so the KLF gets props too, but they're already on the list, eh?

    Kate Bush - The Dreaming. KaTe inspired piano driven singer-songwriters like Tori & Fiona just to name a couple I like... It's a hard choice between The Dreaming and Hounds of Love, but I think the earlier album has more oomph.

    Elvis Costello - Imperial Be

  • Duran Duran "Rio", Afrika Bambatta "Planet Rock",Paul Simon "Graceland", "Born in 'teh' USA" by ' Teh' Boss, Bobby Mcferrin's "Don't worry, be happy."

    Okay, maybe not Mr. McFerrin run-away hit.
  • At OneNation.

    Not sure if this is even a real album, but I've got the jam on MP3.

    Why?

    I think its the be-all end all of the jump-up/ragga with dope mc'ing (is believing) on top of it. Just 45 minutes, and you've got it. The feel, the mix, the rewinds, the lingo ("Wheel up my selecta!"), and toasts ("to the east, to the west, to the nort, to the south jungle is forever and them can't run we out stevie hype upon the mic and i'm a screaming and shout, Nicky Blackmarket another rinse out!"). Done and Done.

    Ju

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