The Shrine

I'm going to make one more attempt at branching out before I lock myself into musical exile for the next year with my current collection...

Sine, can you think of any *albums* that are as good as the Way Out West album you recommended to me (Don't Look Now)? I'm also finding that I very much like house or breaks-style beats in the background.

Any progressive house or progressive breaks fans here?

You're asking me to define your tastes based on one album. I've given you some similar angles, but strangely enough, you didn't really like them. (Strange because I'm usually good at this.) I still can't believe you don't like Hybrid or Hooverphonic.

But, for the sake of the genre, lemme try again:

Big Beat: Chemical Brothers (try out multiple albums), Crystal Method, Leftfield (dubish), Boom Boom Satellites (excellent drum work), Fatboy Slim (esp. the first two albums), Junkie XL, Lunatic Calm (good solid stuff), Propellerheads (only one album, though), Underworld (awesome stuff), Fluke (also pretty solid)
Drum&Bass: Amon Tobin (this guy is a fucking genius; see his latest stuff and the Splinter Cell 3 OST), Squarepusher (earlier stuff seems to be better; varies a lot afterwards), Aphrodite (old fashioned D&B), Aphex Twin (the music for 500 years in the future; styles can get outlandish)
Goa Trance: Juno Reactor, Cydonia
Progressive Trance/Dance: Deepsky, Way Out West (more than just one album, you know), Coldcut
DJs: Christian Smith, Christopher Lawrence, Max Graham (see Tranceport)
Worldly: Talvin Singh (excellent stuff here)
Singers with mixers: Lamb (D&Bish), BT (can vary styles a lot), Sneaker Pimps, Hooverphonic
Others: Banco De Gaia (sort of like Aphex Twin meets Juno Reactor), Mocean Worker (changed styles on Aural), Orbital (look for In Sides and Nowhere), Plaid (experimental but always cool stuff), Sasha (also a good DJ, look up Airdrawndagger for his self-produced album), The Orb (ambient turned breakish), Red Snapper (just got into this guy)

I don't like House per-say, but it's more a matter of not liking House vs. Progressive House. I don't like House music where they are talking about how good house music is in the song, and putting this shitty beat and disco 70's shit in the music. I like progressive music in general, anyway.

I would say that either you should try to listen to clips of a bunch of these artists, or I can at least break it down to a list of "must-have" albums (while maintaining a level of diversity in the list):

Chemical Brothers - Come With Us (or all of the ones before it)
Underworld - Everything, Everything (been solid stuff since day one)
Crystal Method - Tweekend
Amon Tobin - Supermodified (or Chaos Theory) (did I say this guy is a genius?)
Talvin Singh - OK
Christopher Lawrence - Exposure IV
Sasha - Airdrawndagger (so many good songs on this album)
Hybrid - Morning Sci-Fi
Hooverphonic - Blue Wonder Powder Milk
Plaid - Rest Proof Clockwork (any of them, really)
Orbital - In Sides
Juno Reactor - Bible of Dreams (among others)
Fluke - Risotto (Puppy is also really good)
Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album (did I mention that this guy was born in the year 2542 and time travelled here to make music?)
Red Snapper - Our Aim Is To Satisfy (Song 6 tends to get popular with the reviewers for obvious reasons when you listen to it, though the #1 & 3 are my favs)
Orb - Orbus Terrarum (for more ambient) or Orblivion (for more breakish)
Coldcut - Let Us Play (his DJ album is also really good)

Random notes: You might like Juno Reactor and Fluke if you liked the Matrix Reloaded OST. Juno Reactor had some of his material in some of the songs (along with an orchestial backdrop). Fluke had a few songs on the OSTs, including the quote-unquote "raaaave scene". (I hate calling it that...) Hmmm, also listen to Inner Universe on the Ghost in the Shell OST... (I literally have to pause and wipe the tears from my eyes at how fucking beautiful the song is.)

While it's still a large list, these would be a list of my favorites. I'm a big bigbeat fan, though as I've listened to electronica more, I've been really enjoying the more progressive and outlandish stuff. Electronica is more than a genre. It's an exploration of sound.

Anyway, try to listen to these albums and get back to me about which ones you like. For somebody like you, who is first getting into this genre and is still really specific about what you like, you'll need to try out some albums before actually getting a feel for what you really like. For the longest time, I liked "DJ music" in something like a rave, but I would never thing I would actually be listening to it in my car or house. Now, it seems to be a stable subgenre of good music for me.

BTW, you said that you like other genres, but do you have any albums or artists for me? What is your favorite instrument? (Keyboards, organs, piano) Your favorite sound effects? (Flaunges, square waves, others I couldn't describe) I could narrow it down a bit from there.

Need more ambient like LTJ Bukem. Such good stuff.

Barret wrote:Need more ambient like LTJ Bukem. Such good stuff.

Not a huge fan of Bukem myself, but there are some stand-out songs like Demon's Theme, Close to the Source, and Undress Your Mind. Besides the songs of his that I really like, it's kinda boring.

BTW, I think I would definately put him on a traitional drum&bass category. Hell, even the Electronica Primer has Demon's Theme as a prime example of D&B. Atmospheric, yes, but I wouldn't consider it Ambient.

For that, look no further to the godfathers of ambient, The Orb. Check out Oxbow Lakes on Orbus Terrarum, though the whole album is a great example of ambient. (The Andy's Other Sparce Mix is also really good, and is probably my favorite Orb song.) Hell, these are the same guys that did a 45-minute version of Blue Room. A 45-minute long song!

SCORE! I'll look for it when I get home.

Anyone using DC++? I used it at the last LAN party I was at and I thought it worked pretty good but didn't connect to the internet with it, just the network.

I use AllOfMP3 for all of my album needs.

That reminds me....Mental, what's your street address? (You can e-mail/PM it to me if you want.) I just realized that I have all of these CDs that I have been trying to get rid of. I'd be glad to send some example CDs your way as long as you promise to listen to them.

The Orb's best stuff is on "U.F.Orb" and "The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld". That stuff is flat out classic techno. Orbus Terrarum is mediocre compared to it.

Mana Man wrote:The Orb's best stuff is on "U.F.Orb" and "The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld". That stuff is flat out classic techno. Orbus Terrarum is mediocre compared to it. B)

I guess it's all a matter of opinion. Ultraworld was kinda boring except for a few standouts.

I had U.F.Orb at one time, but I don't anymore, and I've forgot what it sounds like. I should grab a copy again.

SineSwiper wrote:I use AllOfMP3 for all of my album needs.

That reminds me....Mental, what's your street address? (You can e-mail/PM it to me if you want.) I just realized that I have all of these CDs that I have been trying to get rid of. I'd be glad to send some example CDs your way as long as you promise to listen to them.

I can e-mail it to you, though not tonight as I'm really tired. Not comfortable putting it on any public internet site, really.

Thanks for the list - much more complete than I was expecting. I've heard about half of the artists you recommended, but I don't have any of your "must have" albums except for In Sides, which is, indeed, one of my favorite albums.

Over the next few weeks, I'll try to get all of them (Napster is great for that) and take a listen, and at the end of that period I'll check in with you again on the list. Thanks again, man.

By the way, I notice you didn't include Sasha's Fundacion on there, which is a very good continuous-mix trance album. I highly recommend it, and AllOfMP3 has it.

Seems presumptous to recommend something when I was the one asking for recommendations originally, but I thought you might like it.

Mental wrote:By the way, I notice you didn't include Sasha's Fundacion on there, which is a very good continuous-mix trance album. I highly recommend it, and AllOfMP3 has it.

Seems presumptous to recommend something when I was the one asking for recommendations originally, but I thought you might like it.

That's alright. Sasha is a really good trance DJ. I've been getting into Paul Van Dyk's DJing work, too.

Shellie's starting to find a groove in downbeat music. Frou Frou/Imogen Heap is awesome stuff. She's also grabbing stuff from Telepopmusik, Thievery Corporation, Zero 7, and a few others. Of course, we're fans of Bjork, too.

Go ahead and e-mail me your address. I've got no problem giving these CDs away.

Did you ever get a chance to check these out?