THE 30 GREATEST ‘EDM’ ALBUMS OF ALL TIME ACCORDING TO ROLLING STONE

LOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwwmyTg_7iU

and here we are

at least they got the right Prodigy and Chems albums

wtf @ Underworld/Orbital comps

hoo boy @ this list

If Sasha and Digweed put trance's limpid power-drive over to the dance audience, Tranceport cemented it as a new kind of pop, peaking with the sugar-rush synth peals and from-behind snare rolls of Binary Finary's "1998" and Energy 52's "Café Del Mar (Three N One Remix)." Sometimes syrup tastes really good.

This is such an odd list to look at but I like everything on here except the Paul Oakenfold and the Deadmau5 neither of which I've heard (and which I'm gonna just call as unnecessary).

All of the anthologies makes it look like blatant base-covering but that's also kinda refreshingly honest.

Actually wait I don't like Play.

anyway tough choice between trax and homework

but i gotta say this selection is equal parts weird, predictable and shitty

when i say weird it's like *why those* picks for, say, the orb, 4 hero, detroit techno albums, etc

All of the anthologies makes it look like blatant base-covering but that's also kinda refreshingly honest.

yeah that's exactly what i was thinking re: craig and atkins

weird choice for dnb

Yes.

It's like, guys, if you're gonna limit d&b to one album then the damage is already done, feel free to ignore post-97.

track-for-track that Underworld anthology is probably the best but wtf @ this list

Yeah this is a weird list, Immer is one of my favourite albums ever though so I voted for that.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iBY-XRTlYFI/UWLadfYPPiI/AAAAAAAALCo/d4aLUEXk4fw/s1600/i-dont-give-a-shit.jpg

Why is Volume 2 always the canonical As heard on Radio Soulwax CD?!?!?! Yeah it's good god, but the illegal ones are sooooo much better.

exactly...I remember hearing #2 and thinking it was really just a watered down version of #1. what other volumes are good?

that Tresor comp seems a bit incongruous sitting there at #12 and therefore I might vote for it

(not gonna read all 30 blurbs on their separate ad-laden pages, but I didn't know until I clicked through that #30 was some happy-gabber "popcore" business, I guess that actually wins the incongruity prize. please film the reactions of EDM teenagers on listening to this comp thx)

21. Madonna, ‘Ray of Light’ (Maverick, 1998)

Roffle.

From memory the entire gist of the list was "how to make sense of EDM", which explains quite a few of the choices - popcore, deadmau5, late
nineties populist trance, Justice etc.

What's with the random Mokum records entry? That was a Dutch gabba label iirc?

xxxp reason Volume 2 sounds watered down is i suppose due to the fact that this was the only one they had to clear all the tracks for, and they could barely get half of what they wanted. but yeah Christ the 2 hour Christmas Day radio 1 mix (known as Hang The DJ) from 2001 was the real live game-changer.

lmao wow this is a real list

if this had more dnb (which i think ppl forget had a genuine significant grass roots audience in the states though that never built to any high profile breakthroughs in the larger media) it'd be approaching a fairly decent overview of 'edm' that has managed to reach broad groups of ppl in the us maybe. i for the lineage that they're aiming for something like nitzer ebb might make more sense than larry levan though.

Moe like LOLling stone amirite

Also the correct answer is Computer World

All of the anthologies makes it look like blatant base-covering but that's also kinda refreshingly honest.

OTOH, the implication is that none of them ever made an album as great as, say, Skrillex's latest.

that's not to say that Skrillex makes great music

I kinda like this list for being such a weird combination of canon "electronic music for rock fans" albums and stuff (Mokum!) you wouldn't expect Rolling Stone to hype. That Tresor comp is probably my favourite, based on the quality of individual tracks alone, and I'm glad they included it.

Oh, reading the article, it seems they're hyping only the first part of the vinyl release of "True Spirit", and not the full box set. Well, that just doesn't make sense...

I can see why they went for Underworld and Orbital comps. These are clearly singles artists with no reputation whatsoever for creating consistent, cohesive albums.

In absence of any LTJ Bukem or Mark Farina, I voted for Sasha and Digweed.

Fuckin' a. Nothing from Ninja Tune?

huh i guess mick jagger and billy joel never made 'edm' albums

Bob Dylan's "Wiggle Wiggle" nearly made the cut

as much as this is all basically yelling at clouds so w/e, I can't really imagine what Ninja Tune stuff should obviously go on there given the actual content of the list. the one album by The Bug everyone liked maybe, but even then not really

Where's Let's Dance? Or Earthling? Fucking useless.

What I'm trying to say is: no Speed Limit 140 BPM+ Eight: On The Happy Hardcore Tip, no credibility.

I have literally never heard of Paul Oakenfold's Tranceport. I trust it's as good as its title.

I actually kinda dig that one

my default Ninja Tune album is Cold Krush Kuts but I suspect that pushes me into being part of the problem

I loved Cold Krush Kuts. Wish I still had a copy of it.

it's on Amazon, allegedly (there's an 8 - 12 day wait which usually means "well it's in our catalog and there might be a copy under that one dude's chair")

This is the best Ninja Tune album, IMO:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QAmFO6bpuEg/TJh-pD1_liI/AAAAAAAAAJw/hXSNsHf0j10/s1600/its+tomorrow+already.jpeg

There are few other records where samples have been used so well to convey moods.

no Pet Shop Boys, New Order or Depeche Mode? kinda weird.

nor is there U2 - Zooroppa

having read through the blurbs, I am voting for the Tresor comp because it has "Drugs Work" on it

(my real vote from these choices would be the Chems, and they probably need it, but OTOH "Drugs Work")

these are "electronica" not "EDM"

if that Tresor comp and "Der Klang Der Familie" on it, it would be perfect and I basically would die

It has! The box set, I mean. (The one on the list is Vol. I of the vinyl release, vol. II has that tune, as well as "Floating", "Die Kosmischen Kuriere", and other great tunes... That's why I'm baffled they chose to include Vol. I only.)

This is the box set:

http://www.discogs.com/Various-True-Spirit/release/32293

One of the best comps of all time!

xp I love the Pet Shop Boys more than anything but EDM? Why not Soft Cell? OMD? Human League? Anyone who's ever used a synthesizer? (Admittedly the inclusion of Kraftwerk leaves the list wide open to this criticism)

i love Kraftwerk but i thought the D stood for Dance

or is it Donk?

okay I'm fucking buying that comp

xp I love the Pet Shop Boys more than anything but EDM? Why not Soft Cell? OMD? Human League? Anyone who's ever used a synthesizer? (Admittedly the inclusion of Kraftwerk leaves the list wide open to this criticism)

I think you could make a reasonable argument for Disco 2

Trying to apply consistent logic to this list makes my head hurt.

does the avalanches count at electronic dance music?

they count as egregiously dull music

djp otm

New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down is THE prime exemple of great EDM

Every time I look at 2 Many DJs, I'm wishing it was 2 Bad Mice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQVv40_9NSo

I think for clarity's sake the list should just be post-2008 (or whenever it kicked off in the US) EDM: DeadMau5, Skrillex, Guetta, Avicii, Swedish House Mafia. No fucking about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AnkRYFhSh4

heh DL which thread was it where you were saying that no one would ever use "EDM" to refer to the totality of electronic dance music

;_;

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

this list is bad, but i voted for burial's untrue because when it comes down to it, i like depressing music more than dance music, though i like dance music as well.

a fatwa on pat finn! death to false edm!

lol. i like the repurposed dubstep headphone music stuff. that burial album is great for like, taking the late night bus to boston when it's cold and rainy.

i'd probably put it at #6

these are "electronica" not "EDM"

― the Upperchest (crüt), Tuesday, April 23, 2013 2:14 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm confused in general about all this, isn't EDM just an "umbrella" term like Electronica was in the 90s? Or is EDM more rave-y, more live event oriented.

Guetta is EDM but not electronica

This list was pretty obviously put together by three or four different people backing radically different horses (19 year old EDM kid, corny indie fucker, disinterested 90s anthologist, dude who knows what he's talking about).

ha brimstead I was joking

lol. i like the repurposed dubstep headphone music stuff. that burial album is great for like, taking the late night bus to boston when it's cold and rainy.

― Pat Finn, Sunday, April 28, 2013 3:02 AM (17 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

At this point I'm surprised that late night bus services don't just sponsor Burial and play his music over the loudspeaker. As far as I can tell this is the only context in which anyone listens to the dude.

lol

xpost i would also listen to him late at night in my college library when i was finishing up my thesis, pondering what i should do next with my life, and quietly crying. but yeah, it's 3am solitary listening music.

For me it's a quiet, desolate, post-mugging trudge home in a rainstorm, passing an all night caf where three solitary dudes stare glumly into plates of baked beans and sausages and wonder how it all went wrong.

it's so NOT night bus music, unless you want to fall asleep in the night bus and wake up at 5am in fucking south woodford

How about sitting on the platform of an unheated underground train station where a fifteen year old mother is trying unsuccessfully to rock her baby to sleep, her entire life flashing before her eyes.

that's another good context. i think we can all agree that whatever we are doing while listening to burial, it isn't dancing.

I tried getting into Burial a few years ago when untrue was still hot, but my wife vetoed it: "why are you making me listen to this sad crying music? are you sad?"

we are preferably just not listening to burial and cheering the fuck up

how's life's wife otm

xpost to lex obviously if you're listening to burial on the late night bus you'd have taken the rest of your adderall tablets and feel exhausted but not tired; numb but not okay

I sometimes play Burial while deliberately pressing a red hot iron into the back of my hand and thinking about how no one ever truly loved me.

how's life's wife is not otm. i don't know what i'd do without sad music. i'm listening to mazzy star as we speak.

lol tim

This would have been way fucking better if they just made it a list of electronic dance records made since, like, human after all and tried to forge some kind of nu-canon instead of forcing this into some sort of weird music writer's lineage

i listen to burial while watching people say 'yo burial is so dope' and playing burial on an ipod

otherwise, never

I listened to about 30 seconds of "Southern Comfort" on youtube just now and thought about riding on a bus

we should plan an event where we all get together on a grim day in november and ride a bus from one major american city to another one, listening to burial silently on our ipods and not talking to each other

grimfap

This would have been way fucking better if they just made it a list of electronic dance records made since, like, human after all and tried to forge some kind of nu-canon instead of forcing this into some sort of weird music writer's lineage

― rap steve gadd (D-40), Sunday, April 28, 2013 8:46 PM (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Agreed, would be a more interesting article too IMO. Though I don't mind the idea of pointing to EDM's actual dance music ancestry e.g. late nineties commercial trance.

Perhaps the main thing missing from the list is pre-Skrillex proto-filfthstep, maybe some cash-in Maximum Dubstep comp with women in blackleather dancing in front of cars loaded with speakers.

addicted to bass

The comp or the song? 'Cos the song is total EDM royal ancestry.

comp

can't even figure out what the troll vote is here

Check the song! Late 90s OZ EDM:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhZWQ5_dcNY

puretone, right?

compS, there's like 13 volumes now i think

Literally about car speakers.

xpost yeah.

For me it's a quiet, desolate, post-mugging trudge home in a rainstorm, passing an all night caf where three solitary dudes stare glumly into plates of baked beans and sausages and wonder how it all went wrong.

coming up with fake Burial song titles just by observing things on your way home at night never stops being fun. 'Empty Stella Can', 'Mangy Fox', 'Wet Trainers', it's all good.

xp omg i used to love that tune! oowaah-ah-ah.

not gonna lie, putting on kosheen 'hide u' rn

sonique, fragma, that faithless song <3

I have decided not to vote and just get outraged at the results instead. That is how ILX works, isn't it?

That version of "Addicted To Bass" seems very restrained in comparison to the Apollo 440 version that was the hit. The oohwah-ah-ah is a lot more lifeless than I remembered it.

The original was the hit here, I don't think I even know the Apollo 440 remix.

I was there, at d&b clubs, when "Hide U" first blew up in early 2000. Everyone played it constantly. It felt so weird when the house version subsequently became a hit.

I have decided not to vote and just get outraged at the results instead. That is how ILX works, isn't it?

poster after my own heart

tim you should really take my advice and check out the wideboys radio show sometime, pure nonstop garage, edm, brostep dnb breakneck mashup it's horrible

http://www.kissfmuk.com/kissbassmix/2013/04/27/tracklist-270413/
http://radioplayer.kissfmuk.com/la790761/the-wideboys

u know u want some

Horrible in the Rankin sense or literally horrible?

Or both?

sometimes amazing, sometimes appalling, always more original than whatever you would have listened to instead

Alright you've sold me.

i'm actually listening now and typical sod's law this is one of their more sedately delivered entries so far

i have described a previous set as "astonishing q-level adhd aspartame mayhem" and indeed this is bit like this month's q show compared to the last

lol ok no this is awful, avoid

Haha okay. I'll see if any older sets are floating around.

i hope rolling stone re-publishes this list later in the year but just calls it "30 greatest albums of all time", causing classic rock fans throughout america to smash their laptops in fury

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i'm surprised that skrillex tied the avalanches. that seems insane.

poor moby.

i feel like there is an 80% chance that moby lurks here and i feel worried about him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg5B-oVXBj8

top 3 otm

i suspect moby's okay

i hope you're right.

i was going to put in a good word for moby, but then i played Porcelain and jesus christ these lyrics are insufferable. "in my dreams i'm dying all the time."

none for homework or trax classics? i was split between those but forgot to vote.

fyi you should all listen to the tracks on that Tresor comp immediately

don't nobody know my troubles but god

oh, my brain just inserted homework into discovery's spot. top 3 offtm

how did homework get no votes what is wrong with people

short term memory loss

I voted for Skrilly

homework isn't really a great album dude

I should have voted for Justicemau5 tbvh

homework is great but I assume everybody who likes it found something else on this list to vote for

homework IS great, not as good as alive 97 but still pretty amazing

18. Michael Mayer, ‘Immer’ (Kompakt, 2002) 7 urban tribe - collapse of western culture OR dan bell - button down mind
8. Daft Punk, ‘Discovery’ (Virgin, 2001) 7 motorbass
10. Kraftwerk, ‘Computer World’ (Warner Bros., 1981) 6 drexciya - the quest
17. Aphex Twin, ‘The Richard D. James Album’ (Warp, 1996) 3 as one - the art of prophecy
30. Various Artists, ‘Make ‘Em Mokum Crazy’ (Mokum, 1996) 3 v/a - the definition of hardcore OR callin for reinforcements (reinforced)
25. Sasha & John Digweed, ‘Northern Exposure’ (Ultra, 1997) 3 rhythm & sound w tikiman
4. Carl Craig – ‘Sessions’ (K7, 2008) 2 paperclip people - 4 my peepz
14. Skrillex, ‘Bangarang’ EP (Big Beat/Atlantic, 2011) 2 death grips - s/t
3. Juan Atkins – ‘20 Years Metroplex: 1985-2005’ (Tresor, 2005) 2 infiniti - the infiniti collection (tresor)
16. Various Artists, ‘Journey Into Paradise: The Larry Levan Story’ (2006) 2 larry heard - ice castles
2. The Chemical Brothers – ‘Dig Your Own Hole’ (Astralwerks, 1997) 2 chemical brothers - exit planet dust
19. Underworld, ‘Anthology, 1992-2002’ (JBO/V2, 2003) 2 two lone swordsmen - the fifth mission or sabres - haunted dancehall
20. The Avalanches, ‘Since I Left You’ (Modular, 2001) 2 moodymann - mahogany brown
21. Madonna, ‘Ray of Light’ (Maverick, 1998) 2 demdike stare - s/t
22. LCD Soundsystem, ‘Sound of Silver’ (Capitol/EMI, 2007) 2 lcd soundsystem - 45:33
23. Paul Oakenfold, ‘Tranceport’ (Kinetic, 1998) 2 doc martin - sounds you can feel
9. The Prodigy, ‘Music for the Jilted Generation’ (XL, 1994) 1 prodigy - experience
11. Burial, ‘Untrue’ (Hyperdub, 2007) 1 porter ricks - biokinetics
12. Various Artists, ‘True Spirit, Vol. 1’ (Tresor, 2010) 1 jeff mills - live at the liquid room
13. Basement Jaxx, ‘Remedy’ (Astralwerks, 1999) 1 farben - textstar
24. Justice, ‘†’ (Ed Banger, 2007) 1 mr oizo's first one
27. Orbital, ‘20’ (Rhino, 2009) 1 ferox - adventures in techno soul
26. 4 Hero & DJ Marky, ‘Kings of Drum + Bass’ (BBE, 2010) 1 goldie - timeless
6. 2 Many DJs, ‘As Heard on Radio Soulwax Vol. 2’ (PIAS, 2002) 1 that one dipLOL mixtape w/ "maps" on it
5. Moby, ‘Play’ (V2, 1999) 0 plastikman - the one w/ spastik on it
7. Various Artists, ‘Trax Records: The 20th Anniversary Collection’ (Casablanca Trax, 2004) 0 v/a - warp classics
15. Fatboy Slim, ‘You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby’ (Astralwerks, 1998) 0 jedi knights - new school science
28. The Orb, ‘The BBC Sessions 1991-2001’ (Island, 2008) orb - bbc sessions is not a band pick, actually
29. Deadmau5, ‘4×4=12’ (Ultra Math, 2011) 0 green velvet - s/t
1. Daft Punk – ‘Homework’ (Virgin, 1997) alan braxe and friends - the upper cuts

Some of those replacements are pretty meaningless vahid, what is the logic you're applying.

lot of puns

just a bit of fun, throw up your own list

it's really just my personal list, based on free association, no pretension of "meaning"

it was really hard picking replacements that felt appropriate to me

Haha, it's more the fact that some of them are spot on as well as some of them being o_0 that had me wondering.

But, you know, I'm glad you've decided the Demdike State album is better than Ray of Light.

Even most of the o_0 ones I agree with though.

see that's a pun

ray of light / pit of darkness

FYI my copy of the 3CD True Spirit finally arrived and this is seriously one of the best purchases I have ever made

:) It's awesome!

I'm coming to the US in June, but we're only going to be in NYC and Washington... (You live in Boston, right?) It's a pity, some day I'd love to hang out with you and listen to 90s techno.