71-80
71. Spaß
Artist: Pole
From: Clicks_+_Cuts
Label: Mille Plateaux
Released: 2000
The enveloping reverb of Autechre’s Glitch has already taken us halfway into the dub-techno zone, making for an easy shift into the real deal, the cavernous bass driven minimalism of Pole’s Spaß. An excellent example of the creation of energy and momentum through the precise deployment of glitch, reverb and delay, and the third in the trio of Pole tunes featured in the mix.
72. LOST
Artist: Autechre
From: Anti
Label: WARP
Released: 1994
The most beautiful track from Autechre’s breakthrough Anti EP, Lost is suffused with uncertainty, a sense of disoriented contrition, like the moment when the curtains are thrown open to the dawn light after a party to reveal the mess you’d failed to notice in the dark and sweaty hours of the night. This feeling isn’t just evident in the melodic elements of the track, those aching chords and soft splinters of sorrowful vocal – it’s also embedded deep into its rhythmic DNA, through its tinge of junglistic delirium, its implosive kicks and fluttering stereo panned polyrhythms, like the whirring of wings and the traces of a bird’s flight across a dusk sky. The track is one of the most aptly named in Autechre’s catalogue, as we truly do find ourselves lost. Lost amongst its sense of desolate desire, its wistful whirlwind of rhythm and emotion. Lost, but with perhaps some faint chance of redemption, some promise of a return to home.
73. NANNOU
Artist: Aphex Twin
From: Windowlicker
Label: WARP
Released: 1999
A wonderfully quixotic piece of music from an EP that marked the high point of Aphex Twin’s disturbing pop dalliances, Nannou is unlike most of James’ prior work, with its stripped down melodic microscopy, all cranks & keys, clockwork kalimbas, shuffles, shakers and the unwinding of springs. It makes me think of the stop-motion precision of Professor Yaffle – in fact there’s something of a Bagpuss vibe about the whole tune. You can imagine the mice dancing to it as they clean the dusty shelves and repair the forsaken toys of long dead children.
74. ECONOMY
Artist: Funkstorung
From: Post.Art
Label: Chocolate Industries
Released: 1997
Some more of the classic Funkstorung sound here with Test. Wistful little music box chimes, and baroque traceries of percussion swirl around a simple synth hook, underpinned by kicks so light and airy you fear they might float away if left unattended.
75. AD MISERICORDIA
Artist: μ-Ziq
From: Tango N’Vectif
Label: Rephlex
Released: 1993
Some darkcore from Paradinas, with a mournful organ intro that leaves you unprepared for the panicked drop and flurries of frantic industrial kick action. Reminiscent of some of the heavier tracks from Polygon Window.
76. DJARUM
Artist: Autechre
From: Anti EP
Label: WARP
Released: 1994
The other track with repetitive beats from the Anti EP is a disorienting onslaught of muted kick drums, claps, and whistles with a granular hook that might have come from a misfiring chainsaw. An industrial beast that sounds like a skeletal test run for the more chilled Montreal from Amber (in fact there is a slowed down 1994 live version that sits somewhere between both tracks), Djarum is marked by the curious flatness of its sound, an icy edge that enhances the brutality of the assault.
77. COME ON YOU SLAGS!
Artist: Aphex Twin
From: I Care Because You Do
Label: WARP
Released: 1995
Like many of James’ albums, I Care Because You Do was essentially a compilation of new and old work, and Come On You Slags! sounds like it’s probably one of its oldest tracks, something from the Tamphex/Xylem era of warped playfulness and menacing hardcore vibes. …Slags! does have something else going on though, an element of intrigue that comes from the juxtaposition of its peculiar vocal sample with the sinister acid hook, dark synth pads and the urgent energy of its crackling cymbal rolls.
78. PIEZO
Artist: Autechre
From: Amber
Label: WARP
Released: 1994
Piezo starts with all the hallmarks of electronic cliche: bleeps and bloops and hollow 8-bit beats, plus a phasing, swinging rhythm like the long tumble of a percussive slinky. But the genius here is in the coalescence of these elements, the patchwork of swaying rhythm that emerges from the chaos and carries us along in a dizzying descent, culminating with a gentle plunge into a pool of haunted subglacial synths.
79. Initiation
Artist: The Arkitekt
From: Deep Ark Field Recordings
Label: None
Released: None
Planes over the valley, birdsong, footsteps, indistinct chatter. Recorded with Tascam DR-40 and Rode NTG3 Condenser mic, May 2014.
80. SO MANY WAYS
Artist: Metamatics
From: NeoOuija
Label: Hydrogen Jukebox
Released: 1999
An alumni of Clear Records, which also put out records from Gescom, Plaid and μ-Ziq in the mid 90’s, Lee Norris (aka Metamatics) was a purveyor of accessible electronica in a similar style to Plaid, with an occasional excursion into melancholic IDM and lusciously tender downtempo, exemplified by this track from his second LP. Norris would go on to found the 3rd gen IDM label NeoOuija in 2000 which had a short but influential lifespan.
81-90
81. ALL IS FULL OF LOVE (HOMEMADE ACAPELLA)
82. ALL IS FULL OF LOVE (ZVUKU ACAPELLA MODULAR REFIX)
We hit the exact midpoint of our voyage with the first (and only) appearance of an unaltered human voice. Bjork is of course well known for remarkable voice, her eclectic career and her long held appreciation of experimental electronic music, having worked with Mark Bell, Plaid and Arca amongst others. The single of All is full… was produced by Howie B in his established trip hop style, whilst the album cut features an orchestral ambient version which was the source of the homemade acapella and luscious ambient remix that swoops straight into…
83. ALL IS FULL OF LOVE (IN LOVE WITH :FUNKSTORUNG.REMIX)
Artist: Bjork Mit :Funkstorung
From: All Is Full Of …
Label: FatCat
Released: 1998
…this overtly glitchy remix by Funkstorung, one of two versions they produced of the song, and probably the track (along with their Wu Tang remix) which put them on the map for a lot of listeners. I played this out a lot at the time, so it’s kind of the definitive version in my mind, and I think the excess of IDM signifiers; the hesitant, stuttering off-beat drums, bit crushing and DSP style effects work beautifully here, playing to the strengths of Bjork’s radiant vocal to create a kind of archetypal dyad of the rough and smooth, the feminine and masculine. A literal juxtaposition of the human and the machine, a contrast present in a lot of classic IDM and electronica but rarely made quite so explicit.
84. GOODNIGHT JADE
Artist: Squarepusher
From: Feed Me Weird Things
Label: Rephlex
Released: 1996
Some of my favourite Squarepusher moments come from his ‘96 debut LP for Rephlex; the heart wrenching Amen tumble of Tundra, the acid jungle of Theme from Ernest Borgnine or the industrial workouts of Dimotane Co and North Circular, and none more so than the gentle underwater elegy of Goodnight Jade – the first of two appearances from Tom Jenkinson here.
85. ZEIT
Artist: Funkstorung
From: Musik Aus Strom 1.08
Label: Musik Aus Strom
Released: 1996
The first release on Funkstorung’s Musik Aus Strom label is an uncharacteristically straightforward affair, a four track selection of electro, industrial and downtempo tunes. Zeit has a chamber music trip-hop vibe to it, quite unlike anything they did afterwards. It feels a bit like the duo were exploring options here, trying to find something that fit before they jumped fully into IDM in ‘97 with a couple of accomplished EP’s on Compost Records.
86. CUE
Artist: Being
From: Invisible Soundtracks Vol. 1
Label: Leaf
Released: 1995
The second tune here from LEAF’s Invisible Soundtracks series, and a 12” I picked up blind when it first came out, knowing nothing about the record other than the fact that both Gescom and Disjecta were on it. It turns out that it also contained what was to become one of my most beloved ambient tunes of the 90’s, the perfectly poised, gently pulsating acid womb minimalism of Cue. 7 minutes of cosmically deep mournful perfection from Being, aka Dave Paton who is still releasing records today via his own label.
87. OPEN THE LIGHT
Artist: Boards Of Canada
From: Music Has The Right To Children
Label: WARP
Released: 1998
There’s no denying the sensation caused by the release of Boards Of Canada’s debut LP, but it didn’t come out of nowhere. The Scottish duo were picked up by SKAM after a run of mid-90’s self released EPs, but Music has the right to Children was the one that hit the zeitgeist. Their formula of evocative samples, downtempo trip-hop beats and analogue synthesisers seemed to provide a sonic balm to a generation of ravers, older and a bit banjaxed, and as likely to dissolve in comforting, rosy retrospection at home as they were to venture out for one more all-nighter.
This long waning of rave’s afterglow was accompanied by a premature feeling of nostalgia, a vibe consciously cultivated in the aesthetics around this record. The popularity of BOC spawned a thousand imitators and was instrumental in the general slowdown of tempos across the scene as a whole; a shift to a slower, slumberous style which became a dominant colour in the electronica palette for many years to follow.
88. ELBOW GLUE
Artist: Solvent
From: Solvent / Lowfish
Label: Suction
Released: 1998
This reflective little nocturne is a lot crunchier than your average Solvent production – he generally favours a slightly crusty electro style drumkit and 100+ bpm tempos – but the slower pace of Elbow Glue means that those languid waves of irresistibly sweet melody get to flow for just that little bit longer.
89. TINY COG (DISJECTA MIX)
Artist: Nav Katze/Disjecta
From: Never Mind The Distortion II
Label: Invitation
Released: 1997
I’m sure there’s a good story to be told about the industry connections that led to the mid-90’s proliferation of electronica remixes of obscure Japanese artists, and Nav Katze would probably be central figures in that tale as they were the recipients of mixes from a multitude of prominent acts, including Autechre, Aphex Twin, Global Communication, μ-Ziq, Sun Electric & Black Dog.
Mark Clifford’s mix of Tiny Cog, taken from their second collection of remixes, is a conspicuously weird example, full of awkward beats and sulking bass, overlaid with the softest of pillowy melodies, like an unusually minimal Guy called Gerald tune played at the wrong speed.
90. ACRID AVID JAM SHRED
Artist: Aphex Twin
From: I Care Because You Do
Label: WARP
Released: 1995
With its intro of heavy bass drums, whining alarms and funky drummer snare, you might be forgiven at first for thinking that Acrid Avid Jam Shred was a Bomb Squad production, some lost Public Enemy instrumental played at the wrong speed – but then we enter the track proper. A slow accumulation of melody that builds relentlessly into an insanely catchy and eerily beautiful climax that sounds like a choir of happy miners whistling amidst the pounding of hammers and the workings of drills, hoists and dozers.
