91-100
91. LETEREL
Artist: Autechre
From: Tri Repetae
Label: WARP
Released: 1995
If you have ever had the misfortune to visit an intensive care unit you might recognise some of the vibe of Leterel. The electronic racket of banks of specialised machinery, the slow wheeze of bellows and pumps, the desperate sense of failing fortitude. One of the slower and more reflective numbers from Tri Repetae, this one is a grandiose epic of bittersweet electronic symphonics.
92. PLETHORA
Artist: Posthuman
From: Posthuman
Label: Seed Records
Released: 2000
The music of Richard Bevan and Joshu Doherty first came to my attention with their 2001 release on SKAM which led to a purchase of their Uncertainty of the Monkey LP, a record that included a number of tunes from their eponymous debut album. Plethora was one of those tunes, featuring a wispy synth line with smatterings of the tuff electro tinged electronica the duo specialised in. Now resident DJ at the popular I love Acid parties, Richard is still releasing records as Posthuman.
93. HAPPIER (SEEFEEL MIX)
Artist: Nav Katze / Seefeel
From: Never Mind The Distortion II E.P.
Label: XEO Invitation
Released: 1997
Another little slice of Nav Katze remix action here. The Seefeel mix of Happier is the kind of ghostly stadium synth action we might have heard if Eno had been asked to produce an ambient U2 record.
94. PRADO
Artist: To Rococo Rot
From: The Amateur View
Label: City Slang
Released: 1999
Listening back to The Amateur View now, I am reminded of why I rated it so much back in the day – it’s so promiscuous in its influences; there’s a bit of motorik, a touch of glitchy ambient, a dollop of IDM, a tinge of jazz. It’s a really unique sound that shouldn’t really work, but everything is thrown together with such insouciant precision that it all gels beautifully. Prado is one of the more ambient tunes from an album that mostly sounds like an impromptu bierhaus jam between a kosmische supergroup and a virtuoso acoustic folk combo.
95. DARK BOUNTY
Artist: Sunken Foal
From: Hexose
Label: Countersunk
Released: 2020
“Ireland’s most prolific electronic composer” Dunk Murphy has now enjoyed a music career which has outlasted many of the artists who inspired him. Commencing in the late 90’s as half of Ambulance along with Trev O’Reilly and continuing to the present day with releases as Sunken Foal, Minced Oath and The Natural History Museum (with Carol Keogh), mostly released via his own Countersunk label.
Over the years his work has delved into many niches of electronic and experimental music and 2020’s Hexose saw a turn to a lusher ambient sound, a showcase of thick layered harmony and flickering nano-sound design reminiscent of the softer aspects of the 90’s WARP sound. Hexose is a faultless album full of soulful synth ambience with many standout tracks, including the delectable Dark Bounty and its bubbles of bass, water drum percussion, and sweet, slow waves of treacly synth.
96. OSLO 2 +6.1
Artist: The Tuss
From: Rushup Edge (Expanded LP)
Label: Rephlex
Released: 2007 / 2017
As you have probably gathered by now, I have a rudimentary understanding of music theory at best, but I can usually tell when something is a bit awry, and this badly disguised Aphex project is full of the DJ vexing microtonal melodies that dominated Analord and Syro. oslo 2 +6.1 is one of the more chilled and conventional tracks from this wildly weird and experimental album. Sadly absent from the beautifully pressed original triple vinyl edition.
97. VISCER
Artist: Loess
From: 3D Concepts Part 2
Label: Toytronic
Released: 2003
I’m not particularly au-fait with the critical status of third gen IDM artists, but Loess seem unfairly slept on. The duo put out a dozen or so records around the turn of the millennium and carved out a little niche for themselves with a sparse and sleek sound. Deep in the noodle zone in terms of texture and rhythm, but with a gentle fluidity and ambient sense of space – as heard in the rolling serenity of Viscer.
98. Egregore (Field Recording)
Artist: The Arkitekt
From: Deep Ark Field Recordings
Label: None
Released: None
Wind, birdsong, footsteps, conversation, indistinct chatter. Recorded with Tascam DR-40 and Rode NTG3 Condenser mic, May 2014.
99. DAEL
Artist: Autechre
From: Tri Repetae
Label: WARP
Released: 1995
The opening tune of Tri Repetae is as much a statement of intent as the album as a whole. A pyroclastic flow in musical form, Dael announces itself with the long glottal scrape of that first synth note followed by the lonely bleeps of an urgent robotic response, and every subsequent sound seems to have been manufactured within microscopic tolerances towards the sole purpose of orchestrating a maelstrom of relentless machine funk.
100. BAZFOUL
Artist: Cylob
From: Cylobian Sunset
Label: Rephlex
Released: 1996
Another cut from the amazing Cylobian Sunset, this one feels pre-electronic, as if powered by the workings of hand crafted gears, sprockets and springs, like some vintage wind up toy or a musical automaton. The melody mirrors this rhythmic primitivism, but it’s that very simplicity that makes this tune so special, the wonderful clarity of those naive synths, each note like a stroke of pure colour in a warm sky. From the very first clarion chord to a finale bursting with elegiac analogue symphonics, Bazfoul is a mechanical missile aimed right at your heart.
101-110
101. DRIVING IS EASY
Artist: μ-Ziq
From: Tango N’Vectif (Reissue)
Label: Rephlex
Released: 1993/2001
Absent from the original pressing of Tango N’Vectif, we had to wait 8 years for an expanded reissue to hear this woozy number. One of Paradinas’ most gently enveloping works, Driving Is Easy is a sparse chiming lullaby with a lovely ambient Rhodes feel.
102. XTAL (HETEROTIC VERSION)
Artist: Aphex Twin / Heterotic
From: Selected Ambient Works 85-92
Label: Apollo / Unreleased
Released: 1992 / 2013
It’s not easy to do justice to a timeless classic like Xtal, but Lara Rix-Martin and Mike Paradinas take a pretty good stab at it with their Heterotic Version, retaining the rhapsodic otherworldliness of the original within the billowing folds of their gauzy dream-pop reimagining.
103. ALBERTO BALSALM
Artist: Aphex Twin
From: I Care Because You Do
Label: WARP
Released: 1995
Everyone’s favourite tune from ICBYD, the subject of probably hundreds of covers and tributes, and James’ purest pop moment, Alberto Balsalm seems less like the work of an eccentric acid experimentalist and more like an unknown hit from some obscure electronic bandleader, a cybernetic Bert Kaempfert or Paul Mauriat. This is the Aphex track most worthy of commercial airplay, the one you’d play to your doubtful mates, even your parents, in an attempt to convert them to the cause, the one you’d risk wasting your walkman batteries on as you rewound for just one more listen.
We all know how it goes, the ammo-box scraping noise, the gorgeous lilting steel drum, those scissoring shakers and rattling gates, the whole radiant shebang of the thing. It was this track that made me realise that the real magic in James’ music lay not just in his experimental approach, his innovative use of electronic instruments or his quixotic sound choices, but rather in his extraordinary musicality, his unique melodic sensibility and talent as a composer. This isn’t a track, it’s a proper song, one of the greatest examples of 20th century electronic pop. A flawless classic which suggested that maybe he really did care after all.
104. NOT FOR SALE
Artist: Solvent
From: Solvent City
Label: Morr Music
Released: 2001
We wrap up our Solvent selection with this jaunty number from 2001’s Solvent City. A warm little roller featuring a syrupy music box refrain, some acid tinged high synth action and a fuzzy rhythmic backbone that resolves into an understated finale of scratches, squelches, and quiet ebbing pulses of plaintive melody. The perfect accompaniment to Alberto’s balsalm.
105. ROTEA
Artist: Takeshi Muto
From: Lily Of The Valley
Label: Schematic
Released: 2000
The only appearance here from Miami’s influential Schematic Records is just a single bar of crunchy drums from Rotea. Muto produced some quality IDM for Schematic in his time, but was somewhat overshadowed by more prominent labelmates Phoenecia, Richard Devine and Push Button Objects.
106. HEAVENLY
Artist: Beaumont Hannant
From: Sculptured
Label: GPR
Released: 1994
Original home of The Black Dog, GPR (General Production Records) was one of the essential 90’s ambient techno labels alongside Apollo, Rising High & Fax. York b-boy turned post-rave producer, Beaumont Hannant came to prominence through the imprint, producing 4 albums for them between 93 and 95. Heavenly comes from the last of these records, and there’s more than a trace of Seefeel in its sighing vocals and washboard industrialism.
107. ICONOCLASM (DON’T X RAY DA DAT MIX BY AUTECHRE)
Artist: Buck Tick / Autechre
From: シェイプレス
Label: Invitation
Released: 1994
Booth’s favourite Autechre remix and you can hear why. Don’t X Ray Da DAT sounds big. Its drums are like giant blocks of sandstone being dragged and knocked about in some vast empty landscape whilst electronic pulses echo across the night sky and the funereal traces of a distant harmonium blows down from the steppe on katabatic winds.
108. WEATHER EXPERIENCE
Artist: The Prodigy
From: Experience
Label: XL
Released: 1994
An unusually evocative number from hardcore’s stadium rave enfant terribles. A snippet from a Michael Fish weather forecast, an inspired orchestral sample from Queen’s Flash soundtrack and the mid-tune tempo change mark this one out as a real oddity in the Prodigy’s discography. Up there with Acen’s John Barry pilfering anthem in the epic orchestral rave sample charts, this tune had an extended life due to the super clean, floor filling moodiness of the Top Buzz remix. RIP Keith.
109. BON P’ONT V.2 (D.DIGIT MIX)
Artist: Wisp
From: About Things That Never Were
Label: TavCOM Records
Released: 2003
The mysterious Wisp first came to prominence with his 2004 EP of SAW II covers, and his LP on Rephlex was both a throwback to the late 90’s IDM sound and a refreshingly innocent take on the genre. The fairground head-nod of bon p’ont V.2 is one of the more sedate tunes from a debut LP of eclectic electronica that isn’t too dissimilar to Plaid’s classic sound.
110. CLIFFS
Artist: Alarm Will Sound / Aphex Twin
From: Acoustica: Alarm Will Sound Performs Aphex Twin
Label: Cantaloupe
Released: 2005
Electronic music covers with live instrumentation aren’t generally my cup of tea, but Acoustica’s 2005 album of Aphex covers is one of the more successful examples. Maybe it’s the seriousness of the project, the obvious reverence shown to the material, or perhaps there’s something about the tonal qualities of James’ music that more readily lends itself to the process. Regardless, this bright arrangement of Cliffs is one of its standout tracks, the vocals, strings and brass offering a richly textured alternative to the original. Nowadays of course you can’t go five minutes on YouTube without coming across another Aphex cover video. I watch them all.
