The first album that made me think about shit and about how I viewed the world, when I was 16 or so. Been a devout NMA-follower ever since, Justin Sullivan’s lyrics still prove to be quite relevant to the current state of things, even though some of these songs are 30-40 years old.
Amongst the first of the Columbia Records “10 albums for a penny” trove/scam i received was Black Sabbath “We Sold Our Souls For Rock and Roll”. As an American teen in the 80s (in a very rural area - no MTV LOL), this sent me in a direction, to say the least.
With that said, my musical tastes took some interesting turns going forward lol
Richard and Linda Thompson - I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight.
I can’t remember when I first heard this album. Some time in my late teens or early 20s. I’d love to say that at the time I was struck by the power of the songwriting, the clarity of the production or whatever, but honestly? I’ve forgotten. What I do know is that in my late 20s I’d taught myself to play some of the tunes on the record so I could play them to myself in my room alone - which sounds desperate and sad (and somewhat in keeping with the mood of the record) but I’ve felt more comfortable doing that than performing for an audience for a very long time now so it’s not as gloomy as it sounds. But I digress.
Over my 56 years of life there haven’t been that many albums I’ve returned to periodically and still found a sense of enjoyment: I’ve forgotten and re-learned the songs on this record numerous times now and still enjoy sitting alone in a room playing the tunes to myself as I did 30-odd years ago.
Mostly when I go back to old albums I leave feeling slightly disappointed because the music isn’t as good as I remember it being when I was younger and everything was new and fresh. Often I find music I used to listen to speaks to a person I remember being but no longer am. Not this album. I have no idea why this is. I could point to the songwriting, arrangements, solos, harmonies, groove but that would be less an explanation and more a case of gushing praise.
Interestingly, it’s not really influenced the musical direction I’ve ended up taking. I’ve tried my hand at singer/songwriter but it’s a coat that didn’t quite fit.
Quick reminder: January is coming to an end. You can still post your first entry later, but it might be easier now.
I’ve changed my plans for the next entry, so I have to update this part of my first entry. Plan was to write about a hardcore album next time, but I‘ve come back around to my initial plan of just having one entry for „hard music“ (metal and hardcore-ish in my case). Unfortunately, the buggy app won’t allow me to scroll while editing, so here‘s the updated honorable mentions:
Thrice - Vheissu
At the Drive-In - In/Casino/Out
Blood Brothers - Young Machetes
Boysetsfire - After the Eulogy
La Dispute - Somewhere at the Bottom of the River Between Vega and Altair
The Roots - “Do you want more?!!!??!”
I grew up in Poland - born in 83. When I was a teenager, the main source of music was recording tapes from radio. After 1989, when the communism was over, we started to get access to first satellite TV channels - I would visit my friends that had decoders and could tape songs from German Viva and later Viva Zwei and British MTV - our first musical “internet” ;). People that had original imported US rap albums were very few - if you could find imported CD, there were 2,3 times more expensive then local releases.
Fast forward to winter 1997/1998 - my friend got a CD from his sister living in Germany. Original US rap album - booklet - everything. He played it, he hated every second of it and wanted to get rid of it. I think I paid him in some b-class early 90s weed. Took it home pressed play and… I liked one song - the song was “Mellow My Man”
The rest of the record left me a bit shocked - I was not ready. But as new music was rare & expensive, I was listening to this CD every single day. Trying to decipher the lyrics with dictionary. Reading the booklet and getting into a bit abstract narrative style of ?uestlove’s liner notes. With each listen, I found a new moment I liked. New piece of lyrics made more sense and it allowed me to listen to the album with a bit different focus over time.
After 4/5 weeks - I was in. Now “normal” rap music was boring and gangsta rap seemed just sad. I was ready for what was about to come: Outkast ; Dilla ; The Pharcyde ; Deltron ; El-P ; all the Def Jux stuff, etc. This record shaped me the most in my teens - opened completely new worlds. It was a proper intro to jazz, I remember buying “Sketches of Spain” few months later and getting into Miles / Herbie / etc.
Since then I’ve seen them playing live 9 times - in London’s Jazz Cafe I even caught ?uestlove’s drum stick he threw in crowd. Black Thought is my number one MC for life (sorry MF DOOM ;)).
They changed and evolved over time - from underground, raw crew, being on the road for 280+ days a year, they became late night TV show band. To some - this might be lame retirement, but for me it’s well deserved rest for them. Music changed my life - rap saved it. It helped me to go through most difficult period of my life when my dad passed away. It helped to get rid of the anger I had in me. This record was the most influential one in terms of changes that happened after.
It also made me realise, that times of “I’m not sure if I like it, let me listen again” are gone - modern streaming and power of “skip” took away something very important to our musical growth.
That’s definitely true. When I started thinking about my list, I also remembered how many albums I‘ve listened to over and over again without particularly liking them. Because I had paid good money for the CD and didn’t have that many of them. Because somebody told me it’s great and that I‘m supposed to like this.
On the other hand, I‘ve also remembered how many albums I‘ve listened to a lot for those reasons and talked myself into liking them, but I actually never really did. Most of the albums on my list were intriguing from the first moment I‘ve listened to them and only grew from there. But it took a lot of other albums before that to prepare me for the elements that then clicked.
I hope there’s still some positive peer pressure these days talking young people into listening to something repeatedly. I doubt it, unfortunately.
I‘m curious, what your next choices will be. Boysetsfire can easily go on my list. Vheissu is also a great album.
I will also try to mix genres, otherwise there is a risk that I will choose only metal, hardcore and emocore records….
In 1988 I turned 10 and my mom got a CD player. The first CD I bought with my own money was “Guy” by Guy. Who’s Guy? well its the first group masterminded by Teddy Riley probably the most important/successful record producer besides Quincy Jones. Teddy created “New Jack Swing” which I would describe as half Go-Go (music from the Washington DC area that isn’t Fugazi) half pop and half “Funky Drummer” chops. You may be aware of the fact that Pharrell, Missy Elliott and Timbaland all came from Virginia Beach and Teddy was who put that place on the map. In fact Wrecks n Effect used one of Pharrell’s first beats he made in High School for there seminal hit “Rump Shaker”. Ok so yeah hes important. Anyway I got made fun of alot for liking this music. I don’t know what it is about New Jack Swing, I guess its just got a ton of positive energy and its sexy! Bobby Brown, Tony Toni Tone, Bel Biv DeVoe… man that was some groovy ass shit!
So yeah, first CD (my mom bought Enya, Orinioco Flow for life amirite fellow Enya-heads?) First time with this new tech called “digital music” and being made fun of by normies for liking what I like. And here we are!
Here’s some proof of that energy:
I’ve been meaning to catch-up on this all month… made it just in time. So, I grew up in rural Scotland - really rural, the village had a population of less than a thousand. That meant what you were listening to or could easily get was pretty largely dependent on what you heard on the radio or who you knew. Being the eldest in my family I didn’t have a cooler older sibling.
I was in my mid-teens as we went into the 90s and at that point where my interest in music was going from casual to the beginnings of obsession. Up to that point the music I’d gravitated towards tended to subconsciously be more electronic or synthy and definitely with more of an emphasis on beats. Bits and pieces of dance music or hip-hop but really the fringes of stuff that was making it onto mainstream radio or Top Of The Pops. Occasionally I might get bootleg tape of DJ set from a rave from a mate of a mater.
But I was starting to look for something a bit different and for it to be something which resonated more with my growing teenage angst. Problem being that the alternative kids in my school were mostly into heavy metal and I found the likes of Iron Maiden, Def Leppard and so on pretty pompous. There were probably some folk listening to the Smiths but again… Morrissey was a clown even back then.
Then one time, we were over visiting a mate from a different village probably to play Call Of Cthulhu, and he’d got a tape through the post from his pen pal. It had Jane’s Addiction on one side, and Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails on the other. I wasn’t blown away or anything but I was definitely curious…
Fast forward a few weeks and I was in the nearest provincial town being dragged around the shops by my Mum and I came across this cassette…
It was only 3 or 4 quid and so I decided to give it a go. It wasn’t quite a light-bulb moment but it did grow on me very quickly even if I thought some of the tracks were absolutely mental to begin with. I couldn’t believe the synths and drum machines could be so heavy and intense, those guitar solos in the heavy metal my pals loved sounded even more cartoonish after this. It was probably the reason my Walkman went from occasional usage to constant companion.
Listening again recently and it was holding up better than expected, can’t say I’ve been a huge fan of NIN since the 90s though I’ve probably been reasonably aware of what Trent’s been up to. The sound design has held up well in a lot of places, a lot of the song structures aren’t as typical as you’d expect, and by the lyrics are functional with the cliché-o-meter not getting quite the hammering it does in other NIN stuff. Though, wow, Wish remains pretty embarrassing on that front.
All that said, it really was a pivotal album (well EP I guess) for me. It was what kick started my various musical obsessions. It introduced me to industrial music from where it was a quick hop and jump into all manner of experimental and electronic music. It was definitely an antidote to the a lot of the toy-town rave that was starting to infect the charts. It was also what got me thinking about how remixes can be really interesting and turn songs into totally new and exciting shapes. And it was after this that I started listening to John Peel, reading Melody Maker/NME as I sought to find out about other bands and artists…
And I suppose very specifically, it introduced me to Coil directly. And from reading about the supposed influence and/or linkage, a more indirect introduction to Cabaret Voltaire.
Jings… lots of words there, I should be more succinct next month now I’ve got things rolling.
Part 2 is open:
The Flaming Lips are one of my favorite bands. I discovered them in high school when The Soft Bulletin dropped and became obsessed. I grew up in Rochester NY, and felt Upstate NY pride over the fact that Dave Fridmann and Tarbox studio brought the band to my neck of the woods to record their masterpieces.
I couldn’t see the band live because who wants to tour to Rochester, but scoured the internet for concert reviews and the lore of the Lips. I loved the music and the warm vibes emanating from Wayne and Co. I wanted to be a part of it, and hoped against hope that a local show would be announced. Years later I saw the Lips play at the Finger Lakes Amphitheater, but at the time, no gigs were happening anywhere near me.
Enter Zaireeka. 4 discs, 4 boomboxes, an immersive experience of an album. I convinced my parents to buy the album for me, and gathered my best friends in my darkened basement (after toking a walk around the block…).
The album is not just a conceptual masterpiece, the music stands on its own as some of the Lips best stuff. But the album transcends music, it is an event, a creator of community, a sledgehammer of psychedelic mind fuckery. A private Lips concert in my own house, with my best friends working the mixing board. I held Zaireeka parties monthly, expanding minds and driving my parents mad as the sonic onslaught wafted up through the vents.
Zaireeka set me free. The fact that it exists is a blessing in and of itself, but on a deeper level, its existence taught me that art can break all rules and that anything is possible. The big old bug is the new baby now.
I have this tendency to ditch bands after the second or third album. First I get really into them but by the time they put out their third album my illusion kind of bursts, I grow uninterested and I stop buying their albums. Can’t help myself. It has happened with numerous artists and bands.
Downward Spiral was huge for me but it was also NIN’s second full length album. Following that album was never gonna be an easy task. Fragile felt like a huge dissappointment when it first came out. It could have never lived up to the expectations set by Downward Spiral but it also just felt somehow very bland after that. I, once again, lost interest in the band. Moved on and found something else to listen to.
…
Maybe 15 years later I was working as a music journalist and I got the chance to write a review of Hesitation Marks for the magazine. The record blew me away. It felt almost as poignant as Downward Spiral had once in my youth felt. I also went to see them play live on that tour, loved the show and wrote a raving review of it.
After that, I opened my mind to Nine Inch Nails again. I started buying and listening to the 15 years worth of albums I had missed and realized that I liked most of them quite a lot. Nine Inch Nails was back in my life and record collection with a bang. I also appreciate Fragile now.
That’s also something that tends to happen to me. I get back to bands and artists that I had deserted earlier and almost every time I fall in love with them again. It’s great to suddenly have plenty of new albums from one of your old favourites. This same thing happened also with Tori Amos, which I wrote about for the February thread.
I love music.
Daft Punk: Homework
I was a maybe 15-16 year old guitar player and super into punk. Dead Kennedy’s, Black Flag, JFA and similar. Mostly hand-me-downs from my dad and uncle.
Synths were for Duran Duran and lame as absolute fuck to me at the time. Electronic music might as well have all been C+C Music Factory or Janet Jackson.
Anyways, I was at the library borrowing CD’s to burn at home and I saw this cover. Shit, could be a pretty heavy punk band. Let’s give it a go.
From the moment that SECOND layered kick drum drops in Daftendirekt, I was hooked.
Man, it’s still a monthly play. I think it’s masterful how much repetition they get away with by changing only slight things at just the right time. Fresh is another fav track along with Daftendirekt.
Love this!
I am pleasantly surprised by the variety and general good taste shown by elektronauts here. Very interesting. I thought it was all going to be Autechre and the like.
I vibe the most with the longer posts, so if it’s fine for you, I’d be happy if you kept it long! Only that way can we integrate specific anecdotes that resonate the most with me, independently of the music itself
That was not unlike my experience with them also. TDS came at a time when they were still pretty fresh and new to me, I hadn’t really experienced much other music like that. Then, in the 5 years before the Fragile came out I had heard so much other stuff and my taste was fast changing that it was just impossible for it to have the same impact on me as the earlier stuff. I’ve also grow to appreciate it more over the years… never the less, it still feels like it could’ve been a really good single album if a lot of the excess was trimmed away.
Don’t worry!!! I can guarantee you they’ll be making an appearance for me at some point in the next 11 months!
Well, brevity isn’t my strong suit so I was maybe being overly ambitious if I thought I was going to be succinct. But actually, I do agree with you. The anecdotes and personal memories that people are sharing are what makes this much more interesting than just some lists.
My Feb choice:
(I was going to go for Ninja Tune USA - If Ya Can’t Stand Da Beatz, Git Outta Da Kitchen) … however ultimately this DJ Cam album (brown cardboard CD sleeve) got equal play on my trusty Sony MiniDisc on my global wanderings in the late 90s/early 2000’s. DJ Cam’s first US release, a 2-cd set consisting of his import album Underground Vibes and a live album,
Golden, evocative era for Trip hop
Nice, can you please repost here?
