If you had to choose just one year of music, which year would it be?
I’d choose 1995.
This are the main reasons:
Cypress Hill - Temples of Boom
Mobb Deep - The Infamous
Onyx - All We Got Iz Us
Nine - Nine Livez
GZA - Liquid Swords
More about these
I was actually not listening to hip hop at that time and was mostly a fan of rapping in eurodance. I first heard these towards the end of the 90’s, as my “dance music period” was slowly coming to an end and they obviously blew my mind. Temples of Boom is still my desert island album. Also so much more great stuff was released this year, like Raekwon, Big L, King Just, Group Home, Funkdoobiest, Junior M.A.F.I.A, Easy E…
Favorite non hip hop from '95:
Scooter - And the Beat Goes On
N’Trance - Electronic Pleasure
Hallucinogen - Twisted
More about these
At that time I was very much into eurodance, then Scooter became my favorite band until 97/98, when I first heard goa trance and fell in love with it (my first contact was actually Astral Projection). I still love to listen to these albums.
Uagh, that hard to decide … i’d pick 1992, 1993 and 1994 …
1993
The Judgement Day - The Mayday Compilation Vol. III (Compilation)
Ace The Space – 9 Is A Classic (Remixes)
Thunderdome II (Compilation)
Thunderdome III (Compilation)
Cypress Hill - Black Sunday
Crowbar - Crowbar
Carcass - Heartwork [though I like only 2 or three songs on that one]
1994
Pantera – Far Beyond Driven
Bolt Thrower – …For Victory
Brutal Truth - Need to Control
Cannibal Corpse – The Bleeding
Korn – Korn
Napalm Death – Fear, Emptiness, Despair
Slayer – Divine Intervention
Crowbar - Live +1 (Live EP)
Marusha - Raveland (though most songs are from 1993)
House Of Pain - Same As It Ever Was
Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner
DJ Louis Slipperz - £10 Bag (Volume 2)
Foreign Beggars - Asylum Speakers
Viktor Vaughn - Vaudeville Villain
YNR Productions - Young ‘N’ Restless Vol. 1
Task Force - Music From The Corner: Volume 2
Swollen Members - Heavy
Zion I - Deep Water Slang V2.0
Phi-Life Cypher - Higher Forces
Mobb Deep - Free Agents
DJ Hazard - No More Games
Lowkey - Key To The Game
The Last Emperor - Music, Magic, Myth
Mr. Hyde - Rare Demos, Vol. 2
Jehst - Falling Down
Inspectah Deck - The Movement
Ill Bill - Ill Bill Is The Future
Necro - Brutality Part 1
Jedi Mind Tricks - Visions Of Gandhi
Fallacy - Blackmarket Boy
The High & Mighty - The Highlite Zone
Immortal Technique - Revolutionary Vol. 2
DJ Hatcha – Dubstep Allstars Vol.1
Singles/Ep’s
Wiley - Igloo/remix
Benga & Skream - The Judgement
Donae’o - My Philosophy
Black Ops - Invasion V.I.P
DJ Oddz - Strung Up
Youngstar – Formula 2
DJ Oddz - Bump Dis
Ruff Sqwad - Pied Piper
Danny Weed - Creeper Hoe
Ruff Sqwad - Tings In Boots
Lewi White - Platoon
Skepta - D.T.I
Dizzee Rascal - Ho
East Connection - We’re Ready
Wonder - What
2 Good To Be True - You Ain’t Ready
Wizzbit - Jam Hot
Ruff Sqwad - Misty Cold
Alias - Gladiator
Wiley - The Morgue
Big$hot - Stomp
Dillinja Featuring Skibadee - Twist 'Em Out
The Ends - Are You Really From The Ends (V.I.P Special)
More Fire Crew - Back Then
Crazy Titch - I Can C U, U Can C Me
Skepta - Meridian Walk
Danny Weed - Salt Beef
Pay As You Go Cartel - Terrible (Roll Deep Remix)
N.A.S.T.Y - Cock Back
Terror Danjah - Gremlin / Cracker
Dizzee Rascal - Thug Hoe
Jon E Cash – War
I apparently have the tastes of a geezer relative to everyone else’s selections. While maybe I am getting up there, one of my favorite years predates me. (Barely).
I am fond of 1969. An atypically high rate of the weird stuff I tend to dig along with a fair number of solid classics were birthed into the world that year:
Silver Apples - Contact
Captain Beefheart- Trout Mask Replica
Can - Monster Movie
Led Zepplin I and II
Creedence Clearwater Revival Green River and WIlly and the Poor Boys, Bayou Country
Sly and the Family Stone - Stand
King Crimson- In the Court of King Crimson
Frank Zappa Hot Rats
Os Mutantes-Os Mutantes
The Stooges- The Stooges
Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground
Beatles-Abbey Road
Burrito Brothers- Gilded Palace of Sin
You give me the year, I’ll give you a favorite. Can’t tie it down to one. Some years stick out more in my head than others of course.
Love 20s-50s swing / big band
Love 60s psychedelic rock
Love 70s rock/funk
Love early-mid 80s synth pop and wave.
Love late 80s rap/hop
Love early 90s grungey stuff
I will say end of 80s and early/mid 90s industrial and ambient+beat stuff made a big impact on me.
A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste
Too Dark Park
Love’s Secret Domain
ISDN
Neural Implant
(You get the point.)
That led me to the warehouses and Techno/Electro/Break/House.
End of 90s was more drum and/or bass
Apply jazz, funk, hiphop, and various electronic flavors from the late 90s and on.
Love math-metal/djent/thrash of the 2000+ years too.
So, yeah. Can’t pin down a year.
I have a very auditory/photographic memory, and can remember music my parents were playing and where I was when I must have been 1, 2, 3 years old, so my musical appreciation started shortly after I was born in. 1977. There’s never been a time I wasn’t into something of the given year. Or a couple hundred years ago for that matter.
Purple Rain came out in 1984. Sorry to be that guy.
I’ll say 2001 Warp Records specifically. Confield, Drukqs, Double Figure, Go Plastic, and Clarence Park all came out in 2001. I was just getting into electronic music and it felt like my mind was getting blown weekly. I was just buying whatever CDs were coming out on Warp completely blindly. Insane.
