Volume 11, Track 14
“Rez” by Underworld (1994) Clocking in at just under ten minutes, “Rez” starts out with one of the prettiest—and trippiest, and softest—pieces of electronic music I have ever heard. Everything about the kaleidoscopic opening is a perfect balance between mellow and movement. It may seem counter-intuitive but, to me, the best psychedelic songs are the [...]
Volume 11, Track 13
“Pump Up The Volume” by M/A/R/R/S (1987) If songs by Kraftwerk or Neu! or Brian Eno or Gary Numan helped lay the foundation for electronic music to be accepted in the mainstream, then “Pump Up The Volume” took the genre to another level. M/A/R/R/S—a collaboration of artists from the groups A.R. Kane and Colourbox[1]—only existed [...]
Volume 11, Track 12
“Poison” by The Prodigy (1994) I have mentioned a couple of times throughout the course of this volume the opinion that the electronic music of the ’90′s could sometimes be too frenetic or chaotic. But… what about those particularly frenetic or chaotic songs that are perfectly crafted, to the point that the energy being assaulted [...]
Volume 11, Track 11
“Toxygene” by The Orb (1997) I have often wondered if the members of The Orb, when they were children, did nothing but listen to pre-Wish You Were Here Pink Floyd. The Orb were masters of creating spacey, trippy songs that seemed to be inspired from a desire to create modern reimaginings of “Interstellar Overdrive” or [...]
Volume 11, Track 10
“Don’t Tell Me” by Madonna (2000) Madonna has always been a somewhat fascinating paradox to me. From a songwriting perspective, she is mostly average and from a music production perspective she certainly has her strokes of genius—whether it be theatrically speaking (“Like A Prayer”) or through reinvention (“Ray Of Light”)—but I still maintain that “Vogue” [...]
Volume 11, Track 9
“D-Code” by Dust Devil (199x or 200x, who knows?) Full disclosure: I have no idea what year this song was written (thus, the obvious hell-if-I-know in the title section), nor do I have any idea what album this originally appeared on (thus, the Adult Swim logo, because the only thing I know for sure is [...]
Volume 11, Track 8
“Let Forever Be” by The Chemical Brothers (1999) In my book, “Let Forever Be” is probably only eclipsed by “Life Is Sweet” as the best song that The Chemical Brothers have ever done. Additionally, this song is easily one of the best electronic songs of the decade, and Michel Gondry’s video for it is one [...]
Volume 11, Track 7
“The Big Ship” by Brian Eno (1975) Another Green World, the third solo album by Brian Eno, was one of the first albums to advance the idea that the studio itself could be a musical organism (this album is essentially the first start-to-finish ambient album ever produced). Another Green World contains 14 songs and some [...]
Volume 11, Track 6
“Electricity” by Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (1980) Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark’s eponymous debut album was released in 1980; “Electricity,” however was released as a single in 1979. “Electricity,” combined with the aforementioned “Cars” by Gary Numan, helped usher in the electronic music genre to the mainstream. Though “Electricity,” on the surface, appears to [...]
Volume 11, Track 5
“Cars” by Gary Numan (1979) Gary Numan’s vocals in “Cars” are dry and indicative of the German electronic aesthetic. Every set of lyrics starts out with “Here in my car,” and it is sung with about as much passion as you would emote if you were telling your friend about how you were driving through [...]
Volume 11, Track 4
“Praise You” by Fatboy Slim (1999) There are some songs, that when you listen to them for the first time, everything just clicks perfectly. And no matter how corny or overplayed they may have been, you never get sick of them. Every time I hear the opening piano to this song I like it as [...]
Volume 11, Track 3
“Enjoy The Silence” by Depeche Mode (1990) For all of the good that Nevermind‘s out-of-nowhere, landscape-altering success was responsible for (mostly, the machine-like murder of the L.A. rock/hair metal sound), one of the negative residual effects was that it kind of made people forget about some of the music that came out a year or [...]
Volume 11, Track 2
“Blue Monday” by New Order (1983) “Blue Monday” is, to me, not only one of the best songs of the ’80′s, but probably one of the most defining songs of the decade too. Some may stake claim to “Come On Eileen” or “Like A Virgin” or “Hungry Like The Wolf” or “Don’t You (Forget About [...]
Volume 11, Track 1
“Europe Endless” by Kraftwerk (1977) If you look at the members of Kraftwerk from their Trans-Europe Express album cover long enough, you may begin to wonder if they are real people or if they are robots. They are in fact real people and the opening track to the album, “Europe Endless,” is quite a beautiful [...]
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