Top 10 Essential Albums for Electronic Music

[LMP]

No prob, man. Sent!

 

[AtomicBono]

http://www.myspace.com/crowntranceiver

if they come out with an album I am sure it will be one of the top 10 essential albums for electronic music, though they really push the boundaries of what is considered music

 

[HeartlandGirl]

Some decent recommendations here already. I'm thinking...

Depeche Mode - Violator
Thievery Corporation - The Richest Man in Babylon
Tricky - Maxinquaye
Bjork - Post
M.I.A. - Arular
Peaches - Impeach My Bush
Colder - Again

The greatest hits albums by The Chemical Brothers, Faithless, Enigma, Basement Jaxx, and Lamb are really excellent too. Some VNV Nation, Royksopp, Fatboy Slim, Moloko, Dntel, and Portishead are necessary for sure.

Most of these could be considered as being of some other genre (what music can't, really?), but I think they're electronic enough and good enough that electronic fans should take a look at them.

My favorite electronic subgenre would be trance music. The best trance out there, imho, is made by Tiesto, Armin Van Buuren, and M.I.K.E. I'd especially recommend Tiesto and Armin's newest artist albums (Elements of Life and Shivers, respectively). They both put out lots of DJ mix albums that are fantastic as well.

 

[Dusty Bottoms]

Moby's Songs 1993-1998

 

[HeartlandGirl]

Dang. And how could I forget Deep Forest? One of my favorites! I strongly recommend any of their albums, but especially Music Detected.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

AIR!

They're a little on the pop side but they are definately electronic, listen to their albums in this order:

Moon Safari
Talkie Walkie
10,000 Hz Legend
Pocket Symphony

 

[lazarus]

No one's mentioned Underworld yet?! Second Toughest in the Infants is definitely top 10 material, if not top 5.

I'll second the above mentions of Tricky & Thievery Corporation, though I prefer Pre-Millenium Tension (much dirtier and creepy than Maxinquaye) and The Mirror Conspiracy, respectively. And also in the downtempo genre, I'd recommend Kruder & Dorfmeister's K & D Sessions, which is a double album of mostly remxing other artist's songs, but it's phenomenal.

Also surprised no one's mentioned Massive Attack. The old-schoolers will tell you Blue Lines is the best, but you could easily make a case for Protection.

 

[waynetravis]

Checking out Moby right now on allmusic. Kinda torn between Play and Everything Is Wrong. EIW is early 90s eurodancey techno and Play is I guess a classier late 90s loungy style techno. They both sound delicious!

Get Play for Porcelain

 

[Nate Dogg]

The Crystal Method-Vegas
Madonna-Ray Of Light (not a big Madonna fan, but this a great album)
The Chemical Brothers-Dig Your Own Hole and Surrender (I like them all...hard to choose)

 

[Canadiens1131]

The Crystal Method-Vegas
Madonna-Ray Of Light (not a big Madonna fan, but this a great album)
The Chemical Brothers-Dig Your Own Hole and Surrender (I like them all...hard to choose)

BLOCK ROCKIN' BEATS

 

[HeartlandGirl]

And also in the downtempo genre, I'd recommend Kruder & Dorfmeister's K & D Sessions, which is a double album of mostly remxing other artist's songs, but it's phenomenal.

I have this, and yeah, it's really good.

 

[LPU2]

I am about to get Kraftwerk's Man Machine and Daft Punk's Discovery. Just curious to know what you guys think are the 10 best electronic music masterpieces ever! Chemical Bros.? Prodigy? Massive Attack? Björk? Moby? Anything else?

Don't forget Kraftwerk's Computer World. I know I'm not alone in thinking that this was their best album. It was certainly their most visionary. God, that album was released in '81! Before the personal computer. Before Commodore 64. Before Apple. Before the mouse. Give it a listen and think about that. Just amazing.

 

[Zoots]

My favorite electronic subgenre would be trance music.

Trance is one of my favorite subgenres! But I don't have any albums/CDs from that genre. I've heard of DJ Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk and a few other names. I will check out your recs! I'm a big fan of the other sub genre Dream too. Robert Miles!

 

[Earnie Shavers]

I so many of those listed here.

That website is awesome too.

 

[BoMac]

I'm really starting to get into Massive Attack lately.

I have Collected, which is awesome.

What album should I get next?

 

[coemgen]

Bjork
Radiohead
Mute Math
Moby
Underworld
Tricky
NIN
Chemical Brothers

I'm to tired to think of albums. Go find 'em yourself.

 

[HeartlandGirl]

Trance is one of my favorite subgenres! But I don't have any albums/CDs from that genre. I've heard of DJ Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk and a few other names. I will check out your recs! I'm a big fan of the other sub genre Dream too. Robert Miles!

That's awesome, Zoots. Once you fall in love with trance completely, there's no turning back. Anything by Armin Van Buuren or Tiesto is going to be top-notch.

For chillout trance, I cannot recommend enough these two albums called "Angels: Chill Trance Essentials." There are volumes 1 and 2 (with 2 CDs each), and I absolutely adore them. They are so beautiful and sexy and calming. The amount of times I've listened to both of them is ridiculous, especially late at night. I don't remember ever seeing them in stores, but amazon.com has them. Best money I ever spent on electronic music, hands down.

And one more recommendation: Bunkka by Paul Oakenfold. Terrific electronic album. He's a little less trancey than Armin or Tiesto, but no worries. His songs are fantastic. I'm listening to his newest album right now--also good.

Edited to add...another fantastic trance album is Nightmusic Vol. 1 by The Thrillseekers. God, it's excellent.

Um, can you tell I like electronic music?