Top 100 Electronic Music Albums of All Time

Submitted by ryab on Mon, 09/07/2009 - 19:59

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Archived Music Lists

Before I say anything else, know that any recommendations are greatly appreciated at this point, to be added to the "albums to consider" list. They will ALL be listened to (time willing, that is).
I've only got the top 70 so far, but I'm going to finish it, it just takes a really long time to make a list like this. There's a lot to consider when saying something like "the best of all time," and I intend to see that every choice is perfect. I have more than 100 already on a list, I just need to sort through them and order them, and cut down on the number. I also want to see every important subgenre of electronic music represented here, without too much focus on any one section. ie: many people on listology release lists with names like "The top 100 Electronic dance tracks of all time," which turns out to be a list entirely made up of trance music, with 2 mainstream house songs. When called on it, they then argue "Well, that's because no other electronic dance genre is as good as trance." This is wrong, and insulting to people who like other styles, and usually the result of a narrow interest and view on the part of the listmaker.
Another thing I'm trying to minimize is that horrible "the first is the best" bias. Some things really do get vastly improved on as time goes on. Although other times future works are really derivative of the first in the style, so the first really is the best...but I'm going to try to account for that.
Note: the subgenres that will be represented here are:
Trance, house, goa/psy, techno and minimal, electro, IDM, minimalism, avante-garde/musique concrete, jungle, abstract hip-hop, ambient, ambient dance, downtempo, worldbeat, Krautrock/psychedelic rock, early synth, synthpop, electronic pop, electronic rock, "progressive," microhouse, acid jazz, and glitch.
Industrial is touched on, but all I really do is acknowledge its existence. The list will go no deeper than that into the genre, as I personally feel industrial music made its point by the time the first album was finished. The purpose of the style is the making of "anti-music" - producing the ugliest sounds possible for the purpose of exploring the line between what is and isn't music. As far as personal listening goes, this doesn't appeal to me, and honestly won't to most electronic music fans. What it really boils down to is that I don't like industrial very much, although I'm glad someone out there is making it.
Note: I've run into some difficulties here. It seems that "electronic music" can't really be classified as a megagenre per se, as I believed. I don't think electronic genres are actually related on a basis of being electronic, or on particular electronic elements, but on structural, thematic, and aesthetic relations. This is comparable to saying that rock genres are not classified as such because they centre around the use of guitars, drums, bass guitars, and vocals, but through these other relationships.
Shoegaze was the main style that threw my neat definitions into disarray. Many of its predecessors were electronic, many of its descendants are electronic, but it is not itself generally considered electronic music, but a form of indie rock. This doesn't mesh with the idea of "electronic music" being defined as its own specific category - and this is actually pretty much intuitive, as many "electronic" artists incorporate real instruments, and many "real instrument" bands use electronics or electronically distort their music.
This leads me to think that the only reason electronic music is composed as it is, is because of the unique qualities and properties that electronics provide that traditional can't. It gets its own category only because some of the properties inherent in the use of electronics create similarities between even the most distant electronic styles. In other words, while happy hardcore and music concrete are obviously not historically related in almost any way, there are similarities between then that come specifically from the fact that both use electronics.
So what are the special properties inherent in the use of electronics? My guess is, essentially, the production of sounds ad musical qualities that are impossible for traditional instruments. This boils down to:
- very precise, complex and/or fast grooves and beats
- alien, sourceless sound with no real-world comparison
- extreme textural complexity
- truly perfect composition - Since recording is generally part of the composition process when electronics are used, this gives musicians all the musical control that serialists attempted to achieve, without having to map every element of the music out onto a physical composition.
These properties are perfect for creating texture and rhythm, and a musical focus on the elements is likely why so many electronic genres are actually related to each other - all are preoccupied with one or the other - or both.
So, for the reasons stated above, I've broadened the requirements for an album to make the list. It doesn't even need to be predominantly electronic anymore: it must simply involve electronics in some way, and be texturally and/or rhythmically focused (this actually excludes many predominantly electronic albums that would never make the list anyway, such as much of the late 90's teen pop).
Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
Year: 1978
Electronic genre: Minimalism
Difficulty Level: 3/10
What the Critics Said:
Amazon.com: 5/5
New York Times: Concert review of Steve Reich's performance of this piece has no actual rating, but the article gushes. I'd say they're giving it 5/5: article here
Critic Nathan Andrew Seifert puts it in his "10 albums he considers brilliant" list.
Critic Jon Dolan: No star rating, but again, the review gushes and calls it boundary-expanding, to the point that I'd say they wouldn've given it 5/5.
Critic Scott Paulin: again, gushes to the point that I'd say he gives it 5/5.
Barnes & Noble users: 5/5
Discogs raing: 4.8/5
My "review":
Music for 18 Musicians is not even electronic, not in the slightest. However, the structure of most electronic music, the audio world most of the mega-genre resides in was perfected here. You see, there was a genre of music created in the 60's called "minimalism." Traditional composers had long exhausted the "classical" sound, and were now all using a style called "serialism." The purpose of this "music" was to control every aspect of the sound to the point that any two playings of the composition would be exactly the same. The result? Compositions that became a)unbelievably difficult to play; b)Almost completely soulless; and c)Impossible to enjoy without mathematically analyzing the musical structure. For everyone who likes the feeling of being trapped in a burning iron maiden, try some 50's Stockhausen, and you'll understand serialism really quickly.
So, since no one actually liked serialism, a bunch of composers decided to rebel against it and reject everything serialism stood for in one of the 20th century's great strokes of artistic genius: minimalism. Why not make simple music that is almost completely based on chance? And predictably, the results were beautiful, alive, and permanently kicked out of the artistic community. Oh modernist pretension, where would we be without you?
Anyways, yeah, that's minimalism. Repetitive, rhythmic, almost dancible, melodic, tuneful, atmospheric, organic, and accessible, but still intelligent and open to analysis. This music was almost totally based on slowly shifting repetition, which was often purposely generated by pure chance (ie: In C was made bytelling a bunch of musicians to play their parts "at their own pace," and by only playing what they felt like.). Music for 18 Musicians wasn't the first minimalist piece (Music for 18 Musicians is the first minimalist piece in the same way that the Andromeda Galaxy is the first thing you'll find outside of New York), but it was progbably the very best of the style. Gorgeous, catchy, ever-shifting melodies, and a light and lovely atmosphere made up of an amorphous wall (Great Wall of China, really) of the prettiest traditional instruments. And it never gets tiring: there are days when I want to mix the first and last track on this album together and listen to this album on repeat. It's like an infinite song, and since it loops back on itself (the end IS the beginning), it's seems like that's what Reich wanted you to think when he made it.
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing...
Year: 1996
Electronic genre: Abstract hip-hop/Sound Collage
Difficulty Level: 2/10
What the Critics Said:
All Music Guide: 5/5
Alternative Press: 5/5
Robert Christgau: A+
Entertainment Weekly: A-
Mojo: 5/5
Q : 5/5
Rolling Stone: 5/5
Spin: 4.5/5
UNCUT: 5/5
Pitchfork Media: 91%
Discogs Rating: 4.6
My "review":
Nothing on this album is original, the entire thing is made up of samples of other artists, and you'd never know it from listening.
This is now a cliche, but not when Endtroducing came out: people had sampled before (lots), but for the most part (EDIT: there are a couple of very rare, forgotten, and essentially lost albums made entirely of samples. I haven't heard them, but it seems fairly unlikely that they're very good anyway) no one had ever been able to make an entire album without doing something themselves. Not until Endtroducing.
But don't let the process fool you: this would be a perfect album no matter how it was made. Jazzy beauty oozes out of every note (Does the word "note" even mean anything anymore?): DJ Shadow plays his turntables like a hip-hop Miles Davis. You can't even tell it's a technical masterpiece, this is pure (the only?) jazz-hop genius. It's the perfect soundtrack to a 20th century post-modern poetry reading in a poorly lit cafe on a cold, rainy night. Only, you listen to the music instead of the poetry. But still, like all great electronic music, it has it's own feel, it's own personal emotional core that no other album has ever captured, that can never really be described. While there are other perfect soundtracks to 20th century post-modern poetry readings in poorly lit cafes on cold, rainy nights, there are none that feel quite like this (and none that are nearly as good). Hell, if I ran 20th century post-modern poetry readings in poorly lit cafes on cold, rainy nights, this would be the soundtrack every single time.
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Year: 1991
Electronic genre: shoegaze
Difficulty Level: 4/10
What the Critics Said:
I don't even need to go into it. It is widely considered the best album of the 90s.
I know it's not really electronic: the only electronic aspects are the mountain of effects pedals used on the guitar work, and some keyboards. But like I said above, it's the textural focus of the music that qualifies it, and the fact that much of what shoegaze inspired was/is electronic (Ulrich Schnauss, m83, etc.). Plus it's one of the best albums of all time, any genre.
Faust - Faust
Year: 1971
Electronic genre: Krautrock/Musique-concrete
Difficulty Level: 10/10
What the Critics Said:
All Music Guide: 4.5/5
Piero Scaruffi: 3rd Best Rock Album of All Time
Amazon.com: 4.5/5
My "Review":
This sounds like Hell. I don't mean it sounds terrible and boring, I mean, it actually sounds like Hell...or maybe "the Netherworld." At first, it sounds like you're driving through Hell, trying to get a radio station, but since you're in the centre of the earth, reception is understandably poor. Hell has a radio station, and, (I think this may even be the joke Faust is getting at) of course, it plays mainstream popular music. Then, driving through Helltown our car stops working: the engine overheated and it won't run anymore. But you stay hiding in the car, as just that moment, Hell's marching band of skeletons, devils, and demons goes by. There are floats, showcasing different tortures (all campily redone) and reenacting all kinds of Satan-driven events in history (from Hitler's slaughter of the Jews, to the Rwandan massacre, to the releasing of Celine Dion's first album; again, all deliberately silly). Then the horn section comes by. This being Hell, they're all overloud, and don't really know how to play their instruments. You're trying to get away from the noise, but no matter how fast you run, Hell moves with you at the precise same speed: you can't escape. Then the singing begins, announcing the coming of the Satan float. He makes the band stop, shrieking in electronic pulses, laughing as everyone around screams in pain at the noise, then flees. But the band stays together, and marches by at a hyperspeed. You run, escaping Helltown this time, across a barren waste both frozen and burning, accompanied by the band, marching by now and then, passing Hell's bar, where the pianist isn't playing, he's just warming up forever. Hellwinds accompany us, almost blowing us over at times, along with the howls of wolves (although the two seem to merge together). Odd voices come out of the ether, shipwrecked tankers float by the land, a fog falls, and we are almost driven to madness, falling over into a nightmare. And so ends "Why Don't you Eat Carrots?", the first third of the album.
This same bent continues throughout the next two songs, but they're very different (the second song being the nightmare...[could you actually have a nightmare in Hell, if it existed?] The third is awakening from the nightmare, and being unable to tell what is the nightmare, and what is Hell...forever].
While I could describe my own "Faust" world for pages, I must also note the importance of this album. It was one of many albums that shattered conventions in the 70s, even convention-shattering for Krautrock. This album is specifically rooted in "deconstructive" ideas (it was this concept's most pop-accessible version yet, which doesn't really say anything - and isn't as accessible as say..."The Orb"), taking apart a huge number of influences with a chainsaw, and throwing them all into a heap, their emotional centres laid bare. When this album came out, it was suddenly pretty much possible to do anything with music, and everyone knew it. Artists like Nurse With Wound, Throbbing Gristle, and maybe even sample-heavy ambient house producers owe quite a lot to this music, whether they know it or not.
This is proof that Hell can be FUN!
This album is already showing serious diminishing returns after 5 listens. It's good, but problematic. Analyze it all you will, it really just boils down to being a collage. A good one though, so it's still worthy of a very high position. It's just really not the number one of all time, especially considering how difficult it is, and that sound collage was nothing new at this point.
Sasha & Digweed - Northern Exposure
Year: 1995
Electronic genre: Trance/Progressive house/Ambient Trance
Difficulty Level: 2/10
What the Critics Said:
Discogs ranking: 4.9/5
All Music Guide: 2.5/5
Inblot: read it here. No star rating, but I interpret the review to be 5/5 (as again, the review gushes).
TheScene.com.au: No star rating, but the genre they give it is "amazing" and the whole review is just them going on and on about how everyone should own it. So 5/5, I guess.
Amazon.com: 4.5/5
My "review":
A DJ mix CD is supposed to be a musical journey, perfectly showcasing the DJs talent along with an immaculately chosen flow of music. However, until 1995, with the release of this masterpiece, the vast majority of DJs simply threw their favorite tracks together on a CD with minimal mixing, the theory being that no set of CDs would ever really capture the feeling of being at a rave or party. All of that changed with Northern Exposure. The modern ideal was born (then later forgotten. Oh anthem trance). Northern Exposure is to artistic DJ mixes what sex is to children: totally impossible and nonexistent without it (and better than anything that results after it). Northern Exposure was the first, and it's never been topped (and never will be).
For people who don't care about process, you've got a single-track ambient trance masterpiece on your hands. I mean it: the tracks fit together so exactly that it almost seems they were written to be together. There is a gradual feel of build from the beginning of CD 1 to the end of CD 2: beginning with The Orb's float tank ambient, ending with Underworld's stratospheric trance anthem "Dark Train," the built is so subtle it can't even be noticed, yet lacking the monotonous flatline of other DJs managing similar effect: it's dynamic and alive. Listening to this mix is like watching someone take pieces out of 40 different jigsaw puzzles and put them together (unmodified) to make a completely different picture that is not only infinitely more beautiful than the originals, but contains no seams between the pieces. This mix is the reason why Sasha and Digweed are the only DJs on the top 10 that are worthy of their position. This is the musical personification of balance.
Aglaia - Three Organic Experiences
Year: 2003
Electronic genre: Ambient
Difficulty Level: 3/10
What the Critics Said:
The Ambient Review (aka Brian Bienowski): Best Ambient Album 2003. The review has no star rating, but it's so loving that I can't imagine it being anything but 5/5:
Backroads Music: 21th Best of 2003
Discogs rating: 4.8/5
My "review":
This is probably the most underrated album of all time. No one anywhere knows this album exists, but that's really the world's loss.
But, I'm not going to rage at horrible marketing, that would just overshadow a perfect album.
This is THE BEST ambient album ever created. I have listened to it more times than any other, it's better than Biosphere, better than Aphex Twin; it's even better than Brian Eno. It combines all the ambience of everything previously mentioned, with a mystical, ancient sound, slowly coalescing in and out of organic drones (if that's even possible). Listeneing to 3 Organic Experiences is like exploring a mythical version of Earth before humans came into existence. The first part brings you under the sea, the second onto land, and the third into the Arctic, and eventually, the sky. And you see (and hear) everything you would expect in a world just ending it's Goddess-driven creation.
Klaus Schulze - Irrlicht
Year: 1972
Electronic genre: Experimental/Minimalism/semi-ambient/early synth/krautrock
Difficulty Level: 7/10
What the Critics Said:
Discogs Rating: 4.3/5
Amazon: 4.5/5
Piero Scaruffi: 13th greatest rock(?) album ever
Tigersushi: 5/5
All Music Guide: 5/5
My "Review":
Like most albums on this list, it's very difficult indeed: it takes a very good number of listens to sink in, to associate with a mental world that makes the album worthwhile. At first, I didn't see anything here but generic, if very high quality space music (the invention of space music, yes, but still nothing special). Then I realized what it was, and how unbelievably wrong I was. This wasn't space music, but a veritable musical black nothingness. Irrlicht wasn't the sound of floating in space, it was of floating in less than space.
And this is not a bad thing: it's incredible! It is said (by physicists), that if you could go beyond the edges of the universe, into the nothingness into which the universe expands, the universe would extend out with you, by virtue of the simple fact that you're there. However, all around would be no universe: nothingness. But nothingness is impossible: when all matter is removed, random "positive" and "negative" energy and "positive" and "negative" matter will come into existence, resulting only in an average of nothing. So, in effect, you would be in nothingness, but you would see all sorts of unbelievable things around you, all popping in and out of existence in rapidly disintegrated and reintegrating mirror images. This surreal nothing is the endless, droning strands of Satz Ebene, infinitely far from the edges of our universe.
Satz Gewintter is the same world, but now we're moving, heading back towards our universe at infinite speed, so fast it appears as almost stillness. The surreal world passes us by, distorting with more chaos, flowing by the edges of our ethereal ship.
Satz Exil Sils Maria brings us the edge of our universe, trillions of miles away, the first light of "home" reaching our eyes, the mirrored chaos all around us.
Brilliant, one of the only pure ambient albums I'll actually listen to, rather than just putting it at the threshold or sleeping to it. It's the sound of both infinity and nothingness.
Not recommended for agoraphobics.
Can - Future Days
Year: 1974
Electronic genre: Krautrock/Psychedelic
Difficulty Level: 5/10
What the Critics Said:
Soon Over Babaluma:
All Music Guide: 4/5
Amazon.com: 4.5/5
Discogs rating: 4.5/5
Pitchforkmedia: 74th best album of the 70s
My "review":
Banco De Gaia, Peter Gabriel, Deep Forest, Tangerine Dream, Enya, Enigma, The Orb, the entire Escapes and Cafe Del Mar series', hell, every electronic artist that's decided to put backwards Mongolian warbling or glitched-up ant flutes of the Serengetti, or Kalahari tongue-clicking into their tracks owe everything to this one album here. It's psychedelic and rambly texture, as only krautrock can be, but with very subtle ethnic influence. Unlike the shamelessly tribe-sampling worldbeat artists that would dominate the downtempo world for the next 20 years, this is all under-the-sound, it's all very hidden and elegant. It seems to recall some unknown ethnic group you've never heard of...it's almost like general ethnic, with no actual direct influence. Sort of like...the experimental music of a parallel universe where an Arabian-African hybrid civilization became Earth's dominant society.
While this is only arguably electronic, there's so much keyboard and found sound here that I think it's a crime to call Soon Over Babaluma anything else. (Oh yeah, it was a major influence on trance music too).
I've decided to add Future Days here: repeat listens (thanks to lukeprog) and similar concept. I'm putting together sets of any two albums that I feel were similar enough in concept taht the second was just a development on the first, but still worthy of its greatness. In other words: the two CDs could have been initially released as a 2-disc set.
Oval - 94Diskont
Year: 1994
Electronic genre: Glitch/Ambient
Difficulty Level: 5/10
What the Critics Said:
Pitchforkmedia: 47th best album of the 90s
Discogs rating: 4.4/5
Amazon.com: 4.5/5
All Music Guide: 5/5
Wire: Albums of the year 1996
Wire: 100 Albums that set the World on Fire
Blow Up: On the 600 Essential Albums list
My "review":
This album is now extremely famous, as it made a massive musical concept that now spans a vast number of genres actually musical: that being the glitch. This style has found its way into techno, into electro, into house, and yes, now even into pop music. However, that now almost cliche electronic idea became a musically enjoyable reality with this album, right here (well, technically the Oval's album before it, but no one really noticed). But who would've thought that music, actual music and not noise, could be made like this? Cutting up CDs and gluing them back together, dropping paint on their surfaces, hacking away at them and scratching them with blades...and the result is music?
Still, I think focusng on all that process totally misses the point of this album: the music. Pastoral, expansive, and epic, the 24 minute opening track, Do While is deceptively simple, but brings to mind climbing a great grass-covered mountain. There are sparkling, red-glowing trees all around, endlessly dropping shimmering leaves, the trees growing thicker and thicker as you climb. The branches move almost unnaturally, and the view of the valley below can barely be seen: it is covered in layer upon layer of silent static. Although glimpses of a small, ancient town and the sound of its ringing bell glimmer through the haze when it is focused on, you know can't reach it, you can only go up.
On reaching the top of the mountain, Do While ends, and we find ourselves in a collage-world, slashed apart bits and pieces of everything fly by us in a dark mist, becoming clearer and clearer as we run over the electronic, yet magical plateau, and just as things reach their greatest frenzy...we find ourselves climbing back down, and Do While begins again.
The Notwist - Neon Golden
Year: 2002
Electronic genre: Glitch Pop
Difficulty Level: 4/10
What the Critics Said:
Metacritic Score: 89/100
Pitchforkmedia: 9.2/10
All Music Guide: 4/5
Popnews: Best Album of 2003
Intro: 2nd Best Album of 2003
Robert Christgau: B-
Dusted Reviews: No Actual ranking, but I'd judge their review to say about 4.5/5
My "review":
Glitch pop has never been lovelier than it is on this sexy little bastard child. Equal parts MORR music (german electronic pop label) and Oval, this was the last thing anyone expected from The Notwist at the time of their conception: coming from a generic alternative and nu-metal band, suddenly we get a glitchy, emotional masterpiece. And what a masterpiece it is.
To me, it sounds like the soundtrack for a small town of lovable people in a post-apocalyptic future. They're all mutated and changed to the point of being no longer human, and are thus unable to leave, but are otherwise happy (though always yearning for escape from their isolated existence).
The lyrics are completely abstract, but more important is their delivery: Notwist's lead singer has a brilliantly charismatic voice that makes the sound of the music itself difficult to focus on, but still ever-present as atmosphere. However, if one manages to escape his engaging pull, you'll find clicks and cuts and broken melodies, worthy of any of Mille Plateaux's best, seamlessly mixed with a perfect indie-rock guitar preciousness.
Monolake - Hongkong
Year: 1997
Electronic genre: Minimal Techno/Dub Techno/Ambient Techno
Difficulty Level: 7/10
What the Critics Said:
Mark Warren Weddle: No rating, but his review screams 4/5: here
Stylus: A. They've never actually reviewed it, but they review a later Monolake album as A-, and imply that Hongkong was better.
Discogs: 4.5/5
All Music Guide: 4.5/5
My "review":
I didn't think there was anything at all to this music the first time I heard it. I couldn't hear any of the layering, the atmosphere, the depth: nothing. Just maddening repetition.
But, sadomasochistic listener that I am (no, seriously, look at some of the albums on this list) I gave it repeat listens. And I was so...completely...wrong. This is such amazingly complex music: there is almost continuous change in all of this, it's like an organo-futuristic Steve Reich. It's so structurally shifting that, despite being ambient in nature, you can actually sit and listen to this album sans any boredom at all.
Again, like all great electronic music, it has a completely irreplicable atmosphere never heard anywhere else (that isn't blatantly copying). Oxymoronic as it may sound, this is organic minimal techno. The first track, Cyan, sounds like being in a greenhouse in the year 2984 after humanity has been replaced by a cyborg-tomato hybrid species. Index is sort of like fleeing through a robot-infested field filled with these computerized (but mostly harmless) biological nightmares, the greehouses they're grown/manufactured all around, the landscape completely barren and devoid of existence but for the now-abandoned bunkers and metal scrap heaps made by a now-extinct humanity. Lantau is like a visit to the island where these creatures were first designed, the brain-centre of this mutilated planet: green and beautiful, but twisted and...off. After more demented wandering through this gorgeous, but barren and terrible world, we finally escape on the ambient winds of the now-green and overgrown last working maglev train in the final resting place of Neotokyo the 5th, out to an unknown future.
Really relaxing. One a very few albums here that I can both sleep to and listen to.
4Hero - Parallel Universe
Year: 1994
Electronic genre: Jungle/Acid jazz
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Brian Eno - Ambient 1: Music For Airports
Year: 1978
Electronic genre: uh...
Difficulty Level: 3/10
What the Critics Said:
Rollingstone: 4/5
Slant: 6th Best Electronic Album Ever
All Music Guide: 5/5
Pop: 101th Best Album of all time
Musichound: 4.5/5
Robert Christgau: B
Robert Dimery: One of his 1001 Albums to Hear Before you Die
Vigin Encyclopedia of Popular Music: 4/5
Discogs rating: 4.5/5
Pitchforkmedia: 9.2/10
Mille Plateaux - Clicks + Cuts 2
Year: 2001
Electronic genre: Glitch/Ambient/Microhouse
Difficulty Level: 8/10
The Orb - Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
Year: 1991
Electronic genre: Ambient House/Sound Collage
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Massive Attack - Blue Lines
Year: 1991
Electronic genre: Trip-hop
Difficulty Level: 4/10
What the Critics Said:
All Music Guide: 5/5
Mixmag: Best Electronic Dance Album of All Time
Amazon.com: 7th best album of the 90s
Rollingstone: 101th Best Album of all Time
Face: Best Album of 1991
Pitchfork: 85th Best Album of the 90s
Muzik: 14th Best Dance Album of All Time
Pure Pop: 2nd Most Important Album of All Time
Kraftwerk - Autobahn
Year: 1974
Electronic genre: early synth
Difficulty Level: 3/10
What the Critics Said:
Leonard's lair: 4/5
Sputnikmusic: 5/5 (and 14th best of 1974)
Rollingstone: No rating, but the review gushes over it, and the voted rating is 4.5/5
Allmusicguide: 5/5
Q: 4/5
Robert Christgau: B-
Amazon.com: 4.5/5
Discogs rating: 4.6/5
My "review":
Up until this masterpiece, electronic music was either a)novelty, only heard because it was a different way of doing the same things that could be done without it (listen to Switched on Bach, or Popcorn), b)Self-conscious experimentation, almost impossible to listen to by anyone who isn't a computer or a music Ph.D, or c)another instrument for rock music. This album changed all of that, and permanently split electronic music off from rock and experimental music, forming a new mega-genre of music completely unheard of or thought of until Autobahn. And it's a masterpiece: the first track is a 23 minute epic that gorgeously conjures up a Sunday drive down a highway in 2948, surrounded by 70's kitchy robots dancing around electronic rainbows while your windshield wipers knock off little flitting electric fairies unlucky enough to get smashed onto your antimatter forcefield. Gorgeous.
Ricardo Villalobos - Alcachofa
Year: 2003
Electronic genre: Microhouse/Minimal Techno
Difficulty Level: 7/10
Radiohead - Kid A
Year: 2000
Electronic genre: Electronic pop/IDM
Difficulty Level: 5/10
Everything that can be said about this album has already been said, as music critics seem to like declaring this "the best album of all time" (along with OK Computer). It certainly isn't, but it is still quite good.
Orbital - Snivilisation
Year: 1994
Electronic genre: Downtempo/Trance/Ambient Trance/Ambient House
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Plastikman - Consumed
Year: 1998
Electronic genre: Minimal Techno
Difficulty Level: 7/10
Global Communication - 76:14
Year: 1994
Electronic genre: Ambient dance/Ambient/
Difficulty Level: 3/10 for most I think, but oddly, it was about 9/10 for me
My "review":
This album took me forever to get into. I'd been recommended it about 7 times before actually listening to it, and I never understood it on any listen. That changed recently (for reasons that are perhaps psychedelic, but I'm admitting nothing), and I was suddenly whisked away into a calm, gentle world enshrouded in mystery, and perhaps a hint of menace. On listening to the classic 14:31, I found myself walking on a desolate beach under grey skys that evoked a forever cloudy day. Nothing around me moved, as if it were all frozen in time. In looking to the sea, I saw waves that did not travel, waves staying eternally at their break, always about to fall, but never moving. Stark cliffs dwarfed me when looking to the land. Small crab and snail-like creatures skittered across the beach, sometimes moving, sometimes going very slowly, but usually frozen mid-step, never reaching the ground. Abormally transparent bubbles slowly floated out of the ground, freezing any creature that travelled into one, the movement only resuming when it eventually (very slowly) passed. The ticking was almost like the world fighting the clock, the second hand ticking back into the same place with every moment that passed. On looking at my watch, I saw that the time was 14:31. It never changed; that time was eternal. Beautiful.
Spicelab - A Day on Our Planet
Year: 1994
Electronic genre: Classic Trance/Ambient Trance
Difficulty Level: 3/10
What the Critics Said:
Discogs rating: 4.6/5
That's really it. This album is an unknown.
My "review":
The first wave of trance was perfected here, and everything you'd expect from such a thing can be found. Sci-fi samples, long ambient washes, an unqeildy length to the tracks, laser twerps, catchy melodies, unpredictable structre, and acid, acid, acid. However, A Day on Our Planet really transcends all that, to be something far greater, something far more beautiful. Lieb (as in Oliver Lieb) has tapped into some otherworldy, alien atmosphere with the 4 tracks contained here, he's managed to produce something not of the Earth. There is no rave reference point to this trance (something that really can't be said for most other trance, regardless of what most trancEaddicts will tell you): the beats are momentum (and you couldn't dance to a lot of this anyway), this album is a fast-moving journey through another universe.
The Future Sound of London - Lifeforms
Year: 1994
Electronic genre: Downtempo/Ambient/Ambient Trance
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman
Year: 1993
Electronic genre: Progressive house/Techno/Trance
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Farben - Textstar
Year: 2002
Electronic genre: Microhouse
Difficulty Level: 6/10
Biosphere - Substrata
Year: 1998
Electronic genre: Ambient
Difficulty Level: 5/10
James Holden - Balance 005
Year: 2003
Electronic genre: Neo-trance/Progressive house/Progressive Trance/IDM
Difficulty Level: 3/10
m83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas, Lost Ghosts
Year: 2003
Electronic genre: IDM/Ambient
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Manuel Gottsching - E2-E4
Year: 1981
Electronic genre: Minimalism/Trance
Difficulty Level: 5/10
What the Critics Said:
All Music Guide: 5/5
Pitchforkmedia: 79th best album of the 80s
Blow Up: On the 600 essential albums list
Discogs: 4.7/5
Amazon.com: 5/5
My "review":
The instant E2-E4 hit the shelves, trance and techno existed. While this did not have acid, or breakdowns, or even the TR-909, the atmosphere and groove of the styles were birthed right here: 4 years before anyone else thought of it.
Surprisngly, this is all managed with a single 59-minute track, with a single melodic centre. Unlike other epic 59 minute albums, or any later trance or techno music, for that matter, with plenty of songs and changes, this is all managed in one track, with just one main melody (although with plenty of variations), without ever growing tiring. It never feels like Gottsching is trying as hard as he can to fill the 59 minutes, it's more like he simply wanted breathing room to let all of his ideas slowly develop out of each other: as if he wanted to let the music blossom at it's own pace from his initial seed of silence, in the same way as 70's minimalism. In fact, it was almost as if Gottsching simply took minimalism, and made it groove-oriented. I'd even go so far as to say that this is the missing link (and it is missing: E2-E4 is all but forgotten) between modern EDM and 60's/70's minimalism.
And all that without MIDI. (In other words, if Gottsching played the first 57 minutes of E2-E4, then fucked up on the last bar, he'd have to go back and replay the entire first 57 minutes again. No wonder electronic music took so long to catch on).
Bjork - Homogenic
Year: 1997
Electronic genre: IDM/Electronic pop/Glitch
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 1
Year: 1993
Electronic genre: Ambient techno/Ambient Trance
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
Year: 2002
Electronic genre: Indie pop/Indie rock/electronic rock
Difficulty Level: 3/10
While not fully electronic, still very much in the aesthetic. (more info coming later)
Michael Mayer - Immer
Year: 2002
Electronic genre: Microhouse/Tech-house
Difficulty Level: 5/10
The KLF - The White Room
Year: 1991
Electronic genre: Stadium House/Anthem trance/Eurodance
Difficulty Level: 1/10
Herbert - Around the House
Year: 1998
Electronic genre: House/Microhouse/Acid jazz
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Aphex Twin - The Richard D. James Album
Year: 1996
Electronic genre: IDM/Drill n Bass
Difficulty Level: 6/10
Luomo - Vocalcity
Year: 2000
Electronic genre: Microhouse/Deep House/Minimal
Difficulty Level: 5/10
Tim Hecker - Radio Amor
Year: 2003
Electronic genre: Glitch/Ambient
Difficulty Level: 7/10
Lee Perry - Revolution Dub
Year: 1975
Electronic genre: Dub/Reggae/Sound Collage
Difficulty Level: 5/10
Tuu - One Thousand Years
Year: 1994
Electronic genre: Ambient/Tribal
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Burial - Burial
Year: 2006
Electronic genre: Dubstep
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Amon Tobin - Bricolage
Year: 1997
Electronic genre: Abstract hip-hop
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Burial - Untrue
Year: 2007
Electronic genre: Dubstep/ambient
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Mouse on Mars - Iaora Tahiti
Year: 1995
Electronic genre: IDM/Ambient/Dub
Difficulty Level: 5/10
Daft Punk - Homework
Year: 1997
Electronic genre: French house/Electro
Difficulty Level: 1/10
Neu! - Neu!
Year: 1975
Electronic genre: Krautrock/Psychedilic/Early Synth
Difficulty Level: 6/10
Infected Mushroom - Classical Mushroom/BP Empire
Year: 2000/2001
Electronic genre: psytrance/goa trance
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Terry Riley - A Rainbow in Curved Air
Year: 1969
Electronic genre: Minimalism
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Kraftwerk - Computer World
Year: 1981
Electronic genre: Electro
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Art of Trance - Platipus Beginner's Guide
Year: 1999
Electronic genre: Acid Trance/Classic Trance/Anthem trance
Difficulty Level: 2/10
The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
Year: 2004
Electronic genre: Indie rock/Electronic rock
Difficulty Level: 7/10
Bonobo - Animal Magic/Dial m For Monkey
Year: 2000/2003
Electronic genre: Abstract hip-hop/Lounge/Ambient/Downtempo
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Banco De Gaia - Last Train to Lhasa
Year: 1994
Electronic genre: Ambient/Ambient Trance/Progressive House/Worldbeat/Ambient Breaks
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Akufen - My Way
Year: 2002
Electronic genre: Microhouse/Funky house/Dub Techno/Ambient
Difficulty Level: 5/10
Boards of Canada - Music Has the Right to Children
Year: 1999
Electronic genre: IDM/Ambient
Difficulty Level: 5/10
Ellen Allien - Berlinette
Year: 2003
Electronic genre: Techno/Electro
Difficulty Level: 3/10
The Books - Thought for Food
Year: 2002
Electronic genre: Sound Collage/Indie Electronic
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Kompakt - Total 3/Total 4
Year: 2001/2002
Electronic genre: Microhouse/techno/minimal/tech-house/house/Dub techno/deep house
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Four Tet - Rounds
Year: 2003
Electronic genre: Glitch/Acid Jazz/Abstract hip-hop/IDM
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Biosphere - Shenzhou
Year: 2002
Electronic genre: Ambient
Difficulty Level: 5/10
Leftfield - Leftism
Year: 1995
Electronic genre: Progressive house
Difficulty Level: 3/10
The Orb - U.F. Orb
Year: 1992
Electronic genre: Ambient House/Ambient/Dub
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Orbital - The Green Album/Orbital 2
Year: 1991/1992
Electronic genre: Rave/Techno/Ambient techno/Classic Trance/Ambient trance/Anthem trance/Acid
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
Year: 1974
Electronic genre: Ambient/Krautrock
Difficulty Level: 7/10
Herbert - Bodily Functions
Year: 2001
Electronic genre: Jazz/Glitch/Deep House/Nu-jazz
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Autechre - Amber
Year: 1994
Electronic genre: IDM/Ambient
Difficulty Level: 6/10
Oribtal - In Sides
Year: 1996
Electronic genre: Trance/Ambient trance/Ambient breaks
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Massive Attack - Mezzanine
Year: 1998
Electronic genre: Trip-hop
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Shpongle - Are you Shpongled?
Year: 1998
Electronic genre: Ambient Psy/Tribal
Difficulty Level: 5/10
Richie Hawtin - DE:9 Closer to the Edit/DE:9 Transitions
Year: 2001/2005
Electronic genre: Minimal Techno/Microhouse/Hard Techno/Ketaminimal
Difficulty Level: 6/10
Hallucinogen - Twisted
Year: 1995
Electronic genre: Psytrance/Goa Trance
Difficulty Level: 4/10
The Prodigy - The Fat of the land
Year: 1997
Electronic genre: Big Beat/Breakbeat/Rave
Difficulty Level: 2/10
Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene
Year: 1976
Electronic genre: Proto-trance/Early Synth
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Throbbing Gristle - The Second Annual Report
Year: 1977
Electronic genre: Industrial
Difficulty Level: 10/10
This album is really groundbreaking, it was literally the instant industrial music was invented (Well, there were 3 albums before by the same artist, but they were in the same year and they weren't as good).
This album makes me really queasy everytime I listen to it, moreso than anything else I've ever heard. Hearing The Second Annual Report is like watching someone being hung, drawn, and quartered: it's painful even to see, you're horrified, but you just can't turn away, even if it makes you vomit.
That doesn't really make this a great listen, but this is great art, and it is important (ie industrial, EBM, industrial rock, trance, acid house, etc. would not exist without it). And at least interesting to listen to: its the ultimate indulgence of morbid curiousity. Recommended to fans of "Hostel" and "the Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
Air Liquide - The Increased Difficulty of Concentration
Year: 1994
Electronic genre: Ambient/Classic Trance/Acid/Ambient House
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Ninja Tune - Zen Retrospective of Ninja Tune
Year: 2004 (but really, 1990-2004)
Electronic genre: Abstract hip-hop/Nu-jazz/Downtempo/Atmospheric Jungle
Difficulty Level: 3/10
The Field - Sun & Ice
Year: 2006
Electronic genre: Neo-trance
Difficulty Level: 2/10
Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
Year: 2000
Electronic genre: IDM/Ambient
Difficulty Level: 6/10
Sasha - Xpander EP
Year: 1999
Electronic genre: Progressive trance/Progressive house/Progressive breaks
Difficulty Level: 2/10
Ricardo Villalobos - The Au Harem D'Archimede/Achso EP
Year: 2004/2006
Electronic genre: Minimal techno/dub techno/ketaminimal/Microhouse
Difficulty Level: 8.5/10
Legowelt - The Classics 1999-2003
Year: 2003
Electronic genre: Electro/Electro-house
Difficulty Level: 2/10
Perlon - Superlongevity series
Year: 1999-2006
Electronic genre: House/Minimal/Microhouse/Tech-house/Minimal techno
Difficulty Level: 7.5/10
Fennesz - Endless Summer/Venice
Year: 2001/2004
Electronic genre: IDM/Ambient/Glitch/Avante-garde electronica/shoegaze
Difficulty Level: 4/10
The Orb - Orblivion
Year: 1997
Electronic genre: Ambient House/Sound Collage/IDM/breaks
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Giorgio Moroder - From here to Eternity
Year: 1977
Electronic genre: Italo-Disco/Early Synth/Mutant Disco
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Morton Subotnick - Electronic Works Volume 1
Year: 1967
Electronic genre: Musique Concrete/Avante-Garde
Difficulty Level: 8/10
Portishead - Dummy
Year: 1994
Electronic genre: Trip-hop
Difficulty Level: 4/10
L.S.G. - Into Deep
Year: 2000
Electronic genre: Ambient trance/Tech-trance/Trance
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Daft Punk - Discovery
Year: 2001
Electronic genre: French house/Funky house/Electro
Difficulty Level: 1/10
Terry Riley - In C
Year: 1968
Electronic genre: Minimalism
Difficulty Level: 6/10
Tricky - Maxinque
Year: 1995
Electronic genre: Trip-hop
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Radiohead - Amnesiac
Year: 2002
Electronic genre: Glitch pop/Indie rock/Electronic rock
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 2
Year: 1994
Electronic genre: Ambient/Dark Ambient
Difficulty Level: 9/10
Spicelab - Lost in Spice
Year: 1993
Electronic genre: Classic trance/Acid trance
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Dominik Eulberg - Kreucht & Freucht
Year: 2005
Electronic genre: Ketaminimal/Minimal/Neo-trance/Microhouse
Difficulty Level: 5/10
Carl Craig - Landcruising
Year: 1995
Electronic genre: Detroit Techno
Difficulty Level: 6/10
MFS - Tranceformed from Beyond
Year: 1992
Electronic genre: Classic Trance/Techno/Tech-trance
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Eat Static - Implant
Year: 1994
Electronic genre: Psytrance/Acid Techno
Difficulty Level: 5/10
Plaid - Notforthrees
Year: 1997
Electronic genre: IDM/electro
Difficulty Level: 6/10
Honourable Mentions:
Main Street Records - Rounds One Through Five
Year: 1999 (but really, 1993-1999)
Electronic genre: House/Dub
Difficulty Level: 3/10
DJ Tiesto - In Search of Sunrise 1, 2, and 3; Magik 1 to 7; and Nyana CD 2
Year: 2000/2001
Electronic genre: Trance/Epic trance/Anthem trance/Progressive trance/Progressive house/Ambient trance/Ibiza trance
Difficulty Level: 1/10
While not masterpieces of DJing by any means, these albums are nonetheless on the list simply because they perfectly capture a time period and genre. In other words: these are amazing collections: great sets of tracks. Tiesto is a very weak DJ lacking any kind of artfulness, skill, or subtlety (this guy was number one for 3 years, and he doesn't even mix by key), and the mixing on these sets are nothing special, as the tracks are all anthems and club masterpieces of their times, but what you are getting when you listen to these 11 mixes is literally a "best of collection" of second wave trance. Having heard these mixes, you've pretty much heard everything second-wave trance ever did, and ever will do. You've heard an entire genre of music. But couldn't you get this with any other trance DJ? Not exactly. It is precisely Tiesto's artlessness that makes these mixes such perfect summaries of second-wave trance: Tiesto brings no personality and style to the mixing (doing little more than beatmatching) or tracklisting (never stepping outside of second-wave trance), thus leaving the music to be completely free of influence. It is exactly Tiesto's talentlessness (aka no personality or mixing skill) and business sense (aka he KNOWS what the anthems are) that make these mixes the penultimate second-wave trance.
Brian Eno & David Byrne - My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Year: 1981
Electronic genre: Sound Collage/Indie Rock
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Etienne De Crecy - Super Discount
Year: 1996
Electronic genre: French House/Deep House
Difficulty Level: 2/10
808 State - Utd. State 90
Year: 1990
Electronic genre: Rave/Acid house/House/Breaks
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Paul Oakenfold - Tranceport
Year: 1998
Electronic genre: Progressive trance/Anthem trance
Difficulty Level: 1/10
Man With No Name - Moment of Truth
Year: 1996
Electronic genre: Psytrance/Goa trance
Difficulty Level: 5/10
Paul Van Dyk - 45 RPM/The Green Valley EP
Year: 1994
Electronic genre: Classic trance/anthem trance/epic trance/progressive trance/ambient trance/rave
Difficulty Level: 2/10
Karlheinz Stockhausen - Hymnen
Year: 1996
Electronic genre: Musique-Concrete
Difficulty Level: 10/10
Nurse With Wound - Homotopy to Marie
Year: 1982
Electronic genre: Industrial/Musique-Concrete/"Surrealist"
Difficulty Level: 10/10
William Orbit - Strange Cargo 3
Year: 1993
Electronic genre: Ambient trance/Ambient house/Ambient/Progressive house
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Philip Glass - Music In 12 Parts
Year: 1974
Electronic genre: Minimalism
Difficulty Level: 3/10
Oval - Wohnton
Year: 1993
Electronic genre: Glitch/IDM
Difficulty Level: 5/10
Juno Reactor - Beyond the Infinite
Year: 1995
Electronic genre: Psytrance/Goa trance
Difficulty Level: 5/10
Autechre - Tri-Repetae
Year: 1995
Electronic genre: IDM
Difficulty Level: 7/10
DJ Tiesto - Forbidden Paradise 3
Year: 1995
Electronic genre: Classic trance/Acid Trance/Progressive trance/Melodic Gabber/Trancecore
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Sasha & Digweed - Northern Exposure 2/Northern Exposure: Expeditions
Year: 1997/1999
Electronic genre: Techno/Progressive trance/Progressive house/Classic trance/Anthem trance/Breaktrance
Difficulty Level: 4/10
Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
Year: 1973
Electronic genre: Psychedelic/Progressive rock
Difficulty Level: 3/10
This is the cusp of electronic and rock music, the line doesn't get any thinner or more obscured than it is here. Thing is though, while there are going to be people complaining about having this album in an electronic music list, had I not put it in, I would get just as many complaining about it not being the list.
But whatever, this is a great album, and I wouldn't be honest to not have it here somewhere. This is psychedelic at its best (in other words, its VERY electronic, if still rock-oriented).
Black Dog Productions - Bytes
Year: 1993
Electronic genre: Classic Trance/IDM
Difficulty Level: 8/10
Robert Rich - Somnium
Year: 2001
Electronic genre: Ambient
Difficulty Level: 3/10
I really had a change of heart on this one, thanks to lukeprog for suggesting this.
Meat Beat Manifesto - 99%
Year: 1990
Electronic genre: Jungle/Breakbeat/Rave
Difficulty Level: 4/10
BT - IMA
Year: 1995
Electronic genre: Progressive house/Progressive trance
Difficulty Level: 3/10
LTJ Bukem - Journey Inwards
Year: 2000
Electronic genre: Atmospheric Jungle
Difficulty Level: 3/10
New Order - Substance
Specifically, CD 2.
Year: 1987
Electronic genre: Synthpop
Difficulty Level: 1/10
This album used to be on the upper parts of the list, but it's enjoyment deteriorates really quickly, and they massively overuse the "Blue Monday" beat.
Some of these may be re-ordered before the end. I don't know if I'd really call Autobahn the best electronic album of all time. I seriously don't listen to or enjoy it more than Endtroducing or Music has the Right to 18 Musicians or Three Organic Experiences, but none of those feel right as number one either. [I also really don't think Can's albums are the second best].
Albums to be listened/under consideration:
Cybotron - Clear
Kraftwerk - Trans Europa Express
Prefuse 73 - Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives
BT - ESCM
Paul Van Dyk - Seven Ways
Sasha - The Qat Collection
MJ Cole - Sincere (apparently this is indisputably the best of UK Garage. The problem here is that UK Garage is a hybrid genre mixing the absolute worst aspects of New Swing Jack Radio RnB, Speed Garage, and trip-hop. This always happens with hybrid genres (the exception is microhouse and its many offspring, [anything that hot is going to have a lot of sex, and sex produces babies, so of course microhouse has many offspring] which exist in a tiny creative bubble shielding them from all hybridization cliches). Why artists do this, I will never know, since even the tiniest speck of logic would dictate that it makes more sense to join the BEST aspects of two genres. But I really like MJ Cole's track "Sincere", so maybe the album has hope too. I guess I'll know when I get a hold of it.
Dntel - Life is Full of Possibilities
µ-Ziq - [explore artist]
Fluke - [explore artist]
Matmos - Matmos
Manitoba - Up in Flames
Animal Collective - Feels
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
I may make a "not good enough" albums list. It would take up WAY too much space to put it with the accepted albums.
Any recommendations are appreciated at this point, to be added to the "albums to consider" list.

Cloned From:

Top 100 Electronic Music (including trance, house, techno, ambient, IDM, jungle, goa, avante-garde, indie electronic, etc.) Albums of All Time

enigmazach09/14/2009

Impressive list. It's good you decided to keep it varied and include albums from virtually every subgenre. Good job. Your reviews are also well-written.

In fact, you've inspired me to check out the Aglaia album. I'm downloading it this very moment.

enigmazach09/15/2009

I approve! Great ambient music. I've listened to it 5 times so far.

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Top 100 Electronic Music Albums of All Time

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