Wow! 40+ responses. That made my day. To any artists out there, I don't mean disrespect, only stating my personal ideas about my favorite records. Don't mean to offend. Im on the clock, here are my defenses:
Re: Herbie Hancock, Bob Marley, Parliament, etc. Jazz, reggae, soul. This is a specifically electronic list. Great artists, but in totally different genres. And, BTW, I think King Tubby has a lot more in common with modern electronics then Bob Marley, and not to start yet another debate, but I have gotten more from Yabby Yous 2CD retrospective than every other reggae/dub record Ive heard in my life put together (Congos, Burning Spear, Horace Andy, etc.) That might be my favorite record. Re: Juan Atkins I love Juan Atkins. I dont want to seem like Im disrespecting Juan Atkins, and Im probably the only person in the 313 world who thinks this, but I never cared for his music. He was a great influence on people to _MAKE_ electronic music: I dont think he, musically, had any influence on Derrick May, who is the man all techno producers probably concede started their careers. Derrick might not agree with me, but I hear no trace of Juan Atkins on Strings of Life or anything thereafter: Derrick was just so far ahead of the game. For me, Atkins Model 500 material sounds like the cover art to Classics looks. He doesnt have (for me) the emotional impact of his prominent predecessors (Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder, even Yellow Magic Orchestra), contemporaries (Afrika Bambaata), or followers (May, Craig, Banks, et al.) And Juans best record, I think, is The Infiniti Collection, but when you judge that record against what UR, Carl, Mark and Tom, B12, the Orb, et al. I dont think it is as strong. However, if this were a top 100 list, both Infiniti CDs would be on it, which means Juan is still in the top 1% of producers, but I dont think any of his CDs belong in my top 50. Juan has been a great mentor, a great ambassador, and most other things for techno, and deserves a great deal of admiration and praise for those accomplishments, but I think his music is not on the level of the artists I mentioned. Just my thoughts, I encourage everyone who hasnt heard Juan Atkins to buy his discs and make your own assessment: if you havent heard him, you are missing out on a very important piece in the techno puzzle, and I dont mean to question his historical importance nor the fact that he would/will be pre-requisite listening in any Techno 101 class. As my music teacher once said, it doesnt matter if _you_ like it. So check Juan out. Black Dog: Bytes I used to love this album. I still think many of the hooks are brilliant. However, I think every track on the album has the same structure: open with a great hook, go into a (to my ears) lukewarm middle section, end with the hook briefly again. Listening to this album recently, all I can hear are those middle sections, and its gotten to the point where I cant even listen to this anymore. Again, this is as important to be familiar with as Juan Atkins material (Ken, Ed, Andy dont be mad at me), but I dont think it stands the test of repeated listening. I could be wrong. If youre a DJ, you need this record, because the hooks work phenomenally in sets. All other 313 fans will probably still need to own this album. Me? Im jaded. I dont like this record anymore. Claude Young: DJ Kicks, Mills picks, and the high % of DJ records My feeling remains that techno is a DJ format, especially hard techno and tracks that arent gifted with much more than a slightly catchy hook. A good DJ can make a set out of mostly good, not stellar tracks Id never buy otherwise into something brilliant (in fact, almost all the DJ albums I have do this.) In fact, DJ mix albums are usually much more interesting because, lets face it, techno is repetetive, and if the groove isnt insanely good, who wants 5:00 of it? (KDJ is the only modern producer whose full tracks (his good ones, that is) dont seem long at 9:00, but in fact, not long enough (I listened to that Misled 12 like forty times the first day I got it.)) This is my problem, for example, with most of the Mills CDs. As a DJ, Jeff knows that concision (if thats not a word, it should be) is the key, and he displays this unbelievably well on Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo which is one of the greatest records ever in techno (would make my top 5.) Most of the other DJ mix discs do a similar thing. The reason I dont include the other Mills discs is because: 1) I think Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo sums up his material (and the rest of the hard techno scene) far better and 2) I think choosing not to cut down the tracks to approx. 2:30 or less in length on all his other discs hurts home listening. As for Claudes (isnt it 1100) DJF 1100 I saw a tracklisting on Sonys site, it looks pretty good, Ill try to get a hold of it. I still think his DJ Kicks volume will likely belong on the list, that is a great disc, although 20 tracks is a bit few in my estimation (I think 31 on DJF 1100 seems like a much better number.) Richie Hawtin: I think I may have bought every Richie Hawtin CD over the years, and I never understood why people liked his music. People have tried to explain it to me, and I just dont get it. Ill keep buying and trying, and maybe this is just how everyone has a good artist they just dont care for for whatever reason, but I never cared for Hawtins material. People of Earth: according to seemingly everyone else, I am wrong. Buy Richies albums. Make your own assessments. Same with everyone else I didnt include who is well respected. Theres a reason theyre respected, and listening to their music is the key to making your own mind up. Photek: If there was a CD that compiled the six 12s on the Photek label, it would be on here. My feelings on the Form & Function release are basically the same as John Bushs insightful review of this on allmusic. As for other drum n bass, the one disc I keep thinking I might include is Ed Rush & Nicos No U-Turn retrospective. Thats some cool stuff. UR: Revolution For Change: I think a couple people who I have ever talked to about this CD has said something to the effect that 50% of the tracks simply arent as powerful as the rest. I think thats true, but I think tracks like Riot, Punisher, Sonic Destroyer, Eye of the Storm and Code of Honor make this disc absolutely essential: those tracks are as important as Strings of Life, Kao-Tic Harmony, Icon, the Carl Craig mid-period material, etc. etc. Id really like to see a UR 2CD retrospective with their best 20 or so tracks though And yes, techno is a 12 format. If I had to list the best 12s, that would take a lot longer, and feature a lot of records a lot of people out there will probably never find or hear. On that note of never hearing these records, is there anyone on planet Earth who is willing to sell me KDJ1, KDJ2, or KDJ9? For crying out loud, I found the Twoism 12, all the BDP EPs, all the B12, Likemind, A.R.T., Mbuki Mvuki, etc. years ago and I have never, ever seen those three EPs anywhere. Please, someone help me. Im sure I forgot a couple responses. Oh well. Thanks everyone for starting a discussion! Matt np: Global Communication - 12:18 (this track is so good.)
