Music threads crop up on forums from time to time, and generally they're pretty samey.
I'm looking for new driving music, others might be too. post albums you like to listen to that others here are unlikely to have heard of.
In otherwords, if you post Fat of the Land or Bat out of Hell (especially the latter) then I will give Jeremy Clarkson your address and tell him you were really interested in hearing his opinion about something.
Anyway, I'd better start with some of my own
Artist:
Ayreon
Title:
The Human Equation
Year:
2004
Genre:
varies
A very difficult album to describe. I guess it's in the spirit of prog rock in that the songs flow into one another and tell a complete story, however the musical styles vary a lot. There is plenty of analogue synths, bits that sound like war of the worlds, orchestral bits. If I took random 5second clips, played them and asked people to guess at the artist, I could get answers ranging anywhere from Enya, Rick Wakeman or Cradle of Filth, however the end result just works somehow and the analogue synths tie the whole thing together nicely.
The two discs really need to be listend to twice. The first time through I thought it was ok but nothing special, then I listened to it again having got the general gist of the story, and took the time to listen to the lyrics and wow. That was it for the next 2 1/2 hours, just listening to it.
I'd also say it was a success in that I gave a copy to my dad (who generally likes Hendrix, King Crimson and the like) and he loved it, it knocked Pink Floyd off his 128mb MP3 player that he uses in the works van. My 15yr old step brother who is a little mosher into Marylin Manson and Cradle of Filth also loves it. I guess in that respect it's like War of the Worlds in that everyone seems to like it regardless of generation or usual musical genre.
Artist:
VNV Nation
Title:
Standing/Burning Empires
Genre:
Electronica
First off, electronic does not mean rave. VNV are hugely popular in Germany but virtually unknown over here. This particular album is a limited edition and out of print, it goes for over £100 on eBay these days. Again their styles vary though most are quite loud electronic pieces with a good beat with a slight military feel. Their songs tend to feature themes of war or religion but they state that they do not promote any particular ideology. Their name actually stands for Victory Not Vengence.
The most well known track is one called Saviour, it tends to turn up on internet radio stations from time to time. Look up the lyrics on their site and see if you reconise it.
Artist:
Acen
Title:
75 Minutes
Year:
early 90s
Genre
Breakbeat Hardcore (aka old skool rave)
Ahh, breakbeat. I could write a huge amount about breakbeat just on it's own if I thought anyone would bother to read it. A lot of rave music is crap, put bluntly, but around 1992 there was some really good stuff, normal hardcore briefly evolved into a faster form with more complicated beats, interesting basslines, lyrics and trippy melodies. It was short lived and eventually split into Happy Hardcore which kept the lyrics, made them cheesier and went back to the traditional 4-beat kick drum, and drum'n'bass which kept the basslines and drums, getting ever faster and more complicated (and silly). It's safe to say that without breakbeat we would never have had happy hardcore or drum'n'bass and I'm sure some would use that as a reason to avoid it forever.
This album is an interesting one. 12 tracks of which 7 are different remixes of the same song (Window in the Sky) although if I hadn't told you that and you didn't read the tracklist you probably would not have guessed apart from maybe a few shared lines of lyrics. It also contains the "optikonfusion" mix of Close Your Eyes which pretty much started this genre and the song Trip II The Moon which makes regular appearances on "best of old skool" style compilation CDs to this day.
Fun fact: Trip II The Moon contains a short segment where a slowed down and looped sample from For Your Eyes Only, an idea which Robbie Williams would later copy only he chose to loop the same sample continually for the entire bloody song (Millenium), the lyrics aren't his either.
Lets hear your suggestions now. If there are sites with legitimate samples or downloads then please link to them. I'm sure the mods will get unhappy if you link to illegal MP3 sites so don't
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