FREEFORM 1990's ALTERNATIVE ALBUM POLL - THE RECKONING (TOP TEN COUNTING DOWN NOW)

It was just one of the hundreds of indie rock review sites that rose above the others by shelling out the cash for its own domain name.

Ha. Pretty true really. I can't seem to find my ballot, but I basically picked 10 or 12 albums off the top of my head and gave them equal points. I did hear about this one from pfork... no regrets, still love this album.

I did hear about this one from pfork...

I bet this is the case for most people who jumped on board at E&I.

85= Biosphere - Substrata
36 points
2 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: ciderpress

http://dezji.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/substrata.jpg

I was really hoping there'd be like 500 votes for this poll

― rockapads, Monday, 16 June 2008 23:31 (1 year ago)

substrata is great!

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 20 February 2004 12:38 (6 years ago)

i find people describe a lot of albums as beatless when they aren't really, but substrata seemed to quite genuinely fit the description.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Friday, 20 February 2004 12:50 (6 years ago)

Biosphere's "Substrata" is as arctic as it gets. And his "Polar Sequences" too...

― Siegbran Hetteson, Friday, 19 July 2002 00:00 (7 years ago)

i gave a bunch of points to Biosphere - Substrata

i hope i'm not the only one...

― ciderpress, Friday, 5 March 2010 02:59 (1 month ago)

I don't even know what this is.

first one i don't have the slightest clue what it is. techno?

heh xpost

Wikipedia says ambient.

so quiet techno

about 90% of the ILX posts about it are by Ki11ian

and about 8% by Siegbran

although it transpires that cutty is a fan

I'm intrigued - lovely album-cover at least, and if it's in the same quality-bracket as Global Communication I'd be well up for hearing it

also al I can't believe you even questioned whether this was techno I mean look at the name + the cover hey you never know it might be postpunk! XD

or some really goddamn undie hip-hop lol

eh there are so low level mid-90s major label alt-rock records with artwork like that

when i 1st started posting here i tht geir was the geir from biosphere i hav no memory of why tho

substrata is def a classic but i like some of the supermnml dronier stuff hes done more recently

eh there are so low level mid-90s major label alt-rock records with artwork like that

this is a good point, but I was thinking a combination of that + the band-name + the album-name

I like Super Tight more overall, but this record starts with one of the best four-song stretches ever

― otto günne (The Reverend), Wednesday, 17 February 2010 07:11 (2 months ago)

Confession: I didn't vote for Super Tight because I thought Ridin' Dirty would have better chance of making it.

I only voted for 10 albums, all either canonical, or at least ILM-beloved rap albums. Strategy ahoy.

more and more i'm kinda wishing i'd done that too, but eh what's done is done.

ha re: bizarre ride II the pharcyde it was #09 on my ballot so lol @ me giving it the most points. loving it so much probably makes me an herb but its kinda like that majesticons album mike ladd made - jittery and jokey and self-obsessed and easy to like - & i basically vibe everything abt fatlip

thought abt voting for ugk but ended up voten stuff i liked a little better :/

Substrata doesn't have a single beat in it, so it's definitely "quiet techno". Great album to go to sleep to, but I spent my Biosphere vote on Patashnik, which I think is more fully realized work. The two albums Biosphere and Pete Namlook did as The Fires of Ork are dope too.

substrata deserves its iconic status just for sampling major briggs dream speech from twin peaks

Biosphere were great, awesome to see it in the poll.

Though Substrata has one of the finest uses of a vocal sample ever, when it juxtaposes Major Briggs' monologue from Twin Peaks with Jenssen's Himalayan soundscapes.

(x-post with Lamp, ha!)

ok gonna do the rest of the night's polling to the soundscapes of Substrata - this had better be good you guys!

It is!

http://open.spotify.com/album/6jeIzUv8Bff4fFElZwwA4B

heh Lamp / Tuomas, I was just about to say. It also has the giant saying "sorry to wake you..."

This is a great winter album.

Am loving the start! 1997, btw

glad to see biosphere. strongly considered voting for the same album and love patashnik also.

if it's in the same quality-bracket as Global Communication I'd be well up for hearing it

― sausage s4rgent (acoleuthic), Monday, April 26, 2010 7:57 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

it's on par, but maybe darker and dronier than GC? been a while since i listened to them. think "poa alpina" off substrata might combine GC-type prettiness with his usual wintery atmosphere. let us know what you think!

It's got something of the Slowdive - Pygmalion about it (Poa Alpina being the song I've just sat through) and yeah I can see myself getting along very well with this music.

This album is somewhere between Gas and GC. It's not my favorite Biosphere album but it's pretty good.

82= Missy Elliott - Da Real World
36 points
4 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: The Lex

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qEiTSJ7FhGs/SUREUe1A-9I/AAAAAAAAAYQ/-z3fw6sbzZc/s320/missyeliottmissynr5.jpg

"Da Real World" is possibly my favourite, but I reckon all the albums are quite consistent in terms of quality. "...So Addictive" has some of her most fabulous work ever - the stretch from "One Minute Man" to "Scream AKA Itchin" is absolutely astonishing - but strangely the tracks don't seem to build on eachother as well as on the previous albums.

"Da Real World" is not the place to start - too cool and stylistically consistent. I think that is its strength, but as an introduction it would be its weakness.

― Tim, Thursday, 19 July 2001 00:00 (8 years ago)

Missy's most consistent album by a long way. There are at least six tracks I'd happily vote for, I'll have to think about this. Luckily I have almost a year!

― chap, Thursday, 6 November 2008 18:33 (1 year ago)

MR DJ PLAY DAT ONE MORE TIME
SO ME AND MISSY ELLIOTT CAN MOVE WE WAISTLINE

― lex pretend, Thursday, 6 November 2008 19:32 (1 year ago)

AMAZING ALBUM.

― Tim F, Wednesday, 9 September 2009 23:15 (7 months ago)

Everyone is a bitch
But no-one comes close to
Missy, the queen B.

-a hoy hoy

thought about voting for that, didn't

glad it's here in spite

ditto

82= Mogwai - Mogwai Young Team
36 points
4 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: Gravel Puzzleworth

http://mogwai.sandbag.uk.com/Content/58.jpg

I hadn't listened to Young Team in probably a year and a half before this morning, but this album remains an utter masterpiece of mood and tension, a collection of muted, fucked-up, drifting-to-sleep emotions. There's an unbelievable implied depth (sonic? emotional?) to the songs, something that's really hard to get at from merely describing the sound or the methodology of the record. I like to think that there's a certain place in the world -- maybe some pocket of air a few hundred feet in the air over the ocean -- where the theme from "Tracy" plays endlessly. Is anyone else still listening to Young Team?

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Sunday, 9 May 2004 14:44 (5 years ago)

Opening track. I still think 'Young Team' is basically all you need to know about this band, apart from the odd EP track. I've never really liked any of their other albums. Ever-diminishing returns and all that. This one is definitely a classic of 90s post-rock, even if it does totally rip off 'Siamese Dream' in places.

― ears are wounds, Friday, 20 March 2009 11:27 (1 year ago)

everything starts and end with Young Team,and it's hard to believe they will ever make again anything of sagnificent

― Zeno, Sunday, 16 December 2007 19:49 (2 years ago)

I was reviewing records for KALX when "Young Team" came out and wrote a sprawling two paragraph thing that proclaimed it "better than sex" -- I was wrong.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 9 December 2002 22:41 (7 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

erm... mogwai was great sexmusic. at least, young team was.

― kate, Monday, 9 December 2002 22:51 (7 years ago)

mogwai: rock.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Friday, 18 February 2005 10:59 (5 years ago)

I like about half of that album! But some of it is slightly dated! It was a great gateway drug to avant-rock for my younger self! I have another album primed to post! Maybe I'll leave it until tomorrow morning!

Substrata is still really good!

Fine, I'll do the last two!

82= 2pac - All Eyez On Me
36 points
4 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: The Reverend

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GhJGoTBwAPc/Sb9tEGhBH3I/AAAAAAAABCE/0fWrXxedeOk/s400/All+Eyez+On+Me+(pred).jpg

Tupac is pretty bad. This album is just like all of his cliched dross. Dud.

― paulhw (paulhw), Thursday, 11 August 2005 19:19 (4 years ago)

My favourite hip-hop album. Mainly because of the production and backing track. Might have preferred it without the rapping, but I used to love the G-funk sound, which was probably the closest the 90s ever got to 80s influenced electro.

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 3 January 2008 12:43 (2 years ago)

yeah man, greatest drum sound ever. PSHHHHHHH.

― Alex in Baltimore, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 17:24 (2 years ago)

i like all the tracks really its just kinda different moods and shit, like when you wanna hear all about u is not the same as when you wanna hear life goes on or the weak california love remix

― and what, Wednesday, 5 September 2007 17:35 (2 years ago)

ambition az a ridah cuz i ain't mad at cha makes me want to kill myself l;

-- luriqua, Wednesday, September 5, 2007 7:52 PM (7 months ago)

wtf @ haters

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Thursday, 3 January 2008 02:42 (2 years ago)

(1996)

(and Mogwai was 1997)

(and Missy was 1999)

So far, strategy is working.

LOTS OF TIES! Recap so far:

(tie) 100. Stereolab - Peng! (1992)
(tie) 100. XTC - Apple Venus, Vol. 1 (1999)
(tie) 100. De La Soul - Buhloone Mind State (1993)
(tie) 98. Fugazi - End Hits (1998)
(tie) 98. Crowded House - Woodface (1991)
97. Sonic Youth - Washing Machine (1995)
96. Björk - Debut (1993)
95. Mark Eitzel - Songs of Love (1991)
94. Elliott Smith - Either/Or (1997)
(tie) 92. The Pharcyde - Bizarre Ride II The Pharcyde (1992)
(tie) 92. The Afghan Whigs - Black Love (1996)
91. Tori Amos - From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998)
90. UGK - Ridin' Dirty (1996)
89. Grifters - Crappin' You Negative (1994)
88. The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I (1999)
87. The Afghan Whigs - Gentlemen (1993)
(tie) 85. Neil Young - Harvest Moon (1992)
(tie) 85. Biosphere - Substrata (1997)
(tie) 82. Missy Elliott - Da Real World (1999)
(tie) 82. Mogwai - Young Team (1997)
(tie) 82. 2pac - All Eyez On Me (1996)

Nothing from me yet. An intriguing list so far.

6 I've heard so far. (Rap albums + Bjork)

Last one for the evening coming up

81 Metallica - Metallica (The Black Album) (1991)
37 points
2 votes
1 first-place vote
Greatest contributor: RedRaymaker

http://musicmedia.ign.com/music/image/article/911/911683/metallica-20080919045507879-000.jpg

I don't understand the problem. Metallica broke up in 1989 and sold their name to some boy-band. Who cares?

― Phil Freeman (Phil Freeman), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 14:53 (6 years ago)

stick up yr butt rock rules.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 21 January 2004 16:47 (6 years ago)

I like how nearly everyone on this thread pretneds not to *LOVE* the black album.

― Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 06:38 (4 years ago)

I thought the production was nice (especially coming off ...And Justice for All) but it didn't get the blood flowing like their earlier records. It seemed like an olive branch to the middle of the road.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 2 November 2005 14:32 (4 years ago)

The black album has some catchy tunes too, but they're too heavy for my tastes. Except of course for "Nothing Else Matters", the ultimate nineties teen disco slow tune.

― Tuomas, Tuesday, 24 July 2007 11:30 (2 years ago)

I kinda hope poseurs like me voting for the Black Album end up beating out the vote-splitting of the 80s albums just to piss off the real metalheads.

― Alex in Baltimore, Tuesday, 17 July 2007 15:21 (2 years ago)

I've heard all but Biosphere, UGK, Pharcyde and XTC so far, and of the ones I've heard I actually like most of them. Good work, ILM (though I'm not on board with Mogwai and Dismemberment).