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

What differentiates Las Vegas from a lot of later minimal house/techno, in my opinion, is that the sound is more "wet", with continuous drones and arpeggios - much like in early 90s trance.

Realizing now I should have campaigned for the Gummo soundtrack.

If you listen to the stuff Burger did around the same time as The Bionaut, you can probably deduce that the "wetness" of the sound is something Burger brough to the table - Mike Ink's solo stuff from that time tends to have a dryer and crisper sound. It interesting, though, that later on Ink kinda took the wet, leaky sound to its logical extreme with the Gas project.

i hear where you're comin from. that jam&spoon video is so 90s!

my exposure to that music at the time was probably limited to the mortal kombat soundtrack. maybe a few minutes of amp if i was somewhere with cable.

i mean how 90s is that

was probably hoping beavis and butthead would be on though :/

Burger/Ink is the highlight so far for me. Were they on another label I would have auditioned them over a decade ago.

Souvlaki is the only item off my ballot so far, and as it spent years in rotation on my car stereo, its difficult to be objective about it. Its a comforting warm sweater of sound to me, and the one Slowdive album where their melodic sense wasn't overwhelmed by textural obsessions. I don't know if I'd rate it above Loveless in the 'gaze canon, but I've certainly listened to it more.

Tuomas's suspicions of encroaching American aesthetic hegemony and rockism are IMO misplaced. ILM has (to my knowledge) always been Europhile and specifically Anglophile, and from these shores, that's part of the appeal. From my ballot, 16% are American, and 9% guitar rock. Sadly, no Finnish artists (Pan Sonic just missed).

Albums like "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" and also "Out Of Time" are serious road soundtracks for me. Of course when I was getting into them I was between 13 and 16, so it wasn't me driving. But "New Test Leper" will only remind me of listening through headphones in the back of a crowded car with my family, driving through France to visit relatives. The journey would take up to two days and a walkman was essential.

I can't believe I went to bed and missed the appearance of the mighty Earl Brutus. This is the first time I have ever seen them in a list like this which means this whole process has been a big success.

I hope they pick a few new fans on here, I can't recommend the album enough.

Burger/Ink is the highlight so far for me. Were they on another label I would have auditioned them over a decade ago.

They were picked up (for distro, at least) by Matador in the US. That's how I heard 'em.

anglophiles are the most disgusting savages on earth imo

Some are, some aren't. The ones who use their anglophilia to justify the Oasis oeuvre are THE MOST DISGUSTING OF SAVAGES.

I feel badly because I didn't include any hip hop in my ballot, but I started going through a personal hip-hop revival about 3 weeks after I sent in my ballot. My only hope is that someone gave 40+ points to the first Beatnuts album.

my ballot was 100% american and 0% guitar rock btw ;-)

johnny, some savages are more disgusting than others

My ballot is roughly 20% British, 10% Canadian and 70% American, all prominently featuring guitars. OH NO I'VE BORED MYSELF!

Oh wait, one of the Britishes doesn't feature guitars of any kind. REDEEMED!

My ballot is 80% American, 10% British, and 10% Canadian. One of the American bands I wouldn't count as guitar rock, but it wasn't hiphop or trance or anything.

42% UK, 43% USA, 15% Other. 37% guitars.

I think i was thrown off by the title "Alternative" Album Poll, tbh.

Brit - 70%
Americ - 20%
Norway - 10%

Guitars - 60%

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

It's like one of those "Who Should I Vote For" polls.

Stop arguing about guitars and tell long personal stories please!

I went for some sort of weird US/Germany/Japan/UK/Norway/Switzerland/New Zealand sandwich.

It's a long personal story.

Sanpaku = Derelict, right?

Correct.

Even if Anglophilia was a thing, it won't help any of the smaller and more awesome UK bands. And the idea that a couple of albums in the lower reaches of a not-very-heavily-voted-in poll disprove the shift is nutso.

On the other hand, I've just remembered one of the albums that I voted for is a goddamn CERT for the poll, so hopefully I won't be stuck with a lone representative here.

if u guys want i could get high and write what i remember about listening to giant steps for the first time

I simply want you to get high.

Please do! That would be great imo.

Get high... ...Get above yourself ...Look down upon yourself ...Until you're inside o' yourself ...Look to the front or the back o' yourself ...To the back or front of yourself ...It's inside yourself ...And then you see your own head ...And know yourself is yourself ...'cause when you find yourself ...You're gonna find that yourself is only yourself ...And the self that can only be yourself ...So when you're infront of the back of yourself ...You're gonna find that your mind is in the centre of yourself ...And God is nothing but yourself ...And when you reach for yourself ...You'll know that yourself ...Is the only thing ...That can happen to yourself ...So that nothing can put you down ...

dog latin- take it to the jazz d-bag thread and then i am all for it, coltrane was long dead by this poll?

seriously gonna have dog latin banned from the thread if he keeps talking about albums that *might* turn up later

i'm just excited, and haven't really heard that much from this poll yet.

I have a Matador compilation with a Burger/Ink track on. It's incredibly long and repetitive. Just like a 15 minute loop of the same mildly pleasant beat and melody. Is the rest like this?

the track is "do the strand"

- oh yeah, roxy music haha!

Noodle Vague makes a post about that song, about how it does nothing for 9 minutes yet is somehow brilliant

Note that my original argument wasn't that this poll is dominated only by American rock (though as far as I can tell, 14 of the 23 rock albums that have placed so far are American), rather than that the larger number of American posters means less techno/house/dance will make it in these polls than in the 2004 polls, because in the 90s Americans were less exposed to those genres than Europeans. The fact that Biosphere and Burger/Ink were the two acts here that got the most "never heard of that" reactions would suggest I'm right. Now, this isn't meant to be a qualitative judgement rather than a general observation. Of course Americans can still dig this sort of music if they discover it later on, but since a lot of the voting in these polls will be based on 90s nostalgia, it's kinda hard to be nostalgic for something you weren't aware of at the time.

The fact that Biosphere and Burger/Ink were the two acts here that got the most "never heard of that" reactions would suggest I'm right.

They're also the two acts I've instantly gone and listened to upon announcing their presence.

With you, it's just a matter of age, I think. You probably weren't listening to that sort of music back in 1997, or were you?

Heaven knows I wasn't listening to much of anything back then

the larger number of American posters means less techno/house/dance

prob means more rap tho

Yeah, I assume so. Though at the moment it doesn't look like this poll has more rap than the OG poll (also, no rnb albums so far, whereas the 2004 poll had 3 in the bottom 33), but we'll see.

93% USA, 3% UK, 3% Canadian. 68% guitars. yay i'm Tuomas's worst nightmare!

y'know Tuomas if the guy revealing the results says OVER AND OVER that you should wait and see the whole list before jumping to conclusions about what the rest will look like, maybe you should.

Looks like my ballot is 33% Germany, 30% USA, 25% UK, 3% Morocco, 3% Norway, 3% Japan, and 3% France. (I counted Björk's Debut as an UK album.) And 3% guitars.

It is sweet to think that DL is lighting up & reminiscing as we speak.

OG is 'original gangster' right? I really like it, is it just an ILX thing?

No, it's an at least as far back as 80s Ice T thing.

I think "OG" is originally LA street slang for an older, more established gangster who doesn't have to do stuff like stickups himself anymore, but instead he can get younger gangsters to do it for him.

But generally it just means someone who's older and been around longer.

20% British, 70% American, 10% Portuguese (including some dual residents of outre space). Whole lotta guitars - some loud, some not - even on the non-indie stuff.