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

I think Tuomas has a valid point. My votes are 66% American, 33% Canadian, and 90% guitar based. But that is an accurate reflection of what I was exposed to in the 90s.

69= Sun City Girls - Torch Of The Mystics (1990)
39 points
2 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: NickB

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_cr2kX4NUkro/SKr1iQRj7dI/AAAAAAAAAIk/kwFTycoL67s/s400/fronst.jpg

67= Sun City Girls - 330,003 Crossdressers From The Rig Veda
40 points
1 vote
1 first-place vote
Contributor: Jon Lewis

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_K2esD1Ixp84/SuwHtmnNvDI/AAAAAAAAAjc/RPRDE2TM5W4/s320/92767.jpg

Sun City Girls' best albums (which for my money are the inevitable _Torch of the Mystics_, plus _330,003 Crossdressers from Beyond the Rig-Veda_ and the long-out-of-print _Live from Planet Boomerang_) are completely mindblowing, completely unpredictable, like nothing else around. Their worst (_Midnight Cowboys from Ipanema_, _Jacks Creek_) are completely unlistenable--like, so bad it's hard to imagine how they finished making them. Most of their stuff is somewhere in between. I love how unpredictable they are, but then again I buy a lot more records than most sensible people do.

― Douglas Wolk, Tuesday, 16 October 2001 00:00 (8 years ago)

torch of the mystics is great but 330,003 crossdressers is far better although much harder to locate. it turns up on ebay now and then and usually brings $30. its worth it. the band's output is highly uneven, they are damnably prolific, and their oop stuff impossible to locate or way expensive if you can locate it. all this makes being an impoverished fan a risky proposition. but torch and crossdressers are incredible you cant go wrong scoring those.

― , Saturday, 16 February 2002 01:00 (8 years ago)

Best band of the last 25 years, imho.

― sleeve, Friday, 13 April 2007 22:12 (3 years ago)

330,003 crossdressers blows 'torch of the mystics' right out of the water, in my opinion. it's not as much a 'rock records' as 'torch,' of course.

― your null fame (yournullfame), Tuesday, 8 April 2003 03:16 (7 years ago)

Sun City Girls: Torch of the Mystics (1990)

Weird poll, but this is a bazillion star album AFAIC.

― Gunther von Hagen Daas (NickB), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 11:07 (6 months ago)

But I really look forward to discovering what I was missing out on.

Yeah! I wish I had remembered about SCG. Torch of the Mystics would have definitely made my list.

^^^
likewise.

yeah - there's so much stuff i never checked out although i was actively listening to music for almost the whole of the nineties (probably not as fiendish as in the 00s though). i wonder if were i to check out somethign like Sun City Girls, whom I've never knowingly heard, would i like it or would it sound too much of its day? This is interesting to me, because I wouldn't shirk from hearing some great lost 80s postpunk or hiphop record, but I'm more cautious of 90s stuff. Guess the 90s revival's yet to kick back in.

Also, seeing Rick Bishop play Esoterica in Abyssinia on acoustic was mindblowing.

Crossdressers is 1996, btw

I saw Sir Richard Bishop support Earth in Glasgow, it was the only electric set he played on the tour apparently, and it was mindblowing.

Do it dog latin. It being from 1990 is almost irrelevant. It's simply an awesome record that from the first song onwards sounds familiarly foreign. It was one of those revelatory records for me anyway.

There's an even better Built To Spill album

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, April 27, 2010 3:30 PM (Yesterday)

wondering if you are thinking of the same one as me, which is perfect from now on. if so internet high 5s to u.

didnt vote in this, wish i had.

also tuomas shut the hell up

aye, it is jj.

Damn, only 3 votes for SCG. Torch of the Mystics is the most easily digestible and definitely the album for the unfamiliar imo.

anyone who has even fleeting interest in BTS should listen to "I Would Hurt a Fly" which is like one of the best songs ever

67= Pete Namlook - Air (1994)
40 points
1 vote
0 first-place votes
Contributor: abanana

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v220/24_frames/Tangerine%20Dream%204/AIR.jpg

Pete Namlook's early nineties albums had a lot of cool drones, but can't think of any off the top of my head.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 17:26 (3 years ago)

I have control! I dominate!

Last 24 hours? A split between AMG reviewing work (early Green Day, Green River), Amnesiac and Hot Shots II in anticipation of the show tonight, and Pete Namlook's Air discs to relax in the evening yesterday. Fun fun.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 20 August 2001 00:00 (8 years ago)

HAPPY NOW TUOMAS

lol

never heard of this... whowhatwhy?

who the fuck is that

it is MORE AMBIENT TECHNO

thing is both of the first two ambient techno albums were really quite good

so maybe this is really quite good too

jeepers I am 14% British, 7% Scottish, 3% Canadian, 3% Swedish, and the rest good old US of A. And mostly guitar.

I am 100% don't-give-a-fuck-which-countries-the-albums-I-voted-for-are-from.

yeah me too

66 Palace Music - Lost Blues And Other Songs (1997)
40 points
2 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributors: seandalai, M4tt H3lg3s0n

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/00/Lost_Blues.jpg

weird, gulf shores popped up on my ipod yesterday and i was struck by how gorgeous it was.

― Brolotov Cocktail (n/h) (M@tt He1ges0n), Tuesday, 19 May 2009 15:22 (11 months ago)

I've long been familiar with the early Palace/Oldham albums, but was never really a fan... never heard any of the singles... recently, I bought Lost Blues because I enjoy the Bonnie "Prince" Billy Sings Greatest Palace Music CD, and wanted to hear the original versions of the songs I didn't know... and, my god, what an incredible CD that Lost Blues is. I'm almost embarrassed at how perfectly it hits my early/mid-'90s Drag City sweet spot. "Gulf Shores" is currently my favorite song by anyone.

― morris pavilion (samjeff), Monday, 9 August 2004 20:15 (5 years ago)

Lost Blues and Other Songs - the perfect introduction to Palace era Oldham, contains nearly all of his classic singles. Essential.

- paid in cigarettes (paid in cigarettes), Friday, 14 July 2006 23:41 (3 years ago)

Gulf Shores - Palace Music

many xposts. My intro to Built to Spill was that live album with the 20 minute "Cortez The Killer" cover. None of the studio albums I heard after lived up to it.

that Lost Blues comp is an amazing collection, I think there's like one song on it I don't like. Gulf Shores is all time classic

awesome palace music!

I've kinda grown out of Palace Music/Bonnie Prince Billy as the decade's grown on. I definitely think he rises above the whole "lol indie guy w/ beard" phenomenon; just don't have a desire to put on his records anymore.

last one for now coming up

I gotta say having this weird rainstorms-alternating-with-sunshine-spring weather totally makes me feel like listenin to some Palace.

65 Sonny Sharrock - Ask The Ages (1991)
40 points
3 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: contenderizer

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p238/michaeldustdevil/g3xXon.jpg

It is a great album, however for me this pales into insignificance compared with:

Alex in NYC in "I went to jazz gig and enjoyed it" shockah!!!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Sunday, 25 May 2003 03:58 (6 years ago)

Yeah, everyone kills it on this record, but it especially made me appreciate Charnett Moffett (I think at the time I only knew him as a Wynton-alum). I think I'll have to go dig it out as well.

― Jordan (Jordan), Sunday, 25 May 2003 12:17 (6 years ago)

That moment in the first song when Pharoah is going ape at the end of his solo and Sharrock comes screaming in out of nowhere is one of my favorites in all of free jazz.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Sunday, 25 May 2003 18:50 (6 years ago)

Beautiful, jaw-agape album. I love the part in the title track during the theme restatement when Sharrock plays the straight melody and Pharaoh wails underneath of it -- vicious. The themes on the entire record are incredibly strong and catchy, and the musical sigh of the second track is unbelievably gorgeous. Sundar, I'm interested to know why you love this particular record so much.

― Clarke B., Tuesday, 8 July 2003 04:30 (6 years ago)

(Needless to say), 'Ask the Ages' is so gorgeous. He was in talks with Chrysalis when I interviewed him in September '93 (the Voice reported RCA interest in its obit the next April) and enthusiatic about his chances in the post-Nirvana climate. It might've been doomed to fail, but the music would've been great, and at the very least it would've been interesting to watch the attempted crossover.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Monday, 21 February 2005 12:28 (5 years ago)

Ace!

It's all Americans with guitars

lol this list is so random. full of surprises!

full of stuff I really want to hear

It hasn't been the usual suspects so far, so I guess the free-form point allocation scheme was a success in that regard. So far most interesting discovery for me from this list has been the UGK.

This is a totally a triumph.

I think I have heard maybe 3 of the albums so far.

thing is both of the first two ambient techno albums were really quite good

Pete Namlook is quite different from Burger/Ink and Biosphere though, even though he's collaborated with the latter (alongside numerous other electronic artists); like I said upthread, the two albums Namlook and Biosphere made as The Fires of Ork are well worth checking out. But Namlook's sound is "trancier", closer to original ambient house, than the pure ambient of Substrata. Air is not among my personal favourites, but I'm happy that it placed. I guess here's where LJ's points system pays off, as something like Air would never have placed in a more traditional poll.

The thing about Namlook is that from 1993 to 1996 or so he committed to release one record every week on his Fax label. Not infrequently, the amount of time invested is very audible.

It really comes down to the collaborators. The Tetsu Inoue collaborations were highly regarded upon release, the Bill Laswell joints, not so much. I love a few albums he released, in particular the collaborations with Turkish percussionist Burhan Öçal (Sultan, Osman, Orhan). But Fax is a completist's nightmare.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldA9RJHLnj8

shit.....i forgot about torch of the mystics, might have included that

Likewise!

I've still not heard Ask The Ages. Gotta rectify that cos I love Last Exit.

Lost Blues is a great album.

I'm glad I helped get Lost Blues in there - I do feel a lot of Will Oldham's albums are kind of redundant, but Lost Blues is necessary.

Interrupting this thread to thank everyone who voted for Burger/Ink. Never heard of this album before, but HFS it's bloody fantastic!

63= Lush - Spooky (1992)
41 points
2 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: kingkongvsgodzilla

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OZt-sGuDqmo/SQi3eRyrNvI/AAAAAAAAAFo/o_n-sBKWmPw/s400/Lush-Spooky.jpg

I'd say Lush up to 1992 has aged fine: it sounds timeless, or it sounds like late-80s-early-90s, which are the same thing to me.

After that the sound veers some there are fine tracks on split and even on lovelife, but I could never love them as much as I adore the early records, which remain frosted december heaths.

― the pinefox, Tuesday, 13 August 2002 00:00 (7 years ago)

I was never a huge Lush fan, but good grief I heard 'For Love' for the first time in years last night and now it sounds like the best song in the world.

― Alba (Alba), Sunday, 8 May 2005 15:47 (4 years ago)

If I ever got really stressed out from work or whatever, this was my solution: queue up Spooky (followed by MBV's Loveless), run a bubble bath, pour a glass of wine and light a spliff, read New Yorker in bath, always worked a charm.

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 9 May 2005 13:23 (4 years ago)

Teeny truly has great insight!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 9 May 2005 13:24 (4 years ago)

An extraordinarily good looking band. Part of their legacy problem right there. Too good looking. Too female/feminine. Too chipper looking.

It's been really good listening to Lush again this weekend.

― Doran, Tuesday, 6 April 2010 14:05 (3 weeks ago)

I've reintroduced Spooky into my rotation in the last month or so. Somehow, before, my attention had always drifted off by the time the album reached "Monochrome." So I was listening on shuffle the other day and that song came up and absolutely wiped me out; the choruses in particular and the bridge at about 2:15 are Lush at their melancholy best.

I'm really happy about my poor listening habits way back when, because now I get a new favorite song without having to buy another record. It's the small victories.

― kingkongvsgodzilla, Friday, 25 January 2008 01:33 (2 years ago)

alright, let's get it started!

63= Ol' Dirty Bastard - Return To The 36 Chambers
41 points
2 votes
1 first-place vote
Greatest contributor: Noodle Vague

http://danjlovesthe90s.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/dirty-version.jpg

This album is a timeless classic for the ages!!! I'm not joking...i think this is one of the better albums of the last 15 years.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 20 October 2005 17:09 (4 years ago)

OTM. A lot of people sleep on this one, thinking ODB is just some crackhead Step'n Fetchit. There's some deep + deeply fucked stuff going on in this record. It's sprawling and always entertaining, even at it's most messed-up and experimental. If this came out of some white kid's garage they'd be calling it avant-garde.

Might be my favorite Wu record after Liquid Swords.

― Edward III (edward iii), Thursday, 20 October 2005 17:19 (4 years ago)

Among my fifty or so fave albums.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 21 October 2005 19:26 (4 years ago)

Possibly my favourite straight-up hip hop record.

― wogan lenin (dog latin), Friday, 10 November 2006 15:25 (3 years ago)

best opening track ever

― latebloomer and his 'Cyborg Companion', Hacker (latebloomer), Friday, 10 November 2006 21:10 (3 years ago)

i had no idea this album was so slept on

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 20 October 2005 17:38 (4 years ago)

SHAME ON YOU
WHEN YOU STEPPED UP TO
THE OL' DIRTY BASTARD

BROOOOOOKLYN

ZUH

― Noodle Vague, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 18:47 (2 years ago)

Everyone SO OTM on this one. This thread makes me so happy. Rest in peace, brother, dude, Jesus.

― A Radio Picture (Rrrickey), Friday, 10 November 2006 11:50 (3 years ago)