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

just when you thought the 'srs avant-garde art masquerading as one big practical joke' thing had to end

xpost!!!

I haven't heard California in 5 years or so, but I'd probably dig it if I bothered to pull it off the shelf and play it again. In fact... today sounds like a good day for that. Why not?

Oh! How did I forget to vote for California? Probably because I didn't get it until 2000. Good call, everyone!

When were like 13 or 14, me and my friends used to obsess over the first Mr. Bungle album, but by the time California came out I'd already cultivated my anti-rock stance to the point that I didn't care about such things anymore.

Have you revisited it since then?

Don't want to bang the same anvil all over again, but having a no-holds-barred anti-rock stance is as mad (if not madder) than an anti-dance or anti-hiphop stance.

ODB! I feel bad I didn't vote for it but there were like 100 perfect records this decade and just giving 2 points to each other them seemed wasted. Also I didn't remember it when quickly writing my list.

BROOOOOOOKLYN... ZOO!

Wouldn't it be funny if the next album was avant-garde mastery moonlighting as kitsch too?

58= Madonna - Erotica (1992)
44 points
4 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: RedRaymaker

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Technology/images/madonna-erotica-album-cover.jpg

This album needs to be polled at least once a year.

― who's always getting head from the commissioner (Eric H.), Monday, 19 April 2010 03:10 (1 week ago)

No wonder the typical RYM poster is stuck in the early 90s btw. You have to be stuck there to think positive of "Erotica". It is extremely of its time. A time that is now luckily long gone and hopefully will never return. The early 90s were one of the worst ever eras for music. Absolutely horrible.

― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Friday, 23 April 2010 22:06 (6 days ago)

Geir's willingness to jumble up the same four or five words and apply them to Erotica over the span of decades is admirable.

Geir's willingness to address one of the best crossover examples of what must be his least favorite style of music is not.

― Eric H., Sunday, 8 April 2007 22:35 (3 years ago)

Erotica is the pinnacle of Madonna's career in terms of full lengths, I think.

― The Lex (The Lex), Sunday, 23 October 2005 15:22 (4 years ago)

Madonna's 'Erotica' is still in my all-time top 10 even though it justs lies down and dies after "Rain", 2/3 of the way through.

― dave q, Wednesday, 15 August 2001 00:00 (8 years ago)

Anyway you should go and listen to Erotica, it's fantastic. A bit sad though: a friend pointed out to me recently that "Words" has really good lyrics, and I immediately thought to myself "yeah I like it too, but isn't that supposed to be the worst song on the album lyrically?", and then I realised she was comparing it to recent Madonna lyrics.

― Tim F, Tuesday, 25 August 2009 22:42 (8 months ago)

(xposts) Too bad you missed California, it's the best Mr Bungle album for an anti-rock stance

(srsly when I first got it I played it pretty much constantly no matter who came round, and the less rock people were probably more interested in what the hell this thing I was playing was. Probably still not really your thing, but hey...)

ISn't this the Madonna album everyone's supposed to hate but everyone actually really loves?

Haven't heard it all, but "Vogue" (that's on here right?) was all over the radio, again when I was 10 and just discovering pop - so it was in its own way a very important record for me. I think the first page of the first ever music magazine I bought (Smash Hits, circa easter 1990) had the lyrics reprinted here. This is why I still know nearly all the words to Vogue and Birdhouse In Your Soul.

"Vogue" is on I'm Breathless.

Music from and inspired by the film Dick Tracy.

ISn't this the Madonna album everyone's supposed to hate but everyone actually really loves?

Yup. And it's great.

eh, it's okay

caliornia! a glorious album both then and now. amazingly lush, melodic, complex and beautiful record. I shall love it always.

When were like 13 or 14, me and my friends used to obsess over the first Mr. Bungle album, but by the time California came out I'd already cultivated my anti-rock stance to the point that I didn't care about such things anymore.

tuomas, the mr bungle of their debut album is a totally different beast to the one that recorded its two far superior follow-ups. it's highly debatable whether disco volante, and to some extent california too, even counts as 'rock' in any meaningful sense.

I guess postmodernism - or whatever this strain of humour originates from - got a bit tired in the end.

tbh I'm not sure bungle by the time of california can really be considered humorous, perhaps not even postmodern. omnivorous, certainly, but there's a huge amount of affection and respect for the genres they're revelling in and mashing together - it's far from empty, ironic smirking. that's what was so surprising about california, that mr bungle could be capable of producing genuine beauty as well as horror.

I am like the only person on Earth who thinks the first Bungle album is the best one.

we already knew they could do that, though! cf Stubb (A Dub), Merry Go Bye Bye (xpost)

I think all 3 Bungle albums are of virtually equivalent quality

xp... of course, my advocacy would be greatly enhanced if I could spell 'california'.

I love stubb a dubb, but it's far more silly than beautiful.

merry go bye bye... yeah, you're right. but it's an anomaly in the context of DV.

I actually own Disco Volante, and whoo boy does it suck! At least on the first album the experimentalism is often funny. I've heard friends play California on a few occasions, and it sounded okay to me (definitely less avant-garde than the first two), but it's just not the sort of music I'm really into.

Faith No More wasn't in the original poll at all, so Mr. Bungle placing makes me wonder if FNM will get up really high here

The genre pastiching on California definitely took on some more introspective and conventionally elegant styles, though, it's gotta be said, and pulled them off beautifully. (He says, as Pink Cigarette swoons to its conclusion)

Those are the only two songs from the first two albums that 'do' outright beauty. California's sonic assault is a lot subtler, and its songcraft more explicit. Doesn't stop it from being kickass as all hell.

It's not REALLY less avant-garde, Tuomas, just sly about its avant-gardism...

sorry lj, i suppose that's kind of a guess xpost

I actually own Disco Volante, and whoo boy does it suck!

LJ, be sure to include this in your quotes when DV comes up, okay?

^^^THREADBAN

lol nah it's fine, just accept this stern furrowing of brow and thank your lucky stars you didn't give that record 70 points or w/e

xpost AND NOT xpost

empty, ironic smirking

I think this is what killed this strand of musical expression. By the time 2000s came round, the only people doing multi-genre mashup exercises appeared to be doing it for the sake of doing it. It all became seen as far too arch, and nauseating with it. Seems in the 90s there was still a brazen naivety attributed to cross-generific pranksters like Patton, RDJ, TMBG that it didn't feel so forced.

y'all should be talking about Madonna anyway ;)

dog latin, it's still done plenty, gloriously so in some cases. maybe someone should start a thread

why should we talk about one of Madonna's most boring albums?

like, it's not bad, but it's not really very interesting either, so what is there to say about it?

fine, let's not talk about Madonna

oh look Vanity Fair just started...fuck I love this song so so so much

California is really short! another gold star for that record

fucking goddamnit watching the last ten albums most of which i would have voted for place where they did makes me really pissed at myself for not managing to vote

can I just

CHAK CHAK CHAK CHAKACHAKACHAKACHAKACHAKACHAKACHAKACHAKACHAKA

YES I KNOW

also tuomas, i dont even know where to start, but you are pretty much being geir II all over this thread.

xp I think in patton's case, the massive range of genres he's covered is merely an extension of the range of stuff he listens to. he's not at all unique in his broad tastes, but what's surprising is that, in an age in which tribal allegiances and genre boundaries among listeners are breaking down, the same isn't generally the case within most artists' recorded output.

it seems only natural to me that musicians would want to explore as much territory as possible, if only for the sake of their own development and amusement.

off-topic, I know...

hahaha, i love that bit louis.

58= Gas - Königsforst (1999)
44 points
4 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: Moka

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b2/Gas_konigsforst_cover.png

the last track on konigsforst always makes me think of a sunrise because it sounds like a warped/looped "william tell overture", that waking-up music they use in cartoons

― am0n, Wednesday, 16 January 2008 15:37 (2 years ago)

Before today, I had only heard Pop. I liked it, but I mentally filed it away as music to do homework to. Today I listened to Konigsforst over and over again, and I realized I'm going to have to look into everything Voigt has done. Track 5 is AMAZING.

― 2 5 (Z S), Wednesday, 31 December 2008 03:03 (1 year ago)

Yesssss... I LOVE Gas--I played the second track off 'Konigsforst" with the signature low thrum moving from speaker to speaker at Night of the Living Drone, and I must say, Jess, you are WRONG about it verging on the ignorable! ;-) At "appropriate" volume, this music (to borrow an old-school Reynoldsism) evokes the womb, the feeling (not like any of us can remember it, but it's a cool comparison) of immersion in amniotic fluid. I have to seek out his other stuff-- 'Zauberberg' is on my Xmas wish list, and I love the track on 'Modulations and Transformations,' too.

― Clarke B., Thursday, 13 December 2001 01:00 (8 years ago)

I'm catching up with Gas and at the moment Koningsforst is my favorite esp. the 5th track. I'm flashing slow approaches to a giant forest planet or just some archetypical forest of the unconscious. It's holy/awe-full music isn't it?

― Omar, Tuesday, 27 August 2002 17:20 (7 years ago)

Ha! I searched this thread to comment on this very track. Just picked up Koningsforst over the weekend & now I'm deep inside it & yes, this track is so great. It starts w/ one dark evil string loop that repeats & then as it develops, this sacred organ chord keeps trickling in until it takes over the loop by the end & then it sounds safe and happy. I keep humming it here at work.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 13:29 (7 years ago)

apparently track 5 is quite good

the end riff on goodbye sober day made my old flatmate burst into tears and exclaim 'this is the heaviest thing I have ever heard in my life'!

I felt strangely proud.

I shall shut about bungle now.

no, that is a great little anecdote!

m the g - yeah, i guess these days wearing your eclectic tastes on your sleeve isn't as daring as finding a sound and working within it. in the 90s i think there was a much greater adherence to musical tribes, so it was seen as pretty subversive to do this.

what's surprising is that, in an age in which tribal allegiances and genre boundaries among listeners are breaking down, the same isn't generally the case within most artists' recorded output

hahaha, i love that bit louis.

― village idiot (dog latin), Thursday, April 29, 2010 11:39 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

I don't mean to be pedantic, just informative if you guys don't know:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kecak

xp the exact same thing also happened with a different flatmate and to 'carry stress in the jaw'.

dog latin - yeah, I see that. but it's not so much about being daring, as what I would expect to be the natural inclination for a creative person with a broad interest in music.

ah, new thread!

bungle is one of the only times i can think of where i loved a debut album, to the point of it being my favorite for a long while, and then the sophomore album came out and obliterated my ranking of the first one to the point where i kind of couldnt listen to it for a while.

have never heard of gas

Anyway, more techno (and ambient-ish techno to boot!) to make Finnish hearts soar

yeah I do know about it being Indonesian kecak music, but I bet the Indonesians never married it to THAT RIFF

JJ I can only imagine what I'd have been reduced to if I'd grown up listening to the Bungle albums as they came out.

One can only guess at the ILM word-carnage.