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

I think that was in response to Straitjacket Fits, LJ

I remember hearing about the Straitjacket Fits. I've never heard their music, but's a pretty cool band name. I'd really like to hear Johnny Fever defend them.

yeah sorry some xposts there

Would definitely have voted for Pole if I thought my vote would have a chance in hell of advancing Pole 1 to the final round. I actually have listened to Pole 2 about three times as much, as its less the sound of your space station malfunctioning and more the sound of William Gibson's rasta space station.

Aerol, with no particular provocation, related the tale of the
baby who had burst from his forehead and scampered into a
forest of hydroponic ganja. `Ver'~ small baby, mon, no long'~
you finga.' He rubbed his palm across an unscarred expanse
of brown forehead and smiled.
`It's the ganja,' Molly said, when Case told her the story.
`They don't make much of a difference between states, you
know? Aerol tells you it happened, well, it happened to _him._
It's not like bullshit, more like poetry. Get it?'
Case nodded dubiously. The Zionites always touched you
when they were talking, hands on your shoulder. He didn't
like that.
`Hey, Aerol,' Case called, an hour later, as he prepared
for a practice run in the freefall corridor. `Come here, man.
Wanna show you this thing.' He held out the trodes.
Aerol executed a slow-motion tumble. His bare feet struck
the steel wall and he caught a girder with his free hand. The
other held a transparent waterbag bulging with blue-green al-
gae. He blinked mildly and grinned.
`Try it,' Case said.
He took the band, put it on, and Case adjusted the trodes.
He closed his eyes. Case hit the power stud. Aerol shuddered.
Case jacked him back out. `What did you see, man?'
`Babylon,' Aerol said, sadly, handing him the trodes and
kicking off down the corridor.

38= Various Artists - Guitar Paradise Of East Africa (1990)
60 points
2 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: KMS

http://www.ljplus.ru/img3/l/e/lestp/gpoea.jpg

What's some of the best of that African pop, you think?
--burt s.

For an intro, go with comps. Guitar Paradise of East Africa (Virgin Earthworks), The Indestructible Beat of Soweto (Shanachie), Kings and Queens of Township Jive (Virgin Earthworks). All good (brief) surveys of Mbaqanga and its offshoots in the 70s & 80s.

― contenderizer, Monday, 28 April 2008 21:08 (2 years ago)

Guitar Paradise of East Africa is also terrific; track 3 (Daniel Kamau's "Mumbi Ni Wakwa") is one of my favorite tracks ever.

― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Wednesday, 22 February 2006 03:48 (4 years ago)

Earthworks has a couple of good comps of Kenyan pop, too. "Benga Blast" was a good one, and even better is "Guitar Paradise of East Africa".

― pauls00, Monday, 17 September 2001 01:00 (8 years ago)

Ah, now I'm interested in that.

finally something interesting!

lol u tiresome racist

thirding interest

37 Slint - Spiderland (1991)
60 points
6 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributor: sofatruck

http://dkpresents.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/slint_spiderland.jpg

Classic. The album in question is an austere, shapeshifting masterpiece, and surely one of the most original of the 90s. The first few notes of "Washer" and the sombre geometry of the repeating guitar riff are some of the most haunting things I've ever heard. It's interesting they get described as uninvolving, a bit like a recent Guardian critique of Kasuo Ishiguro that calls him dry, cerebral and unemotional. I'm just left completely baffled, because his books move me more than almost any other author. I guess you just either get off on sombre geometry or ya don't ;-)

The influence thing with Slint has become a bit of a joke, though. When prog-metal bands like Geiger Counter namecheck them, they're namechecking their preciousness and deliberate complexity. Isolate these things and they are no more than quixotic. Add them to rich and mysterious songs, and you've got a winner.

― Peter, Friday, 27 April 2001 01:00 (9 years ago)

"Good Morning Captain" goes straight to the back of my skull. "Washer" too, but in a more hypnotic, subtle way - "the sombre geometry of the repeating guitar riff" is a really fucking awesome and OTM description. "Washer" is one of the few songs on which I'll forgive the trembly emo-tenor singing. It just fucking works.

― Curt1s Stephens, Tuesday, 22 May 2007 15:09 (2 years ago)

I completely love this album, and was actually fortunate enough not to have had it played up as a total 90s indie classic (which, in any case, I really think it is, btw) before hearing it. Maybe 4 years ago, one of my older brothers (who first heard it when he was in college back in the early 90s) just put it on after I played him some Mogwai. We were talking a little bit about early 90s indie very generally, and he just kind of casually said, "oh, this is Slint, you'll probably like this." I was totally blown away.

― Mark Clemente, Friday, 7 September 2007 14:46 (2 years ago)

i think that slint's stuff (especially spiderland) has a mathematical beauty to it... there's a precision to it, with nothing more than is necessary, yet it seems to spiral around itself in unworldly ways. but what math-rock became certainly isn't all slint-like. so, while i can see why the term has been applied to slint, i'm not at all sure that slint is what they are really talking about most of the time.

― zingzing, Tuesday, 16 March 2010 01:07 (1 month ago)

I was listening to Slint's Spiderland the other day and it occured to me how well it managed to build up momentum for 30 minutes and then go out with a huge bang at the end.

― gabourey voltaire (Stevie D), Thursday, 18 March 2010 18:43 (1 month ago)

DUD: People who talk about Spiderland like it's some kind of sexual experience.

― ian, Monday, 10 December 2007 17:26 (2 years ago)

Slint is geweldig. Iedereen behoort op zijn minst Spiderland in de kast te hebben staan (nou ja, iedere indie-liefhebber althans). Wat een duister, rauw, onheilspellend maar spannend album. Eng gewoon. Prachtig.

Nog een tipje Roy: This kind of punishment of Mogwai.

― ZoeMotta, Tuesday, 27 April 2004 12:05 (6 years ago)

that wasn't on the first? i woulda voted for that.

I love this record too. A lot. I can understand WHY it's faded a little as ILM canon but I'm happy it's here.

i have to say...slint hasn't aged that well for me

I think about it as a well-written alt-rock record, rather than 'post-rock' which is a bit of a misnomer IMO.

yeah, but it's not really fair to play monday morning quarterback with spiderland...shit did really sound like it was from a strange, mysterious place

id be lying if i said i bumped this often, but i don put it on every now and then and i always get something out of it.

surprised it wasn't on the original poll and surprised it's not higher here

didn't vote for it but some of it is sublime, the coda to 'good morning captain' especially

never cared about Slint personally but know its held in high regard by others, surprised it wasn't on the OG list

shit did really sound like it was from a strange, mysterious place

absolutely!! it's a very crepuscular, penumbral record, the moments of high angst somehow still sounding displaced and uncertainly-derived. a pretty psychedelic experience, IMO

36 Mansun - Six (1998)
61 points
4 votes
0 first-place votes
Greatest contributors: useless chamber, acoleuthic

http://image.ohozaa.com/ii/0000054699_350.jpg

This album is fairly good. I rather like it.

l0u1s jagg3r (Haberdager), Friday, 28 July 2006 01:14 (3 years ago)

this is the best of the britpop-bands-go-weird albums by a country mile. it was obvious career suicide, it had tunes and hooks all over it, it has fantastic geetar, and it's lyrics appears to tell the tale of a man in the midst of a genuine nervous breakdown. like 'the holy bible' without the laughs. recently it came to light that the sequencing of the tracks without a break in such a bizarre fashion, was a tribute to prince's 80's albums.

i love it. am i alone?

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 6 July 2005 13:05 (4 years ago)

(I never make these ridiculous hyperbolic posts but here I go)

Mansun's "Six" is my favorite record of all time.

(Did you make it past that sentence?)

Maybe a little more for sentimental and influential reasons now, but I still haven't found a record that has had more impact on my life than Six. I picked it up when I was 17, and it changed the way I listened to music from the very moment I started listening to it. The ambition, the nerve, the way every song had 14 different sections, how it dipped its hand in art-rock, techno, opera, guitar pop, psychedelia, pomposity, anarchy, and sheer ridiculousness was completely inspiring to me as a musician, and frankly, it still is today. It encompasses most of the qualitites and elements I love in music and in life.

Sure, I'm more into techno and house these days, but I have no shame at all in loving Mansun.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Friday, 21 January 2005 04:03 (5 years ago)

The production on the Mansun record is overstuffed, but in an interesting way. I have made my best attempt to 'approach with glee' but came away feeling exhausted...yet fairly impressed.

― WARS OF ARMAGEDDON (Karaoke Version) (Sparkle Motion), Saturday, 1 May 2010 17:46 (3 days ago)

I feel I have finally reached a balanced, reasonable perspective about this album, and can discuss it rationally. It dazzled me then and I thought it was the greatest thing ever. It dazzles me now and I merely regard it as brilliant. Its power is undeniable, and Draper's own explanations, although often rambling, endear it to me as a record whose making is scarcely credible, a succession of happy accidents and musical mania.

We were all in the car the other night. It was dark. Random shuffle on my brother's iPod. Being A Girl came on. Everyone fell silent. For eight minutes, Mansun were glorious, and we uttered not a word. It had been a while since I last put that song on, but even allowing for this, it was like hearing it for the first time, the 200 mph escalating bliss-out. These guys really fucking had something.

― alien vs the smiths (country matters), Monday, 21 September 2009 23:52 (7 months ago)

xpost

Spiderland's cover picture is so great....it's always even more bizarre to me in light of the fact that the man on the other side of the camera is Bonnie Prince Billy

the mansun cover though....

is epic XD

Wow Mansun one place higher than Slint, that's kind of shocking.

That's only the third album of mine to place.

I thought I was immune to Britpop, and hated its disavowal of any post-1970 influences, but "Wide Open Space" on one of ILM's "Rough Guide" comps swayed me. Mansun was better.

hated its disavowal of any post-1970 influences

?? Oasis were knee-deep in glam references. Gary Glitter sued them for fuck's sake!

pistols influence too, esp on the 1st album. The Gallaghers never even mentioned the beatles until the 2nd album came out and liam got into them

I could push that year back. My sense, at the time, was the britpop genre was an ancilliary to "Fortress Britain" ideas of a world prior to Jamaican & West African immigration, prior to disco, electro, hip hop (all deeply non-anglo) influences. I find its fine for genre cul-de-sacs to retreat into self-absorbtion for a while, often self-reinventions occur. But at the time, and from thousands of miles away, it seemed strange for the "center" of a mongrel pop culture to become suddenly so chaste...

Jamaican & West African immigration started in like 1947 or something

to help rebuild post-war britain

Though Blur did have the music hall influence

i don't think it's that simple though, cuz didn't noel and liam like dance music? noel worked with chemical bros. and shit like that...pulp and blur also made overtures to dance too

though maybe i'm wrong i thankfully don't know that much abt brit pop

They had several dance acts supporting them too.

Noel did listen to a lot of dance music supposedly

infact everyone was expecting the 3rd album to be their screamadelica, hence the disappointment when be here now came out (despite all the 9/10 reviews)

yeah I won't rep for every britpop band but I think tarring them with some kind of WHITES ONLY regressive tag is some specious reasoning

like don't take Geir's word for it knowhutimean

also....all the brit pop dudes prolly had to go to the dance scene for drugs at some point

lol didn't one of the Blur dudes go all West African himself at some point? (I don't keep track of these guys)

A lot of early britpop fans were part of the madchester scene so were very much into dance music. With dadrock (which noel has to take the blame for) things did change. But you can only blame the brit public for that, they bought it in droves.

i blame the british public for a whole lotta things tbh

TBH, what I really disliked about Britpop at the time is that it displaced media interest from really fertile areas that were being explored by the "Lost Generation" bands (Disco Inferno, Bark Psychosis, Insides, etc). It had its own set of geniuses, but novelty seekers like yours truly were bound to be underwhelmed.

As to Mansun, awful name, poor image management, but they had one of the best melodic senses of any of that generation.

I played pool with Mansun once. I had one of those rare sessions where *everything* went in. I could see them rolling their eyes, thinking I was a shark, but I wasn't, I was just really lucky.

Generally speaking, the albums with 2 or more votes seem to be higher quality than those with 1 vote.

this is why i didn't give anything enough points to make it into the poll w/o anyone else voting for it, i'd feel weird and guilty about it.

I can't wait til LJ works up the pivot tables on this bitch.

I only voted 1 record high enough to know it will absolutely make it in and was reasonable w/ my points elsewhere. But now I am starting to worry that if fucking Earl Brutus or whatever makes it in over [rap classic a] or [rap classic b] then ilx is fucked up and we need to make the rap listening club compulsory.

I only voted 1 record high enough to know it will absolutely make it in and was reasonable w/ my points elsewhere. But now I am starting to worry that if fucking Earl Brutus or whatever makes it in over [rap classic a] or [rap classic b] then ilx is fucked up and we need to make the rap listening club compulsory.

― tart w/ a heart (a hoy hoy), Tuesday, May 4, 2010 6:51 PM (6 minutes ago)

No need to take it out on Earl Brutus that record deserves its place.