Part 9 (1997-1998) coming soon.
Grooverider Presents: The Prototype Years (3/26/97)
Grooverider was always ahead of the curve. Deejaying since the mid-80's, he worked his way through various UK rave genres, finally settling on jungle and drum & bass at his legendary club night "Rage", where audiences heard the future via his trendsetting set lists. Fittingly, Prototype was the name of his record label, and The Prototype Years was its first compilation album. It showcased many of the era's best producers, veterans, and newcomers alike - Dillinja, Ed Rush, Optical, Matrix, Boymerang, and John B - who would dominate the high-tech sound of drum & bass for years to come.
Supergrass: In It For The Money (4/21/97)
Apart from Oasis and a few others, the Britpop scene was virtually invisible in the US. I don't recall how I came across Supergrass - probably via some import music magazine - but their debut from '95, I Should Coco, was one of the most infectious rock albums I'd ever heard. Their sound was 60's British Invasion meets 70's punk rock - Kinks by way of Buzzcocks. In It For The Money was the band's sophomore LP - no less fun despite its maturity and occasional sentimentality. The band released four more albums over the next decade, all excellent, but have since gone quiet. Fingers crossed for a comeback.
Blame Presents: Logical Progression Level 2 (4/28/97)
If "tech-step" drum & bass conjured dread and dystopia, "intelligent" drum & bass conveyed euphoria and utopia. LTJ Bukem's Good Looking Records dealt in the latter and in '97 released a worthy sequel to its milestone label compilation from the year prior, Logical Progression, this time designated as Level 2 and curated by Blame, a longtime UK rave music veteran, with MCs Conrad and DRS providing positive raps over a cosmic rush of breakbeats. As before, selections here were light and airy, offering a welcome counterpoint to the dark, aggressive styles prevalent in the scene at the time.
(Audio unavailable via Spotify)
Boymerang: Balance of The Force (5/12/97)
Graham Sutton spent only a few short years in the drum & bass scene but made a lasting impression with one of the genre's best albums, Balance of The Force, recorded under his alias Boymerang. Prior to this, Sutton had pioneered the experimental rock sub-genre "post-rock" with his band Bark Psychosis, so, as an outsider, he was free to innovate and apply unusual technical skill to his drum & bass production. With its diverse composition and shimmering futurism, the album upstaged many of the day’s top artists and served as Sutton's swan song in the genre before he returned to rock music.
(Audio unavailable via Spotify)
Foo Fighters: The Colour and The Shape (5/20/97)
Foo Fighters’ self-titled debut was a pleasant surprise in '95, but I was skeptical about what might come next. Could lightning strike twice? Not only did the Foo's sophomore album, The Colour and The Shape, turn out to be excellent - it was better than their first. It was more dynamic in every way, with craftier songwriting and more confident singing, bursting at the seams with now-classic singles. Clearly, Dave Grohl fronting his own chart-topping band, in the wake of Nirvana’s demise, wasn't a fluke. The Colour and The Shape was a blockbuster rock album - among the best of its time, maybe all time.
Wu-Tang Clan: Wu-Tang Forever (6/3/97)
Anticipation for Wu-Tang Clan's sophomore album, Wu-Tang Forever, was sky-high. I waited in line at the record store on release day to pick up my copy. Would the album live up to the hype? Like most double albums, it was a mixed bag of bangers and filler. It also betrayed growing dysfunction within the group. RZA was overextended - beats suffered and were often delegated to others. Rhymes were sharp, but some Clan members sounded withdrawn. The album was a victory lap for a dominant five-year run, but, despite the boastful album title, Wu-Tang Clan were never quite the same afterward.
Roni Size & Reprazent: New Forms (6/23/97)
New Forms, the ambitious debut from Roni Size & Reprazent, is the top-selling drum & bass album of all time, going multi-platinum in the UK alone and winning the prestigious Mercury Prize in '97. If there was one drum & bass album people owned in the late 90's, it was this one. Carving its own lane, New Forms was exceptionally jazzy and soulful, prominently featuring live drums and double bass, vocals, and a unique digi-dub aesthetic - drawing from the Caribbean soundsystem culture of the group's native Bristol. This album marked a new creative, critical, and commercial milestone for the genre.
The Prodigy: The Fat of The Land (7/1/97)
The Prodigy's third LP, The Fat of the Land, is one of the biggest electronic music albums of all time, topping charts in ‘97 and going multi-platinum globally - well deserved as the group had long paid dues in the UK rave underground, being one of the key artists of the breakbeat hardcore scene earlier in the decade. They’d always manifested a uniquely manic, punk rock energy, so they were well primed to upend the rock & roll status quo. With its gargantuan hip-hop beats, menacing vocals, searing guitars, and heavy metal attitude, this album was made for moshing. It was big, dumb fun, and it still bangs.
Radiohead: OK Computer (7/1/97)
If Radiohead's third album, OK Computer, isn’t one of the greatest rock albums of all time, it was certainly among the most ambitious of the decade. I’d missed the band’s sophomore album, The Bends, in '95 as I was deep into hip-hop that year, but this one stopped me in my tracks. With its dense composition and heavily treated production, OK Computer was clearly in conversation with some of the left-field music of the day that I loved, particularly trip-hop and IDM. Though still firmly a “rock” album, it was a springboard for the band's increasingly electroacoustic trajectory. I was all in for it.
Photek: Modus Operandi (9/9/97)
Few drum & bass artists were as exacting as Rupert Parkes, aka Photek. While others prioritized the visceral pulse of the dance floor, Parkes approached the genre like a scientist exploring the very essence of the drum break itself. His somber debut album, Modus Operandi, drew influence from jazz, Detroit techno, traditional Japanese music, and spy film soundtracks, but mainly hinged on a laborious studio process whereby every sampled hit of percussion was meticulously edited and sequenced for peak dramatic effect. When it came to breakbeat science, nobody else could touch this album.
100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s: Part 1 of 10 (1990 - 1992)
100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s: Part 2 of 10 (1992 - 1993)
100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s: Part 3 of 10 (1993 - 1994)
100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s: Part 4 of 10 (1994 - 1995)
100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s: Part 5 of 10 (1995 - 1996)
100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s: Part 6 of 10 (1996)
100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s: Part 7 of 10 (1996-1997)
Coming Soon - 100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s: Part 9 of 10 (1997 - 1998)
Coming Soon - 100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s: Part 10 of 10 (1998 - 1999)
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