100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s: Part 10 of 10 (1998-1999)

Welcome to Part 10, the final part, of my “100 Favorite Albums of the 1990’s” list! This part covers the late summer of '98 through the end of '99 - encompassing the first semester of my sophomore year of college through the first semester of my junior year of college. 

The entirety of my teens were spent in the 90's and the final couple years of that decade were, in a word - different. A new millennium was just around the corner, and it was a time of significant cultural transition. My musical obsessions over the course of ten years had evolved from alternative rock and grunge, to hip-hop, to electronic music and rave - styles that sprouted up from regional, independent, and underground scenes to infiltrate and shape the mainstream. 

However, by late '98, it was starting to feel like music was coming from the top down - a torrent of boy bands, pop singers, Latin pop, pop-punk, nu-metal, etc. Rock was getting soft, and even hip-hop seemed to be losing its way. Corporate consolidation of the entire music industry was afoot, and MTV's daily music video request show, Total Request Live, which premiered in September of '98, kept a firm stranglehold on mainstream music culture for years. I’d blinked, and everything changed - music across all genres suddenly seemed very slick, manufactured, homogenous, and disposable. I felt a bit disillusioned by it all, and despite over fifty of my 100 favorite albums of the 90's being released from '96 to '98, only five were released in '99 - a steep drop-off. 

At this point in time, my musical world revolved almost entirely around the independent, underground electronic music and rave scene - particularly the drum & bass scene. Most of my new music acquisitions were 12" vinyl singles, LPs, and CDs imported from the UK. Rave flyers covered my college dorm room walls, JNCO jeans and Adidas track jackets hung in my closet, and I was proud to be one of only two all-vinyl deejays at my college radio station and the only one focused exclusively on electronic music (the other guy was a hip-hop deejay from Philly who could cut and scratch and, frankly, was way more talented on the decks than me!). 

I attended the massive "Ultraworld: Energize" rave at the DC Armory, this time having opened its cavernous basement level to expand event capacity, in November of '98 with Carl Craig, Doc Martin, Grooverider, Photek, and Dieselboy headlining (I'm in this crowd, somewhere), and "Ultraworld: Engage" at the same venue in November of '99 boasting an even bigger lineup with Moby, Derrick May, Richie Hawtin, Dave Ralph, Grooverider, Fabio, Andy C, Ed Rush, Bryan Gee, Storm, and Bailey headlining. 

The weekly rave night, Buzz, at Nation (formerly Capitol Ballroom) and 2Tuff's weekly drum & bass night, Urban Space - where I caught sets by DJ Trace, Fierce, Ed Rush & Optical, and many more - were also crucial from '98 through '99. But even the independent rave scene was eventually squashed or subsumed by corporate interests. Within a few years, Buzz, the best rave party on the East Coast, closed forever after a local TV news station aired an “investigative” hit piece - something about widespread drug use at the venue? Nah, it was all about peace, love, unity, and respect, of course! 

Anyway, speaking of significant cultural transition and widespread drug use (I'm talkin' vaccines here, people), I started this ten-part “100 Favorite Albums of the 1990’s” blog series in the spring of 2021 amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It was meant as a personal writing exercise, fueled by bittersweet nostalgia, during a time when the world - including live music of any kind - had simply stopped. I got three blog entries done then, but finished the remaining seven this year. It's been a ton of fun diving back into these 100 albums, though most never left my rotation - the 90's were a wild and amazing time for music. 

Thanks for reading! 

- Will G.

UNKLE: Psyence Fiction  (8/24/98)

At the time, Psyence Fiction, the debut LP from collaborative trip-hop outfit UNKLE headed by Mo'Wax label chief James Lavelle, was often derided as an overstuffed vanity project.  Lavelle had enlisted DJ Shadow, hot off his acclaimed debut, Endtroducing, to produce beats while daring something novel - recruiting known quantities from the rock and hip-hop worlds to contribute vocals; Richard Ashcroft, Thom Yorke, Mike D, and more.  What was bold then is common now, with artists like Gorillaz and Mark Ronson building whole careers around the concept.  Psyence Fiction was a banger and hugely influential.  

  

Dom & Roland:  Industry  (9/21/98)

London’s Dom & Roland - actually one man, Dominic Angas, and his Roland sampler - took tech-step drum & bass to its logical conclusion on his debut LP, Industry.  An audio engineer by training, Dom labored to create a densely layered, darkly oppressive sci-fi soundscape with thunderous bass, drums like hammers striking sheet metal, and the whirring of machine servos panning across the stereo field.  Fellow studio savant Optical also contributed.  Epic in scope and masterful in execution, Industry was tech-step perfected and it remains one of my all-time favorite albums in any genre. 

  

Mos Def & Talib Kweli:  Black Star  (9/29/98)

By ’98, hip-hop was at a crossroads, with money-minded empresarios like Puff Daddy dragging the genre into increasingly vacuous, commercial territory.  Indie hip-hop label Rawkus launched to fill a widening void, serving as an oasis for true fans and practitioners of the art form.  Enter Brooklyn duo Mos Def and Talib Kweli with their Rawkus-issued debut, Black Star.  Afrocentric in outlook, the album tackled thoughtful subject matter like violence, materialism, and the black experience.  Black Star was a lifeline in a time when hip-hop seemed to be losing its heart and soul. 

Jonny L:  Magnetic  (11/2/98)

Drum & bass reached a creative zenith in '98, when many of the scene’s key players had ample commercial backing and freedom to experiment.  Jon Lisners, aka Jonny L, made waves in the early 90’s UK breakbeat hardcore scene before signing to XL Recordings and settling into drum & bass music. His utilitarian tech-step debut, Sawtooth, was followed by Magnetic - a more textured album featuring off-kilter rhythms, didgeridoos, guitars, vocals from Lady Kier of Deee-Lite, rapper Silvah Bullet, and a collabo with Optical.  Magnetic was among the last great drum & bass albums of the decade. 

Ed Rush & Optical:  Wormhole  (11/16/98)

Ed Rush & Optical's Wormhole is one of the greatest drum & bass albums of all time.  It marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of the genre, codifying a new style, "neurofunk", that tweaked the mechanical stride of tech-step by incorporating swinging rhythms and bubbling, belching bass tones never heard before.  The sound was more organic, oddly funky, but no less ominous. Ed Rush, a tech-step pioneer, had pedigree, but Optical was a studio genius with a knack for crafting truly alien aural textures.  The pair were unstoppable, and their pioneering work here was studiously imitated for decades to come.

  

Various Artists:  Planet V  (3/15/99)

In a scene increasingly preoccupied with sci-fi aesthetics and fussy studio craft, V Recordings, the drum & bass label founded by veteran deejays Bryan Gee and Jumpin' Jack Frost, simply focused on what moved the dance floor.  Its artists drew inspiration from jazz, hip-hop, and dub, while prioritizing hooks, steady rhythms, and deep subs.  Planet V was the label's second compilation, featuring Bristol stalwarts Roni Size, Krust, Die, and Suv, with newcomers Adam F, Ed Rush & Optical, and Ram Trilogy; and despite its limited home listening value, the album was chock-full of reliable club anthems. 

  

Jamiroquai:  Synkronized  (6/8/99)

Despite middling regard in America, the UK’s Jamiroquai were a staple of my music listening experience for many years and remain among my favorite artists of the 90’s.  Following their ‘96 breakout, Traveling Without Moving, the group’s fourth album, Synkronized, arrived with a few surprises - foremost the absence of founding bassist Stuart Zender, replaced by Nick Fyffe.  However, I struggled to detect any diminution in the group’s trademark low-end groove - in fact, the funk was amplified and, with new emphasis on glittery disco and Philly soul influences, the album absolutely slapped.

  

Basement Jaxx:  Remedy  (8/3/99)

Based in the multicultural London neighborhood of Brixton, Felix Buxton and Simon Ratcliffe’s brand of house music, under the Basement Jaxx moniker, embraced a vibrant maximalism their Parisian contemporaries, Daft Punk, couldn’t match.  The duo’s debut album, Remedy, burst at the seams with infectious pop hooks, song craft, and international flavors - most prominently Jamaican and Latin American, while paying tribute to their Chicago and NYC genre forebears with piano vamps and belting divas aplenty.  Remedy remains an all-time classic house music album, and a personal favorite.

  

Foo Fighters:  There Is Nothing Left To Lose  (11/2/99)

Released during the early years of MTV’s TRL era, Foo Fighters’ third LP marked a stylistic shift that established the melodic, commercial sound the band is known for today.  There Is Nothing Left to Lose was born of Dave Grohl’s exodus from Los Angeles to the more peaceful environs of his native Northern Virginia, where the project was recorded and produced in his makeshift basement studio with bassist Nate Mendel and new, full-time drummer Taylor Hawkins.  I had mixed feelings about this softer direction but can’t deny how significant the album and its chart-topping singles were at the time.

  

Ram Trilogy:  Molten Beats  (12/6/99)

At the turn of the millennium, drum & bass music seemed to be getting louder and faster.  Longtime deejay Andy C and fellow Ram Records cohorts Ant Miles and Shimon coalesced into the Ram Trilogy and dropped their debut LP, Molten Beats.  The trio largely stripped the funk from "neurofunk", creating a compressed wall of sound built on grinding mid-range bass riffs and stomping rhythms seemingly intended for head banging - a style that would dominate well into the next decade.  This noisy, aggressive sound eventually drove me away from the scene for a while, but at the time, it was pretty exciting. 

  

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)
100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s:  Part 8 of 10 (1996-1997)
100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s:  Part 9 of 10 (1997-1998)