Welcome to Part 9 of my “100 Favorite Albums of the 1990’s” list! This part covers the fall of '97 through the summer of '98 - encompassing the entirety of my freshman year of college and most of the summer thereafter.
By this point in time, electronic music and rave culture had totally captured my heart and imagination. I'd been a little too young or too isolated to experience grunge and hip-hop's golden age firsthand, so, for the first time, it seemed I was experiencing and participating in a musical revolution in real time. Electronic subgenres like techno, house, trance, IDM, big beat, and trip-hop were in my rotation, but jungle and drum & bass took precedence.
Jungle and its immediate stylistic descendant drum & bass (though both subgenre terms often were and still are used interchangeably) had bubbled up from the UK underground and, with only syncopated breakbeats in a 160-174 bpm range forming its connective tissue, styles and moods within the subgenre fractured and evolved into microgenres at a lightning pace - intelligent, atmospheric, jump-up, jazz-step, tech-step, neurofunk, etc. Creative possibilities seemed endless. The LP format also grew in popularity, with drum & bass artists signing album deals with major label subsidiaries while pushing their bedroom studios and production techniques to their limits in ways artists from other electronic subgenres couldn't match. At least half of my favorite albums in the final few years of the 90's were drum & bass albums.
During this time, I also picked up my first pair of Technics 1210 turntables, a Vestax PMC-03A mixer, some KRK monitors, and continued building my vinyl collection. I'd shop for 12" singles at the rave specialty boutique Music Now in Georgetown or order from Breakbeat Science in NYC - America's first and only all-jungle/drum & bass record store. I'd listen to low-res audio clips of the latest UK imports on their website, take notes, then call by landline to make my order. I did my best to spread the sound by deejaying at basement parties, local boutiques, student union events, and my weekly radio show "Fever" at college - to mixed reaction, no pun intended. What may have sounded like banging pots and pans, at 174 bpm, wasn't for everybody.
Despite that, drum & bass was gaining traction at clubs and raves nationwide. I drove or bussed to rave nights around the Mid-Atlantic like DC's Buzz, Philly's Shampoo, and NYC's The Tunnel - with the sixth annual "Maskarave" at the latter venue on Halloween, '97, being particularly memorable. DJ Dara, Odi, Karl K, Beau, and Christian Bruna headlined the jungle/drum & bass room that night. DC's 2Tuff crew hosted weekly drum & bass nights at any venue they could book - I caught Dom & Roland's North American debut at a 2Tuff event called "Mechanism" at the now-defunct lesbian bar, Hung Jury, in December of '97. I also saw a rare live performance by Roni Size/Reprazent at "Super Sting" at the Capital Ballroom in March of '98.
However, the biggest live music event I attended during this time was the two-day Tibetan Freedom Concert at RFK Stadium in June of '98, with Beastie Boys, Radiohead, A Tribe Called Quest, Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and many more performing. Good times!
⁃ Will G.
Part 10 (1998-1999) coming soon.
Bjork: Homogenic (9/22/97)
On her third solo LP, Homogenic, Bjork aimed for something more
focused and personal than her previous albums. Echoing the beautiful yet
harsh volcanic landscapes of her native Iceland, Bjork envisioned a blend of
graceful acoustic instrumentation and tough studio production. Enveloping
her earnest lyricism and mighty vocals, the album featured elegant string
arrangements interwoven with steely electronic rhythms and textures conjured
by various collaborators, including Mark Bell of UK techno outfit LFO.
Homogenic was quintessentially Bjork - stunning, ambitious, and
highly influential.
Portishead: Portishead (9/29/97)
Portishead's Mercury Prize-winning debut album, Dummy, married
dusty hip-hop beats with retro spy film scores and emotive crooning from
singer Beth Gibbons, creating a novel but oft-imitated formula. On
the trip-hop trio's self-titled follow-up, they tread similar ground,
again drawing inspiration from film score composers like Lalo Schifrin and
Ennio Morricone, though proceedings here were decidedly more grim.
Beats shuffled and crackled languidly while Gibbons wailed through gritted
teeth, lending the album a gothic, witchy vibe - a perfect soundtrack for
spliff sessions on rainy days.
Adam F: Colours (11/3/97)
By the time he hit London's drum & bass scene, producer Adam Fenton,
aka Adam F, was already a talented composer and multi-instrumentalist with
a passion for jazz and funk. Recruiting a cadre of session players
and vocalists, including EBTG’s Tracey Thorn, Fenton set out to create a
densely layered debut LP that flowed seamlessly between all his musical
influences, from contemporaries like Goldie and LTJ Bukem to jazz fusion
heroes like Bob James and Chick Corea. The resultant album,
Colours, turned out to be among the genre’s finest ever, and earned
the MOBO Award for Best Album in ‘98.
(Audio unavailable via Spotify)
Source Direct: Controlled Developments (11/4/97)
Drum & bass duo Source Direct, then comprised of James Baker and Phil
Aslett, hailed from St. Albans, England - the same city that produced
Photek, and despite sharing the same penchant for precise drum
programming, Source Direct occupied darker sonic territory.
Controlled Developments was their first major EP, though with a
45-minute runtime I always considered it an album. Across six
anxiety-inducing tracks of grinding machine noise and horror flick
atmospherics, it was the soundtrack of nightmares. Fitting then that
one of its tracks was featured in the '98 vampire action movie
"Blade".
(Audio unavailable via Spotify)
Various Artists: Platinum Breakz 2 (11/17/97)
While the inaugural volume of Metalheadz's classic compilation series,
Platinum Breakz, chronicled the label’s early evolution from jungle
to contemporary drum & bass, the second volume homed in on the sounds
of '97, both dark and jazzy, albeit keeping an eye firmly set on the
future. Label veterans like Digital, Peshay, Dillinja, and J Majik
returned, but newcomers joined too - Adam F, Sci-Clone, Ed Rush, and
Optical. The latter two pioneered tech-step and, later, neurofunk -
reinforcing Metalheadz's reputation for riding the bleeding edge of, as
they called it, “21st century urban breakbeat music”.
(Audio unavailable via Spotify)
John B: Visions (1998)
John Bryan Williams was earning a degree in cellular biology in Durham,
England, when he sidetracked into drum & bass music. Recording
as John B, Visions was his double-disc debut album, split into two
distinct sides - the jazzy "Organic" and the electro-inspired
"Synthetic”. I never spent much time with the "Organic" side, but
"Synthetic" was an immediate favorite, with repeat play to this day.
John B blazed his own trail and remains one of the most creative and
diverse producers in the game. Forgoing the lab coat, he now headlines
worldwide in glam makeup, sleeveless shirts, and wraparound shades.
Various Artists: Quantum Mechanics (2/23/98)
Renegade Hardware was the newly formed sister label of crowd-pleasing
“jump-up” imprint Trouble on Vinyl, capitalizing on the dark, futuristic
sounds of tech-step. Quantum Mechanics was the label's first
compilation album and introduced several newcomers who would go on to
dominate the drum & bass scene for years - Fresh, Maldini, and D
Bridge, a majority stake in the soon-to-form supergroup Bad Company.
More established artists like Optical, Dom & Roland, John B, Tech
Itch, and Dillinja joined too on remix duties. You'd be hard-pressed
to find a better tech-step compilation in '98.
(Audio unavailable via Spotify)
Massive Attack: Mezzanine (4/20/98)
Massive Attack's third album, Mezzanine, defied trip-hop genre
tropes established by the group’s previous work with its aura of
seductive, sultry menace and industrial rock textures - buzzing guitars,
rumbling bass, drums like pistons, and 3D and Daddy G dropping bars in
sneering monotone. Guest vocalists Sarah Jay Hawley and Elizabeth
Fraser, of dream pop pioneers Cocteau Twins, offered rare solace, but the
overall tone remained sinister, with rhythms set at the unhurried pace of
a stalking predator. Mezzanine was Massive Attack's zenith,
and it endures as an all-time personal favorite.
Autechre: LP5 (7/13/98)
Among the holy trinity of “intelligent dance music” - Aphex Twin, Boards
of Canada, and Autechre - the latter were arguably the most challenging,
but their fifth LP, on famed IDM label Warp, melded uncompromising
experimentalism with genuine listenability. Their usual palette of
whirring, chirping computer noise blended with strings, xylophones, and
glitchy percussion that often recalled the timbre of struck oil drums,
plucked soda can tabs, and bouncing ball bearings. Most atypical
here - melody and hooks. LP5 was Autechre's most dynamic
album yet, and one of IDM’s best ever.
Beastie Boys: Hello Nasty (7/14/98)
By ‘98, the Beastie Boys had secured their status as icons of hip-hop,
alternative music, and humanitarianism activism - now universally beloved
and respected, they had nothing left to prove. Free to let loose,
their fifth album, Hello Nasty, was a joyful explosion of sounds
that recalled the trio's cartoonish hip-hop roots while dipping into other
styles old and new - lounge, Latin jazz, bossa nova, dub, trip-hop, big
beat, and turntablism. On the latter, Mix Master Mike joined the
group on the decks for the first time, injecting the album with playful,
frenetic energy. Hello Nasty was peak Beastie Boys.
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)
Coming Soon - 100 Favorite Albums of the 1990s: Part 10 of 10 (1998 - 1999)
Comments
Post a Comment