The Top 20 UK Techno records of the 1990s

[Orang Utan]

http://www.factmagazine.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2931&Itemid=103

Clark – Lofthouse (Planet E) 1995
7th Plain – The 4 cornered Room (General Productions)
Reload – A Collection of Short Stories (Infonet)
In Sync – Storm (Irdial)
Baby Ford & Eon – Monolense (Ifach)
Holy Ghost – Mad Monks on Zinc (Holy Ghost Inc)
Digital Justice – It’s all gone Pear-Shaped (Rob’s Records) 1994
Bandulu – Presence (Infonet)
Stasis – Circuit Funk (Peacefrog)
Musicology - Musicology (B12)
Ian O’Brien – Desert Scores (Ferox)
Surgeon – Force & Form (Tresor
Cristian Vogel – We Equate Machines with Funkiness (Mosquito)
Steve Bicknell - Why ? and for whom? (Lost Recordings) 1996
G-Man – Quo Vadis (Swim~)
Regis – Montreal (Downwards)
Neil Landstrumm – Brown by August (Peacefrog) 1995
LA Synthesis – Agraphobia (Plink Plonk) 1994
Santos Rodriguez – Road to Rio (Cosmic)
ndrew McLauchlan – Love Story (Figment)
i'm youtubing them at the mo and they're all wicked.

note that this is a personal top 20, rather than a meritocratic/democratic/populist top 20 IYSWIM

food for thought though

 

[Spandex]

i'm youtubing them at the mo and they're all wicked.

me too

For me, that's the sound of the mid-90s

Making me go all memory lane and shit

 

[Spandex]

Here ya go:

 

[Orang Utan]

do you go by another name on another board mr spandex?

 

[Orang Utan]

i think quo vadis is one of the best records of all time.

 

[isitme]

what about energy flash?

 

[Orang Utan]

joey beltram is from new york

 

[isitme]

so?

 

[dodgepot]

new york's not in the UK, i think.

 

[isitme]

oh right, didn't see that bit lol

what a stupid idea

top 20 US Jungle records of the 90s

 

[Orang Utan]

what do you mean?

 

[moody]

Red 2, Dave Clarke.

 

[Orang Utan]

he didn't get included cos he's already so well established, same reason advent wasn't included. i think one of the purposes of the list was to unearth overlooked gems.

 

[isitme]

what do you mean?

i think i'm just being silly

i just don't see why anyone would want to know the best 20 techno records from the UK when all the best ones came from america

 

[Orang Utan]

you are being silly.
there are some amazing uk techno records as this list is attempting to show.
i think with techno there's a lot more balance on both sides, meritwise, than with d n b, which seems to be almost exclusively a british genre, save a few south american producers and the odd norwegian one. mind you, wasn't dj trace from canada?
techno is a lot more international. for a start, there's germany...

 

[isitme]

I know that the UK held it's own with the techno, but it's like UKHiphop now, it's definetely worth the time of day, but it just isn't as good as the american stuff at the end of the day

DnB was never exclusively british, plenty of good stuff from Germany and plenty of DJs from all over the shop. the biggest labels are all british, but the producers and DJs aren't

for some reason all the best jungle this decade from canada. i think it's cos the DnB in the UK got so big and they never booked the ones who were keeping it alive in the UK. there are only about 5 or 6 really good records jungle records out of the UK in the whole decade that aren't remixes

 

[Orang Utan]

i think you know as much about techno as i know about dnb
the best to come out is coming from europe really. the best stuff coming out of detroit/chicago is house now really, though that's not to dismiss us techno.

 

[tarannau]

I don't think he knows much about DnB either to be fair. And his opinion of hip hop seems to be based mainly around unbalanced hero worship of the Wu Tang Clan...


Isitme's confidently opinionated. I'm largely in disagreement with pretty much all of his post mind.

 

[isitme]

i don't mean now tho. surely 90s techno is all about the USA?

 

[isitme]

I don't think he knows much about DnB either to be fair. And his opinion of hip hop seems to be based mainly around unbalanced hero worship of the Wu Tang Clan...


Isitme's confidently opinionated. I'm largely in disagreement with pretty much all of his post mind.

i still think it's 2002 to be fair

re:hiphop tho it isn't just wutang. US hiphop from the 80s, 90s and this decade has been much better than UK hiphop. plenty of good hiphop from the UK, but ya know...

 

[Orang Utan]

i don't mean now tho. surely 90s techno is all about the USA?

early 90s for sure, but the UK certainly held its own from about 93 til about 96, when it all went wrong, descending into a monotonous loop hell, but that happened pretty much all over the shop.

 

[tarannau]

i still think it's 2002 to be fair

re:hiphop tho it isn't just wutang. US hiphop from the 80s, 90s and this decade has been much better than UK hiphop. plenty of good hiphop from the UK, but ya know...

It's proportional though, isn't it? For every decent bit of US hip hop there's the Black Eyed Peas and a whole tsunami of ghetto-lite bollocks.

UK Hiphop's a many headed thing. We've got a vibrant scene of toasters, mcs, leftfield rappers and the like. Folks are no longer trying to take on the US at their own templated game in the main. Why follow the same commercial mainstream or attempt to sound like even more faintly ridiculous gangsta parodies when you're from Golders Green? I think UK hip hop's in fairly rude health myself - there's a strong live and battle scene in London, Dizzee Rascal's becoming a national treasure and festival headliner with his british take on the mainstream. British DJs and beatboxers have always held their own internationally. It's no mean feat for a little island the size of a minor US state. So what if the commercial dream never really took off.

 

[Orang Utan]

i thought this thread was about techno? divclarts!

 

[isitme]

It's proportional though, isn't it? For every decent bit of US hip hop there's the Black Eyed Peas and a whole tsunami of ghetto-lite bollocks.

UK Hiphop's a many headed thing. We've got a vibrant scene of toasters, mcs, leftfield rappers and the like. Folks are no longer trying to take on the US at their own templated game in the main. Why follow the same commercial mainstream or attempt to sound like even more faintly ridiculous gangsta parodies when you're from Golders Green? I think UK hip hop's in fairly rude health myself - there's a strong live and battle scene in London, Dizzee Rascal's becoming a national treasure and festival headliner with his british take on the mainstream. British DJs and beatboxers have always held their own internationally. It's no mean feat for a little island the size of a minor US state. So what if the commercial dream never really took off.

like i said, i think that UK hiphop is doing really well at the moment. there is a real wealth of quality rappers and producers coming out all the time. and not even just from places like south london and bristol where it's always been big. there is hiphop coming out of everywhere now

and it does well in america as well

what i was saying was it just isn't US hiphop. it just isn't. respect to people like dizzee rascal and skinnyman and jehst for managing to do well and become famous. but you know, it just isn't snoop or meth or pharrel etc

like you said it's pound for pound. it's like how england are good at basketball or american football but really, it just isn't the same.....

 

[Orang Utan]

<sighs>

 

[isitme]

props to orang utan for keeping the UK hiphop scene alive

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

It's proportional though, isn't it? For every decent bit of US hip hop there's the Black Eyed Peas and a whole tsunami of ghetto-lite bollocks.

UK Hiphop's a many headed thing. We've got a vibrant scene of toasters, mcs, leftfield rappers and the like. Folks are no longer trying to take on the US at their own templated game in the main. Why follow the same commercial mainstream or attempt to sound like even more faintly ridiculous gangsta parodies when you're from Golders Green? I think UK hip hop's in fairly rude health myself - there's a strong live and battle scene in London, Dizzee Rascal's becoming a national treasure and festival headliner with his british take on the mainstream. British DJs and beatboxers have always held their own internationally. It's no mean feat for a little island the size of a minor US state. So what if the commercial dream never really took off.

I know he's not strictly hiphop only, and I realise there's far more to 'it' than just him, but I'd much rather listen to Roots Manuva than most US hiphop

Do like Super Chron, mind.

 

[Orang Utan]

stop fucking talking about hiphop

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

I'm shit at the difference between trance/techno/rave etc and you'd just get all trainspottery on me if I tried...

 

[Orang Utan]

well fuck off then