Urban75 Album of the Year 1991

[mojo pixy]

I only dabble in extreme metal so I'm sure I miss some nuances, but it seems to me that metal has more or less reached it's final form by 1991 - I haven't heard anything more recent that doesn't use some of the same tropes and themes that were in play this year. It feels that way for quite a lot of other guitar-based music too - much of the punk, post hardcore, math rock type stuff that was around in 1991 feels like a template that's still being ploughed fruitfully now, without many further innovations in sound?

I think Sepultura when they slowed things down kind of brought a new groove to the genre, and Tool of course ploughed a fairly innovative progressive furrow that sounded fresh at a time when metal was more or less dead (I sort of missed it, but certainly appreciate it in context, looking back). Since then, the main development seems to have been the various kinds of post-metal and metal+electronica+production. Skindred did a pretty cool dub/metal thing, too. Otherwise I think /core music is probably where any real innovation in extreme music lies nowadays.

Oh and there's DOOOOOOOOOOOM (ahem scuse me) which is currently my favourite subgenre. Shit like Esoteric is just .. off the wall, frankly.

Not wholly consistent, but a pretty decent first album from Mercury Rev

Yerself is Steam may in fact be my actual favourite album of 1991, and I'd forgotten it was from that year - so, thanks!

 

[rekil]

Drive Like Jehu and Rocket From The Crypt debut albums were 1991. John Reis on both. RFTC had yet to hit their stride but the Jehu one stands up.

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

[killer b]

Entombed's Clandestine is very good - really harsh & rough swedish death metal with a real punk edge. The vocals are great.

 

[ska invita]

talking guitars is anyone else voting for this?



i never tire of this record

 

[The39thStep]

Dondestan -Robert Wyatt. Well I suppose you either get him or you don't , for me, he's a unique treasure of partly ambient partly jazz tinged melancholy , personal insight, political analysis and often not taking himself seriously . Written in Spain on the Costas where him and his wife were living, he uses her illustration for the album cover and her poems for some of the lyrics. There's also a song about displaced people and one about the break up of the CP due to the Eurocommunists .

 

[mojo pixy]

lol I've just remembered Rotting Christ's first album came out in 1991 .. Passage to Arcturo. I was sent this at the time by a Greek tape-trading friend (remember trading tapes before the internet existed?) ... I did like it but as I've said already, I was on the way out of the Metal tent at the time (and RC have done a lot better since tbf). My favourite song on it was The Forest of N'Gai (starts about 5 mins in on this YT version)

Still, Rotting Christ is still my favourite metal band name ever (and they're still going), and black metal is also a subgenre that continues to produce interesting noise even in 2021 (as long as you avoid the nazis obvs)

 

[stavros]

Probably my favourite Half Man Half Biscuit album Mcintyre, Treadmore & Davitt - the songwriting isn't overwhelmed by the whackiness like it can be on some of them

I gave that a listen today, and that track and Everything's AOR are certainly HMHB classics.

I still prefer ...Wirral and especially ...Bridgwater though.

 

[nogojones]

1992 was pretty awesome because of Brutal Truth, but we'll come to that next year

I proper love Walking Corpse and told the kids that it needs to be played at my funeral

 

[nogojones]

While we're on metal, '91 is Dismember - Like an Ever Flowing Stream



I only came to hear of it a couple of years later via Loftgroover where he'd drop this sort of thing into speedcore sets

 

[nogojones]

Three big UK rap albums

Caveman - Positive Reaction

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for Positive Reaction by Caveman. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

Silver Bullet - Bring Down The Walls No Limit Squad Returns

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for Bring Down The Walls No Limit Squad Returns by Silver Bullet. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

Hijack - The Horns Of Jericho

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for The Horns Of Jericho by Hijack. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

Also Black Radical MKII - The Undiluted Truth (A Blackman's Leviathan)

 

[nogojones]

Some hip hop that I don't think has been mentioned yet

Leaders Of The New School - A Future Without A Past...

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for A Future Without A Past... by Leaders Of The New School. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

Organized Konfusion - Organized Konfusion

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for Organized Konfusion by Organized Konfusion. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for De La Soul Is Dead by De La Soul. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

The Freestyle Fellowship - To Whom It May Concern...

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for To Whom It May Concern... by The Freestyle Fellowship. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

 

[The39thStep]

Rain Tree Crow - Rain Tree Crow. A reformed Japan lineup ten years after Tin Drum ( and far better and more interesting IMO for it). Think of a more ambient post rock Japan, more space, more explorative, and with Sylvian's voice more expansive .

 

[The39thStep]

Black Tape For A Blue Girl - A Chaos of Desire. Completely forgotten about them and tbh never listened to the entire album before. Although packaged as 'darkwave', a genre that I have always been suspicious of in being promising but delivering very little, this is lush etheral , haunting 4AD type stuff with beautiful vocals. Superbly arranged and sensual. If you liked This Mortal Coil you'll love this . Definite discovery .

 

[braindancer]

Still retain a big soft spot for Swervedriver. Raise came out in 1991 on Creation. Shoegaze with a bit more oomph....

 

[killer b]

I don't think Seamonsters has been mentioned yet.

got this on now, it's great. I'm very much a latecomer to Wedding Present - I've had a copy of Bizarro for years but never really listened to it til last summer, when I realised it was brilliant - it's been on regular rotation since but I've not got round to checking out any of their other stuff til tonight.

 

[killer b]

i genuinely thing Dave Gedge has one of the great voices of rock 'n' roll

 

[Steel Icarus]

Still retain a big soft spot for Swervedriver. Raise came out in 1991 on Creation. Shoegaze with a bit more oomph....

In my ten. Not always interesting but their best moments are brilliant

 

[The39thStep]

Stina Nordenstam - Memories of a Colour. Only ever come across her when she sung on David Sylvians band Nine Horses on a couple of tracks. Got a very babyish voice which might grate with some however this is a pleasant if an inoffensive debut album with Ricky Lee Jones influences in some of the arrangements. Not album of the year material but a reasonable find trawling through stuff I had never heard.

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Still retain a big soft spot for Swervedriver. Raise came out in 1991 on Creation. Shoegaze with a bit more oomph....

All their best work (two, possibly three songs) came out in their first two eps. The album is a bore.

 

[cloudyday]

 

[ska invita]

played this to death

Young Disciples - Road To Freedom

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for Road To Freedom by Young Disciples. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

such a shame they never did another album

https://worldwidefm.net/episode/dj-gilla-2?fbclid=IwAR35x0mcITQOzURKTJfwDwyhbY2O4j5EiB1Uk_eL2Q1IXd7ej5Qjeh_A8s8

THE LESSON WITH DJ GILLA: YOUNG DISCIPLES - ROAD TO FREEDOM​

DJ Gilla is back on Worldwide FM for another two hours of perfectly picked songs.​

Young Disciples seminal LP ‘Road To Freedom’ turns 30 this year - to celebrate Gilla spoke to YDs founder member Femi Fem about the story of the record that has a claim to be one of the greatest soul records ever to come out of the UK. A story that includes a cast ranging from James Brown to Paul Weller to IG Culture, this is an essential insight into a truly classic album.

 

[Knotted]

Czech folk album from Iva Bittová that I would recommend. I guess it's a bit against the times but I think it's lasted really well.

 

[Indeliblelink]

A Man Called Adam - The Apple
Although I I liked the classic "Barefoot in the Head" the album was too vocally for my raver music tastes back then, really like it now though.

 

[ska invita]

6 tracks - getting on to album territory! and musically its home listening too
classic deephouse from the USA
Restoration and Renovaton

N.Y. House'n Authority - New Elevators

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for New Elevators by N.Y. House'n Authority. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

ETA in fact there was a proper album in 1990

New York House'n Authority Featuring Burrell - New York House'n Authority Featuring Burrell

Explore songs, recommendations, and other album details for New York House'n Authority Featuring Burrell by New York House'n Authority Featuring Burrell. Compare different versions and buy them all on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

 

[Indeliblelink]

Andromeda - Control Of The Dancefloor

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1991 Vinyl release of "Control Of The Dancefloor" on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

Some dude called Toyin Agbetu, seems he ran a UK label called Intrigue which released a shed load of releases by him under various names, all 12"s apart from this one album. [ETA actually I see he also had a couple of albums under the Soul Connection name in 1988 & 1990]
Quite simple stuff with some obvious samples but they've got some nice strings going on.

 

[Indeliblelink]

A few things from 1991 with Bill Laswell involved

Deadline - Dissident
Laswell & Bootsy Collins on bass. Very 80s sounding but I like it.

Deadline - Dissident

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1991 CD release of "Dissident" on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

Autonomous Zone - The Map Is Not The Territory

Autonomous Zone - The Map Is Not The Territory

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1991 CD release of "The Map Is Not The Territory" on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

Akira Sakata - Silent plankton
-co-produced with Laswell

Akira Sakata - Silent Plankton

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1991 CD release of "Silent Plankton" on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

 

[killer b]

Andromeda - Control Of The Dancefloor

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1991 Vinyl release of "Control Of The Dancefloor" on Discogs.

www.discogs.com

Some dude called Toyin Agbetu, seems he ran a UK label called Intrigue which released a shed load of releases by him under various names, all 12"s apart from this one album. [ETA actually I see he also had a couple of albums under the Soul Connection name in 1988 & 1990]
Quite simple stuff with some obvious samples but they've got some nice strings going on.

Have a couple of his 12"s, it's really good stuff. He has his own sound IMO - deep and soulful, really British.

 

[ska invita]

Have a couple of his 12"s, it's really good stuff. He has his own sound IMO - deep and soulful, really British.

yeah this was new to me...really like it...enjoying that mellow 1990 sound atm. Half that album are keepers for me
I went through that label discog yesterday

Intrigue Records

The label was formed as a sister label to UNYQUE to complement its soul releases with a new identity for its new house/garage releases. Shortly after the collapse of three of UNYQUE's major distribution partners (G and M, Danceyard & Spartan), INTRIGUE was instrumental for bringing the group...

www.discogs.com

this a bit of a derail but this 1992 tune:


sounds so familiar, I cant tell if its a blatant rip off of something else, or if this was the original
the chords and the piano im talking about - Im sure its a ripoff of an anthem, i just cant place it
anyone know?

 

[Spandex]

I had this on today for the first time in ages. It's not one of their best, but ignore the fact that it's a Siouxsie & the Banshees album, don't judge it against their career highs but on it's own merits and its really good. Beside the big hit Kiss Them For Me it's got a bit of a turn of that decade rock-pop feel to it, and with all the 80s & 90s revivalism that's been going on lately it sounds like something a band could put it out now. But it is a Siouxsie & the Banshees album so Siouxsie is singing and her voice is unique and amazing.

If I hadn't voted a week ago and the deadline wasn't two days ago it might've made my list.

 

[AverageJoe]

When is D Day for submissions? Might do my first ever one