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Urban75 Album of the Year 1994

If Calculated is too aggressive for you, but you really want to listen to a 1994 album by a band whose name starts with Heaven, there's always the Decline and Fall of Heavenly:

Dunno if it lives up to the heights of Talulah Gosh though.
 
His n Hers should be in there, even though it marks Pulp’s transition into a sharper but very slightly less interesting band.
 
And a bit of silly Belgian EBM/industrial - listening now in the context of all the jungle/d'n'b talk in the OP, I suppose I can definitely see a bit of jungle influence in the beats there:
 
Dunno how often someone manages to place in the top 20 one year and then do it again for the next decade, but I reckon Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds have a very solid chance with Let Love In:


Although maybe not, it is a very crowded field this year.
 
Another obvious one is Blur - Parklife

I don’t think it’s aged very well though, listened to it recently and felt like there was a lot of filler tracks on there, anyway End of a century feels like continuing from where Modern Life is Rubbish ended which is fine by me

 
Dunno how often someone manages to place in the top 20 one year and then do it again for the next decade, but I reckon Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds have a very solid chance with Let Love In:


Although maybe not, it is a very crowded field this year.


It would be a travesty if this and Henry’s Dream were omitted from their respective years.
 
The long awaited Second Coming by The Stone Roses

Not as bad as it was originally thought to be, but equally not the debut

 
I like the debut, but Let's Go is arguably where Rancid properly hit the start of their golden period:
 
Sonic Youth's worst album. Deliberately trying to make themselves less popular by rejecting their poppy instincts and returning to their experimental roots. It worked! It's barely listenable.

 
Anyway, whatever, find me some jungle. I need some jungle. Get me some jungle. I need jungle in my life.

Many of the artist jungle/drum'n'bass albums started to appear from 1995, although often featuring a lot of output from 1994 - Kemet Crew, Guy Called Gerald, Congo Natty, Omni Trio, and Metalheads/Goldie - Inner City Life probably most well-known...



1994 saw a lot of compilations as you'd expect for a genre based around 12" singles - Jungle Hits, Jungle Mania, etc. as the jungle sound went mainstream with the likes of Incredible. And M-Beat did put out a compilation-style album that year with Sweet Love...



4 Hero - Parallel Universe still doesnt get the props it deserves for jungle/early d'n'b experiementalism - its lead track...

 
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Bandulu - ‘Antimatters’


People like techno, people like dub... Might as well stick them together :)

That would be an amazing 50 minute album. If it was, it'd be near the top of my list. Unfortunately it's a 71 minute album carrying enough deadweight to drag it down. Phase In Remix is the worst offender - the centrepiece of the album, their attempt at minimalism, one noise (quite a nice noise) drifting aimlessly for 10 minutes 22 seconds. It's what the skip button on CD players was invented for. On the plus side Agent Jah, Presence, Original Scientist and Run Run are all excellent, and they make up about half the album.
 
The High Llamas - Gideon Gaye .

Retro pop . Pet Sounds for the mid 1990s with a hint of Steely Dan It's an album as a whole rather than any standout tracks and whilst not as good as the next album Hawai, it still paints the sort of world I'd probably like to live in.

 
That would be an amazing 50 minute album. If it was, it'd be near the top of my list. Unfortunately it's a 71 minute album carrying enough deadweight to drag it down. Phase In Remix is the worst offender - the centrepiece of the album, their attempt at minimalism, one noise (quite a nice noise) drifting aimlessly for 10 minutes 22 seconds. It's what the skip button on CD players was invented for. On the plus side Agent Jah, Presence, Original Scientist and Run Run are all excellent, and they make up about half the album.
Fair points, well made :oldthumbsup:
 
Some trance bits -
Salt Tank - ST3


Cosmic Baby - Thinking About Myself


Sven Väth - The Harlequin, The Robot and the Ballet-Dancer


X-Dream - Trip to Trancesylvania


The Essential Trance compilation - Behind The Eye Vol. 1 on Eye-Q records - More trancey side to Sven Vath's Harthouse label.
Full of dance floor classics
 
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Some ambient techno bits -
As One - Reflections [Kirk Degiorgio]


Phenomyna - Unexplained [an alias of Steve Pickton (Stasis)]. On Kirk Degiorgio's Applied Rhythmic Technology (ART) label,


The 7th Plain - My Yellow Wise Rug - Another 1994 album from Luke Slater's 7th Plain, this ones a bit more ambient than My 4 Cornered Room.


Dan Curtin - The Silicon Dawn (1994) another great album on ART


Pentatonik - Pentatonik, If you like Orbital, you'll probably like Pentatonik
 
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