Underrated albums

What are some albums you think more people should hear and deserve more attention? Genuinely curious and looking for things ive missed in the IDM world

Some of my little known favs:

Exm/Mitoma's e/m: e|m | exm|Mitoma | Mitoma (bandcamp.com) (very phoenecia, morphying song/album, mechanical but very personal as well oddly enough. Gorgeous. Their other collabs are awesome too!)

All exm's albums, particularly llmnt and Modulus: Modulus | exm | Touched Music (bandcamp.com)

 C Mantle's Anatomically Correct: Anatomically Correct | C Mantle | Acre Recordings (bandcamp.com) (great mix of richard devine's intensity with Autechre....Abstractly catchy as hell. Photisms by him is great too)

Locust Toybox's Noon: Noon (bonus track) | Locust Toybox (bandcamp.com) (uplifting, nostalgic melodic IDM. Every song is a hit imo)

Hexalyne's Tcaresset: Tcaresset | Hexalyne | Kaer'Uiks (bandcamp.com) (love love love, and his other albums)

Tsrono's erythric limnes: erythric limnes | tsrono (bandcamp.com) (stellar abstract idm with amazing sound design.)

Supire's Lustre: MOZYK021 - Lustre | Supire (bandcamp.com) (Flashcore of the future... up there with xanopticon)

Fiesta Soundsystem's Sinking: Sinking | Fiesta Soundsystem (bandcamp.com) (kinda like richard divine doing a breakcore record)

Rob Clouth's Hidden Structures: Hidden Structures | Rob Clouth | Leisure System (bandcamp.com) (guy has the best sound design in IDM imo. Beautiful album/ep)

and others.

Post any album you wish! Cheers

I've always had a soft spot for the Odd Nosdam album Like When you Ain't - hip hop breaks with dope ambiences and obscure samples arranged nicely, sparse and light but I dig the whole album

  On 6/17/2024 at 12:01 AM, Cyteen said:

What are some albums you think more people should hear and deserve more attention? Genuinely curious and looking for things ive missed in the IDM world

 

Some of my little known favs:

Exm/Mitoma's e/m: e|m | exm|Mitoma | Mitoma (bandcamp.com) (very phoenecia, morphying song/album, mechanical but very personal as well oddly enough. Gorgeous. Their other collabs are awesome too!)

All exm's albums, particularly llmnt and Modulus: Modulus | exm | Touched Music (bandcamp.com)

 C Mantle's Anatomically Correct: Anatomically Correct | C Mantle | Acre Recordings (bandcamp.com) (great mix of richard devine's intensity with Autechre....Abstractly catchy as hell. Photisms by him is great too)

Locust Toybox's Noon: Noon (bonus track) | Locust Toybox (bandcamp.com) (uplifting, nostalgic melodic IDM. Every song is a hit imo)

Hexalyne's Tcaresset: Tcaresset | Hexalyne | Kaer'Uiks (bandcamp.com) (love love love, and his other albums)

Tsrono's erythric limnes: erythric limnes | tsrono (bandcamp.com) (stellar abstract idm with amazing sound design.)

Supire's Lustre: MOZYK021 - Lustre | Supire (bandcamp.com) (Flashcore of the future... up there with xanopticon)

Fiesta Soundsystem's Sinking: Sinking | Fiesta Soundsystem (bandcamp.com) (kinda like richard divine doing a breakcore record)

Rob Clouth's Hidden Structures: Hidden Structures | Rob Clouth | Leisure System (bandcamp.com) (guy has the best sound design in IDM imo. Beautiful album/ep)

 

and others.

 

Post any album you wish! Cheers

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That CMantle is right up my street - cheers

Oh nice! Yeah I'm glad I stumbled onto that one a couple years ago. Awesome record

Thanks decibel for that instrumental hip hop rec btw

Got some more finds to add:

C Mantle's Photisms: Photisms | C Mantle | Kaer'Uiks (bandcamp.com) This one is a bit different than Anatomically Correct, slower tempo, but its still awesome. Its a wonderful fit for autechre lovers and kaer uiks.

Randomform's Enfeld: Enfeld | Randomform (bandcamp.com) This is Hexalyn's Sorin Paun's previous name (amongst other alias). This album is dark and ominous, but amazing after repeated listens. Its another one for Autechre fans. This version is extended and remastered-- awesome production.

Integral's Rise: Rise | Integral | Tympanik Audio (bandcamp.com) This is a glitchy crisp gem from the now retired label Tympanic Audio. Albums great and never got the attention it should have imo

Tusk Mite's Phtism: P H ▽ T I S M S | Tusk Mite (bandcamp.com) Perhaps the most fun and catchy breakcore album Ive ever heard. Production and melodies are bonkers amazing. You can tell he spent years making this one.

DJ Crackwire's Play The Hits: Plays The Hits | DJ Crackwire (bandcamp.com) straightforward, no bells and whistles, amospheric dnb, but catchy and epic. Its simple and so easy to throw on. This one reminds me of Friendzone's DX, another awesome album.

Greenhouse's albums Arc,regn and sndwrk: arc,regn | greenhouse | HALLEY LABS (bandcamp.com) and _SNDWRK/gh | greenhouse | HALLEY LABS (bandcamp.com), respectively. I'm not a fan of all the anime breakcore electronic music that floods bandcamp these days, but holy hell these two albums are sooooooo good. Catchy nostalgic idm at its finest. Thank you rateyourmusic for bringing these two to my attention. Amazing and fun.

That second Porter Ricks album/compilation from 97. 
 

Any album with this is gold:

Ambot - A (2013)

Brain Pilot - Mind Fuel (1995)

Doofgoblin - Marblebarrel (2003)

 Manna - Manna (1995)

Arc - 12k (1996)

Tupilaq - Alaskanlab Sweden 1995

Tournesol - Kokotsu (1995)

R.I.C. - Distance (1994)

  On 6/17/2024 at 12:01 AM, Cyteen said:

Rob Clouth's Hidden Structures: Hidden Structures | Rob Clouth | Leisure System (bandcamp.com) (guy has the best sound design in IDM imo. Beautiful album/ep)

Any list that includes this is worth listening through. Cheers!

Interloper - Augur (1996)
https://www.discogs.com/release/116896-Interloper-Augur

  On 7/3/2024 at 10:20 PM, NewSchoolScience said:

Interloper - Augur (1996)

 Plink Plonk's catalogue is still rather nice to this day, I wish I had more of it - I've been most into Megalon, and of course LA Synthesis.

Oh nice! Thanks for all the recs and vids, slowly making my way through. Keep em coming.

  On 7/3/2024 at 5:32 AM, sherkaner said:

Any list that includes this is worth listening through. Cheers!

Rob Clouth is amazing and really talented... I wish he had more works available! These two releases are great too, tho different from Hidden Structures:

Zero Point | Rob Clouth (bandcamp.com)

Cloud Complex | Rob Clouth | Traum Schallplatten (bandcamp.com)

For anyone that is a fan of Vaetxh's EP Libet Tones (got pretty popular for a while ten years ago, and for good reason) Rob Clouth is the man behind that project... its such a shame more music hasnt come out from that project tho. 

Speedjack - Surge (1996)
https://www.discogs.com/master/10377-Speedjack-Surge

Donda 2

Beaumont Hannant - Texturology (1994)
https://www.discogs.com/release/11640-Beaumont-Hannant-Texturology

  On 6/27/2024 at 6:45 PM, purlieu said:

Tournesol - Kokotsu (1995)

 

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this is such a beast of a track! awesome

also:

CiM - Reference (2000)

Sansibar - Targeted Individuals (2020)

Aril Brikha - Ex Machina (2007)

SAW2

Xyqph - Rex Machinae

I DONT REMEMBER HOW I FOUND THIS ONE but i found it really early into my discovery of electronic music and blew my brain to bits and with such little coverage ive seen. i implore you to see the girth of xyqphs fat beats!

  On 7/26/2024 at 11:47 PM, Satans Little Helper said:

Reference (2000)

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i love this album so fucking much, it makes me bald. seriously some serious talent, and on PROTRACKER??? Motherfucker, I'm Hard. cloud cover is a favorite of that album. its a sweet dreamy sweet feeling seldom reproduced even in dreams :DD maybe you know but the sucker was rereleased on bandcamp, and as of right now there are still some CDs available if youre of the compact diskature. i personally feel the original artwork more though, feels warmer and thus more befitting of the tunes. alas

The Narcoleptic Symphony by Unit from 1999 on Caipirinha.

There wasn't much else that was this kind of aphexy around at the time.

  On 7/6/2024 at 3:03 AM, Cyteen said:

Oh nice! Thanks for all the recs and vids, slowly making my way through. Keep em coming.

Rob Clouth is amazing and really talented... I wish he had more works available! These two releases are great too, tho different from Hidden Structures:

Zero Point | Rob Clouth (bandcamp.com)

Cloud Complex | Rob Clouth | Traum Schallplatten (bandcamp.com)

For anyone that is a fan of Vaetxh's EP Libet Tones (got pretty popular for a while ten years ago, and for good reason) Rob Clouth is the man behind that project... its such a shame more music hasnt come out from that project tho. 

 

 

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Read that Leisure System told him to put some 4/4 kicks behind the tracks

  On 7/26/2024 at 9:44 PM, NewSchoolScience said:

Beaumont Hannant - Texturology (1994)

There are two (completely) different Texturology albums, this is the vinyl-only limited edition, the primary release is also available on CD.

Came across this recent one from Schematic and had to buy it after only one listen.

https://schematicmusiccompany.bandcamp.com/album/density-of-traction

Y’all keep going underground. I’ll go “top ten”.

Is it simple? Sure. 

Is it dated? Extremely.

Did the big single supersaturate the radio waves? Definitely.

But, this album still gives me legitimate feels like it did when it dropped (at which time I had already been thoroughly steeped in Aphex Twin, Coil, Godflesh, Skinny Puppy, Pigface, Squarepusher, Atari Teenage Riot, Jungle, Gabber and loads of other, much edgier 90s ear candy) and I venture to say that it is all-killer-no-filler gold.

The songs are fundamentally basic, most of which have identifiable, mostly formulaic progressions and are written with the first five chords every kid learns on guitar. However, there is something dreamlike and elusive about the whole record. The lyrics a melodies are direct yet fresh and the lead singer’s vocals are elegantly understated and tastefully effortless. Many of you will scoff and won’t get it but I love this album. It’s quintessentially late 90s and the band likely was signed thanks to every record label snatching up every diy rock trio in hopes of finding the next Nirvana, but I’m grateful. 
I’m surprised time hasn’t been more kind to this album. Wikipedia states…

  Quote

Robert Christgau graded the album as a "dud",[4] indicating "a bad record whose details rarely merit further thought."[8] Chuck Eddy of Rolling Stone heavily panned the album for its subpar musicianship, saying that it "sets icky new standards for commercial-post-alternative callowness."[9]Dan Weiss of LA Weekly deemed it the twelfth-worst album of the 1990s, opining that aside from the singles "Sex and Candy" and "Saint Joe on the School Bus," the album is "folksy, opiate-obsessed bullshit"

… but haters always gonna hate.

My favorite track is this one:

There's a lot of labels in the idm genre I feel like I overlook way too much. One is Central Processing Unit, and a big reason for this, i think, is because of the rather basic, routine album art they have for every single release of theirs, haha. Pretty dumb reason lol, but there it is. I know there's good stuff here tho, and this is a gem I found recently and feel like more should check out:

Obscurium | Noumen | Central Processing Unit (bandcamp.com) 

Anyone got any other favorites from this label you think are worth checking out?