Pitchfork: The 50 Best IDM Albums of All Time

Syl Kougai's last album would get on mine.

Surprised to see Jason Forrest there. Fair play to him and CRD though, great album.

SAW I is a legendary album, I think maybe because we're all Aphex fanatics we just take it for granted, and want our boundaries pushed further with his music so some fans don't appreciate it as much.

Honestly I'd put something like Daedelus or Apparat in there over fucking JLin. -.-

Edited January 25, 2017 by lyst

  On 1/24/2017 at 9:11 PM, GetSquirrely said:

needs more squarepusher

 

this thread shouldn't exist

  On 1/25/2017 at 9:39 PM, MIXL2 said:

this thread shouldn't exist

 

sorry

  On 1/24/2017 at 6:12 PM, mokz said:

 

  On 1/24/2017 at 6:03 PM, flim said:

I don't know why, but I never knew SAW I was so highly-regarded...

 

 

I love SAW1 but saying it's the best IDM album ever is kind of.. dumb.

Dumb? Not really. Easily my number one.

  On 1/26/2017 at 1:02 AM, CroydonCaptainJack said:

 

  On 1/24/2017 at 6:12 PM, mokz said:

 

  On 1/24/2017 at 6:03 PM, flim said:

I don't know why, but I never knew SAW I was so highly-regarded...

 

I love SAW1 but saying it's the best IDM album ever is kind of.. dumb.

Dumb? Not really. Easily my number one.

I hope no one has gotten the wrong idea from what I'm saying. SAW1 is fantastic. Xtal and Green Calx are among RDJ's best tracks. I just think he and a few others have made better records than that, I just find it weird to see SAW1 hailed as the best braindance album of all time. It's all just a matter of opinion, though. I'm not upset about it or anything. I've been on an AFX binge lately, and my opinions of certain albums have changed, strangely enough, after all this time. SAW1 has actually become more enjoyable to me than it once was, while a record like AB4 has me feeling a bit lukewarm.

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

what's "IDM", never heard of it

Intense Dong Massage

  On 1/25/2017 at 9:37 PM, StocKo said:

 

  On 1/24/2017 at 9:11 PM, GetSquirrely said:

needs more squarepusher

 

Internet Dickheads Messageboard

no drukqs, no dice

LOL Atavism is on there. I mean I'm okay with it and all that, but let's not pretend it's up on the best of any list. Except maybe the best albums that sound like Sonic the Hedgehog pinging off everything in sight. In which case it's number 1, with Mark Fell's solo albums following just behind.

^Totes, Phoenicia's Brownout should've been there instead.

 

Putting two Wolfgang Voigt albums on there is a bit rich too, and I love the guy!  Las Vegas is a fantastic album (and M:I:5 a fantastically weird one) and while both fall under the technos, neither has ever struck me as remotely IDM.  If you're going to stretch to include those then where's the Basic Channel, Alva Noto... (and FSOL, Orb, MBM...) ??

I feel like they realized that there are already deece # of good IDM records on their ambient list and just started naming shit at random for this.

Edited January 26, 2017 by doublename

indeed Brownout

 

Freeform - Audiotourism

Team Doyobi - Cryptoburners

Push Button Objects - Dirty Dozen

Brothomstates?

Lackluster?

Michael Fakesch - Marion

 

they needed to consult watmm before making the list

weird list, definitely doesn't jive with earlier writing from reynolds. 

 

also we need to talk about p4k's new craft beer site

i dont think this is reynolds' list, he just wrote the intro

- v. glad jlin is there. including anything so recent in a list of mostly old album is risky but cmon, its a huge record

- good picks from aphex's catalog (i'm glad they left off druqks), not so good from ae

- wait where's bytes?

No Vibert is pure absurdity. Though it is a halfway decent list, better than Id expect from Pitchfork.

I'd be more curious about what a WATMM list would be. Joyrex?

  On 2/2/2017 at 12:20 AM, Extralife said:

I'd be more curious about what a WATMM list would be. Joyrex?

Drukqs times 50.

Hey hey relax a bit, peacetreaty. That's a top1. Not a top50.

 

Personally, i think a top50 idm list is problematic. Idm is not a type of music, as far as i can tell. It's got all kinds of electronica shittery. So its either a preselected group of artists, labels, or music from a specific period. Any way you look at it, the more you try to specify idm as a musical genre, the less interesting it gets.

Unless you go in the complete opposite direction and define idm as some kind of cross genre thing where you can have kraftwerk, burial, photek, drexciya, fsol and hecker all happily coexisting in one list. The only requirment needed would be enough votes to get in the top50. Thatd be interesting in and of itself, but im afraid it would lead to endless streams of butthurts about what albums shouldnt have been on it. Eg, compilations in a top50 idm albums list? I'd be for it, btw. Which 50 albums should each selfrespecting idm-head have in his collection? I'm sure there should be a couple of comps in there.