Pitchfork: The 50 Best IDM Albums of All Time

Yah, of course, 'twas joke.  I'm sure WATMM would make a pretty good IDM Top 50 List, but as noted, the problem definitely is the expansive nature of the heart of IDM.  Does Art Of Noise get included?  Does BBC Radiophonic Music get included?  If an "IDM Top List" gets sorted by decade, though, that would definitely ease this problem a bit.

top50 by decade is a good idea actually. also lot of work. but good idea!

  On 2/2/2017 at 6:56 AM, goDel said:

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.

In the couple of times I've motorboated thru this thread and ideas about coming up with our own list, one thing I thought could be pretty workable would be if we were to compile a list like "100 Great Albums from the IDMz Era (1990-2015)" or something similar.  I thought this 25-yr window might make the most sense (going back to the 80s is a stretch; and anything newer than '15 hasn't had the opportunity to be fully absorbed, judged in the context of its peers, etc.) though I'd be fully aboard w/ doing it by decade too, it'd just mean multiple efforts.

Either way I agree it should be more inclusive to catch releases from the likes of the artists you mention (and not just the Church of Aphex et al.) - if anything the number of albums from each WATMM Featured Artist should be capped, kind of like how in European football each domestic league can only send so many teams to the Champions League.

The only fair way to do it is ban Richard and give someone else a chance of getting in the top 10

I'd be interested to see a WATMM-curated list of best IDM albums by non-featured artists.

Slightly related. Solvent responded to this travesty on facebook.

  Quote

Had a nice exchange on Twitter with the great Simon Reynolds about the terrible list he took part in and wrote the intro for... Pitchfork's 50 Best IDM Albums of All-Time. Like their list, mine is not definitive, but at least it reflects what the IDM movement actually was - Flying Lotus, Blectum from Blechdom, JLIN, and so many others have no place on that list. The problem with Pitchfork putting out a list like that, versus me, is that it ends up being viewed as something definitive, and I think that's really not cool when the guy writing the article (Simon) has openly disdained the genre for years in the press, referring to it's practitioners as "weird beards." Calling them Weird Beards may be funny and contain some truths, but someone who disdains a genre shouldn't be in charge of writing Pitchfork's definitive list on the subject, IMO. Anyway, he asked me to post mine, so here is my top 20 IDM albums of all time (many of these are actually EPs though):

^Still no Vibert though! I would at least throw Weirs up there if we're talking early 90's groundbreaking stuff.

who is Luke Vibrate?

Lukewarm Vibrator

  On 2/3/2017 at 2:24 AM, usagi said:

Lukewarm Vibrator

weirdly if that p4k was actually a reynolds list vibert would be at the top

listened to cylobian sunset last night...so simple and full...

Bogdan's Alright! should be on there...thats a back to back incredible album....again so simple and rich with amazing melodies 

Not putting Wagonchrist/Vibert/Plug on there makes the entire list sus..

It's missing some early Musik Aus Strom stuff, definitely missing Cylob.

And to the dude from the last page, Syl Kougai is crazy underrated, and for some odd reason fairly unknown.

  On 2/1/2017 at 2:47 PM, span said:

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

I was wondering that myself, makes sense if he didn't actually rank them. I feel like it would have had far less post-2010 stuff, less techno, more canonical braindance/IDM classics.

I've been through his list and enjoyed rx101

not that into spanners

takeshi muto was nice

mmm Spanners, love that album. Still rock it and their Bytes-Trainer-era stuff on da regular.  Didn't agree with Not for Trees as the plaid album on there (the pitchfock list), I would've given it to Rest Proof or Double Figure but hey.

Fair play though for having two Mouse on Mars albums on there (thoroughly deserved) and for steerinh me to finally check out that Urban Tribe album (which I'd meant to but forgot about).  What a great alchemy of house, detroit technos, and dsp fuckery, and on mo wax no less.  I love that it's 2017 and there's still more unexplored treasures from the past like this

his two rephlex albums are fucking awesome as is the one on weme (which is available from their website for like 4 euros new)

and his DJ sets are filthy. 

and he once shared his liter of absolut with me after I yelled LORY DDDDDD when he dropped road hog in a set. he didn't have to do that but that's the kinda guy he is.

i honestly cannot recommend sherard ingram enough. the man is a god among men 

  On 2/7/2017 at 5:50 PM, joshuatx said:

 

  On 2/1/2017 at 2:47 PM, span said:

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

 

I was wondering that myself, makes sense if he didn't actually rank them. I feel like it would have had far less post-2010 stuff, less techno, more canonical braindance/IDM classics.

 

nah, reynolds doesn't like idm, which is why it's weird for his name to be anywhere near this article and list. his list would have been aphex, vibert, boc, and even then the aphex he likes is the ambient stuff. he was always a dnb/late 80s techno guy. i don't think idm fits in with the marxist pop critic angle.

Pitchfork is Marxist now? Ha

reynolds is at least partially influenced by marxist critical theory, that's all i'm saying. nothing to do with pitchfork.

Yeah the shit he said about aphex and ae and the orb in energy flash is insane given how much moby and joey beltram dick sucking there is.

i'd love to see everyone on watmm's 50best albums of no mather what

  On 2/8/2017 at 3:23 PM, Ivan Ooze said:

i'd love to see everyone on watmm's 50best albums of no mather what

ok best IDM that i made in about 4 minutes in alphabetical order:

• mu-ziq - Bluff Limbo
• Amon Tobin - Supermodified
• Aphex Twin - SAW 85-92
• Aphex Twin - SAW II
• Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do...
• Aphex Twin - Drukqs
• Astrobotnia - Part 03
• Autechre - Tri Repetae
• Autechre - Confield
• Autechre - Oversteps
• B12 - Time Tourist
• Black Dog - Bytes
• Black Dog - Spanners
• Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
• Bogdan Raczynski - Samurai Math Beats
• Bola - Soup
• Clark - Body Riddle
• Clark - Totems Flare
• CN - Nu
• Cylob - Cylobian Sunset
• FSOL - Lifeforms
• Jega - Geometry
• Kinesthesia - Empathy Box
• Lego Feet - Lego Feet
• Leo Anibaldi - Void
• Meat Beat Manifesto - Subliminal Sandwich
• Mike & Rich - EKT
• Monolake - Momentum
• Mouse on Mars - Autoditacker
• Mouse on Mars - Idiology
• Mr. Oizo - Moustache (Half A Scissor)
• 0pn - R Plus Seven
• The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld
• The Orb - Orbus Terrarum
• Orbital - In Sides
• The Other People Place - Lifestyles Of The Laptop Cafe
• Oval - 94disktont.
• Phoenecia - Brownout
• Plaid - Spokes
• Seefeel - Succour
• Speedy J - A Shocking Hobby
• Squarepusher - Feed Me Weird Things
• Squarepusher - Go Plastic
• Team Doyobi - Cryptoburners
• The Tuss - Rushup Edge
• Vladislav Delay - Multila
• VHS Head - Trademark Ribbons Of Gold
• Vulva - From The Cockpit
• Wagon Christ - Tally Ho!
• Wisp - NRTHNDR

EP7

Druqkkkldfghipsjdafüäööläsadas

that squarepusher one

and one more

  On 2/8/2017 at 7:16 PM, dr lopez said:

 

  On 2/8/2017 at 3:23 PM, Ivan Ooze said:

i'd love to see everyone on watmm's 50best albums of no mather what

 

ok best IDM that i made in about 4 minutes in alphabetical order:

 

• mu-ziq - Bluff Limbo
• Amon Tobin - Supermodified
• Aphex Twin - SAW 85-92
• Aphex Twin - SAW II
• Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do...
• Aphex Twin - Drukqs
• Astrobotnia - Part 03
• Autechre - Tri Repetae
• Autechre - Confield
• Autechre - Oversteps
• B12 - Time Tourist
• Black Dog - Bytes
• Black Dog - Spanners
• Boards of Canada - Geogaddi
• Bogdan Raczynski - Samurai Math Beats
• Bola - Soup
• Clark - Body Riddle
• Clark - Totems Flare
• CN - Nu
• Cylob - Cylobian Sunset
• FSOL - Lifeforms
• Jega - Geometry
• Kinesthesia - Empathy Box
• Lego Feet - Lego Feet
• Leo Anibaldi - Void
• Meat Beat Manifesto - Subliminal Sandwich
• Mike & Rich - EKT
• Monolake - Momentum
• Mouse on Mars - Autoditacker
• Mouse on Mars - Idiology
• Mr. Oizo - Moustache (Half A Scissor)
• 0pn - R Plus Seven
• The Orb - The Orb's Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld
• The Orb - Orbus Terrarum
• Orbital - In Sides
• The Other People Place - Lifestyles Of The Laptop Cafe
• Oval - 94disktont.
• Phoenecia - Brownout
• Plaid - Spokes
• Seefeel - Succour
• Speedy J - A Shocking Hobby
• Squarepusher - Feed Me Weird Things
• Squarepusher - Go Plastic
• Team Doyobi - Cryptoburners
• The Tuss - Rushup Edge
• Vladislav Delay - Multila
• VHS Head - Trademark Ribbons Of Gold
• Vulva - From The Cockpit
• Wagon Christ - Tally Ho!
• Wisp - NRTHNDR

Perfect list. Extra credit for including Vulva and NRTHNDR