I know we’ve had something like this before a few times but, who cares…give us - off the top of your head - ten essential albums for you. Not necessarily ‘the ten best albums ever made’…just ten albums that blow your mind…
Or ten albums that represent who you are (musically) moreso than any other. Not hard.
I would say…
Slint - Spinderland
Public Image - Second Edition
Alice Cooper - Killer
Godflesh - Pure
The Cure - Pornography
Swans - Children Of God
Wolf Eyes - Burned Mind
Ariel Pink - The Doldrums
Darkthrone - A Blaze In The Northern Sky
Guru Guru - UFO
Severed Heads - The Big Bigot
Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll
Ministry - Twitch
Front 242 - Official Version
Skinny Puppy - Bites
The Church - Priest=Aura
Pop Will Eat Itself - This is the Day…
Misfits - Misfits
Samhain - November Coming Fire
Phil Western - World’s End
Godflesh - Pure
Fiona Apple - Tidal
Angels of Light - How I Loved You
Pastor John Rydgren - Silhouette Segments
Faith No More - Angel Dust
White Noise - An Electric Storm
John Frusciante - Shadows Collide w/People
Amon Tobin - Supermodified
Phil Western & Tim Hill - Dark Features
The Stooges - Funhouse
Godflesh- self titled
Ministry- DSOTS
Darkthrone- Sardonic Wrath
GNR- Use Your Illusion II
A Perfect Circle- mer de noms
Blackouts- Lost Souls Club
STP- Tiny Music From The Vatican Gift Shop
Skinny Puppy- Mind: The Perpetual Intercourse
Mayhem- Wolf’s Lair Abyss
Ulver- Perdition City
Those are all off the top of my head. Some of which truly represent me
Sunn O))) - Black One
Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark
NON - God & Beast
Jesu - Heartache
Bjork - Medulla
The Residents - Third Reich And Roll
St Vitus - Born Too Late
Coil - Horse Rotorvator
Ulver - Bergtatt
Mastodon - Blood Mountain
If it’s a sunny day…
Negura Bunget - Om
Sun City Girls - Carnival Folklore Resurrection Radio
Aphex Twin - Drukqs
The Microphones - The Glow Pt2
The Fall - The Infotainment Scan
Secret Chiefs 3 - Book Of Horizons
Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun
Fennesz - Endless Summer
T Rex - Electric Warrior
Ennio Morricone - Mondo Morricone
The Cure - Disintegration
Trisomie 21 - Million Lights
Depeche Mode - Black Celebration
The Chameleons - Script Of The Bridge
Kitchens Of Distinction - Strange Free World
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook - Night Song
King Crimson - Discipline
The Comsat Angels - Sleep No More
Dead Can Dance - s/t
Fugazi - 13 Songs (technically a comp, but works flawlessly as a full album)
off the top of my head (poorly considered in highly stressed state… fucking synchrotron)…
Disembowelment- Transcendence into the Peripheral
Captain Beefheart- Troutmask Replica
Tool- Lateralus
The Residents- Duck Stab
Frank Zappa- Peaches en Regalia
Scott Walker- The Drift
Aphex Twin- Richard D. James Album
Throbbing Gristle- DOA. The Third And Final Report
Pink Floyd- The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Napalm Death- From Existence to Obliteration/Scum
jesu - s/t
Ministry - Filth Pig
Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists…
Aphex Twin - Select Ambient Works vol. II
Type O Negative - October Rust
David Bowie - Low
NIN - The Downward Spiral
Godflesh - Streetcleaner
Rush - Moving Pictures
Everything above the line usually always feature in my top 10, everything below move in and out.
Others that can feature from time to time depending on the mood: Leftfield - Leftism, Jane’s Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual, Pink Floyd - Animals, Joy Division - Closer, Popol Vuh - Tantric Songs Hosianna Mantra…
En Esch - Cheesy
Halo - Buried in Light
Ministry - DSOTS
Leaether Strip - Penetrate the Satanic Citizen/Fit for Flogging
Click Click - Shadowblack
Paradise Lost - Shades of God
Whitehouse - Bird Seed
Godflesh - Selfless
Dessau - Dessau
Type O Negative - Slow, Deep & Hard
The March Violets’ compilation The Botanic Verses does great things to me, too.
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality
Black Sabbath - Vol. 4
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Black Sabbath - Sabotage
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
Pantera - Vulgar Display Of Power
Pop Will Eat Itself - Dos Dedos Mis Amigos
Me Mom & Morgentaler - Shiva Space Machine
Lull-Moments
Lull- Like a Slow River
Oophoi- The Spirals of Time
Brian Eno- Thursday Afternoon
Steve Roach- A Deeper Silence
Rapoon- The Kirghiz Light
Techno Animal- Re-Entry
Final- Solaris
Bohren & Der Club of Gore- Black Earth
Tom Waits- Blue Valentines
honestly, 5-10 are all interchangable. those that might also fit there are:
Dead Voices on Air- New Words Machine
Martijin De Kleer- So Close Yet So Far Out
Brian Eno- Another Green World
Super Numeri- The Welcome Table
The Cure- Pornography
Funkadelic- Standing on the Verge of Getting It On
Was thinking of picking up one of their albums t’other day. Any references to bands they may sound like?
Mine…
Loop - A Gilded Eternity
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
Death In June - The World That Summer
Von Thronstahl - Imperium Internum
Jim O’Rourke - Disengage
Nurse With Wound - An Awkward Pause
Autechre - Lp5
Brainticket - Psychonaut
Captain Beefheart - Safe As Milk
Faust - Faust
Sunn O))) - Black One
Bathory - Under The Sign Of The Black Mark
Yeah, it would have to be a ‘rainy day’ to get enjoyment from those!
Ha ha! No seriously, I love both of those albums
In fact I own them both on cd AND I have the picture disc vinyl versions of each one. PLUS I’ve got the original pressing of ‘…Sign Of The Black Mark’ on vinyl. I’m such a nerd.
So good choices.
Bjork - Medulla
I love that one too. My wife is the world’s biggest Bjork fan.
The Residents - Third Reich And Roll
I remember playing this album to a friend around the time of the whole Nirvana Nevermind explosion in '91. He was just starting to get into indie rock (like a million others around that time) and asked me to play him as much ‘outsider’ music as possible - I think he wanted to shed his mainstream skin or something.
So I play him the whole album and afterwards he just stares at me like I’ve just told him I’m a Manson Family member and I’m going to carve a swastika into my forehead.
“I don’t get it. Was I supposed to get it? What was that all about?”
10 Essential Albums, not THE 10, just a random group of 10. All of these are in my Top 10 though.
Beck “One Foot in the Grave”
Cabaret Voltaire “Mix Up”
Can “Future Days”
Front 242 “Official Version”
M83 “Saturdays=Youth”
MIA “Kala”
Michael Nyman “Soundtrack to Drowning By Numbers”
Nine Inch Nails “Broken”
Popul Vuh “Soundtrack to Aguirre”
Revolting Cocks “Big Sexy Land”
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
Jane’s Addiction - Nothing’s Shocking
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Let Love In
Failure - Fantastic Planet
Faith No More - Angel Dust
Godspeed You Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O.
Joy Division - Closer
Sigur Ros - Takk
A Perfect Circle - Mer de Noms
Radiohead - OK Computer