I've spent quite a while compiling this, not because I care about showing off "good taste", but because it is incredibly difficult for me to decide "yeah, these albums are way more important to me than several hundred possible others". Plus, my interests can change dramatically over time, making it hard to pin things down! But, a while ago I felt ready to start deciding on absolute favourites, and because I care about sharing music I enjoy with others, I decided to put it all together as this list!
I ended up taking forever finalizing the list, and drafting this page, and rewriting parts, and forgetting about it for a few months. But I want to just share it so I'm posting it now, even though I would most likely change some of my choices today... Just something to keep in mind, I guess!
Since I want it to be easy for anybody to try out these albums, I've made each title a link the best place I could find to listen to it (or retrieve it, for free music). They're also ordered by how accessible, in terms of sound, I think each one is to the average listener. Also, I've written my thoughts on each album, so people can have an idea of what they'll be getting into, and why each album is a favourite of mine. Enjoy!
I'm a big fan of unique guitar music, and Oval's gentle and perky playing across many, many short tracks is just delightful. If you enjoy it, Oh EP is a good follow-up.
Relatively longform techno songs with an approach that makes me think of ambient music. Chill stuff! I often come back to this when I need to relax.
Move D & Namlook's many, many collabs are consistently fantastic, but their fifth, Wired, in particular is an album I find myself always returning to. It starts off with a chill, long piece followed by a trilogy of higher energy edm tracks, finished off by two more slower, but still dance-y, songs. If you like it, I highly recommend seeking out more! For instance, just going off of what I could find on youtube, IV: The Audio Lounge.
This was one of the first albums I heard that taught me you can make music that sounds very weird, but is still very fun to listen and dance to. Flashmob is probably going to be one of my favourite EDM albums for my entire life!
I like almost everything by Kraftwerk, so it's difficult to pick one album- so, thankfully they have this great selection of live versions of many of their songs! That said, I hate the lyrics in The Model and always skip it.
A collection of edited improv songs, a recording style I'm always interested to hear more of! Each track feels like different take on the same general idea. I've listened to it so many times it's all mixed up in my head, but there's many interesting layers going on constantly throughout.
94 Diskont made me love both glitchy and loop-based music. Do While is so calming for me, but the other tracks are great for when I'm feeling a bit more excited.
Two electronic-based longform tracks that cross many ideas throughout. I love musicians who manage to pack so many different styles seamlessly together, and Kashiwa Daisuke excels at it!
The BRTLMN Album is one of the shortest albums on this list, but it contains some of my absolute favourite songs ever. I'm very fixated on sounds, and the variety contained here is so, so pleasing to my ears!
I invariably come to enjoy everything Underworld does, and the heavy usage of self-sampling vocals started on this album is just such a big draw to me. As always for Underworld albums, a good breadth of what they do is represented here. Even if you only enjoy a couple songs, listening to their later albums will likely find something you like better!
Truthfully, every Björk album is my favourite Björk album... but, if I had to pick one, right now it'd be Volta. It took me a long time to actually listen to her music, because I had the impression she was "too weird". I think it's seriously overblown, Björk is much more down to earth with what her music says than people seem to give her credit for!
I love a lot of Kate Bush's music, and Hounds of Love is such a stand out album to me. The first and second halves of it are wildly different, an approach I greatly appreciate. The first track was, I think, the first song I ever heard by her, and I have fond memories of times I've heard it.
Tim Exile is probably best known for his very choppy sample-based breakcore music, but I find his more recent, more personal music to be the most interesting. Also, the best song from the album, which is one of my favourite songs ever... is only available as the b-side on a single for some reason!
Massive Attack is best known for their earlier work, but Heligoland - the first I heard from them - is my favourite for the wide variety of sounds and lyrics. It's rare that I find myself able to pay attention to lyrics effectively, but the themes and moods across Heligoland reach me well.
Much of Evangelista's music emotionally resonates with me, which I find is quite rare. This album was the first I heard from them, namely, the final, mostly-titular track. It made a big impression on me, and so I always think fondly of this release by them in particular (also it's the only song I could find online!). Do note that there are a few explicit lyrics.
When I first heard The Ape of Naples, I found it difficult to enjoy, despite other Coil albums I had heard before engaging me so well. However, after listening to it several times and reading about the history of the album, my appreciation for it has grown greatly. The themes are grim and deathly, so it's not something I listen to lightly, but it is a powerful album to me.
Much of Lonney(s)'s music, Amphantast in particular, impresses me for the brilliant interplay of metal and midi. I've never heard anything like it! If you enjoy it, I greatly recommend exploring his entire catalogue. He tends to change his approach from album to album, but his midi arrangements and guitar playing are almost always in use.
Oneohtrix Point Never stands out to me for constantly exploring different ways of creating sound. Replica was the first album I heard by him, and one I always like to play again because I find it pretty relaxing. I refer to it as "loop music", since so much of it is made out of short sample loops with various iterations.
Five very chill futuristic tunes followed by a bit of a hardcore hit (which is why it doesn't appear sooner in the list). If you want more of a similar nature, Just A Souvenir from around the same time is worth listening to next.
A great collection of scrunchy, lo-fi, midtempo tracks. I probably would never have heard about this album if not for a friend sending it my way a long time ago, and it fills it's genre fabulously. I think I'd be seriously missing out if I never heard Dextrobangers!
EarthBound is a game I had heard things about for many years, but only got to play through it in an emulator a few years ago. I quickly adored it, and what stood out to me the most was the extensive and quirky soundtrack. The sheer amount of different sounds and moods is both delightful and inspirational to me!
I don't remember how I was directed towards this album, but it's simply joyous to me. Heavy electronics, songs that frequently shift gears, and lots of modulated vocal clips. Also, several of the tracks have a common theme of some water samples- an area of sound that I adore, but hear so rarely in music!
I was already a big fan of Autechre before I heard this album, and reading about it got me very excited. Every song started out of an electronic jam sessions between the two members of the band, and was edited down until it was something they were happy with. That's how I approach a lot of the music I make (although I am one person), and it's so cool to me to hear one of my favourite bands work in the same way! If you enjoy it, you should check out the self-remixed takes it, presented as the alternate album (Versions), and the even more minimal series Quadrange.ep.ae.
For years, this along with Musick To Play In The Dark, Volume 1 were the only albums I had listened to by Coil. Sometimes I just get stuck like that... Anyways, while it is probably obvious that it's a collection of four EPs instead of a intended album, it contains a lot of my favourite songs by Coil. I've grown to like every style of music they've done, but my favourite era still is this "moon music" style.
You might have noticed a theme in some of my favourite albums, which is that I really like noisy, atypical guitars. Also, just noisy sounds in general, which this album has a lot of!! If you like it, Beaches & Canyons is a good (but different) follow-up, although be aware that the second and last tracks have screaming vocals.
Homem Fantasma was both the first release I've heard by @c, and my first exposure to modern musique concrète. I've clicked strongly with musique concrète ever since I first heard about, but I hadn't thought that people still took it seriously! Homem Fantasma has simply the greatest such pieces I've ever heard.
Hearing Lee Noble's earlier music taught me that I love drone music, and this release in particular is my favourite from him. Unfortunately, it's no longer on his Bandcamp, and I could only find the first song on youtube. If you seek it out though, it's seriously good!
Something I'm quite fond of is early electronic music, especially pieces that don't go the route of trying to replicate known sounds, but invent new spaces completely. Silver Apples of the Moon has stood out to me in that regard ever since I first heard it. The movements are compelling and exciting.
Red Extensions of Me will probably my favourite Flashbulb album forever! It comes between his early very experimental/breakcore mood, and his deeper but less agressive music. It has a bit of everything in his style, and ranges from thrilling beats to calming tunes. It meshes together into the perfect flow for me. Note that the track Lawn Wake I has some screaming in it.
It is rare that I enjoy a horror game, and Silent Hill 2 is one of those very few that I like. Some of my favourite aspects of it are the tense sound design and music. I honestly find the official soundtrack underwhelming since, as often is the case for such a broad game, it only has a small selection of the music. I've heard several fan-made soundtracks that seek to be more encompassing, and the one put together by Aethryix is simply the best in my opinion.
Unfortunately I couldn't find the full album available, so enjoy the first track and whatever else is on youtube! I'm honestly a bit annoyed right now because I enjoy this album so much for the sheer variety, and it's not easy to convey in just a track or two. Well, anyways, I once read (or maybe imagined) that this album is a recreation of a fictional, impossible live concert. It's an exciting concept to me, and I think it comes across well!
This is probably the only album I will ever call "technical", because I just can't think of a better summation. I actually hated this album the first time I heard it. And the next several times after that. But, when I was able to listen carefully, and had gotten more used to the structures, I found myself highly engaged by the shifting patterns! Since then, it's always been a highlight of Autechre's discography for me.
I used to be waaay into breakcore, but as time has gone on I've found myself less and less interested in the majority of it, for a variety of reasons. Go Plastic is one of the very few exceptions that stand out to me still. I'm not going to say it's somehow "smarter" than other breakcore (for instance the first track has some questionably explicit lyrics), but I love to put on when I want something loud and familiar.
OPN and Rene Hell came together to each write separate, unique halves for this release. OPN's music here is something I've ever since sought for more of- sheer noise combined with many layers of bizarre vocals, strange in both the tones and sentences they say. However, that's not what you'll hear at the link, which is only the side by Rene Hell. They combine classical piano with somewhat gentler structures of noise- I find it more relaxing than disruptive! If you enjoy it, chances are you'll mesh well with OPN's half too.
This is mostly a live show of just absolute noise, with vocals only appearing on the second track and some parts of the last. The first song is surprisingly relaxing for me, although the rest I need to be ready to listen to. I Am The Green Child is one of my single favourite songs ever. Also, I still find it hilarious that the last song is split across 18 tracks, each titled "Tunnel of Goats".
Before I heard In The Studio, I always found pained vocal styles like Keiji's incredibly disconcerting. Yet, I found something appealing towards this album since I first listened to it! I suppose it was thanks to my already being a big fan of Pan Sonic, and my growing ability to enjoy more intense kinds of music. No matter why, In The Studio is a fantastic piece of art to me. If you enjoy it, "Shall I Download A Blackhole and Offer it to You", a live performance by the same musicians, is a great follow-up.
Wolf Eyes & Black Dice have a total of four release collabs I'm aware of, and their final, self-titled album is by far my favourite. Each song is effectively a completely different idea, which is exciting for a noise record. Unfortunately, I could only find their first collab on youtube. But, if you enjoy it, I'm sure you'll like the rest, however you can find them!
More than 6 years on, this is still the only grindcore album I've found enjoyable. I think the main reason is that it makes the digital aspect of it's production a big deal- the songs are spliced and chopped dramatically, creating a tremendous cacophonies. Do note that, as a grindcore album, every track is full of intense drums and screaming. It's not easy for me to play at any moment, but when it's what I want to hear, Maruosa absolutely delivers.
Oksastus is basically a long series of harsh tones, sometimes with incredibly digital drum hits. The music goes past normal identification, with every track being titled after its length (although youtube's video length might be one second off, occasionally). I haven't listened to it as much as nearly all the other albums on this list, so I don't have a good grasp of it as an album, but I've loved every listen I've given it.
This is, in more than one way, by far the least accessible release on this list- it's two pieces that are two hours long each, there is nowhere to listen to it online, and it can't even be bought firsthand anymore. Despite that, I can't overstate just how much I love this album!! It's the third, and hopefully not final, collaboration between the artists, and their ability to create soundscapes together shines brilliantly here. The whole four hours are utterly captivating for me. Enjoy, if you wish to seek it out!