| da true b-boy descendant - the blue nile |
Da True B-Boy Descendant was the incredibly short-lived and obscure alter ego of Dego, trip-hop/jungle/hardcore legend and founding member of 4Hero. As far as I can tell, The Blue Nile was never released outside of a Japan-only label compilation for Sublime, which is a massive shame. Incredible break manipulation and some nice bleepy synths secure this track a spot on my all-time list. |
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nav katze - change (aphex twin mix #2)
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Ricky D is the pioneer of this entire genre, so it's sort of a given that I have to include one of his tracks. This one is a little out there, though. Nav Katze is a well-respected Japanese country-pop(?) band that held a pretty big influence in the 90s. With the Japanese musical/cultural boom that came when the internet went big, however, they discovered that they really loved IDM. They did a complete creative 180 and switched to this sort of spacey, ambient, sound, frequently collaborating with artists on RDJ's Rephlex label for tracks and remixes. This song effortlessly blends more standard hip hop drums and song structure with Aphex's signature bitcrushing and synths. If you take a listen to the original, basically nothing has been retained. It's less a remix, and more of an entirely new song, which kind of makes it even more magical. |
| karl - dance your joy
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An early work of seminal IDM producer Bogdan Raczynski, Dance Your Joy is an incredibly tight and well-paced rave/IDM track made for anti-label Kosmic Free Music Foundation. Before signing on to Rephlex, Bogdan was a regular on KFMF compilations as Karl, usually putting out (slightly forgettable) gabber and hardcore tracks. As Kosmic was one of the first online music distributors ever, the incredibly strict data caps of the mid 90s meant that these songs weren't uploaded as audio files, instead being MODs (glorified spreadsheets that also included audio samples) that you could load into tracker software that read the sheet as instructions on how to construct and manipulate the samples. These MODs were usually limited in sound to classic acid basslines and corny 90s preset synths, but their sampling capabilities meant that a lot of artists were able to start manipulating and perfecting breakbeats without any equipment. You can hear this on Dance Your Joy, with chipmunked vocal samples and sped up drums providing a frenetic backbeat to the cheap-sounding (but still effective) synths.
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| junior varsity km - you're fabulous! (sweet trip minty cut mix) |
You're Fabulous! is a slow-burn track that combines the best elements of deep house, IDM, and jungle into one masterful piece of music. Originally written by underrated jungle maestro Junior Varsity KM, then remixed by legendary electro-pop duo Sweet Trip, this cut appeared as a b-side for the You're Fabulous single released on indie pop sweetheart Darla Records. |
| dan curtin - anxiety |
Just as it's name implies, this track by Dan Curtin is an anxiety-inducing trip through the electronic underground. A well-appreciated figure in deep house circles, his more experimental work often falls to the wayside, even though it's seriously good. Offbeat drum sequencing and simple sounding but intricately programmed synths help lend to a growing sense of dread that's present throughout the whole track, one that never really resolves. Nevertheless, Anxiety is a really fun listen that seriously blew my mind the first time I heard it. |
| prism - girltree |
Susumu Yokota was the leading figure of Japan's electronic underground for his entire career. His incredibly prolific discography spans all possible genres of electronic, and though he's best known for his beautiful ambient compositions that fuse Baroque period classical music and Japanese environmental, his house tracks are killer. This was where he got his start in music, and his work as Prism reflects (in my opinion) the most refined picture of that. His second album under this alter ego fused his signature house with IDM and jungle, and this track is a standout. |
| bogdan raczynski - kimi (nautilus remix) |
Checking back with Bogdan, this track is a loosie from the early 2000s, released on his website after his second album Samurai Math Beats. Distinguished IDM artst Nautilus did an excellent job fusing two tracks off that album together into one frenetic breakcore mix. The glitched drum programming is simply insane, and it's really cool to see that there's still so much of the original tracks in this mix. It's essentially a coked-out mashup of two of Bogdan's best works. |
