Comments

I think you've just made my point for me. Let's not confuse EDM with actual electronic music. That said, show her the artwork for "Come to Daddy" or "Windowlicker", and her memory might perk up.

Not to challenge your opinion (because I know that many people say SAW II is their favorite Aphex Twin record), but I'm curious how often you actually listen to the record in its entirety. Also, in what setting are you putting it on? Are you actively listening to it, or is it filling out the background space while you make dinner? I don't think any of that is right or wrong, I'm just curious to hear about personal experiences. I think SAW II has some of RDJ's very best music on it, but I also think that in the general scheme of things, it's a bit unwieldy and not conducive to continuous listening. And isn't that what albums like this are made for?

Starting to think we should be friends. ;) Cheers!

Thanks for the comment. However, I don't agree that I'm making any comparisons on a "what if" basis, but more on the level of jazz records as I understand them. If FlyLo wants to identify himself as a jazz musician (or producer/composer/some kind of fusion thereof), more power to him, but now his work will be judged as such. I think he makes very interesting and ambitious jazz music, but once he decided to change up whichever shtick he's on for that album (was sleepy slow-jazz, is now restless prog-jazz), instead of using that sound in another way, he makes a hip-hop beat or an electronic production to add variety. It all still sounds like FlyLo doing his thing, but I do wish he would've channeled more of that energy into exploring the full spectrum of possibilities that making a jazz record offers.

Thanks for this great comment. I think Los Angeles is my favorite of his, too, but I know a lot of people who were more blown away by Cosmogramma. I hear what you're saying about the song lengths, but pretty much every FlyLo record is meant to be listened seamlessly. I would wager that he'd release his albums as a single track if that was commercially viable (pretty much all of his promos were released to the press that way), so the timing of each individual piece doesn't bother me so much. I often can't tell where one song ends and another begins, which I don't really mind. It's a unique way of arranging a record that fits with his cinematic vision of music. "Now tell me other tracks on this album couldn’t have benefitted from a few extended beat outros." <-- Totally agree. I think You're Dead! suffers when it doesn't take some time to let Flying Lotus do his own thing. It largely seems to be in a hurry to "wow" us by cramming so many ideas into such a small space, it rarely takes a breath to just groove on ONE really good idea. Even for how maniacal and frantic Cosmogramma is, it was able to recognize that—to borrow a phrase—sometimes less is more. This is a good, interesting album from FlyLo, but still a far cry from his early achievements.

Good eye on the Enter the Void influence. He mentions the movie in this interview I did with him recently. http://www.xlr8r.com/features/2014/10/20-questions-flying-lotus-talks

Dude, Taylor, thanks for that! I'm a YouTube fan over Spotify, so this is perfect for me. Glad you caught this!

Thanks for these! I'm a big fan of a lot of this stuff, especially Slint and Shellac. I also made sure to include No Knife and Knapsack in the "see also" sections of this list. Here's an awesome playlist of all that music: https://play.spotify.com/user/12811608/playlist/1NOAddPSKjM2Ei9b0TIwpO

I mean, the entire album is classic. I don't think there is a dud on there, but choosing "Napolean Solo" wasn't about choosing "the all-time best At the Drive-In song", it was about choosing the best song which speaks to the rest of the music at this time. I personally love "Shaking Hand Incision", "A Devil Among the Tailors", and "Chanbara", but felt that "Napolean Solo" was more fitting in this case. That said, it's also a totally epic track! Which songs are you favorites?

Thanks for this comment. You're obviously very passionate about this music and the scene around it. The list you shared also mentions some of my all-time favorite bands from this era. I was a huge Lovitt Records, GSL, Three One G, Gravity, Ebullition, Skin Graft, Troubleman Unlimited, etc. fan around the same time that I was into this other kind of emo. I had a friend back then who made me a killer mixtape of powerviolence, emoviolence, emocore, and other various screamo subgenres, and I listened to it obsessively. A lot of the bands on your list were on that tape, along with Portraits of Past, Yaphet Kotto, early Engine Down, Crimson Curse, The VSS, City of Caterpillar, Drive Like Jehu, Jerome's Dream, and You and I, among others. But like I stated in the intro, there are some dividing lines between that section of the emo/screamo world and the one I'm talking about here. I think the differences are fairly obvious, too. I think the music you are referencing deserves its very own list. The lineage of bands, the musicians they shared, the tours that brought them together, the labels that released their music, and the scenes that fostered them are on a different wavelength than what I'm talking about here. There's nothing retroactive about that, it's just that the connections weren't there in the same way. If you choose to call that music emo, more power to you. Like I said in the intro, all this shit is just SO DAMN PERSONAL. And it shouldn't be any other way. You said it yourself, though: "when Diary came out is when 'emo' changed its meaning again and became more about Promise Ring and Christie Front Drive." That's the music that this list is talking about, but I'd be overjoyed to see what you have to say about this time period.