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"Music Has the Right to Children" (MHTRTC) is a haunting record; a depiction of decaying old technology. This can be heard in the excellent sample selection from the TV/radio station samples whizzing by in "Telephasic Workshop" to the creepy sesame street clips scattered throughout. The field recordings in tracks like "An Eagle in Your Mind" and "Happy Cycling" add a connection to nature, which clashes with the electronic aspects of the album. All of these aspects give an ethereal sense of nostalgia/déjà vu. As BOC producer Marcus Eoin described it:

"Then, around 1987 or 1988, we were beginning to experiment with collage tapes of demos we’d deliberately destroyed, to give the impression of chewed up library tapes that had been found in a field somewhere. That was the seed for the whole project. In those days, everyone used to have drawers full of unique cassettes with old snippets from radio and TV, it’s kind of a lost thing now, sadly. To me, it’s fascinating and precious to find some lost recordings in a cupboard, so part of it was an idea to create new music that really felt like an old familiar thing."

MHTRTC conjures up a pretty frightening and mysterious image. It's like a spiritual force combined a bunch of old audio clips to form a living, breathing entity. This is perhaps most evident on the "Sixtyten", with it's telltale-like, heart-thumping beat. But MHTRTC is more than just a spooky image. It's a pretty catchy IDM record thanks to the hypnotic percussion loops and echoing synths on top of the samples (ROYGBIV is a particular standout). And that's where MHTRTC really shines. It takes a neat advent-garde concept and makes it accessible, with many layers to discover on repeated listens. Definitely one of the best electronic albums of all time.

A wonderful followup to The Smith’s debut! There are a lot of overlapping songs with their first album and other singles, but the John Peel and David Jensen session recordings of these songs really make this album stand apart from other Smiths records. The instrumentation is much more stripped back, making each duplicate song feel much more organic and melancholy than the high-production originals. Back to the Old House for instance is one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs I have ever heard. Johnny Marr’s wistful acoustic guitar and Morrissey’s echoing lyrics stirs such powerful emotion. The Peel sessions also use unusual key signatures, making the radio-friendly “Charming Man” sound a lot more pensive. It feels like an entirely new perspective of the original songs.

But wait, there’s more! Hatful of Hollow introduced amazing studio singles like Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now, William It Was Really Nothing, and How Soon Is Now? No song feels out of place and the pacing is damn near perfect, switching from the more acoustic tracks from the Peel/Jensen sessions to studio singles with ease. Although marketed as a compilation album, Hatful of Hollow definitely is in the league of the Smith’s studio albums and is one of their best records.

I thought the self-titled album Marshall Crenshaw was kind of corny the first time I listened to it, but it has really grown on me. It is wonderfully positive while simultaneously genuine. Marshall Crenshaw sounds a lot like Elvis Costello only focusing more on the positive aspects of romance. One of the things that I didn't appreciate when listening to Marshall Crenshaw for the first time was the lack of variety. Nearly every song seemed upbeat (major) and pretty fast paced. However upon re-listening, each song seemed to convey a myriad of emotions. "There She Goes Again" is ambiguously melancholy, "Someday Someway" is appreciative and hopeful, "Mary Anne" (my favorite track) is very uplifting and counseling, and "Somebody Like You" is sarcastically angry for good measure. This is some great New Wave music.

Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack is to ambient electronic music as the Beach’s Boys “Smile” is to classic rock. It’s a legendary soundtrack that just never seems to get a definitive release (similar to the actual Blade Runner movie)! The 2007 “Blade Runner Trilogy” feels more like a deluxe album to the exceptional 1994 release of the soundtrack rather than an exhaustive compilation of all takes (which should still be released, hint hint Vangelis!). Because of the importance of the soundtrack, the purpose of this package is unclear. It only adds a couple of unreleased tracks as well as some new tracks, but for some reason doesn’t set out to be the definitive soundtrack when it easily could have. But I don’t think the incompleteness of the album should discredit the excellent compositions included here.

The first disk, the 1994 release of the soundtrack, is nearly flawless from start to finish. Some people criticize the inclusion of movie dialogue in the tracks. I usually think that adding dialogue to soundtracks mars the original songs, but it’s not too obtrusive and really adds to the atmosphere of the album. The ordering of tracks and this dialogue sets disk one up as an electronic concept album. And wow what a trip it is! Like the movie, the soundtrack is so grand and meticulously detailed that it sends you to another world (I know that’s cliche, but it really does)! The tracks are ethereal, mysterious, melancholy, noire and most importantly always changing so you are never stuck on one mood. I love that at one instance you are listening to “Love Theme”, soaking in the bluesy saxophone and heavenly synth chords to switch to a grainy, Ink Spots-esque “One More Kiss, Dear”. And I can talk on about how excellent “Rachel’s Song” and “Memories of Green” are, but honestly the whole disk is all killer no filler.

Disk two introduces some of the unreleased singles from the soundtrack. Like disk one, there is a purposeful order to the songs (not chronologically this time, but the tracks at least transition naturally). There are some really cool tracks here, such as the uncanny “Leo’s Room” and the suspenseful “Deckard And Roy’s Duel”. While these aren’t necessarily the centerpieces of Blade Runner, they are still great examples of exceptional soundtrack composition. The third disk on the other hand … yeah it feels a bit shoehorned. I don’t mind the addition of inspired tracks, but the tracks just feel out of place instrumentally. Where are the booming synths and echoing soundscapes? The Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack does a more accurate homage than these tracks (thankfully). But then again, you can disregard the third disk and the other missing tracks because there’s still plenty to like. Disk two is an excellent supplement to one of the best ambient electronic records of all time.

What a pleasant surprise! While I enjoyed Squeeze's previous albums "Cool for Cats" and "Argybargy" for their chill upbeat vibe, Eastside story enters some pretty artsy territory. That in part can be attributed to Elvis Costello's work on the album. His influence is clearly heard in the country-esque "Labelled With Love" and "Messed Around", both sounding like something out of the album "Almost Blue".

East Side Story also has more socially conscious lyrics, making the songs slightly more somber. There’s plenty of upbeat songs for good measure, but it’s no Argybargy. Though many songs such as "Someone Else's Bell" and "Tempted" share Costello's theme of romantic struggle, there are some surprisingly touching songs that lament the status quo of women such as "Vanity Fair”, “Labelled With Love and "Woman's World". Each song tells the story of a woman who struggles with societal ties, ranging from a housewife who has a mental breakdown to an empty model. It’s a unique subject and told very well.

Along with the excellent lyrics, East Side Story is wonderful musically. There’s A LOT of variety on this album. Each song seems to progressively enter more experimental realms lyrically and musically. The first four songs are great pop tunes, kicking off with the constant chord changing “In Quintessence” to the well known “Tempted”. Then comes “There’s No Tomorrow” and “Heaven”, with wistful bells and warped guitar chords; both are strange yet pleasing. The album becomes espeically creative when the string section is introduced in the tense “F-Hole” and melancholy “Vanity Fair”.

It's a shame that the double-LP never reached full fruition. It would have been interesting to hear Dave Edmund's, Nick Lowe's and Paul McCartney's take of a Squeeze album. That’s the only flaw I see in this album. It feels like East Side Story has a lot more to say. But that's a good problem to have I suppose. It's a classic in my book.

Experience might be the best dance concept album! Electronic artist Moby stated that it changed his perception of dance albums because The Prodigy attempts to create an experience rather than stringing together a bunch of singles. This is apparent when transitioning from track to track; there are almost no breaks on this album which is fitting for its hardcore/rave vibe. The tracks “Jericho” through “Everybody in the Place” (more than half of the album) are all killer no filler, with an unrelentingly fast pace.

But for its hardcore nature, the album luckily doesn’t take itself too seriously. The samples chosen for the tracks are some of the goofiest I’ve heard in electronic music, with my personal favorite sample on the track Charly which features the voice of a weird cat from an old British PSA. The singles from the album also have great music videos to accompany them, like the “Out of Space” video which includes a guy dancing in a hazmat suit because why not?!

It’s also worth mentioning that “Experience” has a great expanded album that features the singles in their original format before album conversion. The original singles are a lot different than their album counterparts. It really goes to show that The Prodigy formatted the tracks to work well for their debut, not just compiled a bunch of their singles (although just compiling the original singles would still make a pretty great album). Overall, “Experience” is an excellent debut with great beats, samples and pacing.

In 2010, Daniel Lopatin under the guise of Chuck Person released the cassette tape “Eccojams Vol. 1”. Each track on Eccojams looped a subtle sample of a pop song with constantly varying pitches and rhythms. A YouTube channel Lopatin created named ‘sunsetcorp’ played snippets of these tracks with the backdrop of obscure advertisements from the late 80’s and early 90’s. Although the whole project was meant to be a joke, the album was highly influential in the electronic sub-genre "Vaporware" and in many ways sets up his next album “Replica”.

Instead of sampling one pop song for each track, “Replica” uses many samples from Lopatin's collection of 80’s and 90’s advertisements with similar and more sophisticated looping techniques to Eccojams. The use of obscure television samples makes the album similar to Boards of Canada’s “Music Has The Right To Children”, eliciting a sense of nostalgia and dejavu. But “Replica” is much less an IDM record and more of an ambient, almost spiritual experience. The samples chosen are warped beyond recognition, in fact only a handful of the original samples have been discovered online despite being advertisements for large corporations. I believe this sense of obscurity fits very well into Lopatin’s themes of immortality, as he states:

" the idea of the replica in culture as a way we deal with the decline of knowledge, or human knowledge going to waste because we're not immortal. But it's not a solution, it's just a way of coping with those mysteries... it's like an artistic attempt at conveying the original, and not a copy, so there's inherit failure to it."

There’s this cynical feeling, almost a lament, that everything done in an attempt to immortalize a culture dies quickly and fades into obscurity because of the shear volume of new but banal ideas. It’s an excellent concept, although it kind of became more of an ironic joke once Vaporwave went viral in the 2010’s. But regardless of Replica’s themes, it’s still a great ambient electronic record. I listened to “Replica” before knowing its context or Lopatin’s intents, and really enjoyed it for its odd and ethereal composition. There are a lot of little motifs, like a choir of chanting children and ringing bells that string the tracks together. There’s a clear structure to the songs, but the slightly unpredictable rhythms, pitch and samples always keep the album interesting. There’s a great emphasis on atmosphere, having spiritual and even noire tones. For example, the titular track “Replica” sounds like it could have been an outtake to the Blade Runner soundtrack, with heavy piano chords and buzzing synthesizers. Overall an excellent album and yet another standout in the art of sampling.

Sufjan Steven's "Illinoise" feels like the musical equivalent of a historical mural. In fact, if you open the flap to the CD, the artwork (by Divya Srinivasan) extends to four additional panels depicting the Chicago World Fair, Abraham Lincoln, Native American tribes and many others. Stevens paints an excellent picture of Illinois, although it's not a historical reimagining of events like the play Hamilton. Rather, it takes key historical events, landmarks and figures and meshes them with less discussed events and personal stories. Steven’s already knew a thing or two about indie and folk music with experience from his last state-themed album “Michigan”. He perfects his music writing talents with tons of orchestra parts and even a backing choir, although isn’t afraid to play solo when appropriate.

There’s some pretentious indie crap like the inclusion of ridiculously long track names and random skits, but it’s done in pretty good taste and sometimes accentuates the feeling of the song. While many of the tracks with long titles names are full of excitement and grand orchestration, the tracks with short names can be serious or defining moments. For instance, the simply titled “Casimir Pulaski Day” kind of elicits a feeling of detachment about the holiday which contrasts with the album’s enthusiasm for other Illinois topics. The song discusses a friend passing away to cancer which happened to occur around Casimir Pulaski Day. It’s tracks like these that make “Illinoise” so special because it seamlessly blends the grand aspects of the state with the more obscure. “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.” is another great example of this. It humanizes the victims and perpetrator of the "Pogo the clown" serial killings in Cook County, grappling with why the murders happened and how frighteningly similar the perpetrator can be to anyone.

But ultimately, "Illinoise" is about the appreciation of the state's history and legacy, even with its dark moments. It does not explicitly say what things are good or bad about Illinois. Instead, Illinois takes an aspect of the state (historical or personal) and looks at it with awe. Tracks like the “Come on! Feel the Illinoise!” celebrate the inventions and impact of the Chicago World Fair and “Concerning the UFO sighting” dreamily marvels at the myth and mystery of UFO sightings. Other topics include rural ghost towns, the underground railroad, Abraham Lincoln, and an iconic ChickenMobile to name a few. And lets not forget the track Chicago (what’s an album about Illinois without Chicago in it?). Arguably the centerpiece of the album, Chicago discusses Steven’s personal growth when traveling through Illinois. There’s so much to appreciate and learn from this album; it’s definitely one of the very best albums of the 2000's.

I found this album after listening to some of Michael Hurley's folk stuff. This became not only my favorite album featuring Hurley, it became one of my favorite folk albums period. The Unholy Modal Rounders are an excellent set of characters! I think the first track Midnight In Paris does an excellent job setting up what's to come. It's a sarcastic gibe at romantic Italian songs with a guitar picking country twist. The silly sarcastic lyrics are so fun and it's wonderful to see how the band blends traditional folk, romance, country and rock into a colorful package. The album is full of silly exaggerated stories and bits of whimsical romance. It's full of energy and passion until the very last last track, and is just brimming with creative ideas thanks to the varied instrumentation and lyrical style of each modal rounder. Absolutely worth checking out!

What an adventure! "Since I Left You" is my most played electronic record because it's something you want to experience from start to finish. The album originally started as a concept album of an intercontinental expedition for love. Although the idea was scrapped for being too ambitious, you can still feel these themes of love and exploration throughout album. In fact, "Since I Left You" is almost a love letter to music itself, sampling an unprecedented 3,500 tracks into a beautiful sound collage. While the number of samples sounds overwhelming, The Avalanches manage to make it coherent and even danceable (in contrast to earlier plunderphonics records by John Oswald).

I lament that we may never see more plunderphonics records (or records that rely on samples in general) again given how licensing fees make the creation process so daunting, but I don't know how an album in this genre could get any better than this. Definitely one of the best electronic albums of the 21st century, second only to Daft Punk's "Discovery" (possibly). Take a little journey with this album!