711. Pavement- Slanted And Enchanted

Sounds like: sitting in your friend's garage staring at this unknown grungey group of guys who look normal but sound AWESOME

Looks like: miscellaneous downtown graffitti

10/10

Okay so...if you want an unbiased view on this one, it's not going to come from me, because I LOVE Pavement. I adore them. I think they were brilliant and their music is fantastic.

They recorded Slanted and Enchanted for $800 over a period of only a week, and it's not sparkling production you get from a studio. It's sort of muffled and distorted, like the recording quality isn't great, and the drumming is more scruffy than sharp and clean, but...it's great. This is more my genre, but Pavement really did it best- they took what every other garage band was trying to do and elevated it, so the songs aren't just the same teen anthems, they have some real heart and playful lyrics behind them.

God, I love Pavement.

712. Aphex Twin: Selected Ambient Works 85-92

Sounds like: sitting in a futuristic city during an electric rainstorm
Looks like: a weird type of outlet or an alien yield sign
7/10

I’m not the biggest techno fan, it must be said. However, this is an entirely revolutionary flavor of techno. This is not the repetitive phrase added to a 160 bpm track. Ravers of the world, though this influenced your music, you cannot sway your glow sticks to this ditty. The songs on this album are purely instrumental, with only one or two small vocal portions, and the instruments are truly the star here. It’s composed well, and when you think of the endless amount of tacky 90’s techno, this is one of the only ones that can be played now and not sound dated.
Plus, anything that has a sample from Willy Wonka (‘We are the music makers’) obviously must be genius.
So, for someone who doesn't love techno, I surprisingly enjoyed this.

Get Your Headphones Ready.

It's all about the excess, people. Let the musical education begin.

Now, note to all- most people do this chronologically, but frankly, I'm not sure I can handle that. So my method, extremely scientific, is to flip through and pick a page at random.

So if the lack of order and chronology (word?) bothers you...well, there's not much I can do, but I give you the permission to send snarky airwaves at me.