As part of a growing resistance against the playlistification of music, I've put together this table of albums that are just outstanding from start to finish. Of course, taste is always subjective, but this is my website and I get to choose the bangers.
| Album | Artist | Genre | Commentary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magnificent | Sonnig991 | Vaporwave Adjacent Plunderphonics | Initially drawn in by the baller Factory Pomo style album art by Jack Grimes (jackapedia.design), I found a fantastic little jungley bit of plunderphonics/vaporwave adjacent goodness. |
| Sumo Jungle GRANDEUR | Soichi Terada | Jungle | That's right, the Ape Escape composer did a Jungle album before he did any VGM. You can absolutely hear the sound that would come to define the first game in this album, with masterful sampling of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's track "Tengoku Kara Kaminari". Which you should absolutely give a listen to as well. |
| Mother Earth's Plantasia | Mort Garson | Synth Music for Plants | I'm not sure how I got here, but this is a great work of 70s Synth magic. While I cannot confirm or deny its claims to make your plants happy, I do like to think my jade bonsai enjoys it. |
| Mint Jams | Casiopea | Japanese Jazz Fusion | A live album so technically proficient, you'd think it was a studio recording. I send this to anyone looking to get into Japanese Jazz Fusion, it's just great from the first notes of "Take Me" to the last notes of "Swear!" |
| CRYSTALLOMANIA(v 1.0) | ALFAXYSM SOFTWARE | Y2K Infused Electronica | You looking for the Neo-Y2K Sound? Here it is. Hope you brought your Dreamcast. |
| Gemini | Machine Girl | Electronica | If you looked in the OG Bangers sheet and found Gemini? that's off this album, alongside the RePorpoised Phantasies EP and the Soundtrack for Neon White, this is easily the most accessible Machine Girl release (Even if I do listen to WLFGRL more frequently). |
| Exmilitary | Death Grips | Experimental Hip-Hop | Even though I've got a bit of material in the OG Bangers playlist, Exmilitary is the one Death Grips album I keep listening to all the way through. The Money Store may technically be a better release but I like this one more |
| Live in LA | Equip | Knightrave | This one feels like cheating since it's a....live album? remix album? both? let's go with both. In addition to remixing tracks from I Dreamed of a Palace in the Sky and CURSEBREAKER X, Equip also drops a brand new banger in the form of Crystal Matrix, a far departure from the dreamy vaporwave of Palace and the Knightrock/Castlevaniacore (is that a thing?) stylings of Cursebreaker X, the Knightrave stylings of Live in LA feel funky fresh. |
| Disintegration | The Cure | New Wave/Gothic Rock | What can I say about this album that hasn't been said already? It's dark, it's brooding, it's the perfect music for staring out the window on a windy afternoon in autumn (If you're in the kind of climate where that's possible). It's also just as good for staring out the window on a bright summer day, while the sun mocks your misery. |
| Virtual Self | Porter Robinson (As Virtual Self) | Trance? I think? | I have to admit since I was never in the EDM scene, Porter Robinson was never on my radar, but the Virtual Self EP pulled me in with its New Millenium Trance Stylings and Late Era Squaresoft aesthetics. The result is an enchanting cocktail of sound that could really only exist nowadays in a Kingdom Hearts game. It is a shame this is currently the only Virtual Self release, and being an EP, it's over far too quickly. Porter Robinson please make more of this! |
| A Flame to the Ground Beneath | Lost Horizon | Power Metal | Lost Horizon's first album, Awakening the World, was a great album. A Flame to the Ground Beneath, however is a fucking legendary album. Wojtek Lisicki's guitar work shimmers across the album while Daniel Heiman's vocals really put the Power in Power Metal. Stick around for the climax of Highlander (The One) and watch it blow your genitals clean off. |
| Europop | Eiffel 65 | Eurodance | Blue (Da Ba Dee) took the world by storm in the late 90s and there's a good chance you've probably heard Move Your Body as well, but the rest of the album has a great sound too. Keep an eye out for "My Console" a PlayStation Anthem that harkens back to a time when Sony was associated more than just Third Person Cinematic Sad Dad Games. (The noted omission of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, however are a cardinal sin that keeps this out of rotation. Points for shouting out Oddworld though.) |
| Deltron 3030 | Deltron 3030 | Hip-Hop | A masterful Hip-Hop concept album delving into a Science Fiction universe masterminded by Del the Funky Homosapien, Dan the Automator, and Kid Koala (All of which have collaborated with the Gorillaz at some point, I think). Definitely worth a look if you're a Gorillaz fan looking to branch out. |
| World Class | Luxury Elite | Vaporwave | One of the few vaporwave albums that sounds almost exactly how Cocaine Decor looks. (CARI researcher Evan Collins describes this look as "Geo-Glam" but that's harder to look up than Cocaine Decor). This release will instantly take you to a swanky marble clad hotel atrium in the 80s dripping with indoor plants, bubbling water fountains, and punctuated by the regular movement of conspicuous cylindrical glass elevators. |