I am not a person that can group a top 5, top 10 in
anything. I mean I like Movies. I like Music, I like rugby. I like all facets
of those but can I list my favourite movies of all time? The best Albums I ever
heard? Top rugby players? Gah!
No I can’t!
BUT. I will attempt to do a sort of ‘Top five albums’ and
what they meant to me. They are not the best in the world according to Rolling
Stone magazine, Nor the hippest in terms of The Source. But they affected me
and there is a lot of love for them. This is not a definitive list, this is my list now, in a years time it will change.
So here goes my attempt at securing my ‘Top 5’.
DJ Shadow –
Entroducing.
This could very well be one of the greatest albums ever
released. The very first album to be made completely by sampling and to go
platinum. From the first track ‘Best foot forward’ to the last track
‘Transmission 3’ this album alludes to something that can cause emotion in you.
It has everything from scratching to sampling to the finest piano I have heard.
Simple yet emotive. I use that word ‘emotive’ - a lot when describing this
album. Because it is. It was my last year in high school and dealing with all
of the pressure of exams etc. when this
album came out, it was recommended to me by a friend and when I heard it, I was
blown away. I had never really heard anything like it at that point. There were
some DJ albums I had looked into at that point – Executioners, Straw People and
DJ Yella’s Solo effort in the same year. But this, this was different. This
was………Perfection. There is not a wrong missed beat, skewed sample or a track
that is out of place on this album. The start of the song ‘Midnight in a
perfect world’ has the sample of someone saying “Insight, foresight, moresight,
the clock on the wall reads a quarter past midnight”. An amazing intro to an
amazing song on an amazing album. Sums it up really……..
GZA/Genius – Liquid Swords
From the opening salvo of ‘Shogun Assassin’ this album
grabbed me immediately with its grimy beats from RZA and laden heavily with
Chinese Martial art movie quotes this was the first follow up from The Wu Tang
Clan’s 36 Chambers debut. GZA, one of the original members of the Wu Tang and
in my mind a lyrical Genius had poise, shape and delivery on every tune……..Hence
the name I guess? The production on this album is some of the most epic I have
heard. RZA outdid himself on this arrangement and it could very well be his
finest to date. The beats are so intense and loops are timed to perfection. It
was almost as though Feudal China was the birthplace of New York Hip Hop. This
album was one of the first hip hop albums that I really had true love for. I
mean I really liked Enter the Wu Tang but this album was huge. It had it all
and more. Better production, better songs and a more intense feel. Because of
Liquid Swords my love for hip hop and Wu Tang remained strong and forever.
Sepultura – Chaos A.D
In my younger days I was not a metal head. I had a brief
dalliance with Metallica before I realised they were shite but I never found
anything that really stopped me in my tracks. I was given Chaos A.D by a school
friend when I was in 5th form and the rest is history. So a little
bit of a back story, around this time I was into Punk music – Mostly Dead
Kennedys and British fare such as 999, Sham 69, Anti Nowhere League and Angelic
Upstarts. None of this lolly pop So-Cal stuff which saturated the market in the
late 90’s. So when I read the liner notes in class ( likely to be mathematics
as I hated that ) I saw the Jello Biafra from the DK’s had input into the
album. This excited me. I threw it on when I got home from school and the sound
of Zion’s heartbeat at the start and then the Brazilian drumming of Igor
Cavelera grabbed me instantly. The guitaring was superb and lyrics were profound.
Tribal conflict, culture, Israeli/Palestinian relations and forest devastation
were just some of the topics. It opened my eyes, not only to these issues but
also to the world of metal.
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Freaky Styley
I don’t know where to
start with this album; May be one of my all-time favourites before they went
commercial? Everything about this albums works. The production by George
Clinton, the amazing guitaring of Hillel Slovak on what proved to be his finest
effort, the horns and bass of Michael Balzary ( Flea ) and the virtualistic
vocals from Antony Kiedis. This whole album is all killer, no filler. I
remember the first time I heard the Chili’s, I was around 9 years old and a
family friend was playing ‘Catholic School Girls Rule’. I loved it but never
really got into them until Mothers Milk came out. But this album, Freaky Styley
was the first of the back catalogue that I brought and was amazed at the
musical aptitude these boys had, the energy and the style. This one album
started my obsession with Funk music forever. Sadly the Chili’s have now become
a shadow of their former selves but this album, this one album…………..Perfection.
Fat Mannequin – Bigger than Buddha
Before I heard Shihad and other good New Zealand acts I
heard Fat mannequin. The now defunct Wellington outfit headed by Bill Hickman
was a big favourite of mine. They only released 2 CD singles, 1 EP and 1 full
length album. Fat Mannequin was not a huge NZ band, nor did they garner much
fame but they were a huge influence on me and the type of music they played
rocked. They were epic. I remember how excited I was seeing them in Napier at ‘The
State’, a small crowd but the most unreal gig, so much energy and rawness about
them, they were tight and did not disappoint.
The album Bigger than Buddha was an EP that was 5 songs of a time that showed
the talent emerging from Wellington and the style was intense. I still listen
to the EP on a regular basis to this day, it comes out several times a year
with the volume up. I still would love to know what the term ‘Fridgecutter’
meant though……………
So there you go. 5 of the best as I viewed them. A great
collection of past albums that really mean something to me. Not too many new
albums but hey, this is an ever changing list in an ever changing world.
Take care y’all.
