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2 Unlimited - Jump For Joy

Year: 1992
Format: 12" single
Label: Byte Records
Genre: Electronic/Dance
Subgenre(s): Euro House, Happy Hardcore

Jump For Joy, while no Get Ready For This or No Limit, is a pretty good bop, but I really got this for the Digidance Happy Hardcore Mix featured as track A1 on this single, which is a comparatively rare mainland-originated happy hardcore tune in my collection as opposed to the UK style I tend to favor.

Accuface - Pure Energy

Year: 2006
Format: 12" single
Label: BE52 Records
Genre: Electronic/Dance
Subgenre(s): Trance

Another one of those things introduced to me in my early explorations into dance music via DJ mixes - and this one came via a Eurodance/trance mix I found on the now defunct ACIDplanet (more on that at my old music archive), more precisely the Alex Megane remix. I'm kinda into the faux 80s synthpop vibe on the intro in the original mix though, too.

Darwin & Michael Mansion - Connected / Let Me In (Darwin's Hemstock Remix)

Year: 2009
Format: 12" single
Label: Hardcore Underground
Genre: Electronic/Dance
Subgenre(s): UK Hardcore

I'm quite fond of the Hardcore Underground label. Their tenure releasing vinyl records was quite short, they only released five of them (of which I own three, but I'm planning on getting the full set eventually), but the ones I have are all good stuff. That said, the side A track of this record was also the opener in the CD1 mix of Hardcore Underground 3, a mix compilation I found while looking for new UK Hardcore stuff as I had recently gotten into the genre. Side AA is also somewhere else in that, which has an entirely different significance to it in my head. When I wanted to share that one with a friend, I took to YouTube, as one often does when they want to share music with friends, and was greeted by this 'official' AMV, which, to this day, I'm not sure if it was made by Michael Mansion himself or if he just found it and liked it enough to upload to his channel.

DJ Ham - Give It To 'Em

Year: 2021
Format: 12" EP
Label: Kniteforce Records
Genre: Electronic/Dance
Subgenre(s): Happy Hardcore

A great little slice of rave revival from one of my favorite producers of the genre. This 3-track EP is something I can wholeheartedly recommend to anybody (except maybe the staunchest of rave scene purists) who's tired of spinning the same old 90s records every time they want to go for some good ol' happy hardcore.

DJ Seduction - Leaving The World Behind / Hey Yeah

Year: 1998
Format: 12" single
Label: Hardcore Heaven Records
Genre: Electronic/Dance
Subgenre(s): Happy Hardcore

A couple of pretty fun happy hardcore joints I found by coincidence browsing the D'n'B shelf at one of the local record stores. I was familiar with DJ Seduction from having heard a lot of his material through the Bonkers compilations and some other happy hardcore mixes so this was a snap pickup.

Enigma - The Fall Of A Rebel Angel

Year: 2016
Format: 12" LP
Label: Universal Music Group
Genre: Electronic
Subgenre(s): New Age

To this day this is probably one of my more bizarre discovery stories in terms of albums. I discovered this album through a show by comedy troupe and game streamer group LoadingReadyRun during a segment called This or That: Paint Catalog Color or New Age Song? (paraphrased) - the song name that came up in one of the questions was Oxygen Red, which I found was an interesting name for a song so I looked it up after the show and enjoyed it enough to add to my relevant genre playlist and listen to the full album.

Evanescence - Fallen

Year: 2003
Format: 12" LP
Label: Wind-Up, Epic Records
Genre: Rock
Subgenre(s): Nu-Metal

Aside from Linkin Park, I really didn't listen to any other nu-metal, except for a handful of songs from two other bands. Since you're reading this, you can already see that this was one of them - I'll only disclose the other one once I actually acquire something of theirs (or if somebody guesses, though since I'm pretty much posting this into this - as far as I know - completely attention-devoid website, I don't think that's very likely - but if you're human and reading this, do prove me wrong!). The handful of songs I was into from this album as a teen just happen to be the first four songs - I don't have any memories of the other ones, though I'm sure I actually listened to this album in full at least once during the decade in which it came out although I only first acquired the thing in a physical copy this year (as of writing this, 2022). In any case, those are still the songs that stuck more with me after my listen to this album in vinyl. Perfectly serviceable moody stuff though ultimately it played second fiddle to Linkin Park in my angst-riddled teenage mindscape at the time.

High Contrast - Global Love

Year: 2002
Format: 12" single
Label: Hospital Records
Genre: Electronic/Dance
Subgenre(s): Drum 'n' Bass

Kobl spin record... or record spin kobl?? pic.twitter.com/v1TLcmv4wB

— FORGE🔶KOBOLD (@Forgebold) April 19, 2021

That is all. Well actually, with that video I made on a whim featuring the titular A side out of the way, I picked this up for that Return of Forever remix on the B side, while not nearly as iconic as the original, is perfectly serviceable as a local find. Someday I also gotta find a good way to display a tweet here that doesn't take up a grotesquely unnecessarily large amount of space but I have other priorities right now.

Kabuki - Straylight / Ketamin

Year: 2002
Format: 12" single
Label: Precision Breakbeat Research
Genre: Electronic/Dance
Subgenre(s): Drum 'n' Bass

This was a kinda random find at a local record store's D&B section, picked up for its extremely dope early 00s futuretech graphic design and artwork (that the picture provided by Discogs does not do justice to) and nothing else. I had never heard of the artist, or the label for that matter, but it was like $3 and it was early into my collection days so I figured why the hell not and picked it up. The music itself isn't bad, though it kinda plays second fiddle to everything else about the record. Perfectly servicable tunes that'd go well in just about any D&B set of its era, but a bit on the forgettable side. Like, a perfectly 6.9 grade kinda music. Nothing wrong with it per se, just fails to stand out in any real way. After a bit of research I found out that the label only did a handful of other records with this kind of art/design on them, and because they're both super cool and super cheap I'm considering collecting the whole set and purposefully not listening to any of them until they're in my hands. After I've thinned out my wishlist of about 50 records first, though.

Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, m.A.A.d City

Year: 2012
Format: 12" LP
Label: Top Dawg, Aftermath, Interscope
Genre: Hip Hop
Subgenre(s): Conscious Hip Hop

I don't listen to a lot of hip hop, but for what little of it I do listen to, Kendrick is definitely among my main go-to dudes. Got into this through hearing Swimming Pools, which got me curious enough to listen to the whole thing. My other personal highlights are Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe and m.A.A.d City.

Killawatt - Sidewinder

Year: 2011
Format: 12" single
Label: Black Box
Genre: Electronic/Dance
Subgenre(s): Dubstep, Jungle

>This is one of two "black label" style records I own (the other one hasn't been catalogued yet) so far, and my favorite of the two. Sidewinder is a classy little old school dubstep joint that would stand well enough on its own, but it's accompanied by a great 140 jungle remix by Ipman on the B-side, which was how I discovered this record to begin with.

King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King (An Observation By King Crimson)

Year: 1969
Format: 12" LP
Label: Island Records
Genre: Rock
Subgenre(s): Progressive Rock

Hi /r/vinyljerk! It's the screamy red man everybody loves! Jokes aside, people aren't joking when they say this is basically essential music. The titular track has a habit of sticking around in my head for as long as a day or two after I've listened to this album, without exception. Every. Single. Time.

KOAN Sound - Max Out EP

Year: 2011
Format: 12" EP, "Gray Marble"
Label: Shoshin
Genre: Electronic/Dance
Subgenre(s): Glitch Hop, Dubstep

This is a 10th anniversary vinyl release of KOAN Sound's first EP (all their prior releases had been double sided singles) from 2011. It's the second record I preordered out of the three I've done so with so far (as of September 2022). It contains the first song I heard from KOAN Sound, Trouble In The West, which is a really neat western-infused dubstep joint that caught my attention back in the day. My only complaint with this is that the digital version of the 2021 remaster contains some really good remixes that were omitted here. I'd really like to have that Sorrow remix of One Hand Clap on a record.

Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory

Year: 2000
Format: 12" LP
Label: Warner Bros. Records
Genre: Rock
Subgenre(s): Nu-Metal

This and Meteora were in heavy rotation in my early teens before I started my exploration of electronic music in earnest, but Linkin Park is probably the band I've emotionally resonated with the most. My discovery of it, while late (it was when the Jay-Z mashups were getting radio play), came hand-in-hand with my introduction to anime & manga (and cringy AMVs on early youtube) as well, for double the nostalgia factor. I like almost every song on this album, but I can't for the life of me choose whether I like this or Meteora more. RIP Chester.

The London Symphony Orchestra - Classic Rock Countdown

Year: 1987
Format: 12" LP
Label: CBS
Genre: Rock
Subgenre(s): Symphonic Rock

This record was in the first purchase of records I ever made, in January or February of 2021. I had decided that I was going to buy one new copy of something, one old copy of something normal, and one old copy of something with novelty value. Well, this is the one in the last category - covers of famous rock songs of years past, most of which I don't even know, the philistine that I am. Gotta say that the Final Countdown cover on there absolutely slaps. Shame about the scratch on that part of my copy. Oh well, it's bound to happen once in a while when you buy old shit for peanuts.

Mike Oldfield - Crises

Year: 1983
Format: 12" LP
Label: Virgin
Genre: Rock
Subgenre(s): Progressive Rock

While this isn't the first Mike Oldfield record I heard or acquired, it's my favorite so far! I was drawn in by the art, having only heard Tubular Bells before. There's a lot of stuff to like here, though my favorite bits are the synth solo around the middle bit of the 20-minute titular piece that takes up the whole of the record's A-side, along with In High Places (CAN WE GET MUCH HIGHER?!) and Foreign Affair. Also good for putting on with a good book and the morning/early afternoon coffee.

Powerwolf - Best Of The Blessed

Year: 2020
Format: 12" LP
Label: Napalm Records
Genre: Metal
Subgenre(s): Power Metal

When I want to discover new metal, I like to go to a particular record store in my city and look through its metal section, and during one such session I found this and picked it for its cover art. My roommate, who was accompanying me, came up to check what I had picked and noted that he knew this band and that I had definitely heard something off this record before from one of his playlists and pointed in particular at Resurrection By Erection. True enough, I had heard that before. Other than this I don't listen much to power metal on my own, though said roommate's playlists are heavily populated by it, and yes, that includes copious amounts of Dragonforce.

The Prodigy - Experience

Year: 1992
Format: 12" LP
Label: XL Recordings
Genre: Electronic/Dance
Subgenre(s): Oldschool Rave Hardcore

The most important thing you need to describe my relationship with this record is to picture a 5-year-old kid raving to this in their 16 years old uncle's bedroom at their grandparents' house. It was the start to everything in terms of both my taste in music as well as the development of my own music style. Everybody who likes dance music should listen to this at least once if they haven't already.

Quarashi - Greatest Tricks

Year: 2021
Format: 12" LP
Label: Alda Music
Genre: Hip Hop / Rock
Subgenre(s): Hip Hop, Rap Rock

Much like The Prodigy's Experience, see above, I was introduced to the world of hip hop through my uncle showing this band to me, and thus, their debut album was my next grand obsession that I'd request over and over when he let me pick what to listen to when we hung out. Greatest Tricks is pretty much a career-spanning 'best of- style compilation that includes all my favorites, which is fortunate. Worth noting, this is one of only two records in my possession as of writing this entry (feb 2023) by artists from my home country of Iceland!

Shakatak - The Coolest Cuts

Year: 1988
Format: 12" LP
Label: Polydor
Genre: Jazz
Subgenre(s): Acid Jazz

During my childhood in the 90s, my family trips were invariably completely silent, at least as far as the car stereo itself was concerned (sad, I know). No CDs, no tapes, not even radio. The only exception I ever recall was on evening drives my parents liked to go on sometimes, though they only put it on a handful of times, was a CD or a few (I was too young to remember for sure), from this band. I never found out which albums exactly, which isn't that much of an issue, but that led me to pick up this greatest-hits style compilation, which does include my favorite songs (if you must know, it's Night Birds and Easier Said Than Done), and since the album where these songs were originally released was not in stock where I shop for most of my records, I figured I might as well pick this up. It's pretty neat.

Skrillex - Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites

Year: 2012
Format: 12" EP
Label: OWSLA, Big Beat, Atlantic
Genre: Electronic/Dance
Subgenre(s): Aggro Dubstep, House

Ah, Skrillex. Depending who on who you ask, he's either the golden boy who brought dubstep to the masses, or the shithead who ruined dubstep. Me? My opinion is somewhere in the middle. I can definitely appreciate both viewpoints, but as somebody who was into the whole aggro dubstep (or the pejoratively named 'brostep', which I refuse to use unironically) scene before Skrillex but came in around the time names such as Excision and Datsik were making it big, I've always felt like Skrillex kind of unjustifiably overshadowed the aggro scene, which was already well on its way to swallow up the old school deep, low key dubstep scene (Skream, Benga, et al), since he wasn't doing anything that groundbreaking aside from introducing a few cool new sounds everybody in the scene would proceed to beat into paste in the next few following years. Which brings me to the actual meat of this mini-review - what this means for the sound of this particular record is that most of it sounds incredibly passé to somebody like me who's been immersed in the aggro scene since then, having seen the sound get twisted into further subsubgenres like riddim, tearout, etc. That in itself can still kinda work to its advantage, though, since it's at its core a lot simpler sound that can be nice to come back to once in a while - I still like most of the songs on this record. Except Kill Everybody, that's the kind of aggressively bad-edgy 00s teen shit I will happily leave behind.

SOPHIE - Oil Of Every Pearl's Un-Insides

Year: 2018
Format: 12" LP
Label: Transgressive Records
Genre: Electronic
Subgenre(s): Experimental, Hyperpop

Came strongly recommended by Heike. What a fuckin listen, describing it still defies words after having listened to it at least 4 times. I wish I had more to say about it but honestly, anything I'd say would just be parroting what Heike said about it because she's brought it up many, many times. RIP Sophie, gone too soon.

Spy Technologies 4: Counter Surveillance (DSCI4)

Year: 2007
Format: 12" LP
Label: DCSI4
Genre: Electronic/Dance
Subgenre(s): Drum 'n' Bass

I first fell in love with Drum 'n' Bass through a DJ mix posted on the now-defunct ACIDplanet (the mix seems to not exist anywhere online anymore, but I think I have it tucked away somewhere on an old laptop or external HD), that featured, among other things, two songs on this compilation. One was the mindbendingly experimental (or at least it sounded that way to me back when I heard this in '07 or '08) Cubic by Prode, and the other was the suitably epic sounding Eden by Nphonix. This is probably one of the rarer things in my collection, considering it's an European release that I had to import from Japan, as it was the only copy I could find for sale on Discogs at the time I bought it.

EP5 (Hardcore Coalition)

Year: 2008
Format: 12" EP
Label: Hardcore Coalition
Genre: Electronic/Dance
Subgenre(s): UK Hardcore

The second CD of volume 16 of acclaimed UK Hardcore compilation mix series Bonkers opens with an explosive retro-inspired breakbeat hardcore remix of happy hardcore classic U R Everything that for some weird reason is (to my admittedly limited knowledge) not available to listen to anywhere online unmixed in quality that I'd consider even remotely listenable, which made this record a top priority to get my hands on once I had compiled my initial discogs wishlist after scouring my spotify playlists and youtube favorites, which made me include it in my first ever online purchase of vinyl records. Well worth it despite not knowing any of the other songs on this release, but I was happy to know they're all bangers, especially the one that shares a side with the aforementioned remix that spurred my purchase of it. Probably one of the more obscure records in my collection, but it's also one of my most personally prized.

The Elder Scrolls Online - Selections from the Original Game Soundtrack

Year: 2022
Format: 12" LP box set, "Gold and Silver Swirl" variant
Label: Spacelab9, Bethesda
Genre: Soundtrack
Subgenre(s): Cinematic, Game Music

This is a pretty nice cross-section of the music that's been in ESO across its, uh, *looks it up* 9 years of being online, supported with regular content updates the whole time. It'd be unrealistic to do the whole thing in one release considering this thing is already a 5 record box set for $120, I shudder to think how much a set of albums for every main expansion would run me. In any case, it's a nice mix of familiar tunes and stuff new to me, since I've only really played through the base game and one of the major expansions myself.