A list of great albums

It’s the summer and my academic life has calmed down a little—I finished my B.S. in Mathematical Sciences (Discrete Mathematics and Logic), and am starting my M.S. in Logic, Computation, and Methodology (in the fantastic Department of Philosophy). I’ve basically done the program already (since I double majored in Logic and Computation as an undergrad), so this year I will be extending my thesis (currently titled “Postulates for Safe Contraction”) and gaining some more philosophical background in preparation for (hopefully) a Ph.D. program next year.

My point is: I have some more time to think about music again over summer, and so I’ve decided to make a list some fantastic albums which I really enjoy and feel others should know about, then write short entries for each of them. These aren’t my fifty favorite albums, or the fifty most essential albums that I have, or fifty perfect albums, but they’re all quite good. Here’s the list at the moment…

1. Aki Takase Piano Quintet — Tarantella
2. Aoki Takamasa + Tujiko Noriko — 28
3. Aphex Twin — Come To Daddy
4. Autechre — LP5
5. Battles — EP C/B EP
6. Big Black — Songs About Fucking
7. Bleach — The Head that Controls Both Right and Left Sides Eats Meats and Slobbers Even Today
8. Boards of Canada — In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country
9. Burial — Burial
10. Can — Tago Mago
11. Coil — …And the Ambulance Died in His Arms
12. Comets On Fire — Field Recordings from the Sun
13. Current 93 — All the Pretty Little Horses
14. DJ Shadow — Endtroducing…..
15. Don Caballero — Don Caballero 2
16. Einstürzende Neubauten — Silence Is Sexy
17. Electric Wizard — Dopethrone
18. Faust — Faust IV
19. Fennesz — Endless Summer
20. Flying Saucer Attack — Further
21. Funkadelic — Maggot Brain
22. Hrvatski — Swarm & Dither
23. The Jesus Lizard — Goat
24. Massive Attack — Mezzanine
25. Matmos — The Civil War
26. Max Tundra — Mastered by Guy at the Exchange
27. Mogwai — Government Commissions
28. Muslimgauze — Gun Aramaic
29. Naked City — Black Box
30. Orbital — In Sides
31. Pan Sonic — Kesto (234.48:4)
32. Pavement — Wowee Zowee
33. Plone — For Beginner Piano
34. Prefuse 73 — One Word Extinguisher
35. Ryoji Ikeda — Dataplex
36. Scientist — Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires
37. Secret Frequency Crew — Forest of the Echo Downs
38. Shellac — At Action Park
39. Slayer — Reign In Blood
40. Sleep — Dopesmoker
41. Slint — Spiderland
42. Sonic Youth — Washing Machine
43. Stars of the Lid — Stars of the Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline
44. Sun City Girls — 330,003 Crossdressers from Beyond the Rig Veda
45. This Heat — This Heat
46. Time Machines — Time Machines
47. Twine — Twine
48. Venetian Snares — Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding
49. Vex’d — Degenerate
50. Wiley — Treddin’ On Thin Ice

That seems like a good mixture of well-known (at least, relatively) and obscure artists, and there are math rock, indie rock, post-punk, hardcore, glitch, IDM, grime, dubstep, breakcore, ambient, and krautrock records—and even a reggae (well, dub) and a funk album—in there, as well as a billion records which defy easy categorization.

Over the next few weeks, I hope to introduce you all to each of these fifty fantastic artists and their great music. If there’s someone you want to hear about sooner rather than later, comment about it and I’ll do it out of order!