Rewind: 10 albums still sounding fresh 20 years on - - Mixmag

Rewind: 10 albums still sounding fresh 20 years on

Throwing it back to 1996 with Underworld, Aphex Twin and more

  • Dave Turner
  • 14 October 2016
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5 Spacetime Continuum 'Emit Ecaps'

Jonah Sharp, aka Spacetime Continuum, has been off the radar since the late '90s, but 'Emit Ecaps', his second album proper, carries enough weight to maintain his relevance. Opener 'Iform' lays out the intense workout plan from the off with a barrage of thunderous kicks and its follow-up, 'Kairo', keeps the momentum going with over 11 minutes of splendid jungle twists and turns. Yeah, it has a lively start, but anyone clued up on Spacetime knows it wouldn't be a record solely geared towards the dancefloor. 'Simm City' has the kind of creepy shrills you'd expect to hear in an episode of Goosebumps, 'String Of Pearls' is full of twinkles and warped bleeps and 'Swing Fantasy' is the perfect comedown chiller, albeit with a bumpy collection of drums. Basically, if you're a fan of Boards Of Canada, Autechre and Aphex Twin, Spacetime Contiuum's medley of techno, downtempo and jungle will be right up your street. This one came out on his own imprint, Reflective, and follow-up 'Double Fine Zone' provided more off-kilter beauty on Astralwerks. Fancy coming back, Spacetime?

6 Tricky 'Pre-Millennium Tension'

So much of a big deal reaching the millennium was, Tricky felt the need to give it recognition four years before the year 2000 rolled around. 'Pre-Millennium Tension' was the Bristol-born musician's second album, after '95's 'Maxinquaye', and was yet another insight into that brilliantly odd, haunting mind of his. There's the rustic vibes of 'Vent', the woozy, stoner atmosphere of 'Christiansands' and worryingly titled 'Makes Me Wanna Die', a spine-tingling message to an "insignificant" individual. This album might not be veering towards trip hop as his previous effort was, but hip hop was well ingrained with samples of Eric B. & Rakim, Smif-n-Wessun and Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh Crew. You might remember us including 'Maxinquaye' in our albums throwback to '95 and his inclusion in this list about records in '96 proves that he was in a rich vein of form in the mid-90s. Two decades later, he reunited with Massive Attack for a performance at The Downs Festival in Bristol in September. Comeback, anyone?

 
 
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