100+ underrated dance records (labels, artists, etc) that you no longer rate

you spent years trying to tell your friends "oh my god, that's the shit!" and now you're like, uh ...

for me the shortlist would be

clear records
reinforced records
subhead / landstrumm / cristian vogel / schmidt / tarrida / etc

clear records i am on the fence about, actually. i am just no longer convinced they are the godhead.

get physical (tho it was the shit at the time...and some of the shit that was the shit prob is still the shit) just the current releases are so "rent a remix" it's pretty grim

yeah i hear that. ever get the sense that the only reason people even check for GPM is the "body language" mixes?

these days, yeah.

However they are sure to revive their fortunes with that weird compilation of tracks random dance music producers would like played at their funeral.

Vahid; Reinforced? Really? Or do you mean late-era stuff like the Seiji & G-Force album?

Spooky - Gargantuan. Cherished at is the great underrated prog-house record for years then heard the reissue and realised that only about three songs were worth getting excited about, the best being, predictably, the not-at-all-underrated Little Bullet.

well, it's all good up until they changed the number from RIVET1234 to RIVET123 ... something about the number change fucked things up!

there was a while when i was honest-to-god trying to talk people into buying this

but yeah, i have all that shit: alpha omega, nubian mindz (actually maybe not on reinforced), nucleus & paradox, g-force & seiji, paradox solo, sonar circle, those weird comps like "the next level" and "battle of the breaks", etc.

honestly i think all of the albums on reinforced after "parallel universe" are really hard to sit down and listen to except for the arcon 2 album. and even that is sorta ... well, it just makes me want to listen to j majik instead.

i used to try to argue that early reinforced was better than metalheadz ... LOL

i used to try to argue that this was the greatest jungle comp of all time ... not anymore, sadly.

early mobilee...except with a twist. thought it was the shit....then thought it wasn't. now looking back kinda think it really actually was/is the shit.

i used to try to argue that early reinforced was better than metalheadz ... LOL

one of my favourite ILM challops

thing about reinforced is that being in the middleground (ruff & smooth, techy & junglist, soulful & rugged) is a great position for interesting criticism ... but as a listener i either want steelier breaks (metalheads), druggier vibes (suburban base) or a more smoothed-out vibe (moving shadow).

it doesn't help that the old reinforced stuff (callin for reinforcements, defn of hardcore, parallel universe, etc) all suffer from varying degrees of the same awful mastering as black secret technology.

only thing i really really really rate any more is jacob's optical stairway (4 EVA) but that came out on r&s anyway

yea steve, now we know that it's actually certificate 18 that's better than metalheadz

the elephant in the room is tempa, right?

Mobilee was the shit. As proven by the astonishing quality of their orgiastic let's all remix each other venture (OMG Anja remixing Daniel Stefanik's "The Bells"!!).

"Rancho Relaxo" and "Moved" are both amazing...still.

Basically the whole of the ambient dub genre (Loop Guru, Transglobal Underground, Full Moon Scientist, etc.)...stuff sounds, well, weedy now...

I was disappointed with the Arcon 2 album. I loved his two contributions to the excellent Above the Law comp. Unfortunately he never really lived up to my expectations after that.

only thing i really really really rate any more is jacob's optical stairway (4 EVA) but that came out on r&s anyway

― moonship journey to baja

the first 4 tracks on that album are killer especially the josh wink(!) collab. genius stuff.

subhead / landstrumm / cristian vogel / schmidt / tarrida / etc

nonononono. new landstrumm album is great as was the last vogel. Tobias schmidt yes. Tarrida is a great DJ but i havent listened to his production in a while

hmm. playhouse? at least over the past two years. i guess playhouse was never really underrated though so it doesn't count. seems like they are just going through a rough patch.

judging from the samples, the new dan curtin on mobilee is hot.

Conaisseur

get physical (tho it was the shit at the time...and some of the shit that was the shit prob is still the shit) just the current releases are so "rent a remix" it's pretty grim

― Local Garda, Tuesday, February 3, 2009 8:13 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is discouragingly OTM.

I agree with Mobilee, but I kind of look back and think "what happened", in terms of going from avid fan of it to forgetting about it, as it's left to get dusty in the closet.

I also agree with playhouse, but in more of the sense that it was one of the get excited every time you see it labels to learning that they've put out a lot of stinkers. Same with Klang.

I think the thing with Mobilee is that their identity was so synonymous with the height of minimal that it just seems counter-intuitive that they might have a continued successful existence after minimal's tail-off. Same thing for Einmaleins.

Whereas the dark exoticism of Vakant (in theory - only their best tracks actually live up to this) and the ethnodelic prettiness of Cadenza (again, in theory etc.) make them appear more likely to survive the changing currents of fashion.

I think the thing with Mobilee is that their identity was so synonymous with the height of minimal that it just seems counter-intuitive that they might have a continued successful existence after minimal's tail-off. Same thing for Einmaleins.

Whereas the dark exoticism of Vakant (in theory - only their best tracks actually live up to this) and the ethnodelic prettiness of Cadenza (again, in theory etc.) make them appear more likely to survive the changing currents of fashion.

but in reality....ALL FOUR are actually pretty good still, Vakant if anything has got better...

The four quintessentially peaking with the peak of minimal labels maybe...and all four continue to be worthwhile. oh m_nus...so much to answer for.

I used to rep really heavily for stuff like this:
http://www.discogs.com/image/R-44318-001.jpg whereas in reality most of those second rank Chicago guys were less rated than Derrick Carter and Cajmere because they just weren't as original...

There's supposed to be an image of Gene Farris' "The Fruity Green" album in there btw

Was Mobilee ever underrated?

it is now, in the age of apologies

"oh m_nus...so much to answer for."

Yeah basically when people complain about minimal (or even complained about it at the time), they were really talking about m_nus, weren't they?

yep...and still are. it's funny how you could have spent 2 years arguing with people who said m_nus wasn't minimal then the next 2 arguing as the same people said it was.