Gateway Albums

The idea for this thread is that people will post bands/genres/eras/scenes that they are interested in but don't know how to get into, and then any denizens of TV Tropes that are familiar with said band/genre/era/scene will post the album(s) that they think would be the best point of entry.

So post away! Or not. Your choice.

Words cast into the uncaring void of the internet.

I guess I'll start.

Traditional Heavy Metal.

Iron Maiden-Power Slave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWhMJA98o-k

How about Industrial?

edited 15th Jan '11 5:40:43 PM by Alichains

Get Inane242 in here.

edited 15th Jan '11 5:45:49 PM by merton

Words cast into the uncaring void of the internet.

Judging by his screen name I'm guessing a Front 242 album amirite?

As a start for industrial I would recomend Ministry's Psalm 69 or Skinny Puppy's Vivisect VI.

The 5 geek social fallacies. Know them well.

VIV Isect VI? Seriously? If you were going to pick any Skinny Puppy gateway album, it would be either Rabies or Bites.

"I could eat a knob at night" - Karl Pilkington

The Kovenant's Animatronic was what got me into black metal. It's actually a pretty balanced mixture of black metal and industrial, so it wasn't too much for me when I first heard it.

Das Ich's Lava was what introduced me to darkwave, and later led me into Synth-Pop, EBM and Future Pop.

edited 17th Jan '11 10:12:40 PM by Surenity

My tropes launched: https://surenity2.blogspot.com/2021/02/my-tropes-on-tv-tropes.html

@ Thousadapples: It got me hooked. Welcome to the morning news. In it's long and deadly war with Iraq, Iran has repeatedly sought international condemnation of Bagdhad's alleged use of chemical weapons...

The 5 geek social fallacies. Know them well.

I suppose you mean Industrial Metal, but... I'm gonna list some old-school and avant-garde stuff anyway, because knowledge is power and whatnot.

• Throbbing Gristle, Second Annual Report - Alien and brutal, but extremely unique. The Genre Launch.
• Cabaret Voltaire, Red Mecca - Sleazy, menacing, and very trippy. Interesting effects usage.
• Einstürzende Neubauten, Halber Mensch - Genius metal bashing, supplemented with wild production.
• Swans, Cop / Young God - Relentless, heavy, ugly. Basically the illustrious predecessor (and deconstructor) of Industrial Metal.
• Ramleh, Too Many Miles - Head-banging music for serial murderers. Thoroughly underappreciated.

I have more but... Yeah.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

I was talking about Industrial in general, not just metal. I'll give the suggestions a look. Thanks.

Like Killing Joke perhaps?

Electronic albums?

I forgot To pimp Laibach. They are awesome and should be listened to.

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Err, what sort of electronic are we talking here? I could give you any number of recommendations, but they'd all be totally different. Anything more specific that you're looking for?

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Nahh, nothing specific, at least for right now...I think.

Electronic music! Yes! More weirdness pimping...

• Coil, Unnatural History III
• Aphex Twin, Selected Ambient Works
• Klaus Schulze, Timewind
• Manuel Göttsching, E2-E4
• Venetian Snares, Songs About My Cats
• Oval, 94 Diskont
• Psychic TV, Origin of the Species
• Matmos, A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure
• The Orb, The Orb's Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld
• Shpongle, Are You Shpongled?
• DJ Spooky, Songs of a Dead Dreamer
• Nobukazu Takemura, Scope

And for good measure, here's some really alienating material:

• Whitehouse, Erector
• Karlheinz Stockhausen, Electronic Music 1952-1960
• COH, 0397 Post-Pop
• Alvin Lucier, Bird and Person Dyning
• Warren Burt, Harmonic Colour Fields
• Merzbow, Cycle
• Mirror, Eye of the Storm
• Esplendor Geométrico, Kosmos Kino

edited 20th Jan '11 2:55:29 AM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

^ :/ Are you serious?

^^ I suggest you listen to Daft Punk, Massive Attack, Depeche Mode and Aphex Twin; in my opinion these are points you're good to explore from.

LOL, Alvin Lucier. Talk about really polarizing musicians. I know at least one person who hated Bird and Person Dying with a passion. You have to admire the man’s conceptual cleverness, though. I Am Sitting in a Room is genius in its elegant simplicity (and was made as a sort of occupational therapy; Lucier was embarrassed by his stutter so he created a musical piece based on his own speech).

Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883!

You know any good Trip Hop albums to start with?

edited 21st Jan '11 1:24:57 PM by revertedtozero

Hellote.

I'd go for Massive Attack's Blue Lines or Mezzanine and Portishead's Third  ^*

to start with.

edited 21st Jan '11 1:32:17 PM by merton

Words cast into the uncaring void of the internet.

Yes. If you disagree... I understand completely. I'm not half as well versed in mainstream electronica as I am in the fringe stuff (and even then I'm all over the place), so I decided I'd go for variety and innovation over accessibility. And to be honest, I was really tired when I wrote that list  ^*

, meaning that I basically put anything that popped into my head, from the classic (Unnatural History III, which remains a favourite to this day) to the dubious (Are You Shpongled?, which I included solely on the strength of the last track). I think I was actually drooling a bit by the end...

Indubitably. That's actually precisely why he's there: It's like a Rorschach test for musical limits.

Seconded. Great albums. Feel like a moron for ignoring/missing them.

edited 21st Jan '11 10:54:07 PM by JHM

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.

Genres:

• Blues
• Canterbury prog
• Electroacoustic music
• Funk
• Jazz
• Soul

Bands/artists:

• Aphex Twin
• The Decemberists
• Earth, Wind and Fire

edited 23rd Jan '11 8:51:59 AM by Wicked223

You can't even write racist abuse in excrement on somebody's car without the politically correct brigade jumping down your throat!

What Merton said, but I'd also add Maxinquaye by Tricky.

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@Wicked: Do you have any particular jazz sub-genres you prefer?

For Dixieland, Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings are good stuff, but they never recorded any proper albums, so it's all either Greatest Hits compilations, or a multi-disc complete recordings box set.

For swing, Duke Ellington was one of the few big band leaders to weather the downfall of swing and the development of LP's. The Far East Suite is great stuff, as are the later-career collaborations he did with the great soloists of the time: The Master Summit: The Complete Recordings (a studio session with Louis Armstrong), Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington & John Coltrane. He also recorded Money Jungle with Max Roach and Charles Mingus, but I haven't heard that one yet.

For bebop, I'm rather ignorant myself, though I know Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie were the big names.

Post-bebop, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue is THE modal jazz album, and for many people it's THE jazz album, period. The Birth of Cool and Round About Midnight were earlier and overshadowed by Kind of Blue, but they're still good. John Coltrane's A Love Supreme is similarly one of the last and best albums he did before he went inaccessibly weird.

For Latin jazz, Tito Puente was king, and Dance Mania! was the album he considered his best. Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd's Jazz Samba is the album that introduced bossa nova to the US, and it's still worth a listen.

I didn't write any of that.