Synth/Electronic LP recommendations

Right. Hard to find, but if you see **anything** by Global Communications, pick it up. The first album is the 'ear' album (reissued 3 times), 2nd is 'Remotion' (not reissued) and finally Pentamorous Metamorphosis. If you are into this stuff, these LPs are required.

Vangelis did a soundtrack for the movie 1492, it is on LP and so far is his best work. About the same time Mike Oldfield released his best work to date, 'Songs of Distant Earth', also on LP but like 1492, quite rare. But awesome. If you get into Vangelis, his other LPs are spotty, perhaps one of his best is called Soil Festivities. You want to get the British LP. Opera Sauvage is quite nice too.

There is a sizable amount of stuff that came out of Germany during the 1970s, loosely called 'Kraut Rock' of which Tangerine Dream is the tip of the iceberg. You may also enjoy Can, Ashra Temple, Klaus Schultz (stay away from his later stuff...), Neu (we issued one of Michal Rother's later albums on LP, if you are interested), Cluster...

And our LP, Thunderbolt Pagoda, has been getting good reviews, although its more of a space rock, like early Hawkwind. We did 360 copies and the cover is hand-screened. (myspace.com/thunderboltpagoda)

Synthfreek, you and I have a lot of musical taste in common. Thanks for the trivia about GC. I do a one-man synth act called Salubrious Invertebrae (myspace.com/salubriousinvertebrae)

An obvious band I forgot- the Orb.
Another essential LP is Mystical Experiences, by the Infinity Project, on the Blue Room label.

And- Bola.

I'm also a big fan of Porcupine Tree. Lots of electronic soundscapes there, especially in their early stuff.

Single Cell Orchestra did some nice stuff back in the mid 90s.

I agree, must of the complications suck, but back in the 90s there were some good ones: Free Zone 2, Chill out or Die 2, the Astralwerks samplers (I have one that has FSOL and Labradford, the Labradford cut in particular is awesome), the Apollo Divine Compilation (has a Biosphere cut on it)... these are LPs that I can play from one end to the other.

I think Orbital had a fabulous career. 'Insides' is one of my favorites, and 'Blue' was a great swan song, especially with the Lisa Gerrard cut at the end.

Although I'm not a fan of her, Madonna's Ray of Light LP, collaborated with William Orbit, has several nice electronic cuts. IMO its her best work since I can't listen to anything else she did :)

If we expand this genre just slightly, Mogwai is suddenly on the horizon- their second to last LP (current LP is The Hawk is Howling) was a set of remixes and is a lot of fun, and I recommend anything that they did. Although its not on LP, the soundtrack to The Fountain is really nice too. Mono is a Japanese band that sounds enough like Mogwai that if you like Mogwai, you will like Mono too.

Sundial did a wonderful set of LPs back in the 90s- hailed as one of the modern masters of psych. A spinoff LP, Quad, is really wonderful and well worth the effort, if you want something more chilled.

I'm not a fan of his later works, but the early Aphex Twin, which is really minimalist, is recommended.

IMO the DMode's best stuff is the instrumentals that appeared on some of their singles.

I can't recall if anyone has mentioned Massive Attack but if not they deserve a lot of mention. I use their albums a lot at shows- Protection, Mezzanine, 100th Window (3LP 45rpm edition!) as well as their new one.

Hawkwind has a new LP out on 180gr clear vinyl. Tim Blake is now doing keyboards. Its the first Hawkwind that has kept my interest in years!