Last Updated on 05/05/2022
These are the top 10 best 90s electronic music albums from the UK. Find out more about some of the greatest ever dance/electronica by reading our definitive ranking.
As well as producing some of the most iconic (and best) electronic music albums ever, the 90s in the UK spawned, or at the very least incubated, some of the nation’s best known and most influential scenes, making it the decade for British electronic music. From IDM, drum ‘n’ bass and ambient to big beat, trip hop and acid house, the decade was a blooming petri dish of culture and creativity. The origins of the 90s’ dance music explosion can be traced back to the Big Bang of electronic music culture in the UK: the 80s.
The 80s had seen mass acceptance of electronic music forms and synthpop and disco ruled the charts. However, by the late 80s, electronic music was migrating underground and becoming less conventionally accessible, inspired by pioneering electronic music scenes abroad and facilitated by a general public more receptive to synthesised sounds after a decade of Donna Summer and Eurythmics. Taking influence from Jamaican dub, New York hip hop, Detroit techno and Chicago house, electronic music genres multiplied and mutated rapidly. Warehouses and countryside raves that had pulsed with the sound of Chicago acid house in the late 80s, sprouted techno, breakbeat hardcore, jungle, drum ‘n’ bass and big beat subcultures as the 90s progressed. Although Disco was dead (but still great), more and more people took to the dance floor.
And as increasing numbers of Britons digested the bleeps, bloops and squelches of electronic music on a Saturday night, more wanted a dose of synthesised goodness for their Monday morning commute, their Friday evening chill out or their Sunday morning come down. Britain’s ambient music heritage (a genre kickstarted by Englishman Brian Eno in the 70s) was fused with the many sounds of ‘rave’ to bring ambient dub, IDM, trip hop and downtempo.
The diversity of blossoming music scenes resulted in (you guessed it) a vast diversity of quality electronic music albums released throughout the decade, making it pretty difficult to know where to start, if you want to dive into the glut of 90s electronic music LPs.
But fear not(!), as we have assembled the very best of them here for you: the top 10! Just stick on your headphones, get your speakers turned up, and enjoy some of the UK’s finest from the decade of electronic music.
10. Dig Your Own Hole, The Chemical Brothers.
Big beat was probably the biggest export to the mainstream for 90s electronic music. Names like Fat Boy Slim, The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers hit the charts with unpretentious electronic music ‘for having fun’ – or to put it less delicately and more accurately, for wildly dancing to and just fucking losing it.
There are many fantastic big beat tracks, but if you are talking about an album listening experience, The Chemical Brothers’ Dig Your Own Hole is the big beat crème de la crème.
Its manic drum breaks, acidic, squelchy bass lines and sticky atmosphere of dark psychedelia make it instantly evocative of the shadowy, enveloping warehouses and dancefloors where it felt most at home. There is a gleeful funk filtered into it though – ensuring that you are dancing feverishly through the gloom. That is, until the morning dawns with ‘The Beatles’-esque psychedelic shine of the last couple of tracks, which bring a sweet resolution to your rave.
9. Selected Ambient Works 85-92, Aphex Twin
Despite it’s understated title, Aphex Twin’s debut album isn’t just an ambient music record (nor is it ‘an M&S ambient music record’, in case you needed the reassurance after my opening line). I would say it falls quite comfortably in the realm of ambient techno (a hugely rich genre in itself), but it is most commonly categorised today as Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) or ‘Braindance’. The latter of those two terms is the one preferred by Aphex Twin himself, as it avoids the suggestion that other dance music is somehow less intelligent, as IDM maybe implies. The music on this LP does make your dance brain too, so I would be inclined to agree with Mr. Twin, although there are arguments to the contrary.
It’s title isn’t entirely misleading though, as it does have a potent ambience to it – its ‘blinding white lights-thick club smoke’ atmosphere is distinctive and hypnotic (and likely an influence on the aesthetics of Jamie XX’s 2015 album In Colour).
But the reason the album impresses so much is the genius of the minimal techno synth melodies that pepper every track. The opening 4 track run alone provides enough delicious and rhythmically stimulating tune to satiate a lover of the sweetest pop music or a hardcore techno-head.
8. Around the House, Herbert.
A record of house music, made around the house, to listen to around the house. Sound gimmicky? Well the music doesn’t – it sounds bloody great.
Delicately layering house, jazz, 90s downtempo and a range of organic sounds recorded around his home, Matthew Herbert displays some of the most pleasing sound-craft of any record on this list. The result is a low-key but never-ending groove fest, perfect for doing a spot of cleaning, dancing in the kitchen or just relaxing.
It’s actually weirdly reminiscent of Burial’s future garage and dubstep monument Untrue, not that they really share many aesthetic tendencies (besides perhaps a love for soulful vocal samples). The similarity lies more in their common ability to dexterously build blissful climax from understated changes in a track’s dynamics. A very clever and fun record.
7 Chill Out, The KLF.
Released in 1990, this was a landmark composition that set a precedent for ambient house to come. Primarily though, it provides a perhaps unlikely, transcendental experience.
In concept it sounds very odd: a collage of field recordings, samples and melodic synth passages have been carefully constructed to simulate the experience of a road trip across the southern states of the USA – a region of the world neither member of the duo had ever visited. The consequence is a journey through a world that doesn’t quite exist – only really pinned to planet earth through cool mirages of popular culture that burst apart as you cruise through them, constructed from vaporous samples of Elvis, 808 State and American radio advertisements, amongst other things.
It is masterfully assembled though; at its close, it leaves a listener feeling as though they have woken up from an unintentional nap on a hot summer’s day
6. Dummy, Portishead.
The ultimate soundtrack to a dark, rainy evening; this has to be one of the most potently ‘vibey’ sets of tracks ever released. Trip-hop outfit Portishead amalgamates their hip-hop influenced, jazzy downtempo with the noir crackle of old spy films to great atmospheric effect. But there is much more to it than ‘vibe’.
Beth Gibbons’ vocals, which are bleak and beautifully haunting (as I am sure they have been described many times before), lend palpable longing to her astute lyrics. And the vocal melodies that carry it all along are so seductive. They slink their way through you, dragging you back to listen again and again..
An unmissable 90s classic.
5. Richard D. James Album, Aphex Twin.
At only 32 minutes long, this is by far Aphex Twin’s shortest but also (in some ways) most challenging album release of the 90s. It also happens to be his most strangely rewarding.
Opener “4” is a serene elevation into the tracklist and features a gritty and meticulously programmed breakbeat drum, but one that lurks tamely in the background. As you slide down through the album it becomes clear that the brutal power of the percussion will not remain so docile. While the golden warmth of RDJ’s glistening synth melodies remain, frequently resurfacing to reintroduce light to the world, the album’s drill and bass tendencies often dominate. The mutant drum and bass/ breakbeat hybrid injects a prickly, menacing worry into the idyllic setting suggested by its gentle string arrangements.
Probably one of the most difficult releases to pin down in words, it really requires a listen to appreciate its distinctive, chaotic beauty – a great but enigmatic introduction to drill and bass, as well as Aphex Twin himself.
4. Orbital 2[Brown Album], Orbital.
Although it sports one of my least favourite album-covers of the 90s, the music under the nice, brown…erm…art(?) is purely euphoric techno.
Blending in elements of house and progressive, Orbital hit a real sweet spot that’ll have you dancing in a trance-like state. Every beat and bassline is groove-able, every synth melody tangos around your mind long after the song is over, and each and every vocal sample is appropriately mesmerising. But the way these components are arranged collectively doesn’t just feel like a DJ set; it feels like an M&S techno symphony (joking, just a regular techno symphony – I wouldn’t want to oversell it).
This is infectious and powerful stuff – definitely not to be missed.
![Best 90s Electronic Music Albums to come out of the UK: 4. Orbital 2[Brown Album], Orbital.](https://i0.wp.com/noisefirst.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/image-10.png?resize=297%2C297&ssl=1)
3. Blue Lines, Massive Attack.
The record that set the ball rolling for Bristol’s own ‘trip hop’ also happens to be its most entertaining.
Massive Attack were formed from ‘The Wild Bunch’ – a fluid music collective with common interest in hip hop, Jamaican dub, soul, as well as the plethora of underground, electronic music in the early 90s. This blend of influences produces a warm, late-night melancholy that is kissed (and yes, I mean kissed) with intimate, whispered vocals and underwritten with firm soulful grooves. It also serves up far more diversity than most of the trip hop that followed; there are a multitude of vocalists rapping, singing and utilising Jamaican-style emceeing over the idiosyncratic beats.
Its star quality is less easily describable (and is why it is better to listen to music than read about it) – it lies in how it oozes a certain electrifying creative energy, propelling every sticky hook and expressive groove to embed itself in your long-term memory.
2. Tri Repetae, Autechre.
Autechre were often considered the real sound of the future in the 90s, and it is easy to see why.
While this release is more accessible than their later LPs, it is probably the coldest and most clinical of them all. The Rochdale Duo’s brand of glitch and ambient infused IDM raises a robot symphony here, which while icily mechanical is by no means lifeless. Autechre fuel feelings of fear, longing and joy with these tracks – those robots sure wear their hearts on their sleeves.
It all brings to my mind some parallel reality (or not too distant future…) where AI driven androids have just achieved consciousness and are experiencing all of life’s richness for the first time, newly imposed on their whirring, clanking existence. But it is really for you to pull meaning from – I might just have watched Wall-E too many times.
What this record really can promise is a gorgeous deep brain-tissue massage, courtesy of its intricate, glitch-laden tracks.
1. Music Has the Right To Children, Boards of Canada.
Arriving a few years late to the IDM party, Scottish duo Boards of Canada were not like the other signees to the Warp label. Forgoing much of the percussive fuckery that Autechre or Aphex Twin use to make your brain frantically prance over 3 skipping ropes at once, Boards of Canada conjure magical experiences with impressive deftness – like on their Warp debut, Music Has the Right To Children.
This brilliant album is at first detached and chilly to the touch, but it reveals a flowing undercurrent of warmth in its gorgeous synth lines. Again and again, they thaw the scant atmosphere almost instantaneously – filling the album with a mellifluous wash of colour that departs just as quickly, to leave the listener cool again.
This quality, paired with some cleverly selected vocal samples, fires up a corner of the mind that is not usually consciously accessible. The very same corner that provides you with an unprompted and long-forgotten memory of when you tripped over on a family holiday to the beach, aged 4, or of an educational documentary you watched in primary school about arctic wildlife. You are left feeling disconnected from present reality in nostalgic stupor, in a way that is both kind of comforting and disquieting.
Chock full of genuinely beautiful tracks, this album provides a truly unparalleled experience within 90s electronic music – a must listen for any music fan.
Honourable mentions of some of the other best electronic/dance music albums of the 90s go to:
- Plug’s Drum ‘n’ Bass for Papa
- Plaid’s beautiful IDM record Not for Threes
- Photek’s smokey drum and bass odyssey Modus Operandi
- Depeche Mode’s synthpop classic Violator,
which are all fantastic records and well worth checking out.
Listen to taster tracks from our picks in the playlist below. The KLF’s Chill Out and Plug’s Drum ‘n’ Bass for Papa can be found through the links provided on Soundcloud and Youtube, respectively.
