Drum'n'Bass

Spring of 1998: I was doing my first steps in producing music; Evelina immigrated to USA, leaving me with the whole book of Antoine de Saint-Exupery stories, an Adiemus album and an endless stream of creativity. I was in the 9th grade and spring was the beginning of exams period for the middle school.

Around the same time I discovered new shows on FM radio-stations. One of which was dealing with electronic music. There I caught a DJ-set by DJ Boomer from St. Petersburg. This was the first time I actually heard a DJ mixing Jungle live on the radio. And his set included only brilliant tunes, including this special one!

Maxinquaye

And of course, soon after Massive Attack came this guy's debut album. The first surprise was that "Overcome" is just a version of "Karmacoma". The second was this tune, that felt very close to the vibe of that Velvet Underground & Nico cassette that my sister had.

Risingson

Early 1998: my sister's friend brought us another video-tape full of clips from MTV's "Alternative Nation". This was a nice guide for the new names to look for, and a nice challenge for new sounds to try to produce.

And finally, after reading about them numerous times in "MG", I've heard this band. And it was a nice song to begin from!

Sneaker Pimps

After being blown away by Portishead's second album, I was very interested in following their musical trace.

Around the same time I discovered a fashion show on one of the FM-stations, that was including a lot of new and fresh electronic/underground music. I was listening very closely, waiting to hit the record button, when the next cool tune begins. This way I heard again this band, that I already knew before: I saw their creepy-sexy video on MTV, when I was in Vienna, and I've read an article about them in "MG" in the summer, but it was this song that actually made me want to find their debut album.

DJ Cam

Soon after discovering "Endtroducing....." I've found another cassette. The music on it was coming from a background different to that of DJ Shadow: there was a lot of jazz influence on it. I was also hypnotized by two tunes with Indian vocals.

These two albums encouraged me to go back to my dad's record collection, but this time, I was looking for samples. This was the beginning of my involvement with cut&paste.

I still didn't realize it, but now I was slowly moving towards Hip Hop.

DJ Shadow

1997 was moving towards its end, when I finally put my hands on the album, made by the artist, that I read about in "MG" in the summer. Ever since I'd read this article I was curious to hear his music. Funny enough, at the same time, when I bought it, my sister's friend brought me a compilation from the same label. The album became one of the most influential records in my life, but the compilation contained a long non-album track, based on a drum sample from the song, that back then was one of my favorite. These two tapes were the starting point of my journey into sampling and record digging.

I guess, you understand, what album I'm talking about.

Portishead "Portishead"

The winter of 1997-1998 has come. And with it - one of the most anticipated albums. This is pure winter music for me. There's no such winter in Israel, so I'm not listening to this album so much. But I feel the cold each time I hear it.

I had a strange karma with this album: I was losing copies of it once in a few years: first - on tape, later - on CD's.

It's a nice consequence that I'm posting this tune today. Because I think this was my first introduction to the sound that I love so much in recent years: dark grooves, dirty drums, analogue electronics and cinematic psychedelia. Add to this the fact that this album was mixed entirely on turntables and you've got an image of the ultimate album for me.

Subliminal Sandwich

After Scorn, Orb's "Orblivion" and Lee Perry's "Super Ape Inna Jungle" I was looking for some more "stuff like that", so my tape pusher dropped me a name "Meat Beat Manifesto" and I bought the first cassette I saw with this name.

And I fell in love with this sound, the samples, the overall space-radio-broadcast feel of the album. Ironically, I had no idea that it's a double CD. Slowly but surely the whole album (well, the part of it) grew up on me, but this tune was the first to catch my ear.

Funki Porcini

Ok, with all the excitement about the forthcoming record I still have a song to post. :)

My journey into electronic music was taking me further. I was hungry to hear more and more interesting stuff, so I was listening to every suggestion from my sister's friend. One day he brought me this album. I had no title, no tracklist only the name on the cassette that was stating "Funky Porcini". It was supposed to be "something nice that's very similar to Autechre an Aphex". Well, it did exactly match the description.

What I didn't know yet, that this would become my first introduction to one of my favorite labels.

Scorn

Inspired by Aphex Twin and what I was reading in "MG" about electronica I was looking for some more music in this direction, so my sister's friend brought me this album.

After Portishead's "Dummy", this was probably my second introduction to heavy dirty beats.

Jungle

So yes, "This Is... Jungle" (that years later appeared to be just one of hundreds of Beechwood Music samplers) was my first real guide through Drum'n'Bass sounds, including some of my favorite tunes by 4hero, Goldie, Photek, Wax Doctor, Universal Flava, Jason Mouse, ST Files, as well as first introduction to Alex Reece, Omni Trio, LTJ Bukem, Roni Size, Intense and many others.

For sure, "Dig Your Own Hole" and the long-awaited "The Fat of the Land" were in heavy rotation, but they only resonated with my "teenage spirit", while this new discovered genre was providing a further perspective. Euphoric, atmospheric, soulful, and at the same time heavy, eccentric and unpredictable, Jungle was just too progressive to share with my classmates. And the fast broken beats were just so so so perfect! Yes, they were challenging, but combined with almost ambient patterns and soundscapes this was just a perfect music for me. I think that without Jungle, I'd never get hooked on rhythm aspect in music as much as I am today.

To my surprise, soon I found another cassette entitled "This Is... Jungle": the only familiar name it included was Perfect Combination, which altogether seemed curious and suspicious. "How come there's no big names on the compilation? How can a genre compilation do without the classics?" What I didn't know, is that I'm buying my first mixtape. Or, to be exact - mix-CD put on tape. And it included another tune that became my personal classic:

Inner City Life

Autumn 1997. Time was moving towards my 15th Birthday. I was trying different ways of making my own music. From overdubbing myself on the tape via microphone, I moved to trying things on our computer. With Windows Sound Editor alone (Win 95 users, anyone?) I managed to manipulate sounds that I exported from Warcraft II and Shattered Steel in order to create some primitive tracks. Soon, a friend of mine brought me some other program, which was still pretty primitive sound editor. Like any PC user of that time I didn't have too much space, so I was creating tracks in an awful 8 bit/11.025 kHz quality and recording them on tape, before erasing the original.

Like I already said, from the few tunes I've heard so far, I was looking for the "Jungle" thing. "Super Ape Inna Jungle" by Lee Perry and Mad Professor was nice, but I wanted more, so I've bought two cassettes with a simple title "This is... Jungle". These two tapes became my real introduction to the genre. And this is how I finally heard this name again - Goldie.

Treasure

So, yes, to a surprise for my long-haired classmates, my 9th grade began with moving in a new creative direction.

For the Rosh HaShana we've made a weird decoration project in our class: one of the boys brought a bunch of vinyl records from home and we were drawing on them with gouache. Ahem, yes, back then I still wasn't a record collector and my heart wasn't breaking at the sight of a record that will no longer be played. The result was impressive but a bit scary. After the holidays I brought home the major part of painted records and pasted them on the walls around my room.

A few weeks later, while listening to another tape that I copied from Ilya Aronov, I started drawing on the wallpaper around one of the records. Now, another journey had begun: the journey towards turning my room into an ever-developing art object.

Super Ape Inna Jungle

So, my journey into electronic music was going full-speed further: I knew that I'm about to copy a lot of cassettes, so I just bought 2 boxes of tapes (10 in each one), that were intended specially for the music that my sister's friend will bring me.

I desperately was looking for some Jungle stuff, so he brought me something very extraordinary:

P. S. And one more:

Lamb

The summer of 1997 was coming to an end. But behind the euphoria of summer camps I felt caught up inside the image I created for myself. People became too used to an eccentric freak they knew and they rarely expected something deeper and more serious from me. I wanted to change it, but didn't know how.

One morning I went for a shopping round with my sister and suddenly she said: "Why don't you cut your hair? You've gotten too used to the long one, and you still can always grow it back, if you want".

We just went to the next barbershop and in 30 minutes it was over. I never felt such release! I was touching my head, like this was some brand new tactile sensation that my fingers never experienced. None of our friends that we were meeting the same day recognized me. And I liked this effect. I felt new, I felt that I finally declared the change that I was going through.

And new music was taking over my ears.

Trinovox

Alongside electronica, I was seeking music that could reflect my feelings. Outside I was an eccentric wild freak, but inside I still a shy romantic boy in love.

In my sister's collection I've found a cassette, that only had a band name written on it - Trinovox. A whole album, arranged and performed by 3 voices. Emotional, beautiful and pure. This album could be the best to tell what inner struggle I was facing.

Unfortunately, I could find only this song, although it's not representative enough.

Antichrist Superstar

Get the contrast: With all the electronics I was getting into, one of my favorite albums in 1997 was Marilyn Manson's "Antichrist Superstar". As a teenage kid that was living in a country slowly falling into a dictatorship, this was something that I could strongly relate to. My rebel spirit needed a release of negative energy and this album was giving this release perfectly - from the very first song.

Aphex Twin

Around the same moment with FSOL's "Dead Cities" another album arrived in my collection. This was the most sensational combination of industrial sounds and ambient patterns. Fast heavy rhythms coated in calm hypnotic melodies and pads.

Funny enough, it was this album after Goldie's "Angel" and David Bowie's "Little Wonder" that was driving me closer to Jungle. But still, most extraordinary and outstanding tune on the album was the last one - with no beat, no annoying heavy sounds, symphonic and moody.

Dead Cities

Don't be confused by the tunes I posted recently. Back in summer 1997 I was still mostly listening to heavy music, but, like I already said, this was the time of coming change.

I left the band, so I was looking for a way of self-expression. I discovered industrial and electronic music, and inspired by the articles in "MG" on music making, as well as, new video and music tapes from my sister's friend, I was experimenting with our new computer, the tape recorder and every object that was making sounds in our house. My sister's stereo-system had a "mixing mic" input, which allowed me to overdub recordings, while copying them from one tape to another. I could also do that, when copying them at a double speed, so I was just experimenting all the way through, combining AM radio noises, acoustic guitar (that I was awfully playing), sounds, produced on some parts of my sports corner. In general, for the next two years, my room became a studio, a musical instrument, and a canvas.
And I was constantly discovering more and more music that was taking me further into the brave new world of sound.

Barrel of a Gun (Underworld Soft Mix)

It was at HaShomer Hatzair summer camp in 1997. One of the evenings we were sitting a room - Ilya Aronov, his best friend Anton (a huge Depeche Mode fan) and me. A tune was flowing out of the speakers. I knew the vocals - I saw the video on MTV, when I was in Vienna. But this thing was entirely different: calm and peaceful, despite emotional vocals, it was filling the room, the building, the entire space and the listener - me... And it felt as if the time stopped and the whole world had suddenly shrunk to a size of one room, a window, a cool breeze and the darkness outside... In the middle of July, for the first time, I felt that everything is about to change, and this moment, these few days, this summer we all had together, will end and never come back, and we should enjoy every second of it while we can. Something inside of me felt that soon, one by one, we - all the huge company that grew around HaShomer through past 2 years - shall be parting our ways. This wasn't the beginning of the end in no way. This was just a gate into the next phase of our lives. And this tune and that moment was the key that opened this gate for me.

This was one of the first tunes that connected so strongly to the place, the feelings, the people, that each time I hear it, it brings all those memories back very vividly.

Golden Brown

One of the first happy things for the summer of 1997 was our new PC that had a CD-Rom, so it took very little until the first CD's appeared in our house. Mine was a compilation, called "Punk Collection". It included all the usual suspects - Pistols, UK Subs, Exploited, Iggy and the Stooges, as well as some familiar names that my sister didn't have in her collection, and, most important - never before heard names: Stranglers, Knack, New York Dolls, Troggs, Damned, Buzzcocks, Flipper (oh - THAT's the Flipper from Kurt Cobain's t-shirt - not the dolphin from the TV-series!), Morphine and, oh, even Link Wray (I didn't remember his name there - just looked up in the tracklist).

That was pretty much funny, because for a few months this was the ONLY CD in my collection and I could listen to it ONLY on a computer, so that was happening not so often. But there was one song that me and my sister could listen in a loop. It wasn't quite punk, but that didn't matter too much - it was fitting my feelings very well.

Dig Your Own Hole

Summer of 1997 came with a blast. I can't point out the certain reasons for it, but it was the most colourful summer. Love, music, friends, summer camps, freedom, creativity, music again... and again... and again... I finished my piano studies and was looking forward to leave the choir... I had long hair and was dressing like a freak, always carrying a toy mouse, pierced with safety pins all across one ear... then at the camp one of the girls put black polish on my nails... this was the summer of unlimited self-expression... not only mine... something was in the air that year, that summer... a change...

And this song from this album, that brought many different inspirations for me, was one of the hymns of that time.

Nico

I was constantly discovering not only new and current music, but also influential music of the past. After all, growing up surrounded by the songs of Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Queen, left a strong mark on my taste. Music seemed timeless, so for me Beatles or The Doors were not my parents' music, but part of the musical palette of my own generation. So, when one of my sister's friends brought her a cassette, with "Velvet Underground and Nico" written on it, I knew that I must hear it.

For many years this was the only Velvet Underground recording I heard. I liked it a lot, but what a surprise it was to discover a few years ago that it wasn't the actual "banana" album on that tape, but a sort of self-made compilation of songs from Velvets' OTHER albums, separated by selections from Nico's own "Chelsea Girl". And, actually, many of these songs have become my favorite - especially Nico's ones. And this song was actually my first introduction to her shivering and magnifying voice:

Dead Man

In spring 1997 I saw one of my favorite movies of all time - Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man". It was a deep meditative trip through death, poetry, philosophy, references to ancient Greek and Indian mythologies. This is also nearly the only good, if not the best role by Johnny Depp.

And a hypnotizing soundtrack remains the only record by Neil Young that I like. Oddly enough, the soundtrack that I had was taking entire both sides of a 90-something-minute TDK cassette (remember those ones?) - WITHOUT REPEATING TUNES...

I can't post a single tune out of it. Just like the movie itself, the whole soundtrack is a continuous experience.

Odelay

More or less about the same time I discovered FSOL, Orbital and other electronic legends, I've heard this song, or to be exact - I've heard and saw this song. Everything about it magnified me - the incredible collage of images and sounds from different musical eras living organically together in one music video.

"Odelay" for me was before "Endtroducing", and stood as a perfect example of diverse sampling. I guess this was also the album that lead me to Beastie Boys later on. No wonder that "Odelay" and "Paul's Boutique" are my favorite albums by the artists who made them. Thanks to amazing job by Dust Brothers, both albums are entire encyclopedias of rare music. Layers upon layers of samples from a wide variety of genres. And I still can't point out ALL of the samples used on this album!

Trainspotting

And, of course, it's (almost) impossible to be a teenager in the 90's without watching "Trainspotting". In my case, I knew the soundtrack by heart long before I saw the movie itself (which was already closer to 1998).

I'd say that my relation to drugs was very much defined by the book that my sister bought me, when she came back from Israel. It's called, obviously, "Drugs and Poisons". You know how it goes: "read this, so that you won't have to make my mistakes"... Actually, I've never reached the second part of the book, that was dedicated to poisons. My interest in knowledge about drugs was so high, that I'd read the first half a few times, giving most attention to the chapter, dedicated to psychedelics.

The "Trainspotting" soundtrack arrived in my hands right about time, when I discovered the wondrous world of electronica. And the title tune by Primal Scream was just a perfect fit for me. I remember long evening in my room, doing homework or just drawing, and listening to this tune over and over again. Rewinding to the beginning each time it was over.

Honestly, I was pretty much disappointed, when I discovered in which scene it's playing. Such a deep, trippy and aquatic tune, in my opinion, wasn't used wisely. But on the other hand, there's just no scene in the movie that could fit it well enough.

Guesch Patti

Today's tune is also from my first video-tape. And again, I don't have too much to tell about it. Only that about a year later I discovered that it was included in Peter Greenaway's "Pillowbook" - a movie that I liked very much.

2Wicky

Yet another memorable clip for my first video-tape.

Not too many memories were connected to this. I just liked the tune very much. Funnily enough, each time I hear the opening part of Isaac Hayes' "Walk On By", I automatically sing the lyrics of this song. :)

In Sides

Like I said before, I was very romantic and shy boy. I was falling in love but my shyness didn't allow me to make the first steps, or it was just too late to make them. One of the girls that totally blew my mind was Evelina, an eleventh grader and madriha at HaShomer youth club - the most creative, loving, caring and nice person in the whole company. A close friend of Ilya's and a muse for every kid that was in her group at the camp.

I don't know why, but in spring 1997, when I hopelessly fell in love with her, each our conversation remains in my memories like a psychedelic experience. I felt like walking on the air and the world around looked brighter and more colourful than ever.

The first hearing of this tune in 1997 for me was like Albert Hoffman's legendary bicycle ride. I just didn't know what to expect and allowed music to take me on a trip. And that's how I felt in those days - "Just go with the flow and see what's happening"... This was my personal age of discoveries.

The Future Sound of London

David Bowie, eh?... ;)

So, I came back from Vienna with the seed of electronic influence on one hand and tons of paper with lyrics for my band on the other.

The band lasted for 6 months without a drummer and with a bassist who was a huge Metal fan. We gave 1.5 live performances. 1.5 because the first was at the local talent show and the second one happened spontaneously at my place to the audience of 4 people.

I was growing up, my voice was changing, I've finished my piano studies and refused the offer of staying for another year and prepare for musical college. From this fact you may understand that I still wasn't sure then that music will be my future. I left the choir in autumn 1997, when I couldn't sing properly anymore and got pretty much tired of all the inner policies. But, until then there was still spring and summer, which were full of great experiences.

However, it was still spring, I was reading "MG" from the first page to the last, swallowing all the names (especially the relevant ones) and learning about the music that I'd like to hear.

It came from three sources simultaneously: I've read articles about ambient and The Future Sound of London, my sister's friend brought us more videos, that included a segment their clips from "Lifeforms" era, I recorded from Belorussian TV an hour of clips, that included a few other FSOL clips from the "ISDN" era. I was astonished: Where are these sounds coming from? What do these visuals mean? Who is this girl, that appears in every video? Who is this Asian man?...

Soon, from the same sister's friend I discovered Orb, Orbital and Aphex Twin... that's how I entered the world of electronica, while still singing in an alternative rock band.

Today's tune is not the very first FSOL video I saw (oddly enough, later my first FSOL cassette was "Dead Cities", while "Lifeforms" and "ISDN" were absolutely impossible to find). But when I heard it again today, I realized what a phat beat it is! And it's recorded live in 1994! Just listen to it: Dabrye? Ras G? Flying Lotus?... ?!

Little Wonder

The day is still not over, so here comes the tune and a bit long story.

So, I was singing in the Jewish Agency's Children Choir. And in early spring of 1997 we were invited to perform in Vienna at the annual Keren Hayesod members' convention. Instead of hotel, we were sent to the families of the same KH members, where each kid was staying. I don't know what conditions other kids had. I had my own room with one very special object in it - a TV-set, connected to cable channels... and instead of sleeping I was spending my nights doing one thing - watching MTV: Alternative Nation, Chill-Out Zone and other stuff... there was a show that combined alternative artists' live performances with fashion shows by the hottest couturieres. I remember that The Prodigy/Vivien Westwood combination was crazy and I remember that the other show was with Tricky... and there was this one video by David Bowie in heavy rotation: it was from his upcoming album, and, despite being a total cross-over, it drove me even closer to electronica... and especially - my future great love - Jungle...