Craner's Top 100

[craner]

76.

Mobb Deep, 'Trife Life'

I don’t care what Reynolds says, even at the height of my jungle addiction following the incredible cornucopia of 1994, when I got this home and put it on the record player it was still one of the most amazing sounding LPs I’d ever heard. This is perfect: the crisp, hollow beats; the looping, loping bass line; the Norman Connors sample; and, of course, the cold, unemotional, uncompromising lyrics. I thought this track was stunning and terrifying simultaneously. It made me feel glad I lived in Swansea where you could consider the possibility of going out with a girl without worrying about getting shot. I couldn’t comprehend how these guys could ever go outside of their apartment block, if it was like this. This wasn’t a visceral living out of other people’s lives for me, it was sheer terror. But the whole package was so compelling to listen to.

I can see why Dissensus UK Drill Sergeant Barty rates this record so much. Sorry blissblogger, you’re not often wrong but you are here.

 

[craner]

77.

Show and AG, 'Next Level (DJ Premier Remix)

Crowley hates the Goodfellas album because he reckons these guys looked ridiculous suddenly pretending to be crack dealer gangsters, or something. Alright, stand down, Crowl. I don’t care about any of that.

It’s a bit unfair to pick out the Premier mix from this album, because the Showbiz production is incredible all the way through; murky, dank, crisp, subtle. I could have picked about 7 other tracks (‘The Medicine’, ‘All Out’ etc. etc.) but this is a classic and had to be the one.

Luke is also bored of me banging on about this album too, bit it vexes me how forgotten it seems to be. Not a lyrics album, AG just does enough to make Showbiz’s masterpiece move beautifully.

 

[Corpsey]

Not sure where I read/heard this but I read/heard somewhere that AG was one of the more "legit" rappers in terms of street credentials.
Edit: maybe it was Showbiz actually. LoL.

 

[craner]

Not sure where I read/heard this but I read/heard somewhere that AG was one of the more "legit" rappers in terms of street credentials.
Edit: maybe it was Showbiz actually. LoL.

Take that, Crowl!

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Let's go!

HUZZAH!!!

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Fleetwood Mac, ‘Landslide'

my favorite will always be The Chain but u can't never go wrong w any late 70s Fleetwood

being a guitar dude too, Lindsay Buckingham has such a weird style for a rock band (like when people cover FWM they don't usually even try to recreate it), really enjoy it

 

[craner]

78.

Luther Vandross, 'Never Too Much'

This is the Luka Vandross anthem, but it's not here just for him, as we are pals again. It's here because I love it too. It's the one that comes on the radio unexpectedly, radiating sunshine and joy. Sunshine and joy are two of my favorite things, like chaos and the cosmos.

 

[craner]

79.

Change, 'You Are My Melody'

Jam & Lewis are the best, and they did some of their greatest work with Change, the Italian Chic from the Marxist and Anarchist capital of Bologna. So much Change is amazing, not least 'Change of Heart', but this is so elegant and crisp. (You might have noticed that 'crispness' is one of my favorite production tendencies.) It's all fluted pillars and ivy-covered arches, Koi ponds, bougainullea and eucalyptus decorated marble spas, white stucco on the walls. A perfect atmospheric concoction.

Also, Change gave Luther some of his first vocal gigs.

 

[craner]

80.

Aaliyah, 'One in a Million'

Reynolds described this as "Lovers Jungle".

Hard to know what to say about this, it is so perfect.

RIP, what a loss.

 

[yyaldrin]

only 20 left, i don't want it to end

 

[luka]

78.

Luther Vandross, 'Never Too Much'

This is the Luka Vandross anthem, but it's not here just for him, as we are pals again. It's here because I love it too. It's the one that comes on the radio unexpectedly, radiating sunshine and joy. Sunshine and joy are two of my favorite things, like chaos and the cosmos.

Phew! Dissensus would have never forgiven me if I had scotched the final countdown of this thread. I'd be like Ovid, exiled to some Black Sea Island of the Internet, destined never to see my homeland again. When's return of the mack coming on?

 

[craner]

81.

Foul Play, 'Finest Illusion (Legal Mix)

Crisp! Euphoric!

Moving Shadow never really matched this perfect composite of future shock and consummate elegance ever again, even with all of the amazing music they put out for a few years (not even E-Z Rollers! ❌)

 

[craner]

82.

Rufige Kru, 'Terminator 2 Remix'

Picked this up in a fantastic second hand record shop in Swansea called More Music (now gone sadly) run by an aging Ozric Tentacles fan. Found this in the "techno bin" and snatched it for £3!!!! This was only one year after it had come out and clearly, again, the music fans of Swansea had no idea what they had (I got 6 Reinforced 12"s that day, including the classic Manix 'Oblivion' EP, just dumped by somebody as if it was nothing. Can only say, thank you, long lost fool!)

Goldie, yeah OK. But this is still one of the most intense and original pieces of music I have ever heard.

 

[craner]

When's return of the mack coming on?

Who knows, maybe it will be No. 100?

 

[sadmanbarty]

only 20 left, i don't want it to end

remember we have the rest of the craner canon to do. top 20 essays. top 50 books. top 100 films.

there's tons more coming.

 

[Corpsey]

Yeah, 100 will have flown past, which goes to show that he can do another 100 very very easily.

 

[craner]

83.

Ed Rush, Trace & Nico, 'Droid'

I love this short period of No-U-Turn. In hindsight I don't associate it with the dead-end, dry shit that came after it and killed the music dead. I don't hold this responsible. Their sound was unique: hollow, hard, dramatic.

This is not one of the best from that short period, but it's still huge and oxygen-swallowing and I wanted to pay tribute to my longest-term and most hardly-fought Dissensus adversary (going back to 2005), Droid. This one is for you, my Celtic brother. Iran never got invaded by Bush, did it?

 

[sadmanbarty]

Dissensus UK Drill Sergeant Barty

well chuffed with that

 

[craner]

84.

KMA, 'Blue Kards'

The jungle-garage hinterland. Getting thoroughly fed up of DRUM AND BASS, and reading about what was going on in London (I was in Leeds by now reading Baudelaire and J K Huysmans outside of my Eng. Lit. degree) I had to seek it out hard. Maybe to be honest about it I should post Scott Garcia here (and as I write I am tempted too) because it was the first Speed Garage track I brought and thought, yes definitely time to move on. But this is the next record I got and it stands up for sheer weirdness, and simultaneous twilight/new thing vibes. Something big was being spawned here. It still sounds anomalous, though, like it belongs to nothing other than London's internal musical ecology. Which is The World.

 

[craner]

85.

Strickly Dubz, 'Realise'

Another late YouTube discovery, never heard this at the time, if I had I think I would have lost my mind, it's so good. I remember vaguely perusing the old UK Dance forum in 1999 and someone said they had been buzzing on E to garage, which was weird because it seemed to be a cocaine and champagne and Dolce & Gabbana scene, but when you listen to this sort of thing, you get what they mean. It's Hardcore!