20 albums celebrating 20 years in 2017
A toast to 1997
Squarepusher 'Hard Normal Daddy'
Oddities are something Warp Records prides itself on and there's been plenty churned out by Squarepusher since he made his label debut in 1996 with the 'Port Rhombus' EP. He expanded on the experimental jungle hyperactivity of that with '97 follow-up 'Hard Normal Daddy', his first album for the imprint. It's impossible to pin it to one genre (it's quite hard to do that for any Warp album, TBH) but jazz and jungle flavours definitely show face on the menu. It's perfect for a pick-me-up thanks to energetic injections from 'Rustic Raver' and 'Vic Acid', but also brief downtime moments through 'Papalon'. It's one to take your mind away from the real world, throwing you into some sort of musical fairground for adults.
The Chemical Brothers 'Dig Your Own Hole'
The Chemical Brothers debut album ‘Exit Planet Dust’ introduced the world to their unique blend of broken beats and psychedelic synths. Follow-up ‘Dig Your Own Hole’ kicked the world in the face with them. Kicking off with the bruising and seminal ‘Block Rocking Beats’, the album was a masterclass in hammering breakbeats and distorted cowboy basslines that ended with the duo’s trippy Brit-pop epic ‘The Private Psychadelic Reel’. Noel Gallagher and Beth Orton both featured on the album that spawned five singles.
