The Syndicate

Okay, the cliche musical question:

You're stranded on a desert island and for some reason you only are able to bring 15 albums with you to listen to for the rest of your life (or your iPod is so small you can only fit that amount on there). So what are they? I made a list a few years back; I'll have to think about it myself.

I believe I can post a quick one (assuming studio or live albums only, no compilations)

Yes - Tales from Topographic Oceans
Kansas Somewhere to Elsewhere
Echolyn - Mei
Boston Boston
Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
Ritual The Hemulic Voluntary Band
dredg El Cielo
Miles Davis Kind of Blue
Dream Theater Metropolis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory
The Decemberists The Crane Wife
Genesis The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Jethro Tull The Minstrel in the Gallery
Echolyn echolyn (2012)
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy
Wyclef Jean - The Carnival

Hmm...

Agalloch - The Mantle
Yugen - Labirinto D'Acqua
VDGG - H To He...
King Crimson - Discipline
Soft Machine - Third
F Zappa - You Can't Do That...Vol 2
Henry Cow - Western Culture
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift You Skinny Fists...
Matching Mole - Little Red Record
Hatfield & The North - S/t
Skeleton Crew - Learn To Talk/The Country Of The Blinds
Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick
Soft Machine - Vol 1/Vol 2 (compilation...which I'm counting as one :P)
J Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Art Zoyd - Faust


This was terribly difficult and would probably come up with a different tomorrow.

Awesome lists! Mine is subject to change as well, but here it goes...

Rush - Moving Pictures
John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Miles Davis - Bitches Brew
Yes - Close to the Edge
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
King Crimson - Discipline
Brian Eno - Another Green World
Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Global Communication - 76:14
Sigur Ros - ( )
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica
The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground and Nico

^Great list. I know and love all of those albums. Didn't know you liked Global Communication that much. :o

Anyways:
My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
Kayo Dot – Choirs of the Eye
maudlin of the Well – Bath
Boards of Canada – Music Has the Right to Children
Neutral Milk Hotel – In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
Brand New – The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me
DJ Shadow – Endtroducing...
Unexpect – Fables of the Sleepless Empire
Pixies – Doolittle
Portishead – Dummy
Bright Eyes – Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
Massive Attack – Mezzanine
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
Sigur Ros – Agaetis Byrjun

Thank you sir! And yes, our taste is rather parallel. I love Global Communication; that album you could almost say is my go-to ambient electronic album (excluding Another Green World, which is half-ambient or whatever), which says a lot.

Your list is very solid as well. I can't believe I don't have BoC, Pixies or even Henry Cow in my list, but it is what it is.

Yeah, I was surprised not to see Unrest. Ha.

DisgruntledPorcupine wrote:Yeah, I was surprised not to see Unrest. Ha.

I have a really hard time deciding between all 4 of their albums. Honestly, one of them should be in there, I can't make my mind up as to which one, lol.

This is always extremely difficult to do. Here's my list. I took the desert island idea seriously, so this is not necessarily a list of my 15 favorite albums, but I tried to represent different genres so I wouldn't get sick of them, and more uplifting music than I might otherwise choose to keep me sane. I don't see myself listening to a lot of metal or sound collage on the island.

In no particular order:

1. Jethro Tull - A Passion Play
2. King Crimson - In The Court of the Crimson King
3. Brian Eno - Before and After Science
4. The Million Dollar Quartet
5. The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
6. Elvis Costello - This Year's Model
7. Bill Nelson's Red Noise - Sound on Sound
8. Penguin Cafe Orchestra
9. Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn
10. Captain Beefheart - Mirror Man
11. Dire Straits - Love Over Gold
12. Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue
13. The Kinks - Face to Face
14. Yma Sumac - Voice of the Xtabay
15. Hector Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique

^Red Noise? Did you not discover that recently or am I confusing you with someone else?

Snow Dog wrote:^Red Noise? Did you not discover that recently or am I confusing you with someone else?

I've had it for a couple of years, but I've been a fan of Nelson's work with Be Bop Deluxe for a long time.

Bump.

David Sylvian - Secrets of the Beehive
Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
Kate Bush - The Dreaming
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
Captain Beefheart - Trout Mask Replica
Genesis - Foxtrot
Jethro Tull - Heavy Horses
King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic
Tangerine Dream - Zeit
Merzbow - Sphere
Ornette Coleman - Free Jazz
Einstürzende Neubauten - Zeichnungen des Patienten O. T.
Swans - Children of God
Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - No More Shall We Part

Absolutely excellent list, Vomps. I had to leave some of those off my list, such as Children of God, Larks' Tongues, Swordfishtrombones, and Heavy Horses, that are just very, very good albums.

In reality, I think instead of desert island albums we should have desert island iPods. And that such iPods can hold an Exabyte of music. :P But then that wouldn't really lead to an interesting topic.

Don't think I'll be listing every song I listen to, LOL.

Vomps' list is indeed stellar. Glad to see Merzbow make an appearance and Sphere is certainly one of his better efforts.

I'd pick Metalvelodrome for Merzbow personally. 4 hours of him at IMO his best.

These are not in order. I also made myself not put any duplicate artists. I could easily fill this with all Bloc Party and New Pornographers albums.

01. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm. This is my favorite album.
02. New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
03. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary
04. Nirvana - Nevermind
05. Rolling Stones - Beggars Banquet
06. Elvis Costello - My Aim is True (I was named after one of the songs!)
07. The Format - Dog Problems
08. Arcade Fire - Funerals
09. Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War
10. Shout Out Louds - Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
11. Kele Okereke - The Boxer
12. Architecture in Helsinki - In Case We Die
13. Bright Eyes - The People's Key
14. The Decemberists - Picaresque
15. Passion Pit - Manners

Close, but did not make the list: Neutral Milk Hotel, Bright Eyes, Rogue Wave, The Specials, The Pogues. I know I must have forgotten someone.

The People's Key is your favourite Bright Eyes album? Interesting. It's my least, heh.

DisgruntledPorcupine wrote:The People's Key is your favourite Bright Eyes album? Interesting. It's my least, heh.

Part of it is because I like "Shell Games" so much. It sounded so fresh to me. I like the evolution Conor has made in the last decade or so, probably more so than any other artist/band. Don't get me wrong, I love Digital Ash and Cassadaga.

DisgruntledPorcupine wrote:I'd pick Metalvelodrome for Merzbow personally. 4 hours of him at IMO his best.

Ooooooh this looks interesting.

Mongoose wrote:

DisgruntledPorcupine wrote:The People's Key is your favourite Bright Eyes album? Interesting. It's my least, heh.

Part of it is because I like "Shell Games" so much. It sounded so fresh to me. I like the evolution Conor has made in the last decade or so, probably more so than any other artist/band. Don't get me wrong, I love Digital Ash and Cassadaga.

Yeah I still like the album. Just not as much I suppose. And Shell Games is great. :o My favourite is Lifted though which I just realized I included in my group! Definitely don't intend on changing that either, haha.

Time to resurrect this thread.

Here's my current answer:

Air - Moon Safari
Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique
Brian Eno - Another Green World
The Cure - Disintegration
David Bowie - Low
Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand
The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
Rush - Moving Pictures
Sigur Ros - ( )
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
Talk Talk - Spirit of Eden
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
A Tribe Called Quest - The Low End Theory
XTC - Skylarking

Pretty much impossible to decide though... and this would likely change on a daily basis.

As to how my answer has changed in over 3 years...

Laurie Anderson - United States Live
Aphrodite's Child - 666
Ludwig van Beethoven - Piano Concertos (Zimerman, Bernstein, Vienna Philharmonic)
Claude Debussy - Preludes (Krystian Zimerman)
Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 7 (something good, probably Celibidache)
Chick Corea & Bobby McFerrin - Play
Esbjorn Svensson Trio - Leucocyte
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
music by Janacek
King Crimson - In The Court of the Crimson King
Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn
Pink Floyd - P.U.L.S.E.: The Video
Sergei Prokofiev - Piano Concerto No. 2 (Kissin, Temirkanov, ??)
Domenico Scarlatti - Sonatas (Ivo Pogorelich)
Alfred Schnittke's Viola Concerto
Franz Schubert's Winterreise (most probably with Fischer-Dieskau)
Klaus Schulze - Mirage
Sigur Ros - ( )
Tangerine Dream - Ricochet and Zeit

probably should have more jazz in this, in which case Keith Jarrett, Eric Dolphy

Italicized albums are just honorable mentions.

Studio Albums
Bjork - Medulla
Boris - Amplifier Worship
Cardiacs - On Land and In the Sea
Dun - Eros
Earth - Pentastar: In the Style of Demons
Eider stellaire - III
Enslaved - Vikingligr veldi
Eskaton - 4 Visions
Grimes - Halfaxa
Haniwa-Chan - Kanashibari
The Microphones - Mount Eerie
Organized Konfusion - Organized Konfusion
Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Ruins - Stonehenge
Ruins - Burning Stone
Serge Bringolf - Strave
Sergey Kuryokhin - Sparrow Oratorium
Skullflower - IIIrd Gatekeeper
Univers Zero - Univers Zero / 1313
U Totem - U Totem

Live Albums
Fishmans - 98.12.28
Magma - Retrospective Vol. 1 & 2
Magma - BBC 1974 Londres

Compilations
Associates - Fourth Drawer Down
cLOUDDEAD - cLOUDDEAD
Germs - (M.I.A.) The Complete Anthology

Cool list, Zebra.

Thanks llama, I give credit to PA for many of those discoveries.