dankrsta

Albums from 10-6 represent a chronological order in which my taste was shaping, and 5-1 albums indicate the power of impact they had on totally redefining it.

10. Madonna - Like a Virgin Give me a break, I was a kid. But it's the reason why I still like that often cheesy 80's pop and electro-pop. Nostalgia and guilty pleasure.

9. U2 - The Joshua Tree (1987) My first rock album I listened from the beginning to the end. Even greater nostalgic reasons.

8. The Doors - Waiting for the Sun (1968) This introduced me to the music of 60's and 70's. These songs were unreal for me at the time, and I spend a whole period of my life listening only to this period of music. (Led Zeppelin were my other favorite at the time)

7. Pink Floyd - Ummagumma (1969) When I first heard "Careful with That Axe, Eugene" and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" every hair on my body was up. Because of this early period of Pink Floyd, I will always have a soft spot for psychedelic and cosmic rock.

6. Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters (1982) I rediscovered punk, hard-core, punk-rock. I fell in love with its simplicity, energy and directness to the point that I started to hate all those progressive bends from the 70's I used to listen.

5. Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures (1979) I started to really listen to the exiting and rich world of this New Wave period, post-punk and 'dark-wave'.

4. Kraftwerk - Radio-Aktivitat (1975) Made me appreciate electronic music and indirectly got me into kraut-rock and industrial. Radioaktivität is such a magical song.

3. Jessica Bailiff - Even In Silence (1998) has everything I love the most about post-rock, seemingly simple but so many layers beneath the surface.
Cat Power - Moon Pix (1998) I couldn't decide which one I love more, this or Jessica Bailiff, so I included both. This album has a personal meaning for me.

2. Swans - Holy Money (1986) This was my introduction to Swans. It was the darkest, most personal and the most self-loathing music I've ever heard. This kind of avantgarde, but at the same time very personal, dramatic, passionate and honest music is very important to me. But still, my personal favorite from Gira is SKIN-Shame,Humility,Revenge (1988)

1. Sonic Youth - EVOL (1986) I got into Sonic Youth through this album. It opened a whole world of alternative and avantgarde music I wasn't even aware of. It taught me to actively listen to music, made me passionately search for and discover different kinds of artists. It was a revelation. The music itself didn't quite sound like rock although it had that energy and directness, guitars didn't sound like guitars, it wasn't like anything I've heard before. What made the greatest impact on me was a kind of strange duality, some interplay of dark and bright tones, of heaviness and lightness, of building and breaking, order and chaos (sometimes in the same tone), beauty and ugliness and I've never found it in other bands to that effect. This album still remains one of my all time favorites.