Basilisk's Essential Selections

[Basilisk 48]

Hello everyone,

I would like to present a new project I have been working on; a vast archive of (mostly psytrance) releases that I personally recommend: Basilisk's Essential Selections.

Please read the introduction; it explains a lot about my intentions. In a nutshell, this little project provides a "big picture" overview of psytrance and electronic music history as illustrated by the releases themselves (and according to my personal taste, of course). It is not meant to be an authoritative guide to the classics and you won't find all your favourite oldies listed. This isn't purely a retrospective project either; eventually I intend to provide recommendations all the way up to the current year. 

Comments are welcome! And enjoy the guide... hopefully it provides you with a different perspective on psytrance and electronic music history.

Edited December 29, 2019 by Basilisk
Updated links for 2019 :)

[Ormion 426]

Wow great!

[faze 1]

Very nice work. Easy to navigate, and fun to browse the list.

 

Thanks!

[mars 146]

Very nice work. Easy to navigate, and fun to browse the list.

 

Thanks!

Oh yes great!! Superb work (and good selections imo).

[Ormion 426]

It would be even better if you had add some comment of yours about every release

[Oopie 166]

I agree with the picks for the most part. Some good stuff is missing - then again taste is subjective. I also reckon you've included some pretty average (mainly comps) cds there but... nitpicking! this is good effort all in all.

[Insejn 63]

Very nice but oh, you've missed so many. But then again it's your personal taste.

[Darkarbiter 1]

It would be even better if you had add some comment of yours about every release

Each of the cds links to his review of it.

[Ormion 426]

Each of the cds links to his review of it.

Oh, yes some of them does. Some others link to the discogs page, didn't see that.

[Anoebis 432]

Nice list! I agree with almost all cds from <2000!

[RTP 79]

nice list ... this is cool

 

although physically I only own 13 items of that whole lot (listened to more though)

[trancedigital 8]

Basilisk shines again. Excellent addition to an already great site.

Long live Ektoplazm!

 

:clapping:

 

As I am going through the selections, I am seeing that you have labeled the entire 470+ releases as ESSENTIAL collections.

What releases amongst this archive will qualify according to you as MUST listens before I die?

In other words are you considering rating the CDs and then give your readers the option of TOP 10 or TOP 5 for each year or something like that. This will help folks who have limited funds to purchase ALL releases.

 

Thank you!

[abasio 231]

Very nicely set out Good suggestions

[Darkarbiter 1]

Basilisk shines again. Excellent addition to an already great site.

Long live Ektoplazm!

 

:clapping:

 

As I am going through the selections, I am seeing that you have labeled the entire 470+ releases as ESSENTIAL collections.

What releases amongst this archive will qualify according to you as MUST listens before I die?

In other words are you considering rating the CDs and then give your readers the option of TOP 10 or TOP 5 for each year or something like that. This will help folks who have limited funds to purchase ALL releases.

 

Thank you!

A lot of the cds link to his review of them.

[trancedigital 8]

A lot of the cds link to his review of them.

Yes I know that. But it still would be helpful to see a rating system in place. Reviews give opinion on individual CDs and does not classify the entire collection per se.

[Basilisk 48]

Thanks everyone for the great comments and feedback!

 

trancedigital said:

As I am going through the selections, I am seeing that you have labeled the entire 470+ releases as ESSENTIAL collections.

What releases amongst this archive will qualify according to you as MUST listens before I die?

In other words are you considering rating the CDs and then give your readers the option of TOP 10 or TOP 5 for each year or something like that. This will help folks who have limited funds to purchase ALL releases.

I tried my hand at a top 5 by year; check out the new "hall of fame" feature. I certainly haven't made my mind up about what really belongs there and can guarantee the selections will change... but it's a start!

I think I will also begin to write small histories for each year to describe what was going on and also highlight a few releases that play into the larger narrative... but that may take a little while. As always, it is a work in progress...

[faze 1]

I tried my hand at a top 5 by year; check out the new "hall of fame" feature.

Just an FYI. Hall of Fame choice doesn't show up at http://www.ektoplazm.com/projects/essential-selections/ link, but it does show if you click one of the years from that page.

[Basilisk 48]

Hello everyone! I'm bumping this ancient thread to announce that I'm reviving my Essential Selections project on my new DJing and music fandom blog, From Earth Orbit. Some of you might remember the original version of this project but this new version is much more ambitious. I now include more styles, a consequence of having developed a much broader taste in music, as well as brief descriptions of each release. I just published the first entry, a list of what I consider to be the best and most noteworthy albums of 1995. Hopefully I'll be publishing additional entries throughout the coming years

[juril 36]

Glad to see the revival of the Essential Selections list; when I got into psytrance in 2010 it was of great help.

Also, thanks for the great mixes over at From Earth Orbit.

[technosomy 261]

i agree with all on that list, and not to many would add really, love how you threw in the likes of chemical brothers and speedy j, leftfield
personally twisted is my number 1, but on the other hand got me thinking about that production

[psychedelic chipmunk 81]

For me, Forever after #1, Twisted #2. I am really surprised, shocked to see Juno Reactor at #1. It's a really nice list, thanks for all the amazing work, I can only imagine how long this must have taken, I found some albums that I didn't know about, amazingly!

[thefreewave 1]

Glad you are rebooting your series on your blog. Looks very nice! Hard to get excited with just 1995 up BUT we know there's a lot coming and you're already adding a lot more detail then just 5 picks per year. Really look forward to this!

[AstralSphinx 64]

Makes for a good read while re-listening to some old classics, as well as discovering stuff I've somehow managed to miss out on before.