(Drone Recs Plz) William Basinski LPs Ranked
I know this may come as a shock but William Basinski has released several albums that are better than The Disintegration Loops. Below is my personal ranking of his studio albums with a little blurb for each. ***IMPORTANT: Half the purpose of this list is to get drone/tape loop/ambient recs. Since Basinski's discography varies in style (yes, really), I'm hoping some aficionados may be able to provide recs based on my preference for the simpler, emotionally resonant material. I get down with dark 'n creepy stuff too but that sort of thing is much more hit or miss for me. I'm pretty familiar with Celer but feel free to rec heavyweights/classics otherwise. Thanks in advance! |
| 1 |  | William Basinski
El Camino Real
I listened to this album for hours during post-op recovery while experiencing the worst pain I've felt in my entire life. Strangely it's not triggering for me to listen to nowadays (at least, not in an overtly uncomfortable sense). Anyway, an easy go-to for my number one. It always delivers. |
| 2 |  | William Basinski
A Red Score in Tile
Incredibly underrated! Delicate, but massive. Pulls me right in. |
| 3 |  | William Basinski
Cascade
Some of the best piano ambient out there. |
| 4 |  | William Basinski
The Disintegration Loops II
The looping horns and what ends up sounding like a drum line falling over in slow motion are at just the right amount of decay here. This one sounds so sad to me, perhaps the most explicitly emotional of the four and therefore my favorite of the series. |
| 5 |  | William Basinski
Watermusic
Magical. |
| 6 |  | William Basinski
Vivian & Ondine
Comes after El Camino chronologically, and is a bit of a retread, but has character all its own nonetheless. Sounds a lot like the cover art. |
| 7 |  | William Basinski
92982
Basinski is at his best when the repetition is uninterrupted, but here his music still succeeds in variations that are cut up into pieces. This is my favorite of such releases. |
| 8 |  | William Basinski
The Disintegration Loops I
The first release of the Disintegration Loops series and what gives William Basinski his notoriety. I put a fair few things above this but it deserves the hype. Well, maybe some of it. Him performing it at the 9/11 memorial is a bit much, I think. But what do I know. |
| 9 |  | William Basinski
Watermusic II
Essentially the second half of Watermusic; the higher pitched tones break through more, and more often in this one, making it a little bit less subtle and therefore relegated to a position behind Watermusic but it's still tops. |
| 10 |  | William Basinski
The Deluge
“Cascade” as heard through tape loop decay effect. Still beautiful, but I prefer the OG. |
| 11 |  | William Basinski
Melancholia
The perfect balance between his Red Score in Tile and Lamentations sounds. |
| 12 |  | William Basinski
The Disintegration Loops III
Very beautiful but dlp 4 is too distorted/decayed for me, prefer dlp 5. |
| 13 |  | William Basinski
The Disintegration Loops IV
Gets points for rounding out the series in style. |
| 14 |  | William Basinski
Nocturnes
Another that I didn't love at first but grew on me. I still can't really finish it without wanting to switch to another of his releases, though. |
| 15 |  | William Basinski
A Shadow in Time
This is awesome and right in the style that I prefer but it's just a bit too intense for my liking. When I'm in the mood for something drone-y to really knock me on my ass, though, this fully delivers. |
| 16 |  | William Basinski
Lamentations
I did not care for this on release but it ended up growing on me quite a bit. As mentioned previously, I don't love it when Basinski chops his music up into tracks and here I feel like even with a good flow, the true power of his music is lost for that reason. Still, a great release and one that continues to grow on me. |
| 17 |  | William Basinski
Variations For Piano And Tape
This grew off of me a bit. His other releases do this kind of thing way better, more memorably, etc.Too short to be effective in the way that I enjoy this kind of music, just doesn't capture me like the others do. The way it ends up fading into obscurity is very cool though, so it gets points for rounding out the series in style. |
| 18 |  | William Basinski
On Time Out of Time
I don't have much to say about this one, but I do think it's slightly underrated. |
| 19 |  | William Basinski
Silent Night
Sometimes this has too much high frequency for me (I believe these are cicadas, or meant to sound like cicadas) but when I'm in the right headspace the juxtaposition of those sounds with the straightforward drone stuff is quite powerful. |
| 20 |  | William Basinski
Variations: A Movement in Chrome Primitive
This has been growing on me. |
| 21 |  | William Basinski
The Garden Of Brokenness
In my opinion, what makes this fella's music so good is the way that the sampled loops fall back on each other to create space and texture. This sounds like a drone piece with subtle piano playing *over* it which just isn't as interesting to me. It's still great though. |
| 22 |  | William Basinski
Shortwavemusic
A neat piece of history but not really what I seek out Basinski for, just too abstract for me. |
| 23 |  | William Basinski
The River
This one just does nothing for me. Sounds like white noise. Not what i'm looking for when I listen to this guy. |
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