Exit Planet Dust

I've heard some songs in isolation, but never a full album of theirs. I loved how it flowed into one superset.

Like most of the electronic music on this list, I think this would be cool at a club, rave or maybe if you’re on drugs. I don't know. It's not my jam otherwise.

Enjoyable.

No huge bangers, just pretty decent throughout

Now for my 4th electronica album in a row, Exit Planet Dust has easily got to be the best of them. That electronic style of music that groups like The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers do are always my favorite kind of electronic music (mainly because i am a metalhead and it sounds most like that). The entire album was just a really fun trip of some energetic beats, cool melodies and all sorts of little things that made me wanna keep moving along throughout this album. It did get a little repetitive sometimes but the songs never went on for longer than they should so it was never a huge issue for me. Nothing left i can say, its just a fantastic album that's easily among my top favorites in the genre.
Best Song: In Dust We Trust
Worst Song: Song To The Siren

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5.

If you listened to “Dig Your Own Hole”, you’ll find that this is much of the same, but to my ears, it just clicked a little better. The danceability still isn’t quite there compared to a Fatboy Slim or Prodigy album, but it felt a little closer. These are more industrially driven big-beat tracks, so it just boils down to enjoyment of a little more of a tinny / metallic sound. As with “Dig Your Own Hole”, this does have a number of little things that kinda pile up over the course of the album; a few sections of each track taking a bit too long to transition from point A to point B, & occasionally really harping on a repetition in a way that left me unsatisfied until the drops/transitions occurred. This album’s strength over “Dig Your Own Hole” is the lack of ‘monopolization’ I mentioned; it still happens at times, but it’s usually to service the transitions between tracks, so it feels seamless comparatively.

It’s also a much better paced album, in part due to the shorter runtime & the transitions. Granted, I still think this album could’ve been tightened up a bit more, particularly on some outros & a couple of tracks where the progression felt stagnant, but I chalk part of that up to being an early big beat album. This does feel like it’s trying to do stuff in the genre that wouldn’t be perfected for another 3 or 4 years, so I can’t fault the progression for feeling more stagnant. The pulse of how to really master the science of lingering tension & a good beat drop just wasn’t there yet, and while The Chemical Brothers didn’t totally figure it out by “Dig Your Own Hole”, they set the stage for other acts of the era to do so brilliantly. You certainly don’t get to something like “The Fat of the Land” without this album setting a strong base with some strong bass.

Ultimately, it just clicked well to my ears. The floor is a 3 if the stagnancy is a bigger issue, or if the techno-y pulse to it all just feels too overused throughout the album (for what it’s worth, I do think this could’ve used a little more traditional instrumentation), but I just found myself in a much better groove here. When this thing is rolling, it just feels really good, and especially so for 1995. Hence, a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5.

As mentioned in my review of The Prodigy's 1994 album, "Music for the Jilted Generation", electronic music is a difficult genre to properly rate. This is an electronic music record from that same era with a similar style. Unlike the Prodigy, there is little palpable emotion here; it's techno for the masses. A lot of it is surprisingly hooky, and there's some definite efforts at songwriting. However, electronic music isn't really my thing, and this album isn't particularly great even within the boundaries of the genre as a whole. It works to set a vibe or as party music, but it isn't good to just listen to on a casual basis. Overall, it's an admirable but not stellar effort in a genre that is far from easy to properly listen to and rate.

Remember those “You Wouldn’t Download a Car” anti-piracy ads? This sounds just like that except it’s 49 minutes longer.

Pretty decent, inoffensive electronica. Reminds me of The Prodigy, but not quite as good or interesting.

"Leave Home" is a great opener, and I think it hits a decent groove in the second half of the album as well. "Chico's Groove" and "One Too Many Mornings" both change things up nicely with slightly chiller soundscapes, "Playground for a Wedgeless Firm" has a cool crime scene soundtrack vibe, and as a fan of Beth Orton, her feature on "Alive Alone" was a nice surprise. Unfortunately, tracks 2-6 drag it down quite a bit for me, lending to a bit of that "trapped at a party I can't escape" feeling.

2.5/5

Listening to Exit Planet Dust is like a throwback to the mid-to-late 90s Big Beat era, it's a really cool starting point for where electronic music was going. For a first album, it's amazing how well it all fits together and the songs flow like a DJ set, going from the fast-paced beats in the first half to a chill vibe at the end. It's great for working or driving, with those repetitive, hypnotic synths and bass that get you into it without being annoying.

Yeah, some of the sounds are a bit old school now, and some tracks can blend together so you're never sure where it begins of ends, but you can tell it's well made. It's got that balance between clean pop production and a gritty rave feel. From the solid kick off of "Leave Home" and "In Dust We Trust" to "Alive Alone", it's both a trip down memory lane and a solid groove that still gets me moving, even after all these years.

I've listened to this twice now and it's kind of a blur, still. It moves from one tune to the next without much fuss, picking you up at the beginning then putting you back down at the end. Not for LISTENING listening, if you know what I mean.

The heaviness of the riffs are appealing, and they don't make you think too hard about anything. Which is a nice change from a lot of the albums on this list. Thumping EDM that satisfies your need for (mostly) uptempo, repetitive headbangers.

I get the Chemical Brothers and the Dust Brother confused sometimes. And that was BEFORE I even read about the name controversy. I'm not usually a fan of electronic music, but this is so damn good (like the Dust Brothers) I can't help myself. Solid, energetic beats. Precision sample selection and placement. A lot of times I find this music repetitive to exhaustion, but these guys have figured out just how to manipulate things so it never really feels that way. Speaking of repetitive... Damn this is good.

Jeg er ikke så fan av Matrix-musikk, merker jeg. "One Too Many Mornings" minner litt om Air, som jeg liker, men det meste med denne plata liker jeg altså ikke.

Honestly, so far after hearing half of this album I am not too impressed. I love a few of their songs, and they are among the main Big Beat bands, but for me this is not even close to Prodigy, probably 3 stars, but will see after listening to this fully

These albums for me are easy to enjoy, but hard to love. This didn't get boring. It's actually really good at times. I don't know if I would come back to this album to listen as deeply as I did this time, but for good background music, definitely.

I know I'm not the only one who feels like listening to this is like listening to a foreign language. My brain just doesn't process this the same way as it does, say, a guitar and vocal. I might as well be listening to a documentary recording of a city street at midday or a severe thunderstorm in Davenport, Iowa in 1998.

You wouldn’t steal a car type beat

A bit too drawn-out, but pretty interesting beats. I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it, but it lasted way too long.

The Good: We will soon no longer find ourselves on a dusty planet!
The Bad: We’ve traded that one in for a repetitive planet…
The Ugly: Everthing… but the album cover… that picture is pretty sweet.

It’s not bad.
It’s not great either.
However, if I would have to choose EMD then I would go for this one prior to any other many of the other one’s on the list…
Just checked, and Electronic gets a whopping 20 albums on this list… FUCK ME!!!

Shooting this one down the barrel… 3*