Anthems 90s

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Does it devalue this scathing Britpop anthem that its subject – the girl from Greece with a thirst for knowledge – allegedly went on to marry Marxist economist and maverick finance minister Yanis Varoufakis? A melancholy but grooving ballad scattered with samples, ‘Unfinished Sympathy’ was heralded as a stunning song on release and still holds its own today. History has boiled it down to grunge and gangsta rap on one end, boy bands and Britney Spears at the other, but it’s the stuff in the middle and on the fringes that makes the period difficult to sum up. Released on Detroit's Underground Resistance in 1999, 'Jaguar' off the debut 12" from The Aztec Mystic, better known today as DJ Rolando, is hypnotic to its core.

M.’ is like a thesis statement for Wu’s entire philosophy, steeped in kung-fu geekery, RZA's game-changing beats, and the whiplash between Method Man’s smooth flow and ODB’s feral slurring. Released on his Relief Records imprint in 1995, the sheer influence of Green Velvet's 'Flash' can be best understood by looking at the immense number of underground icons who have remixed the song. Lena Dunham’s Girls, Pussy Riot, Rookie magazine, Taylor Swift’s feminism: the seeds of all these things were sown by early-’90s activist punk bands like Bratmobile, Huggy Bear and Bikini Kill. It may not be your preferred tune while coming up on an acid trip, but none the less, it's a intensely minimal and well paced burn that builds from the bassline up with a sinister perfection. It’s almost hard to believe, but years before DP started jamming with Pharrell and soundtracking catwalk shows they produced a whole album of blissful, banging house in ‘Homework’, the jewel in the crown of which was "Da Funk.The result in this case is a lazy, hazy, luscious slice of ambient hip hop – a stoner’s sonic paradise, if you will – that you could happily leave on repeat without getting bored. In the late '90s, while the UK was enjoying the genius of acts such as The Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim and The Prodigy, the US was beginning to throw its full weight behind the rave pioneers that are The Crystal Method. Mixmag will use the information you provide to send you the Mixmag newsletter using Mailchimp as our marketing platform.

Culture Beat, Ce Ce Peniston and Baby D as well as anthems that depict the explosion of house music in the mid 90s with tracks from Livin Joy, Haddaway, The Bucketheads, The Nightcrawlers, The Original and Robin S. Assisted by Mercury Rev’s Jonathan Donohue and borrowing from ’60s rock, world music and jazz as well as house, ‘The Private Psychedelic Reel’ is an incredible surge of energy that hardly lets up for almost ten minutes. Like the second coming of ABBA, Sweden’s Ace of Base exploded onto the global scene with the weirdly specific ‘All That She Wants’, but it’s the ultra-catchy, enduring ‘The Sign’ that opened up the world’s eyes to the country’s pop prowess and dominated the US charts for 1994.

The mix of chunky breakbeats, sludgy electronics and wide-eyed carnage was the perfect rhythmical remedy to those who fancied a dab of dance music (and those who wanted to find out what the hell rave culture might have been about), but just couldn’t get to grips with the eight-minute Chicago house workouts of the time.