Being someone that doens't know a damned thing about electronic music...

What album should I download first to get a good feel for the genre?


Something to keep in mind is:
You want to hook me (nothing insanely abstract to start off with).

well there are many different styles within the electronic genre...

Drum n' Bass or Jungle:

Goldie's 'Timeless' or Photek's 'Modus Operandi'

IDM:

Aphex Twin's 'I care because you do', Squarepusher's 'Hard Normal Daddy' (also drill n' bass), or perhaps Autechre's 'Tri Repetae'

Ambient:

Look up some of the old Namlook material on his FAX label. if you can find it, try Namlook/H.I.A. 'S.H.A.D.O.' or something mid 90's from him.

some other albums you might want to try:

Arovane 'Tides'
Speedy J 'A Shocking Hobby'
Gridlock 'Trace'
The KLF 'Chill out'
Kenny Larkin 'Azimuth'


That should cover a decent variety of things.


...and I know some of these may seem a bit too common for the majority of the electronic music posters here, I just feel that these are great albums to start with. Nothing terribly abstract.

if you could name 2 albums for me to check out,

what would they be?

so i suppose you want a condensed version

It depends on what type of mood you are in, but let me name two anyway:

Boards of Canada 'Music has the Right to Children'
Photek 'Modus Operandi'

If you don't like those two, i'd definitely check out:

Squarepusher 'Hard Normal Daddy'
Aphex Twin 'I care because you do'

i'll 2nd the mentions for 'music has the right to children' and 'i care because you do'

I'm surprised you didn't mention 'Add N to X'

also, another good one to start out with is:

Amon Tobin 'Permutation'

yeah i was thinking about 'avant hard' and i'd recommend 'supermodified' as a first taste of amon tobin's stuff. although permutation has really grown on me since i first got it.

but ICBYD and MHTRTC are just classics in the genre hehehe they can't be denied

Trust me, you have to check out these compilations. A really good selection of classic electronic hits.

Various Artists Wipeout XL <--- Essential material
Various Artists Hackers Soundtrack

Squarepusher? Amon Tobin? Autechre? For someone who doesn't know anything about electronic music, listening to those might turn him off. I think he should start out with some lite techno or big beat.

I know plenty of people who are not into electronic music except for Amon Tobin and some other Ninja Tune stuff. I think the "real-sounding" quality of it makes it more acceptable for those who are usually into rock.

you've got a point, but I'm sure everyone's heard 'club' music at least once in their lives, and many tend to stereotype all electronic music as sounding like that, so I wanted to stray away from that, even though I did mention Kenny Larkin's 'Azimuth', which is probably one of my favorite techno albums of all time.

...and if you haven't listened to the Chemical Brothers or Prodigy by now, that may be a good start as well.