While re-listening to Bitches Brew tonight it occurred to me, there’s never been anything that sounds quite like it since, and there never will be again.
What are your favorite unicorn albums?
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I’m loving these comments, so many great albums! And a ton I’ve never hear of and will need to check out.
I have a few of these, but two that really jump out at me are
- The Inevitable Rise And Liberation Of Niggy Tardust - Saul Williams
- Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By - Lovage
- Common People - William Shatner
These are albums that you’ve just gotta let play.
e: can’t believe I forgot Shatner!
Lovage is actually quite similar to instrumental hiphop/breaks that was released on Ninja Tune in the nineties. DJ Food, The Cinematic Orchestra, Wagon Christ, Coldcut, that kind of stuff.
Love that Lovage baby. That album is a gem.
The Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come … blending melodic, hardcore, jazz, and electronic into one punk album
Salmon - Paco Drop the Chicken … Very eclectic rap / punk, beat-oriented with lots of changes. A personal favorite “local” band.
Endtroducing by DJ Shadow
It’s his inaugural album and there’s never been anything quite like it. Even his follow up albums, with his unique sound, feel a bit different than this one (not in a bad way, but I don’t think they meet your unicorn criteria).
Also, I think this easily goes in my top ten albums list.
I never heard of this artist or album before, so far I’m 1/4 through the listening and digging it, thanks for posting
One that comes to mind is Hella - Hold Your Horse Is
There have been ‘Math Rock’ bands before and since but these guys were on another level IMO, especially the drummer.
I would also say anything by Melt Banana.
Yuma
Geneva jacuzzi - Lamaze. I challenge you to find something more unique.
Anything by King Gizzard & The Lizzard Wizard
I mean, I like kgatlw, but they’re not that unique
Most albums by Mamaleek. They change up the sound on each record, and still stay unlike anyone else. Check out ‘Diner Coffee’ and ‘Vida Blue’.
I wanted to add some of my faves!
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Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra
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William Onyeabor - Who is William Onyeabor? - An enigmatic and reclusive Nigerian funk jazz wildman who was prolific and fairly popular in Nigeria in the 1970s. Let’s Fall in Love is so innovative!
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Miles Okazaki - The Sky Below - Just brilliantly innovative avante-garde jazz and guitar. I was struck when I first heard this album
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Smoke - Everything - A group of friends and musicians quietly got together in the heart of San Francisco to record this mysterious, challenging and psychedelic jazz trip. The whole album is a journey and should be heard at once, but if you just want a taste try this timestamp
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The Flying Luttenbachers - Destroy All Music - The song Fist Through Glass is the song that got me into jazz! I heard it on a late night radio show called Brave New Waves while coming down from mushrooms lol
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Let’s put in Joker’s Daughter - The Last Laugh. The track Lucid particulary is exemplary of what puts the corn on this uni. A Danger Mouse joint.
Skinny Puppy - Last Rights
Stereolab - Dots and Loops
Aesop Rock - Bazooka Tooth
GWAR - Scumdogs of the Universe
Herbie Hancock - Headhunters
I live under a rock, and I live in my own temporal warp field of mostly avante garde jazz works from 1940s-1990s
So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for sharing this, I am loving the hell out of it!
This is one of my favorite albums ever.
If anyone was wondering, I believe nearly the whole album is made up of samples.
The Avalanches have a ton of other stuff. If you are a fan of Since I Left You, definitely check out the Gimix version which starts similar but has a lot of different tracks in it (including much more famous songs) https://youtu.be/X7i8bIhJY8c
They’re by far one of my favorite artists. And you are correct. The band has claimed the album has no original recordings at all. And something like over 3000 samples. I still don’t even know how that was possible to do back in the mid 90s when they were making it. They’re other two albums are also great, each one with a different vibe, although they started relying less on samples because of how much it complicated things to ask for so many rights to so many different tracks.
reporting back; this album is lit.
In particular “Since I left you” and “Frontier Psychiatrist” are both jams.
Igorrr - Spirituality and Distortion.
Latest album is great too. And the OG whourkr stuff
One classic one I forgot
Art of noise - The seduction of claude debussy
Phenomenal blend of styles to create something truly unique.
I’ve been trying to find something similar to Holly Herndon’s Proto, but haven’t succeeded yet.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWGJxgOf-Z3CW7tJoN9f4lzIf8CEuMgne
Would you an everyone else reading this comment, please go into that playlist, find the unreleased video, click and Report it. I’ve been trying for 2 years… that crypto spam has infested 10’s of thousands of full-albumn playlists.
edit adding praying hands JPG to hopefully get eyes on this. This crypto spam has been driving me mental for years and I can’t understand how YT’s automated tools haven’t scrubbed it from the platform
