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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Magma - Mekanik destruktiw kömmandöh. Magma did a 13(?) Album journey in an alien language
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones - Sea Brazil Banjo jazz 'nuff said. Live in Montreal is insane but not an “album”
Terry Reilly - Persian Surgery Dervishes a legendary improvisation
Keith Jarrett - The Köln Concert Dude is out of his tree. A true legend.
Geneva jacuzzi - Lamaze. I challenge you to find something more unique.
Daft Punk
Discovery
That’s a good unicorn. I think Daft Punk also had Human After All as another unicorn type, very industrial, very unique, often overlooked.
My Life In The Bush of Ghosts by David Byrne and Brian Eno.
Holy shit.
That’s what I was going to write. I don’t think people in 1981 knew what hit them.
The soundtrack for ‘The Catherine Wheel’ that Byrne did around the same time is pretty out there as well. ‘The Red House’ in particular blows me away with what he did with 1981 technology.
The band[s] that jumps out at me when I think unique/original is anything that Les Claypool touches. It’s never just him but he has a knack for finding people with unusual talent to make something different. Even when they are doing covers. For example the Frog Brigade doing Pink Floyd’s Animals.
Tom Waits*
The Pixies*
Portishead*
Kruder & Dorfmeister the K&D Sessions
Massive Attack*
But maybe the most uniquely gifted musician on my list would be Richard David James.
Great call on Waits! I love Step Right Up
Thats a great track. Reminds me of a band I forgot… Morphine.
Came to mention Les myself. Anytime I hear he has released something with another artist is always a surprising treat.
The Prodigy - The Fat of The Land
It’s a one of a kind album. I don’t think the prodigy ever made another album that good. And I don’t think there is anything else out there similar to it. It has its own energy, it’s definitely a unicorn type.
Smack My Bitch Up is insane. They won’t even play it in music venues and bars anymore, sadly :(
The music video was insane!
Yeah. For quite a while I thought this was a best of, given the name too, until I realized it was just a regular album. Definitely their best.
The first album of The Crystal Method also no givese similar vibes.
Cannot believe I forgot this. Absolutely incredible album. Every single tune a banger and such a unique sound.
They absolutely nailed the Zeitgeist with it.
I’d say pretty much anything by Jarre counts.
Absolutely, I just really like the composition of the concert in China, he managed to take songs that are all part of a very specific story, as all the early electronic pioneers were classically trained and wrote albums in movements, and create a new one with them. I tend to not like lives much, but he’s an absolute master as turning each one of them into their own distinct story.
If you’ve never seen the video for the concert in Houston it’s absolutely worth the watch. RIP Ron McNair. Nearly two million people saw it. It blocked the entire highway, and the craziest shit is the vast majority of people there had not a freaking clue who he was. The concert ends and people get interviewed: “what did you think? - I have no idea what the hell I just saw but it was the best fucking thing I’ve ever seen 🤯”
The craziest part is despite holding the records for some of the biggest free concerts on heart, he’s largely forgotten to history, only true connoisseurs and those who were true fans back then remember who he is.
Prince - Sign O the Times
One of the few albums I listen to beginning to end.
Also, Pink Floyd. Pretty much any album, but specifically Dark Side of the Moon or Wish You Were Here.
Check out the 1977 Prince Funk Sessions!
Cake’s first album Fashion Nugget is the kind of unique that we rarely see twice.
Future Shock by Herbie Hancock. Dude released like 25 jazz and funk albums over two decades, then in '83 just drops a hip hop bomb
Also, Dr. John - The Night Tripper. 60s psychedelic New Orleans perfection
Oh my God that’s one of the things I love about Herbie so much! He was not afraid to push himself in new musical directions. He has so many albums in his vast discography that changed the musical landscape forever.
Hell, I just listened to Headhunters before I listened to Bitches Brew, before I posted! And on that album is the seminal Watermelon Man where he incorporates hindewhu (pygmy music).
I would encourage anyone to listen to any Herbie album, in full, from any era. His first 6 albums are dope as hell!!
Totally almost picked Headhunters because of Watermelon Man! There’s nothing like it. Herbie occupies a different plane of existence
Agree. If Stevie Wonder is made of music as McCartney says, Herbie would be the quantum music field.
I came here to say Future shock. I just listened to it on the drive home.
‘Rockit’ was pretty much entirely made by the production team of Bill Laswell and Michael Beinhorn, from the band Material, with GrandMixer DXT and three other dudes doing the scratching. Hancock basically came in at the end to play some synth lines.
I’ll throw my few in here:
Lemon Jelly - KY
Paul Simon - Graceland
Air - Moon Safari
Portishead - Dummy
Alt-J - An awesome waveHere is mine.
Such a unique time when it came out. Electronic music was at peak experimental stage in the late 90’s. Kind of like B**ches Brew was the peak 60’s psychedelic experiment. This album was the perfect culmination of two masters of world music, psychedelic trance, and ambient music. Simon Posford is the absolute genius sound engineer at the peak of his game and Raja Ram was the old hippie wizard guiding him through realms unknown.
Thanks for this. Listened to about 20 mins and already found an album for sale which is now on its way.
Wow I forgot about Shpongle! Haha cool memory, thanks for sharing!
I had a friend who was always on coke and acid and always was asking people to get spongled with them
Dr. Pnut, wherever you ended up, I hope you’re still spongle-ing.
Shpongle are a trip. Been years since i heard this, thanks
The two i listened to most when i was young were Sgt Pepper and Dark Side of the Moon. Happy for the vinyl revival so my kids can experience the two sides of an album.
Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
The Postal Service
There are many synth artists that try to target a similar feel, but the way they tug on your emotions with just the subtlest of sounds. Everything feels like it’s meant to fit. Never has a song made me feel more homesick than Recycled Air. And I don’t even want to go back home.
Honorable mention goes to Moon Safari by Air. First time I heard every song on that album felt like I’d heard it before in a memory.
Honorable mention goes to Moon Safari by Air. First time I heard every song on that album felt like I’d heard it before in a memory.
I still remember my first time hearing this too.
The dregs of a house party. Only a few chill people still up. Sun starts coming up and someone put it on. Absolutely perfect setting to hear that album for the first time.
I can immediately place myself in that room it seared itself into my memory with how well it hit.
