Listmania!
Unclassifiable Music
By an Amazon.com customer
MoondogMoondog
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $6.00
An incredibly eclectic and weird album, especially by 50's standards. Moondog was a NY street weirdo whose music crossed boundaries between jazz, pop, and what would later be called "world music".
Neu! 2Neu! 2 by Neu!
Buy used from: $8.33
The sound of Neu! is without precedent, reducing rock to one chord drones with rhythms approximating a futuristic ideal of an endless highway. The tape manipulations on side two are genius.
Klaus NomiKlaus Nomi by Klaus Nomi
Buy new: $15.99 / Used from: $7.33
An incredibly talented opera singer goes nuts in the free for all playhouse of early new wave.
OarOar by Alexander "Skip" Spence
Buy new: $17.98 / Used from: $10.90
Acid damaged campfire music from Moby Grape's seriously undone drummer.
Rainbow in Curved AirRainbow in Curved Air
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $6.49
I know Riley is classical or minimalism or something like that, but don't expect Philip Glass. This is seriously trippy art rock
I Hear a New World: An Outer Space Music FantasyI Hear a New World: An Outer Space Music Fantasy by Joe Meek & the Blue Men
Buy used from: $10.00
Goofy proto-ambient from the home recording genius who produced the Tornadoes' "Telstar"
Another ThoughtAnother Thought by Arthur Russell
Buy used from: $12.58
Russel is best known as a pioneer of disco and a minimalist experimenter. This is, strangely enough, his only in print CD, a completely different set of folky , bare bones home recordings.
Climate of HunterClimate of Hunter by Scott Walker
Buy used from: $8.75
Walker had the weirdest career ever: pretty boy pop star, boho Jaques Brel epigone, and new wave/operatic experimenter. Here he's beginning the last part of his journey, on his best ever album.
AirsAirs by Loren Mazzacane Connors
Buy used from: $9.59
The essence of what this list is about. Avant garde and improvised, but not really jazz, Connors uses space and highly original melodic ideas to create unforgettable music.
Hush Little RobotHush Little Robot by Bruce Haack
Buy used from: $15.95
Brilliantly deranged electronic children's music from the 70's. Will make you look cooler than Jesus.
Beauty and the BloodsuckerBeauty and the Bloodsucker by Eugene Chadbourne
Buy new: $18.99 / Used from: $10.99
Appalachian folk/hippie singalong/free improv/punk/comedy from accomplished freak Chadbourne.
Five Leaves LeftFive Leaves Left by Nick Drake
Buy used from: $4.97
Unfortunately, Volkswagen has taken Drake from being an underground cliche to a mainstream one. But that hasn't dimmed the beautiful mystery that is his first album. It's not folk music, by the way.
Naked CityNaked City by John Zorn
Buy new: $18.98 / Used from: $4.44
Brutal genre hopping anarchy. Is it jazz, punk, rock, or avant garde? I don't know, just listen to it.
Safe as MilkSafe as Milk by Captain Beefheart
Buy new: $10.99 / Used from: $4.99
More tuneful than Trout Mask Replica, this is the perfect distillation of what the good captain was all about. It's straight up blues, but, well, a little different. Definitely not right in the head
A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to CureA Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure by Matmos
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $5.04
Truly bizarre electropunk made entirely of sounds sampled from plastic surgery.