Left-field records worth checking out by musicians you wouldn't expect

OK I'm going to go off and start this thread like I suggested over in the "Albums that are so off-course hardcore fans needn't bother" (What are those albums that are so off-course even the hardcore fans needn't bother ) and if it dies an ignominious death, so be it. This is a companion thread for musicians who do something unusual but the results are, if not necessarily great, at least interesting and worth hearing. A lot of the albums I think of in these terms, records I personally like to listen to, are mentioned in that thread - Bad Religion, for instance, going prog rock in 1983, and not just prog rock but really _neo-prog_. Van Morrison making a frankly hilarious contractual obligation album that consists of him doing several dozen fundamentally identical songs, most of which insult the owner of the record label in question. Phil Ochs' first record as a session singer on a record of campfire songs for children. Peggy Lee sing-speaking translations of Chinese poetry accompanied by harp and harpsichord. Chubby Checker's Hendrix knock-off record.

Arguably "Electric Mud" and "The Howlin' Wolf Album", though they're becoming well-known enough to not necessarily be unexpected. I also don't think anything by Bjork would qualify for this thread - someone who makes their reputation by changing up their style is sort of immune to this phenomenon. I'd also honestly also exempt Black Flag's "The Process Of Weeding Out" - even though it's a departure from the sound everyone associates with them, they really did just change up their sound so fucking much; a lot of people didn't expect it BUT THEY SHOULD HAVE.

Pat Methany teaming up with Ornette Coleman for Song X

Sinead O'Connor's reggae album. Deep grooves and her singing on it is great.

Yeah, seconding that Sinead album. That's got a few great tracks on it.

I've always meant to check this one out but still haven't gotten around to it:
https://spectrumculture.com/2016/01/18/bargain-bin-babylon-eddie-harris-the-reason-why-im-talking-shit/
Eddie Harris (jazz saxophonist), released an album of his comedy monologues. It's like someone at Atlantic heard that tape of Paul Stanley stage banter and decided they needed to get in on that action.

Idk if this counts because I'm not really familiar with his pop work or career, but I like Bruce Hornsby's jazz trio album with Jack DeJohnette, Christian McBride, and various breakbeat loops that they play over.

I guess Nebraska was seen like this upon release, less so now given what he's done since.

Also, Nadir's Big Chance by Peter Hammill.

That first album by The Fireman (aka Paul McCartney + Youth) is a good listen. Probably hated (if even known) by the vast majority of Macca heads, it's about as good as any ambient/trace stuff of that era (early-90's.)

Albert Ayler's New Grass, a decisive departure from his approach on previous records. "Worth checking out" is up for debate, though.

Bad Religion, for instance, going prog rock in 1983, and not just prog rock but really _neo-prog_.

I had no idea this existed. Awesome so far.

not "left field" in the bigger scheme of things, considering the scene at the time, but i like the style council's modernism: a new decade.

also feel like david axelrod's requiem: the holocaust is worth a mention; but it is a very challenging listen.

def Death of a Ladies' Man

yeah but Earth Rot ain't exactly easy either

Those Motorpsycho records they did under the name "International Tussler Society" very much fit here. they're a bit tongue in cheek but the tunes themselves are awesome. I think they're basically as good as MP's proper records. Which are very good indeed.

Rundgren has a bunch of these: A Cappella, No World Order (electronica), With a Twist (bossa nova), and one I didn't even know about until I checked wiki: April 2011 saw the release of Todd Rundgren's Johnson, a collection of Robert Johnson covers.

Pat Methany teaming up with Ornette Coleman for Song X

He also did that Zero Tolerance For Silence noise-guitar album, plus an extended improv session with Derek Bailey and others. So it's more like a parallel career, not sure I'd say it's worth listening to though as he's not exactly Sonny Sharrock.

Zero Tolerance for Silence is pretty good.

Speaking of Derek Bailey, Mirakle (his usual guitar style, but with Ornette Coleman's Prime Time rhythm section - Jamaaladeen Tacuma on bass and Calvin Weston on drums) is worth hearing even/especially if a little DB goes a very, very long way with you.

Ice-T and Kool Keith made an album as Analog Brothers, Pimp To Eat, in 2000 which is worth hearing because the music is mostly weirdo synth tracks and Ice-T is trying on a different rhyme style, closer to Kool Keith's; it doesn't always work but when it does it's kind of fascinating.

Can we say Trans? Still seems to be viewed as a bizarre left-field aberration by most Neil fans. I always thought it was a shame Kraftwerk didn't reciprocate with a knock-off LP of extended guitar jams.

Sinead O'Connor's reggae album. Deep grooves and her singing on it is great.

this did not surprise me given that she has used reggae styled backing before, and even done some vocals for the odd on-u track (if memory serves me right).

just wish i had picked up the 2cd version (dub versions disc) of this when i saw it.

also feel like david axelrod's requiem: the holocaust is worth a mention; but it is a very challenging listen.

this.
listened to it twice, maybe three times.
not an easy way to spend 45 mins to say the least.

do xtc's dukes of stratosphear releases fit here?

I'm going to say no, Dukes fits in with XTC's catalog pretty well.

Alternative TV's "Vibing Up The Senile Man" is what we're talking about, truly left-field and truly brilliant.

Toyah Willcox's 1988 album Prostitute sounds like it's aiming for something between Last Night In Sodom by Soft Cell and Hounds Of Love

Can we say Trans? Still seems to be viewed as a bizarre left-field aberration by most Neil fans.

― funnel spider ESA (Matt #2)

I think Trans still counts, although it has had a critical reappraisal over the years.

Yma Sumac's rock album rules, though so does most of her other work, but I think it still might count for this?

Synth nerd Lloyd Cole's Cluster-esque Plastic Wood, although it's less surprising as he's once released an album with Roedelius and other ambient stuff.

*once = since

Albert Ayler's New Grass, a decisive departure from his approach on previous records. "Worth checking out" is up for debate, though.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, September 12, 2019 7:53 AM (one hour ago

Ha, I really really like this record.

Würzel's Chill-Out Or Die (The Ambient Album), a record of ambient synth drone from Motorhead's guitarist, actually pretty good iirc.

I guess you could say John Frusciante's modular/electronic stuff

He also did that Zero Tolerance For Silence noise-guitar album, plus an extended improv session with Derek Bailey and others. So it's more like a parallel career,

Ornette was also a longtime influence on Metheny and he had played with Charlie Haden before Song X. "Offramp", from a few years earlier, was an Ornette tribute.

Rundgren has a bunch of these: A Cappella, No World Order (electronica), With a Twist (bossa nova), and one I didn't even know about until I checked wiki: April 2011 saw the release of Todd Rundgren's Johnson, a collection of Robert Johnson covers.

lol Rundgren's career since 1973 has been comprised almost entirely of these kinds of records. like I'd say Healing & Liars are both pretty 'left field' (at least considering what he's famous for) but those are two of his best. of the ones you mentioned...A Capella is super impressive, No World Order is amusing (if not exactly great), With a Twist you can probably skip. I haven't heard the Robert Johnson album either but apparently it's bad.

Everyone knows about them already but James Last's Voodoo Party and Well Kept Secret are both pretty good. VP is kind of oddball psych-funk, WKS is more straight-up orchestated funky soul-jazz stuff

xp then again, according to the OP "someone who makes their reputation by changing up their style is sort of immune to this phenomenon" so Todd may not exactly qualify here

Alternative TV's "Vibing Up The Senile Man" is what we're talking about, truly left-field and truly brilliant.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing

this is a good call, and the Strange Kicks album that followed it was yet another totally different approach

I'm not sure which Jean-Michel Jarre album belongs here, I actually think Zoolook maybe fits? It doesn't mesh with his usual style at all and despite its hardcore 80s Fairlight vibe it's really a unique record....in retrospect it sorta predicts vaporwave. And it's great of course, probably my favorite JMJ these days.

Todd Rundgren is a good example of an artist who has die-hard fans (me, f'rinstance), who would follow him into hell (same), but wouldn't touch at least a couple of his records with a 10-foot tone arm.

his electronica/trance/sorta dubsteppy record State was surprisingly good. not great but better than you'd expect. I actually haven't heard his latest ones yet but I saw him live and he did a bunch of songs off of them and yeah, he's definitely still on it

I just listened to Todd's version of "Travelling Riverside Blues." Coincidentally I had just played a Foghat album, so it fit right in. For what it is (bludgeoning riff-rock blues) it's not bad. Now I'm into a live clip of "Kindhearted Woman" and I like that better. He's surprisingly good at this.

Lulu

yeah but Earth Rot ain't exactly easy either
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, September 12, 2019 8:21 AM

at least it's got the funk.🤘

That weird Chris Stamey/Kirk Ross record seems to fit here.

Yma Sumac's rock album rules, though so does most of her other work, but I think it still might count for this?

― emil.y, Thursday, September 12, 2019 6:18 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Whoa, loooove Sumac but did not know she had a "rock album"?! What's it called?

"I'm not sure which Jean-Michel Jarre album belongs here, I actually think Zoolook maybe fits? It doesn't mesh with his usual style at all and despite its hardcore 80s Fairlight vibe it's really a unique record....in retrospect it sorta predicts vaporwave. And it's great of course, probably my favorite JMJ these days.

― frogbs"

surely some credit has to be given to the Samuel Hobo single, no?

"xp then again, according to the OP "someone who makes their reputation by changing up their style is sort of immune to this phenomenon" so Todd may not exactly qualify here

― frogbs"

yeah, todd might be a fringe case - "healing" is a weird record, but it's a weird record i can imagine todd rundgren making, you know? on the other hand, that concert where jandek spent the whole evening jamming with a texas funk band... i'd say that qualifies in my book

harvey milk did a record called "the pleaser" which is them aping thin lizzy, kiss, and zz top, but honestly i'm not sure i can tell the difference between it and the other harvey milk records? maybe that says something about me.

and yeah i forgot about yma sumac's "miracles", probably qualifies!

It's called Miracles, from '71 (I think). I've played Remember from it out a few times DJing!

xp

Thanking youse!

with healing, I think it’s the relative scarcity of drums/rockin’ that gives it an odd flair. “Time heals” and “compassion” do sound like regular Todd tunes. I could imagine “healing part iii” being on Wizardor Todd (with less polished synths)

it’s sort of the culmination of his cosmic spiritualist thing

Acapella, though. That frickin album

Robbie Fulks "Couples in Trouble" is almost devoid of country music and entirely excellent. I'm guessing most Fulks fans don't think so, because he's never really gone down this path again.

The problem is it was my first Fulks album, so his other stuff was not exactly what I was hoping for.

Chubby Checker's Hendrix knock-off record.

Do you mean by this "Chequered!"? It's not really very Hendrix-like. It's also got some fantastic songs on it.

did u know that one hit wonder donna lewis (of ilm-beloved "i love you always forever" fame) released an ambient record of sorts in the early 2000s? it's called be still.

https://i.imgur.com/2AK8MJ9.jpg

very sparsely arranged, sounds like a set played in the corner of a nearly empty, dimly lit restaurant overlooking the coast -- not exactly 'intimate' as it doesn't exactly invite connection so much as reflection, like time has slowed too much to allow much else. sometimes the momentum pushes forward just enough to break the spell but otherwise it mostly lingers. hushed + breathy vocals as you'd expect from her. the songs occasionally get a little too sleepy for me and they are mostly quite conventionally constructed, but there are moments that are a bit more out there. i'd say the track to check out, if you can only muster enough curiosity for one, is "pink dress", an evocative and somewhat bizarre/abstract lyric laid over a reversed piano loop that gives the recording a bit of a disorienting/dreamlike freeform feeling. (nb she seems to have re-recorded that same song for a later album but that version has a more traditional arrangement and sorta sounds like crap so don't listen to that one)

i wouldn't call it an especially great release but certainly 'interesting', esp if you're the type like me who wonders what those who provide the ether with exactly one immortal hit do with themselves after they've receded into obscurity once again. i won't pretend to have exhaustively mined the rest of lewis's output but this unassuming one-off experiment is probably among the more alluring things she's done behind that sole smash.

lol, great post dyl!

is there a thread to talk about "i love you alway forever"? i have some great memories of that song...

(lol, I was the 5th post to mention that song on here... haha, but on a random thread)

Do you mean by this "Chequered!"? It's not really very Hendrix-like. It's also got some fantastic songs on it.

― Sassy Boutonnière (ledriver)

maybe it's not hendrix-like, the song from this era i always think of is "gypsy" which is a fantastic song and has _very_ mitch mitchell-like drums on it

thank you al, and yes as of ~1.5 yrs ago there's a specific thread dedicated to that song!

Thanks Dyl, that's what this thread is made for imo!

Weird, I clicked through thinking "Stevie made the thread" and I was wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAykxhxnspI

Jack DeJohnette is obviously well known as a jazz drummer, but in 1985 he made this soundtrack to a nature documentary, which has no "real" drums or traditional instruments in general, except for Lester Bowie's trumpet on a couple of tracks, and mostly it's just DeJohnette jamming on synths, accompanied by a drum machine. I adore it.

Jane Siberry’s jazz album ‘Maria’ does not make any sense in the context of her career before or (such as it is) after, but I totally love it.

Rockabilly guitar genius Dexter Romweber released an album of romantic/classical piano sketches that is as spooked as anything he's done, in an entirely different way. Someone oughta hire him to record silent movie accompaniments

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmZ-l7rDZAU

xpost Thanks for bringing that Jack DeJohnette to my attention, Tuomas. Never heard it before! Sounds almost like a minimalist takeoff on what Miles Davis did with "Tutu" in parts and also reminds me of
one of my favorite Herbie Hancock albums from that time, "Village Life" in its use of drum machine, synth and a prominent "organic" instrument (kora in this case).

OK, I feel like I'm kind of breaking the thread rules but this is a pretty nice album of analog synth music (sort of Berlin school) by Andy Hellaby, who was the bass player for the pagan freak-folk band Comus:

https://andyhellaby.bandcamp.com/releases

DeJohnette thing reminds me of this (though I don't know if Peterson recorded/released anything like this):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI-4HNQg1JI

Johnny Hallyday's Rivière ouvre ton lit. Heavy, with the Small Faces backing him on a few tracks (and a couple songs that later showed up on a Humble Pie record). Unterberger on Allmusic says Hallyday declared it his worst record in his autobiography. Only record of his I own, and it's good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY5RmjC9jhg

"That first album by The Fireman (aka Paul McCartney + Youth) is a good listen. Probably hated (if even known) by the vast majority of Macca heads, it's about as good as any ambient/trace stuff of that era (early-90's.)" All three of these albums are excellent (strawberry ships, rushes, and especially electric arguments).

Mark Eitzel's Greek album, The Ugly AMerican, which features re-recordings of AMC and solo songs with traditional greek instruments. It was fully paid for by a greek dude and is a pretty weird outlier in his catalogue but some of the takes on there are really beautiful.

Susumu Hirasawa once bought a guitar with a tone he liked so much that he wound up recording his own Mike Oldfield-style album with it called Ice-9. its got some aspects of his sound but his music was so grandiose and hyperactive at this point that it's bizarre to hear him do borderline ambient stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm7UdmmNxFA

Cranes- La tragédie d'Oreste et Électre

Odd french concept album, sounds almost like an Art Zoyd soundtrack in places. Wish they had done more like this and it deserved a much bigger audience.

Buckethead - Colma

Gorgeous album of instrumental ambient/downtempo guitar work on top of some simplistic percussion. Inspired by the graveyards of Colma, CA where some of my relatives are buried. Very different than most of his other work, especially at the time. He puts out an album every damn week now so who knows what his sound is like these days.

That Hirasawa track is great

Will Sergeant - themes for GRIND (surprising this is 1982)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M46Xe1XCSWk

Rain Tree Crow may just be my favorite Japan album

Andrew WK's album of improvised piano pieces, 55 Cadillac.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH12-Fp_1QA

oh damn good pick

can't say I wanna listen to it too much but it's always a treat

at this point it's one of about 5 LPs I'll actually put on and listen to the whole way through

anybody heard lou reed’s ambient tai-chi record?

Dunno if it exactly fits the thread title, but I’m a big fan of Chuck Berry’s 1968 ‘Concerto in B Goode’ LP for the title track, which is a 22min almost krautrock-y instrumental - sounds like either Chuck Berry trying to do Can or Can trying to do Chuck Berry - really odd and fun.

Adult/Child: Brian Wilson's unreleased Sinatra/Vegas-showman LP...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EyAD2wC7uc

this thread is definitely a goldmine, lots of stuff for me to check out even if i don't always agree (adult/child is pretty much the exact album i would expect from 1977 brian wilson, i.e. batshit insane) - on the other hand "concerto in b goode" completely fits, this is great shit!

oh! how about tiny tim's australian-only 1993 album "rock", where he does a 24 minute version of "rebel yell"? this record is quite possibly the greatest rock and roll record ever recorded, and yes i know it sounds like i'm trolling by saying that.

I know artists who change genres like they change their socks shouldn’t count here but Haruomi Hosonos Cochin Moon has got to be one of these reasons right? Really wild synth stuff, unlike anything he (or anyone else) has done before or since. There were synths on his tropical records but nothing like this.

Geoffrey Downes' 1987 The Light Program, a double album of mostly side-long instrumental pieces actually released on Geffen.

Love And Rockets' Hot Trip To Heaven - total left-turn into electro/ambience in 1994 after "So Alive" was a hit. Now it's my favorite album of theirs.

""I'm not sure which Jean-Michel Jarre album belongs here, I actually think Zoolook maybe fits? It doesn't mesh with his usual style at all and despite its hardcore 80s Fairlight vibe it's really a unique record....in retrospect it sorta predicts vaporwave. And it's great of course, probably my favorite JMJ these days. ― frogbs"

I think I've said it before, but I was under the impression he had a burning desire to be taken seriously in the same way that Peter Gabriel, Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson etc were taken seriously in the early 1980s, so he made Zoolook as a self-conscious sample-based world-beat art-pop record, but it didn't sell, so he reverted back to a more accessible style for his next few records. I may have used these exact words.

From what I remember it uses a lot of elements from Music for Supermarkets, his one-off record. "Ethnicolor 2" sounds like a field recording of a train station inside a surrealist painting and "Woolloomooloo" is pure atmosphere, and the dance tracks have incredible mid-80s production, but it's a frustratingly disjointed album.

The other break from tradition was Waiting for Cousteau, which has weak synthpop on side one and an excellent ambient tune on side two that's just chilly enough to avoid being glurgy New Age. It's frustrating because if the album had come out two years later without the synthpop songs it might have been better-received - it would have fit into the same landscape as Selected Ambient Works 2 and The Orb etc.

For that matter Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works 2 stands out from most of the rest of his work. Unlike the first album it really is ambient music and not just a collection of odds-and-sods, and it's consistently good, verging on great. Also it got to number eleven. I learn from the official UK chart website that it entered the chart the same week Elvis Costello's Brutal Youth debuted at number two, just below Mariah Carey's Music Box.

I can't think of "Mariah Carey's music box" without having the urge to make a joke, except that it's 2019 and it would probably be bad taste.

The Walkabouts' 2002 side project i — an album of post-rock/krautrock jams that sounds like it came straight out of the mid-'90s Chicago scene. they billed themselves as an unknown act from Düsseldorf, but their cover was blown pretty quickly, and they never revisited that style.

The Cocteau Twins released a Christmas single back in 1993. It had covers of "Winter Wonderland" and "Frosty the Snowman":
https://www.discogs.com/Cocteau-Twins-Frosty-The-Snowman-Winter-Wonderland/master/13660

"Wonderland" is reggae and it's not very good although the vocals are lovely. It is the only song I know of that has been performed by both the Cocteau Twins and Julian Clary.

"Frosty the Snowman" is however terrific. On a musical level it's not a big departure from their contemporary sound but I've never associated 4AD artists with whimsy and humour. I know about it because it first appeared on Volume 5, which was one of those CD+book things, which I bought because it had The Orb on it. Technically the Cocteau Twins weren't on 4AD at the time - they had been dropped, apparently for being too popular - but you know what I mean.

Fun Fact: The single was recorded while Robin Guthrie was withdrawing from a crippling alcohol addition! Also, Julian Clary's second stand-up special was called My Glittering Passage.

There's a rather good Goldfrapp version of Winter Wonderland, too.

Bill Drummond's 'The Man' album from 1986:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbrSzpJ1Pl4

Train Above The City by Felt

Interesting

that's some mean trolling

Sergio Mendes' psycho-prog album featuring the 18+ minute jam "The Circle Game". I've yet to hear this played in my dentist office but I do live in hope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyY1cW34kEQ

https://youtu.be/gG02P9j406I

In a quantum leap from his mid-80's output with Chas & Dave, ex-snooker legend Steve Davis' new Krautrock / Modular Synth project is actually well worth a listen.

I just picked that one up on Bandcamp, I had no clue what it would sound like but I like the people involved. its really nice - reminds a bit of Zombi but I like this better

Not a full LP, but 1/2 of Circle of Love by the Steve Miller Band consists of "Macho City", which nobody would have seen coming after Fly Like An Eagle and Book of Dreams.

man doug, i went through a pretty intense sergio mendes phase in the early 2000s. my favorites were stillness, crystal illusions, and definitely primal roots. if you can get past the saccharine flourishes in some of the vocal arrangements, it's pretty solid stuff.

also, hey: what about sam prekop's modular synth stuff? he first did old punch card in 2010 and it was a complete surprise, as nothing he had ever done (in either shrimp boat or the sea and cake) had ever indicated he anything besides a guitarist when it came to playing instruments. i didn't like old punch card at the time, just because it was so completely different from my expectations. i definitely like it now though. and he's actually pursued the sound further ever since. he did pavilion in 2013, which was a super limited run kind of thing (and it's good — possibly my favorite of his modular synth stuff) and then he did the republic in 2015, which is like a more refined old punch card sound. i'm not sure if this stuff counts, though, as it is a direction he has continued with. kind of awesome though, because he just keeps putting out records with the sea and cake simultaneously and the modular synth stuff has actually started to become a pretty important part of their sound. anyway, yeah: sam's dope.

OMG that Steve Davis thing is pretty great, thanx for that Willl.

Anyway, it may not be that leftfield for ILM but for The Osmands maybe a tad?

https://youtu.be/rlfrcNgT4u8

Aarrghh, try that again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlfrcNgT4u8

In a quantum leap from his mid-80's output with Chas & Dave, ex-snooker legend Steve Davis' new Krautrock / Modular Synth project is actually well worth a listen.

I actually went to see them live a few weeks ago and it was pretty good!

I caught a bit at Shambala festival and was pleasantly surprised too

Steve Miller has done some more interesting stuff than one would think. The second side of "Journey from Eden" is pretty good.

Saw someone bumped the Cowsills "Cocaine Drain" thread - well that one qualifies! It's a pretty good Fleetwood Mac record.

I need to spend some more time on this thread.

Is Steve Davis the snooker player who was a big fan of Magma?

One and the same.