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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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.
Cake’s first album Fashion Nugget is the kind of unique that we rarely see twice.
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
Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
The first, like, 5 albums by They Might Be Giants are unique in their own ways. Just different blends of wackiness and musical sophistication, it’s sublime.
They are such a blast! Their children’s albums are great, too; I played them all the time in English classes.
I grew up with them, and to this day I’ve never found anyone who quite matches that sound. Just pure musical creativity.
Igorrr - Spirituality and Distortion.
Latest album is great too. And the OG whourkr stuff
I’ll throw my few in here:
Lemon Jelly - KY
Paul Simon - Graceland
Air - Moon Safari
Portishead - Dummy
Alt-J - An awesome waveAny album by Pink Floyd.
Even mostly works if you compare said album to other albums by Pink Floyd. Dark Side of the Moon as a classic notable callout.
It’s hard to pick not a one hit album wonder band, because bands will tend to have a lot of continuity in their sound. But dark side of the moon is both very popular and unique. Yes (Green) album was a bit of a one hit wonder.
Steely Dan and KC Roberts Live Revolution are sounds that were never copied by anyone else. NiN was very unique until copied.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Flying Microtonal Banana
Lemon Jelly - lemonjelly ky
The Flashbulb - Opus At The End Of Everything
Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys
Not to be mistaken with ‘The Beach Sounds’ by Pet Shop Boys.
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.
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!
reporting back; this album is lit.
In particular “Since I left you” and “Frontier Psychiatrist” are both jams.
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.
Geneva jacuzzi - Lamaze. I challenge you to find something more unique.
Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada.
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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