Essential Avant-Garde
Some post-WWII avant-garde milestones in music and sound art. |
| 1 |  | Iannis Xenakis
Metastaseis
An orchestra of 61 players with no two performers playing the same part--need I say more? |
| 2 |  | Karlheinz Stockhausen
Gesang der Junglinge
13-minute electroacoustic serialist masterpiece. Stockhausen's magnum opus. |
| 3 |  | Ornette Coleman
The Shape of Jazz to Come
One of the very first avant-garde jazz albums ever. Highly influential. As you might assume, it was largely
misunderstood at the time of its release. |
| 4 |  | Charles Mingus
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady |
| 5 |  | Terry Riley
In C
One of the (if not the) first minimalist compositions. Far from the sprawling abstract serialism avant-garde
composers were expected to be doing at the time. Influenced the style of later, more popular composers
such as Steve Reich and Philip Glass. |
| 6 |  | Albert Ayler
Spiritual Unity |
| 7 |  | Eric Dolphy
Out to Lunch |
| 8 |  | John Coltrane
Ascension
John Coltrane at his freest and most avant-garde. |
| 9 |  | Krzysztof Penderecki
St. Luke Passion
Almost entirely atonal choral/orchestral work. Powerfully, darkly spiritual. |
| 10 |  | Cecil Taylor
Unit Structures |
| 11 |  | Gyorgy Ligeti
Lux Aeterna
This mindblowing piece was used in 2001: A Space Odyssey. |
| 12 |  | Sun Ra
Atlantis
Sun Ra's works (especially this and his Heliocentric Worlds volumes) influenced the New Weird America improv
bands lauded by hipsters today. Their tribal, dynamically broad sounds were beyond jazz; otherworldly, surely. |
| 13 |  | The Red Krayola
The Parable of Arable Land
Not their best (God Bless The Red Krayola And All Who Sail With It might take the cake) but their most
innovative statement. Its richness in noisy psychedelic free form freak-outs still sounds innovative today. |
| 14 |  | The Velvet Underground
White Light/White Heat
Seminal protopunk work which toyed with lo-fi recording, large amounts of feedback, and improvisational
jams. Chaotic. |
| 15 |  | Silver Apples
Silver Apples
It sounds like post-punk but it came before it and even before krautrock. Employs electronics, a technique
largely unheard of within the rock realm. |
| 16 |  | Nihilist Spasm Band
No Record
Truly one of the craziest records out there. Homemade instruments, total improvisation, noisy clanging so
heavy it makes Beefheart's oeuvre look tame. |
| 17 | | Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention
We're Only In It For The Money
Wildly satirical. Its tightly constructed production predated Trout Mask Replica (which of course Zappa
produced, similarly). |
| 18 |  | Alvin Lucier
I Am Sitting in a Room
"I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking
voice and I am going to play it back into the room again and again until the resonant frequencies of the
room reinforce themselves so that any semblance of my speech, with perhaps the exception of rhythm, is
destroyed. What you will hear, then, are the natural resonant frequencies of the room articulated by
speech. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a physical fact, but more as a way to
smooth out any irregularities my speech might have." |
| 19 |  | Miles Davis
Bitches Brew
Improvisational, insanely rhythmic jazz fusion. In a Silent Way was Davis's first fusion recording; Bitches Brew
was his complete refinement of it, one where he pushed music to its outermost limits. |
| 20 |  | Captain Beefheart
Trout Mask Replica
Probably the most significant album of the 20th century. Beefheart creates a very precise universe very
different from our own with maniacal outsider lyricism, meticulously arranged compositions meant to sound
improvised (but weren't) and growling, rambling vocals sung off-time. Few, if any, albums come close to its
greatness. |
| 21 |  | Nico
The Marble Index
An ominous work Similar in style to Scott Walker's Tilt and The Drift (which would come later) in its not quite
pop, not quite folk, not quite chamber avant-gardeness. |
| 22 |  | Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band |
| 23 |  | Soft Machine
Third |
| 24 |  | Morton Feldman
Rothko Chapel + Why Patterns?
Featuring long quiet choral and orchestral drones of slightly indeterminate notation, Rothko Chapel is one of
the most beautiful works, ever. |
| 25 |  | Can
Tago Mago
Can's (and possibly all of krautrock's) wildest record. The aural equivalent of witchcraft. |
| 26 |  | Harry Partch
Delusion of the Fury |
| 27 |  | Popol Vuh
Hosianna Mantra |
| 28 |  | Magma
Mekanïk Destruktiw Kommandoh
The definitive zeuhl record. |
| 29 |  | Faust
Faust IV |
| 30 | | John Fahey
Fare Forward Voyagers (Soldier's Choice) |
| 31 |  | Henry Cow
Unrest
This band singlehandedly began the RIO (Rock in Opposition) movement, calling for innovation in a genre
seemingly doomed to become record labels' mainstream pop puppets. |
| 32 |  | Robert Wyatt
Rock Bottom |
| 33 |  | John Cale
Fear |
| 34 |  | Charlemagne Palestine
Strumming Music |
| 35 |  | Lou Reed
Metal Machine Music
Pure feedback. A noise album the world just wasn't ready for. (Well, that may be because Lou Reed was too
famous to experiment this much and get away with it.) |
| 36 |  | Steve Reich
Music for 18 Musicians
Reich's most beautiful and perfect composition. |
| 37 |  | Pere Ubu
The Modern Dance
It'd be difficult to pin down what the first post-punk album is, but Pere Ubu's music was bursting with more
boldness and originality than the music of bands like Joy Division or Talking Heads. |
| 38 |  | Jandek
Ready for the House
Atonal, beyond creepy outsider folk. |
| 39 |  | The Residents
Duck Stab |
| 40 | | Sofia Gubaidulina
'Introitus': Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orc. |
| 41 |  | Philip Glass
Einstein on the Beach
An exceptionally ambitious minimalist opera. |
| 42 |  | Throbbing Gristle
20 Jazz Funk Greats
Industrial! |
| 43 |  | Nurse with Wound
Chance Meeting on a Dissecting Table... |
| 44 |  | Univers Zero
Heresie |
| 45 | | Aksak Maboul
Un peu de l'ame des bandits |
| 46 |  | Fred Frith
Gravity |
| 47 |  | This Heat
Deceit |
| 48 |  | Klaus Nomi
Klaus Nomi |
| 49 |  | Glenn Branca
The Ascension
Essential no wave record. |
| 50 |  | Laurie Anderson
Big Science |
| 51 |  | Psychic TV
Dreams Less Sweet |
| 52 |  | Pierre Boulez
Répons
Boulez himself compared this to Joyce's writing, so that alone should give you a clue as to how richly complex
this is. |
| 53 |  | Bernard Parmegiani
La Création du monde |
| 54 |  | Luigi Nono
Prometeo |
| 55 |  | Whitehouse
Great White Death |
| 56 |  | Coil
Horse Rotorvator |
| 57 |  | Caroliner
Rise of the Common Woodpile
The term "industrial bluegrass" should clue you in as to how strange Caroliner is. |
| 58 |  | Diamanda Galas
You Must Be Certain of the Devil |
| 59 |  | Foetus
Thaw |
| 60 |  | Einsturzende Neubauten
Haus Der Lüge |
| 61 |  | Devil Doll
The Girl Who Was... Death |
| 62 |  | John Zorn
Naked City
May not be his most experimental, but it remains his most acclaimed. Still an electrifying avant-garde record. |
| 63 |  | The Gerogerigegege
Tokyo Anal Dynamite |
| 64 |  | Royal Trux
Twin Infinitives
Noise rock, too, had a flourishing avant-garde underground in the '90s. This album was one of the scene's
high points. |
| 65 |  | Meredith Monk
Book of Days
Voice is an instrument too! It's never been quite like this though. |
| 66 |  | Pauline Oliveros
Crone Music |
| 67 |  | The Dead C
Trapdoor Fucking Exit |
| 68 | | Thinking Fellers Local 282
Lovelyville
Thinking Fellers were pop melody virtuosos in albums such as I Hope It Lands, but Lovelyville and Mother of
All Saints were their challenging masterpieces. |
| 69 |  | Mr. Bungle
Mr Bungle |
| 70 |  | Boredoms
Pop Tatari
Feels like vocal exercises rather than noise at times. And it never feels like music. |
| 71 |  | Masada
Alef |
| 72 |  | Fushitsusha
Hisou (Pathétique) |
| 73 |  | Arthur Russell
Another Thought
Avant-garde disco. |
| 74 |  | Scott Walker
Tilt |
| 75 | | Ruins
Hyderomastgroningem |
| 76 |  | Harry Pussy
What Was Music? |
| 77 |  | Sun City Girls
330,003 Crossdressers from Beyond the Rig Veda
Their most ambitious album, Dense world-fusion psychedelia with some moments that were melodic albeit
strange and other moments that were simply strange. |
| 78 |  | The Shadow Ring
Hold onto I.D.
Their sound is easily identifiable as being their own sound: dry spoken word atop sparse noisy folk. You
know you're avant-garde when the universe you create with your art sounds like nobody else's. And freaks
everyone else out. |
| 79 |  | Colossamite
Economy of Motion
Manages to fall under the classification of "noise rock" without having any guitar distortion: it's all clean
guitar. |
| 80 |  | Storm and Stress
Under Thunder and Fluorescent Light |
| 81 |  | U.S. Maple
Acre Thrills |
| 82 |  | Black Dice
Beaches and Canyons
One of the most beautiful, ambitious and unique records of the 21st century so far. |
| 83 |  | Derek Bailey
Ballads
The ever-changing timbres this jazz guitarist explores are simply breathtaking. |
| 84 |  | Animal Collective
Here Comes the Indian
No New Weird America album comes close to reaching the transcendent heights of this album. The percussion
and twisted electronics are magical and the emotion is primal to the core. |
| 85 |  | Kayo Dot
Choirs of the Eye
Metalheads experiment to a point where their music can no longer be considered metal. A haunting,
magnificent work. |
| 86 |  | Supersilent
6 |
| 87 |  | Cerberus Shoal
Bastion of Itchy Preeves |
| 88 | | No-Neck Blues Band
Sticks & Stones May Break My Bones But Names Will |
| 89 |  | Liars
They Were Wrong, So We Drowned |
| 90 |  | Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
Of Natural History |
| 91 |  | Secret Chiefs 3
Book of Horizons |
| 92 |  | Time of Orchids
Sarcast While |
| 93 |  | Toby Driver
In the L..L..Library Loft |
| 94 | | Gang Gang Dance
God's Money |
| 95 |  | Graham Lambkin
Salmon Run
Graham Lambkin of The Shadow Ring created a bizarre tape music masterpiece with his solo album Salmon
Run. Highly underrated and highly recommended. |
| 96 |  | Extra Life
Secular Works |
| 97 |  | Blues Control
Local Flavor |
| 98 |  | The Knife
Tomorrow, in a Year
It's a real shame when popular bands create masterpieces which polarize their audience, alienate fans of the
band's previous work, and subsequently go unappreciated. There should be a memo stapled to the album
crying out to everyone who expects catchy hooks and infectious beats to stay away from this. |
| 99 |  | Scissor Shock
Psychic Existentialism |
| 100 |  | Zs
New Slaves |
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