Hmm. I have some stuff by Captain Beefheart and by a band called Henry Cow that is pretty out there.

The soundtrack for Peter Gabriel's "Passion: Music from 'The Last Temptation of Christ'" is wild. At the time it came out, I had never heard anything like it.

There is a really cool all-instrumental band called Djam Karet that has some material that is like Fripp magnified. Some of their material is just good modern prog, like an updated "YYZ" type of thing, but they go really out at other times.

One album I find very odd is by a guy who has done plenty of normal good-time rock. I'm talking about Dr. John's "Gris Gris." I tend to think of Dr. John playing rolling boogie-woogie piano and making my feet tap, but this voodoo album is spooky and weird.

Yes , Beefheart is challenging. And for sure when you start paying attention to film scores you start to hear unreal stuff. My favorite film composer is Toru Takemitsu, you hear him in old Japanese films, the samurai stuff, Kurosawa's "Ran" - real eerie.

And thanks for reminder on Dr. John "Gris Gris", have only heard of it, been meaning to find it for years now.

Some of the strangest I've every heard was from Harry Partch of the 43-tone scale and homemade instruments:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=harry+partch+43+tone+scale
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Partch

And who can forget the Shaggs?
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=The+Shaggs

The "authoritative" resource is Songs in the Key of Z by Irwin Chusid: https://www.amazon.com/Songs-Key-Curious-Universe-Outsider/dp/1556523726/ref=sr_1_1?crid=RC1AKT4SHL37&keywords=songs+in+the+key+of+z&qid=1582231114&s=books&sprefix=songs+in+the+key+of+z%2Caps%2C916&sr=1-1

I've heard a few of the songs he talks about but most are somewhere in the stratosphere.

Billastro

Some of the strangest I've every heard was from Harry Partch of the 43-tone scale and homemade instruments:

Ok . . . very strange indeed, you triggered a time slip. I think I may have seen Partch live, late 70s, early 80s, maybe San Fran, or Portland ? I dont know, and I wasn't wasted - I think my brain was simply unable to file it. I just recall a stage full of weird wooden marimbas and xylophones and chimes and that.

Songs in the Key of Z ? Sounds intriguing. Will czech it out thx. Good trailblazes sonic pioneers!

Moondog.

Pretty much anything by The Residents. I've seen them play live several times over the past 30 years and their live shows are every but as strange as their studio recordings.

Pere Ubu are another band which comes to mind. A good chunk of their discography is quite out there. I've seen them play live a few times, as well.

Negativland are another group that would fit into the "strange" category. Saw them play live once and they fit the description for me.

Edgard Varèse was probably the first really "strange" music I ever heard. Found out about him by reading the gatefold notes in the "Freak Out!" album by the Mothers of Invention, when I was 12 or 13. A friend's parents had a vinyl copy of Varese's "Poème électronique" and we listened to it after I mentioned seeing Varese's name mentioned in the Morther's album. Very strange-sounding stuff to my ears then and still to this day.

The Space Lady-Synthesize Me

Les Baxter goes out there with Bas Sheva.

Random! Man this thread is paying off.

Anything with a Theremin in it:

. There's a lot on YouTube.

FFI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin

Billastro

Hmm. I have some stuff by Captain Beefheart and by a band called Henry Cow that is pretty out there.

One of the weirder albums I own is "Guitar Solos" by Fred Frith, who was in Henry Cow. Here's a sample:

Another great weird album is "Plunderphonics" by John Oswald. It's entirely made up of treated and distorted samples of famous artists including the Beatles, James Brown, Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton and others.

My brother found an odd album in college that we both loved: "Word Jazz," by Ken Nordine. This was a guy with an amazing "radio announcer" / cool jazz hipster kind of voice, like a white beatnik crossed with Venus Flytrap from WKRP, and he would tell odd surreal little stories over jazz, sometimes light, sometimes atonal. Very fun.

He eventually did an album with Jerry Garcia.

Sun Ra!

And growing up, my dad had this bizarre yellow record called Jungle Percussion that was very strange to me

https://secretrecords.bandcamp.com/album/new-renaldo-the-loaf-gurdy-hurding-sr20-medieval-electronic

These guys are rather strange and they've collaborated with the previously mentioned Residents, so I thought I'd give them a mention, also.

Renaldo and The Loaf? hahaHA.

Increbible String Band,Bonzo Dog Band,some Robert Fripp 20 year old king Crimson,some Consider the Source music live

Comus - First Utterance (1971) -

Ran across Comus, very strange indeed. I learned of them from a book, Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music by Rob Young - one of the weirder offshoots mentioned. I can't recommend this book highly enough. A must-read if you were ever off into Traffic, Fairport, Tull, Pentangle, British music, all of it really.

[Edited on 2/23/2020 by BrerRabbit]

Renaldo and The Loaf? hahaHA.

I saw "Renaldo" and thought for a second he was talking about Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth. They might not be weird enough to quality for this since most of their songs are vocals + guitar + bass + drums, but some of it is beautifully weird with prepared guitars, bizarro tunings, and feedback textures and things.

Tom Waits is probably a normie compared to a lot of these folks, but it also seems weird not to mention him.

György Ligeti - Atmosphères - 2001: A Space Odyssey

Music from the film, the Monolith on the moon, and deep space scenes. Very strange.

amazing 2001 montage, someone really put in some time and effort; https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cW_o-T1CVrY

Ran across Comus, very strange indeed. I learned of them from a book, Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music by Rob Young - one of the weirder offshoots mentioned. I can't recommend this book highly enough. A must-read if you were ever off into Traffic, Fairport, Tull, Pentangle, British music, all of it really.

[Edited on 2/23/2020 by BrerRabbit]

^That looks like a book I'd probably enjoy reading. I like all of the above groups you mentioned.

And as long as I'm here...

Some guys are referred to as the father of a musical genre but when it comes to psychobilly, Hasil Adkins was more like the weird uncle.
Minimalist rockabilly music set to lyrics about various subjects like hot-dogs, chicken, peanut butter, sex, decapitation, and murder.

Comus - First Utterance (1971) -

I love that album … I saw them perform at our local University (UEA in Norwich, UK) in 1971 …

Great unknown stuff, fantastic! Where else can the Haze & Comus be found on the same thread Hasil is on the comp CD Rockabilly Psychosis & the Garage Disease - yeah he’s a bent guy alright - lousy punk kid:o:P

The psych samples/graphics etc, bomb - do any of you know the album Evening Star, by Fripp/Eno - Side II, the 28:55 long An Index Of Metals - strange music to the max - transfixing & one of my faves in that mood - Side I is equally good

[Edited on 2/24/2020 by Stephen]

Comus - First Utterance (1971) -

I love that album … I saw them perform at our local University (UEA in Norwich, UK) in 1971 …

Maybe I have not taken enough of the right meds. 😉 😉 😉 😛 😛
That was as bizarre as the album cover.

Tennger Calvary

Mongolian folk instruments mixed with traditional throat singing and crunchy guitars

Tennger Calvary

Mongolian folk instruments mixed with traditional throat singing and crunchy guitars

That sounds pretty boss. I was thinking of posting Huun Huur Tu, Mongolian throat singers and instruments, very strange.

I am thinking you are probably familiar with Genghis Blues? About the blind guy who wrote that Steve Miller hit song, then vanished into obscurity - found Mongolian throat singing on his shortwave, learned it, then went to Mongolia and ended up performing there? Man, I miss shortwave radio, I used to have fun with that before the internet.

Tennger Calvary

Mongolian folk instruments mixed with traditional throat singing and crunchy guitars

That sounds pretty boss. I was thinking of posting Huun Huur Tu, Mongolian throat singers and instruments, very strange.

I am thinking you are probably familiar with Genghis Blues? About the blind guy who wrote that Steve Miller hit song, then vanished into obscurity - found Mongolian throat singing on his shortwave, learned it, then went to Mongolia and ended up performing there? Man, I miss shortwave radio, I used to have fun with that before the internet.

That was Paul Pena, author of "Jet Airliner," and also "Gonna Move," a song the Derek Trucks Band covered on a regular basis for many years. Huun-Huur-Tu are cool! I have one of their albums and saw them play live in NYC once. It's strange to our ears but what they're playing is pretty much traditional folk music from their culture, and if you can get past unusualness of the vocals, there's a definite 'cowboys riding on the plain' feel to some of their songs. I think the title of this one is their equivalent to something like "Yippe-Ki-Yay"... the original meaning, not the Bruce Willis one. 😉

https://thedwarfsofeastagouza.bandcamp.com/

The Dwarfs of East Agouza. An instrumental avant-garde trio from Cairo, Egypt.

Silver Apples of the Moon - Morton Subotnick

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EelvKqhu1M4