songs that sound way ahead of their time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_NVl8sdkDo

^ 1971

that's a cool song but it sounds very much of its time

that's how ahead of its time it sounds

Heard this Stones song on a tv show recently and the piano intro had a very sampled/programmed quality to my ears -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOf-0Mur7t4

(I tried to see if it had been sampled for a piano house track and unbelievably it has not, to my knowledge)

agree with Moodles, that track rules but it def screams early 70s to me

maybe an obvious pick but this, which was apparently recorded in 1981, sounds like it should've come out a decade later. I mean clearly this is what AFX was going for with "Analogue Bubblebath"...?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq-kovIr2BE

The Makers - Don't Challenge Me

It's funny if you look at comments for the 70s rework of 'Thousand Finger Man' on YouTube with many people thinking it's the
original version.

I know 'ahead of their time' as a concept can be seen negatively re:insulting to the times records actually come from. But it's definitely an easy way to quickly and effectively talk about common ground between a track and its (usually distant, and usually unintentional) descendants.

Dean Blunt, virtually, in 1982 (vocals aside)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Bq7Rb_11s8

Probably most nick nicely songs but this one is *mad* for 1983

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzwVrl1TkLY

Extreme, inexplicable slapback for 1956, but really this startles because on the final, delay-heavy line we might as well be hearing Arthur Russell

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

Skittering stop-start amen breaks, whirly synth nebula and random dub bass fills? It's atmospheric drum and bass!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL63ToGuTLk

To name four that randomly come to mind right now

Jon Anderson invents Animal Collective in 1976

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv0NUZVdIVQ

"Invented Anco" is my favourite genre (cf. Satanic Majesties, Smiley Smile, Beta Band s/t, L Voag's Bedroom, Sagittarius' Hotel Discreet, Perry Farrell's To Me - I added the last two)

A few more

Because no one has ever been able to discuss this without going, oh hi 1989 industrial

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8jOhqOsouM

A similar thing here with heavy breakbeat/jungle

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

The last 20 seconds sound like Aphex Twin playing underwater

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTp_qgh-i4g

The Makers - Don't Challenge Me

It's funny if you look at comments for the 70s rework of 'Thousand Finger Man' on YouTube with many people thinking it's the
original version.

Hard not to cite this klassic whenever the topic comes up (Mayo & co. flirt with punk rock in 1967):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqVkY-H3aQY

just by chance I happened to listen to Olias of Sunhillow and Person Pitch one after the other and definitely realized they were very similar sorts of albums. always felt Yes were an underrealized influence on them

however the prog tune that really does sound like it could be an AnCo song wholesale is this one, from 1972:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVy4_rf8TYc

xp (sorry, '68)

I don't know what exactly when this sounds like it's from but it's not 1967.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiloWOFuY08

According to the title of the video, this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW-n6GWFAvI

I felt like nothing sounded like Euphoria by Insides in 1993 to the point to where I heard The XX in 2009 I thought they were a cross between Young Marble Giants and Insides.

Just dropped this into another thread but “I’m So Green” by Can sounds like it’s from 1991/2. And it struck me that way even in 1992.

Ambient from 1967:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHakxUVEceU

Ambient pop in 1966. Nothing difficult for Delia, but Newley sounds like Ian Dury. It's an odd and very enjoyable contrast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9M0OQaOXGo

Ofc Newley's own 1962 hit That Noise is basically Madness' Driving In My Car

Just dropped this into another thread but “I’m So Green” by Can sounds like it’s from 1991/2. And it struck me that way even in 1992.

― Josefa, Wednesday, September 13, 2023 5:27 PM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

to say nothing of the entire Future Days LP. comes down to the way those were produced I guess.

speaking of this track from the "lost" Faust LP definitely sounds like Chiastic Slide Autechre, or maybe even some of their recent stuff

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

The future Crazy Horse +3 invent Roxy Music in 1968:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JANozVIcm4

^ That’s insane.

But then Roxy Music invent The Cars with “Virginia Plain”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4atQSktICE

"This is Sid Vicious, from Bristol" (1974)

I've actually got an ongoing list of songs, or parts of songs, I have seen described as 'proto-dub' or in some way pre-dub.

Other than Jimmy Young's Chain Gang (1956), I have:
Parts of Tommy Steele - Build Up (1957)
The Beatles - P.S. I Love You (1962)
Jean-Pierre Massiera - Ivresse des profondeurs, un bateau s'en va (1967)
The Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today (1967)
Ray Conniff - Volare (1968)
Hendrix - 1983.../Moon, Turn the Tides (1968)
Dragonfly - Miles Away (1968)
Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love (1969)
Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka (1969/71)
Individually, the first three Funkadelic albums
Comus - First Utterance (1971)
The end of Paul McCartney's Long Haired Lady (1971)
Lennon - I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier/How Do You Sleep/Give Me Some Truth (1971)
Ono - Don't Count the Waves/The Path (1971)
There's a Riot Goin' On (1971)
Black Sabbath - FX (1972)
David Essex - Rock On (1973)
Faust - Jennifer (1973)

You see why this could become a fun list.

There’s that Doors song where they break into a mod-‘70s disco rhythm in 1969. Sloppily but unmistakably.

This track from 1972 seems to predict both Liquid Liquid (1982) and the Madchester sound of 1992:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkae9hHijWI

Oh that's brilliant. Sort of reminds me of Four Tet's A Joy

Dang! There must have been something in the air in 1972 that was pushing forward to 1992

"Fa La Fa Lee" by Sparks aka Halfnelson from 1971 predicts New Wave:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0jWKaRcraE

The Beatles - P.S. I Love You (1962)

Is this "proto-dub" because the harmony vocals only come in for a syllable or two?

Another early synthesizer record with a quasi-dance beat (in 3/4 time, though) is side 2 of Silver Apples of the Moon by Morton Subotnick.

The music on PE's Fear of a Black Planet sounds like a future we haven't reached yet, and maybe never will.

Herbie Hancock's Sextant sounds like proto techno

Beethoven's Piano Sonata no. 32, which had portions that some have compared to sounding like boogie woogie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTYr0y9qGHM

"Herbie Hancock's Sextant sounds like proto techno"

This one gets pretty close too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpN2snjHw4Y

The first 10 seconds of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Save the Life of My Child” (plus the bit in the middle where they sample themselves)

Is this "proto-dub" because the harmony vocals only come in for a syllable or two?

With this one the "in some way pre-dub" is doing all the work. Marcello: "White does better on “P.S.” since all he really has to do is add some echoing rimshots to Ringo’s patient maracas – and thereby, with the aid of George Martin, help pave the way for dub."

It can be as simple as comments like that for it to get into the list

Get a real Wire/Adverts vibe from this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEnqtL3HB-o

My immediate answer is Hip Hop Be Bop (Don't Stop), which to me sounds like it could easily have come out on Warp in the early 90s, not 1982

"Invented Anco" is my favourite genre (cf. Satanic Majesties, Smiley Smile, Beta Band s/t, L Voag's Bedroom, Sagittarius' Hotel Discreet, Perry Farrell's To Me - I added the last two)

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, September 13, 2023 11:01 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Don't forget Holy Modal Rounders and (of course) Vashti Bunyan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9rIjjGmJhM

Joni Mitchell's "The Jungle Line" sounds like an experimental track you'd hear on a 90s Matador Records release.

This track from 1972 seems to predict both Liquid Liquid (1982) and the Madchester sound of 1992:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkae9hHijWI

― henry s, Wednesday, September 13, 2023 8:25 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

damn this is cool, the vocals do clearly sound like the early 70s (maybe just the microphone used) but nothing else does, so right now it seems like a remix

"Fa La Fa Lee" by Sparks aka Halfnelson from 1971 predicts New Wave:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0jWKaRcraE

a lotta 70s Sparks sounds ahead of its time to me, even Big Beat which sounds like The Cars. "In the Future" in particular is wild, it's like glamprog in one sense and technopop in another

Chris & Cosey inventing techno in 1984:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSr1q5bh6Yo

also, weirdly, I pulled out Olias yesterday as well!

Maybe people have been avoiding this for obviousness, but the Charanjit Singh record '10 Ragas to a Disco Beat' made on Roland gear in 1982 that evokes all kinds of later dance music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB4RYBpwV0A

Glad I got to see him (RIP) on his victory lap tour, it was a blast.

Billy Cobham playing live breakcore in '73, really the whole thing sounds like a Squarepusher record (or more obviously Squarepusher loved this vibe)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZjJqOXb1Rk

Also the James Brown 'Tighten Up' break, hardly needs any speeding up or chopping to sound like drum & bass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLnC8nwmHL0

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

always felt like this presaged the sort of weird pop song that would become a modest radio hit in the mid 90s and then show up in car commercials

Bob Welch could've used that car commercial money, rip

It feels prescient for the Mac even - it has a ramshackle Tusk-y feel, especially those erratic, unpredictable metallic clangs in the second half.

Early Red Krayola blew my Pavement-headed friends minds in college in 1998 (from 1968)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1_CzvSkKc4

And I used "24-Track Loop" like a party trick around 2001 (from 1979, recorded '77 I think I read?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er52LDCESK8

I'm somebody who still thinks 'Homogenic' sounds like the future, but maybe that's just because history ended in the 90s...

i'm not going to post it, but the first half of "Go Ahead John" by Miles Davis was a big wtf for me when i first heard it

xxp The Krayola really did lowkey invent punk, post-punk, and “indie rock” on that 2nd album…

Aggie Dukes - Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac

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

Cannot believe this is from 1957 and not say the 70s, her voice and the production definitely sound post-60s.

Loving this whole thread

Heard this Stones song on a tv show recently and the piano intro had a very sampled/programmed quality to my ears -

(I tried to see if it had been sampled for a piano house track and unbelievably it has not, to my knowledge)

― 50 Favorite Jordans (Jordan), Wednesday, 13 September 2023 22:40 (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxUW8gJ7sFE

pretty much any old funk/soul/rock track with a percussive break or intro sounds retroactively ahead of its time to me as someone growing up in a post-hiphop/house/etc world - part of me is always like "wow they were even doing this back then"

the rest of the song is of its time (in a great way) but the electronic timbales (?) intro of "I Can't Stand the Rain" always knocks me off balance when I'm expecting a 70s soul song / album - I can't think what later music it sounds like exactly (maybe the "Heart of Glass" intro, which some compilations outrageously cut out) - I guess these things stand out on the more "organic" 70s recordings than later on when they become the whole track

Not ahead of their time so much but the acid 303-ish wubwubwubwubs on Eddy Grant's Living on the Front Line and The Frontline Symphony (1978) are quite disarming.

The Symphony part especially is like acid, Balearic beat, Tomita, side two of More Specials and Harry Mudie's Dub with a Difference all at once.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSf5gU6Qrg8

That Stones track is a great example. Released (and ignored) in the first summer of love, it finally took root in the second:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT9ZT1yc5k0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxkJ3Druerw

open up your open up your open up your throat

... that reminds me, Jon Anderson was a big fan of this:

Vangelis, "Création du monde" (recorded 1970)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqs-yNPZuLs

Another early synthesizer record with a quasi-dance beat (in 3/4 time, though) is side 2 of Silver Apples of the Moon by Morton Subotnick.

― Halfway there but for you, Wednesday, September 13, 2023 11:55 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Funny that "The Song of Wandering Aengus" connected with so many people in the 60s. Silver Apples' "I Have Known Love" (1969) fits well here:

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

this song, released in 1968 but apparently recorded in 1966, sounds more like an C86-type 80s indie band than a 60s group to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuEq34ohri4

I find this one really striking - 1966 but sounds like folky indie pop circa 2009, just like Fleet Foxes or Grizzly Bear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuSIVtp8TOs

Surprised Tomorrow Never Knows hasn't been mentioned yet!

Space - Magic Fly has always been one of those "could have come out today" dance tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfmNzQo7c6M

I always thought this sounded like the deeper end of French house (e.g. Motorbass) but in 1990

Acid house from 1981:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZWTbV63UPs

This track from 1972 seems to predict both Liquid Liquid (1982) and the Madchester sound of 1992:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkae9hHijWI

― henry s, Wednesday, September 13, 2023 8:25 PM (yesterday)

Oh I love this song, had no idea it was that old!

'77 Electro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F19J9gqCSJk

another one that's famous, it gets claimed to have anticipated chillwave:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVis0FbvJsU

wikipedia:

Brian later said that he felt it was "a boring song" that "wasn't done right".

That Cat Stevens track is a of fun. Sounds more like M (of "Pop Musik" fame) or German twee DNW from the early 80s, or The Plastics from Japan. The child-like simplicity is the only thing I could tie back to Cat Stevens, from only knowing his famous earlier albums.

^^ three classics of 'ahead of their time' in a row.

That said before now I have gotten annoyed with the amount of RYMers steamrolling over any and all other commentary of Sunflower to repeatedly mention AIWD sounding like (take your choice: anco, dream pop, shoegaze, tame impala et al). But what can you do - it IS mighty strange for 1970.

The Stones' Heaven also fits these realms although in 1981 there was already the Durutti Column. But regardless.

More acid house, this from 1982:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJnJk6HpBH8

Any fans of ska music here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff5IYXby3Z4

(Fats Domino - Be My Guest)

From 1983

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Z9DSS2cJk

^^^one of my fav albums

Theres also the kikrokos ron hardy edit that sounds like Isolee or something
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcciuWvxE7A

the fats domino one is slightly cheating in that it kind of incepted ska in the first place

Kind of in category like Lil Herb and Lil Bibby - Kill Shit or Shabba Ranks - Dem Bow

Another 50s R&B tune where ska is almost right there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj5drFXNnEI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2v331mmvQQ

From 1980, definitely a strong Animal Collective / Four Tet vibe to me.
Palmer's trajectory is really fascinating to me.

yes, he has so many weird wild cards, musically speaking

Love this song and never thought about it in Anco/Four Tet terms. I hear it.

xxxp I love that “Kansas City,” one of my favorite records…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EM7X33kmn_I

I think this belongs here though it's probably stretching the conceit a bit. Obviously this does sound of its time, but it sounds much more like modern/bedroom/etc psych than it has any right to. The haziness is pure 2010s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSIz9CVBZYI

Sounds so much like Portishead to me.

One of the earliest drill style beats

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

I'm leery of including in this list examples of "early songs that sound like later songs trying to sound like earlier songs". To me that J.K. & Co. song couldn't sound more 1968.

...but I guess you made that point in your caveat.

the rest of the song is of its time (in a great way) but the electronic timbales (?) intro of "I Can't Stand the Rain" always knocks me off balance when I'm expecting a 70s soul song / album - I can't think what later music it sounds like exactly (maybe the "Heart of Glass" intro, which some compilations outrageously cut out)

Love those electronic timbales. They remind me of the Buchla sound of Morton Subotnick actually, synthy but not sweet and round like the Moog stuff that was mostly heard at the time. More rubbery, cheap and sinister and fucked up. So evocative for just a novelty intro sound effect to most people... not to me though, love that song!

The Teardrop Explodes track posted above almost sounds like it samples Heart of Glass.

To me that J.K. & Co. song couldn't sound more 1968.

I understand what you mean, but that's hindsight. Couldn't sound more like 68 to me would be the songs that were actually popular back then: Love Child, Mrs. Robinson, Mony Mony etc. JK and Co certainly isn't Blood Sweat and Tears. JK and Co sounds much more like what we understand a "bedroom psych" sound to be now, which didn't exist then.... see also: All I Wanna Do.

Speaking of tracks that kind of sound like AnCo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdLk9YIfbm0

Lifetones - good side (1983)

I could have added FMac's That's All for Everyone to my brief upthread list of "invented Anco" except I don't especially hear them on that one. But it does have a dream pop/neo-psych indie feel.

"I'm leery of including in this list examples of "early songs that sound like later songs trying to sound like earlier songs""

I've been waiting for the "This sounds like Stereolab and Broadcast, but from the 60's!" joke to be made

I mentioned (without linking to) this upthread in the context of it sounding like Madness' Driving in My Car. But the main sound effect hook - sort of a mechanical spring sound (with a computer-ish processing sound) and a squeak - feels weirdly prescient in other ways. Like a strange abstract dance rhythm that is begging to be sampled by some bedroom IDM boffin or suchlike. It also has the feel of late 70s "ZOLO", no?

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

I could have added FMac's That's All for Everyone to my brief upthread list of "invented Anco" except I don't especially hear them on that one. But it does have a dream pop/neo-psych indie feel.

― you can see me from westbury white horse

I hear Tame Impala on that one, or at least the sound that predates him.

What about this - does the marriage of punishing beat deconstruction and dubstep-ish wub wub readily place for 1999?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iINd5ywyRpg

(Then again, the first time I heard SOPHIE my immediate reference point was Jaxx's Breakaway.)

xp Yeah Tame Impala is who I think of too.

Tame Impala covered "That's All For Everyone" on a FM tribute album that was sold at Starbucks.

Did not know that but makes perfect sense

It sounds better in your head unfortunately.

But the main sound effect hook - sort of a mechanical spring sound (with a computer-ish processing sound) and a squeak - feels weirdly prescient in other ways. Like a strange abstract dance rhythm that is begging to be sampled by some bedroom IDM boffin or suchlike.

to wit, starting at :38 after IIRC, an 80s Ornette Coleman sample?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlYZXg-k0DM

i feel like the main difference between music ahead of its time and music of its time is when other people started making music that sounds like it

i guess that's kind of obvious now that i've typed that out

Sometimes there’s not necessarily a clear path of “influence” though (I know that’s a contested term), which I guess are the more interesting cases…

I still cannot believe this insane shit is from 1968, it sounds like Whitehouse w/ spoken word

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw40B4Z8F2g

some of the extreme distortion and feedback on les rallizes stuff is so obscene and ungodly, it really jumps out in an “ever-present now” kind of way

i feel like the main difference between music ahead of its time and music of its time is when other people started making music that sounds like it

i guess that's kind of obvious now that i've typed that out

― Kate (rushomancy), Sunday, September 17, 2023 4:39 PM (fifteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

there's that, then there's stuff that is just, coincidentally, discovering something that comes into fashion later, by sheer coincidence. (I don't think?? the microhouse sound was inspired by the kikrokos for example)

This song from a Wolverine SNES game is widely seen as the first Grime beat a decade prior to Grime being a thing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9K23uzHjus

that's sick

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

xps that u-Ziq track is fantastic thanks, nice to see someone channel what I mean.

"The Cure and the Cause" Ferrer mix is supposed to be the first true UK Funky record right ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikJCO_FrQQ8

I've heard Wande Coal's 'moshin 2 mohits' LP described as the first contemporary afrobeats album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVtXTQJTnUo

Both of those, I realize, are kind of reverse-engineering the idea of this thread—finding out retroactively how people have traced the origins of what became a popular sound, rather than finding something and going 'wow this sounds like something from many years later'

Not sure if it counts as 'way ahead of its time', but MX-80 Sound's "Promise Of Love" predates all that Slint / muttery post-rock stuff by a decade or so. I'm guessing they were a heavy influence?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJnQCghbc5s

This reminds me I was on a party this Friday and Cerrone’s Supernature got played. I wasn’t paying too much attention so it could’ve been a remix but I remember thinking how much of its time and ahead of its time it sounds. Lyrics are sort of ahead of their time too tbh.

That Wolverine soundtrack is great.

Sometimes there’s not necessarily a clear path of “influence” though (I know that’s a contested term), which I guess are the more interesting cases…

― stylized in all lowercase (morrisp)

got it, so it's more a case of running across the same thing previously ran across, but it didn't catch on the first time

as opposed to this, which just never caught on at all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpAFZnMyC7o

A+ thread y'all, ahead of it's time

This is pretty well known one that sounds closer to something from a DJ Shadow album as opposed to sounding like something that would be sampled on a DJ Shadow album:

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

Bam Bam - Ground Zero invented grunge in 1984

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFiNe2kK914

Some trivia:
-Kurt Cobain loved them and was a roadie for the band
-Drummer Matt Cameron eventually left and formed part of Soundgarden and then Pearl Jam

Third Reich and Roll by the Residents very distinctly feels like 2007-era shitposting to me

Ditto this. Well maybe not 2007 but whenever Cassetteboy started relasing stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1T-n22HTnY

releasing

So many great tracks in this thread. I'll add:

Tolerance - "Pulse Static (Tranqillia)" from 1981, sounds like Basic Channel or Autechre to me:

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

Moebius and Beerbohm - "Doppelschnitt" four-on-the-floor techno from 1984:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf2t0zfqNZ4

When I worked at a shelter for teens in Portland in the mid-2000s, I'd play them this Wipers track to give them some pride in their city that it actually invented the "Seattle sound" i.e. Nirvana's whole thing (which I'm sure Kurt would've credited them for):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xUot8mHS8E

Thanks to those who posted the tracks sampling the Rolling Stones piano above!

Lots of cool shit in this thread.

I hear a lot of Sleater-Kinney and other Riot Grrl in this 1968 Ace of Cups track (sing-along hook, contrasting vocal parts, character voices etc.)

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

I think we can credit Eno with being one of the first to do a proto-shoegaze song (here comes the warm jets) and also one of the first to do a proto post-punk song (third uncle)

Erkki Kurenniemi does Mika Vainio/Sahko Recordings in 1971

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

I don't know what subset of 'electronica' is presaged by this 1984 track by Dave Brock, but it belongs in this thread:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT2ZkUS4gio

One I mentioned in one of the sampling threads but Walter Ruttmann's Wochend (1930) is essentially straight up musique concrete.

_zoviet*france_
in 1983
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByYXHvO0bVY

Ryuichi Sakamoto >>> Mouse on Mars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPuBOYsl--M

yes that track gets cited a lot as something that sounds like it would've been fresh 15 years later, surprised it took so long to show up

I'd also shout out this track from the same album, which I think could easily pass as mid-90s Autechre

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fqpTZLgHIU

The Oval - Wohnton album from 1993 could be seen as a pioneer of glitch pop / electropop with bad vocalists like the sort popularized on the Morr label in the early 00's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWt77UUu6wQ

And the vocals are indeed distractingly bad, but the whole sound of it in general is pretty out there for 1993.

The Ryuchi Sakamoto album is mindblowing for its year.

Maybe too obvious, and I'm hard-pressed to identify a single track (take your pick!), but Kraftwerk? To think that Autobahn came out in '74 is similarly mindblowing.

And that's their fourth album, lol. I truly don't know what genre the first 3 would be.

Can, "Butterfly" (1969)

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

Hey, check out this Spiritualized b-side from 1969

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZpm8k6YCFQ

What about Stakker's Eurotechno? The sound is absolutely 1989, but the restlessness of it, the constant shift-ups, anticipate glitch and decon. club imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfxWZ6eOWCE

One of the obvious ones I've avoided until now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDpIz8E6wvs

I've done (at least) two mixes for Musicophilia where "songs that sound way ahead of their time" was the theme--one called 'Post-Punk 1968-1977' and another called 'Post-Rock 1979-1989':

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/1968-1977-covers_v01a.jpg

Various – ‘Post-Punk: 1968-1977’

Part I

01 [0:00:00] Brian Eno – “Third Uncle” (‘Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)’, 1974)
02 [0:04:50] David Bowie – “Breaking Glass” (‘Low’, 1977)
03 [0:06:35] Faust – “It’s A Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl” (‘So Far’, 1972)
04 [0:14:05] Red Krayola – “Dairymaid’s Lament” (‘God Bless the Red Krayola. . .’, 1968)
05 [0:16:35] Television – “Elevation” (‘Marquee Moon’, 1977)
06 [0:21:35] Silver Apples – “Lovefingers” (‘Silver Apples’, 1968)
07 [0:25:33] Devo – “Social Fools” (‘Hardcore Devo Vol.1’, 1974)
08 [0:29:10] Cluster – “Caramel” (‘Zuckerzeit’, 1974)
09 [0:32:20] Augustus Pablo – “Skateland Rock” (‘This Is Augustus Pablo’, 1974)
10 [0:35:30] Chrisma – “C. Rock” (‘Chinese Restaurant’, 1977)
11 [0:41:00] Laurie Anderson – “Break It” (‘It’s Not The Bullet’ 7″, 1977)
12 [0:45:35] Debris’ – “One Way Spit” (‘Debris’, 1976)
13 [0:48:10] Heldon – “Mechamment Rock” (‘It’s Always Rock’n’Roll’, 1975)
14 [0:51:40] Death – “You’re A Prisoner” (‘. . .For The Whole World To See’, 1975)
15 [0:54:00] This Heat – “Horizontal Hold” (BBC) (‘Made Available’, 1977)
16 [1:02:20] Can – “Vitamin C” (‘Ege Bamyasi’, 1972)

Part II

17 [1:05:50] Suicide – “Che” (‘Suicide’, 1977)
18 [1:10:40] Annette Peacock – “Been & Gone” (‘I’m The One’, 1972)
19 [1:13:00] Tim Buckley – “Song to the Siren” (‘Starsailor’, 1970)
20 [1:16:25] Neu! – “Negativland” (‘Neu!’, 1972)
21 [1:25:55] Wire – “Mannequin” (‘Pink Flag’, 1977)
22 [1:28:30] Kraftwerk – “Antenna” (‘Radioactivity’, 1975)
23 [1:32:10] Talking Heads – “I Want To Live” (Demo) (‘CBS Demos’, 1975)
24 [1:35:55] Chinaboise – “Girl You Got It (So Go Get It)” (‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’, 1975)
25 [1:38:10] John Lennon – “Well Well Well” (‘Plastic Ono Band’, 1970)
26 [1:44:05] Yoko Ono – “Potbelly Rocker” (‘Feeling the Space’ sessions, 1973)
27 [1:46:40] Pere Ubu – “Heart of Darkness” (’30 Seconds Over Tokyo’ EP, 1975)
28 [1:51:20] Modern Lovers – “Someone I Care About” (‘The Modern Lovers’, 1972)
29 [1:54:55] Ultravox – “Hiroshima Mon Amour” (‘Ha!-Ha!-Ha!’, 1977)
30 [2:00:00] Nico – “Janitor of Lunacy” (‘Desertshore’, 1970)
31 [2:04:00] Lou Reed – “The Bed” (‘Berlin’, 1973)
32 [2:09:50] The Stooges – “I Wanna Be Your Dog” (‘The Stooges’, 1969)
33 [2:12:55] Roxy Music – “For Your Pleasure” (‘For Your Pleasure’, 1973)

Total Time: 2:19:45

https://musicophilia.wordpress.com/2018/06/17/post-punk-1968-1977/

https://musicophilia.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/musicophilia_00_various_-_post-rock-1979-1989_2021_cover-a-front.jpg?w=3600

Various – ‘Post-Rock 1979-1989’

Part I

01 [00:00] Gigi Masin – “First Time Ruth Saw the Sea” (‘Les Nouvelles Musiques de Chambre, Vol. 2’ 1989)
02 [01:00] Laughing Hands – “No Tiles” (‘Ledge’ 1980)
03 [05:30] Massacre – “As-Is” (‘Killing Time’ 1981)
04 [10:25] Michael Brook & Brian Eno – “Earth Floor” (‘Hybrid’ 1985)
05 [13:00] Peter Gabriel – “Disturbed” (‘Passion’ 1989)
06 [15:40] This Heat – “24 Track Loop” (‘This Heat’ 1979)
07 [21:20] Phantom Band – “Nowhere” (‘Nowhere’ 1984)
08 [24:35] Harold Budd – “Against the Sky” (‘The Pearl’ 1984)
09 [25:40] Material – “On Sadism” (‘Temporary Music EP’ 1979)
10 [29:00] Spacemen 3 – “Honey” (‘Playing with Fire’ 1989)
11 [31:50] Dif Juz – “Gunet” (‘Extractions’ 1985)
12 [37:00] Dome – “Ampnoise” (‘Dome’ 1980)
13 [37:40] The Cure – “Carnage Visors” (‘Carnage Visors Soundtrack’ 1981)

Part II

14 [46:40] My Bloody Valentine – “No More Sorry” (‘Isn’t Anything’ 1988)
15 [49:25] Bill Frisell – “In Line” (‘In Line’ 1983)
16 [53:50] Camberwell Now – “Working Nights” (‘The Ghost Trade’ 1986)
17 [60:50] Penguin Cafe Orchestra – “Numbers 1-4” (‘Penguin Cafe Orchstra’ 1981)
18 [67:30] Glenn Branca – “The Spectacular Commodity” (‘The Ascension’ 1981)
19 [80:00] The Durutti Column – “Never Known” (‘LC’ 1981)
20 [86:40] Colin Newman – “Fish 4” (‘Provissionally Entitled The Singing Fish’ 1981)
21 [91:10] Talk Talk – “It’s Getting Late in the Evening” (‘Life’s What You Make It’ single 1986)

Total Time: 1:36:50

https://musicophilia.wordpress.com/2021/01/18/post-rock-79-89/

Been working on a 'Post-Rock 1969-1979' follow-up mix off and on for a while, but haven't had the chance to finish it, yet.

Another Spiritualized b-side, this one from 1973:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjzRf90dhqI

Xp fantastic stuff. May I nominate Lou Reed's The Bells as 1979 post-rock.

“Decadence” could also be an A-side from The Church. Eventually they did record a terrific cover of it for A Box Of Birds

This has that mid 2000s feel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk9d3K383RA

Suicide's "Frankie Teardrop" is almost singular in its execution or in someone else trying to mimic it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jO58rj6hOqM

This is very proto Wire

Just learning about Ernest Hood from the latest Trilogy Tapes NTS show, ambient music (using lots of zithers etc) from the '70s with electronic touches that sounds incredibly modern, wow

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvFdJqbV8a4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUdSrNAgr2Y

(xp) are we quite sure Robert Pollard didn't write that one?

All this thread and no mention of Arthur Russell whose entire career feels out of time and space

All this thread and no mention of Arthur Russell whose entire career feels out of time and space

When I worked at a shelter for teens in Portland in the mid-2000s, I'd play them this Wipers track to give them some pride in their city that it actually invented the "Seattle sound" i.e. Nirvana's whole thing (which I'm sure Kurt would've credited them for):

― Soundslike, Monday, September 18, 2023 3:14 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Right noticed that on getting the cd of that lp in the early 90s. Did Nirvana actually cover it somewhere.

Also just saw that Angelo & Eighteen were produced by Mickie Most.

Kurt most definitely gave Wipers credit as an influence. He enlisted 3 of their albums on his 50 favorite albums of all time. In his journal notes for the list he wrote:

“They’re one of the bands I tried to assimilate. Their songs were so good. Greg Sage was pretty much the romantic, quiet, visionary kind of guy. What more can I say about them? They started Seattle grunge rock in Portland, 1977.”

OK, seeing they played the song live and on Peel Session.
Thought I was remembering them or someone related having done it somewhere.

Plus, "Return of the Rat" on here...

https://www.discogs.com/release/1971330-Various-Eight-Songs-For-Greg-Sage-And-The-Wipers

haven't had time to check out the unfamiliar tracks itt but westbury, it's funny i had the complete opposite reaction to nick nicely on hearing the 2010 edition of psychotropia- i assumed the y2k era tracks like on the beach and a hundred years later (his best stuff imo) were also recorded in the 80s.

i love his perfectly unbalanced mixes, the way he lets one thick texture totally engulf a track

So this is maybe just me, but in the napster era I downloaded Can - Mushroom without knowing anything about the band and not investigating more about them…I used to burn copies of cd mixes that I gave out to friends and I would pair that one with late 80’s, early 90’s alt rock like idk Pixies, Mudhoney, Blonde Redhead, Throwing Muses… it didn’t occur to me at the time that it was a song from the 70’s… the only sign giving it away for me was the organ sound at the break, but I assumed they were just throwing a vintage sound in there.

I’d still entertain the thought that Damo Suzuki as a vocalist was very odd and miles ahead for the era.

His weird dadaist lyrics and sort of off beat, half mumbling/half shouting delivery is something I relate more to slacker indie, early alt rock sort of vocalists from the 90’s.

Again maybe that’s just me but I can’t think atm of vocalists that sounded like that in the 70’s.

A lot of Can albums are produced surprisingly well, given they were apparently recorded onto a 4-track. could definitely buy that Future Days was something from the 90s

And boring answer but Black Sabbath are widely credited as the first popular Heavy Metal band but also as one of the first (maybe not the first… Blue Cheer were perhaps it?) to make Doom and Stoner Metal a decade before it was formerly established as a genre.

I guess Flower Travellin Band should also get a credit there, but I think Black Sabbath are the main ones that actually influenced most of those early metal bands.

A lot of Can albums are produced surprisingly well, given they were apparently recorded onto a 4-track.

Or even 2-track? Anyway, all of their best albums were recorded on 4-track... or 2-track.

Pink Floyd 1972 invent 1980s movie soundtrack and the Moody Midtempo AOR we all Praise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16V-wNwlTw0

It's been mentioned in this bump but Sextant is maybe the most I've ever felt 'this isn't from when it was made, my god' about anything at all

Kuzikhon Madrahimov invented epic metal in 1954 with Qosh Tar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UliXZ6qmDMY

That performance is a bit antiseptic, I prefer Guzal Muminova's mom-swagger here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jgJKDtdTEA

^^great stuff and I agree, just put a pickup in that thing and distort, once brought a three string stick dulcimer to work to play at lunch and my Iranian friend heard it and turned me onto some dutar, very similar instruments, asked him how much a decent dutar runs and I guess I need to keep saving haha

sometimes I feel like Alan Parsons invented vaporwave, chillwave? y'know music for driving around at night in a cyberpunk dystopia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vB8dweYCLes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trxfwH-Vlmo

This always sounded ahead of its time to me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC6MUec5cLg

The reminds me of early 80s industrial just because of how strict the rhythm is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V5Wn2CKcdw

xpost every time I think of that very long Flaming Lips "I found a star on the ground" it kinda drifts into "A Pox On You"

XTC in 1967, like a reversal of the Dukes of Stratosphear.

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

All this thread and no mention of Arthur Russell whose entire career feels out of time and space

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, September 20, 2023 9:08 AM (yesterday)

'World of Echo' is probably my favorite album of all time, and I guess he wouldn't come to mind for me as "sounding like the future" because at least as far as anything I've heard, the future(s) he sounded like haven't arrived for him to sound like? Or to put it another way, he remains timeless, and (joyously) lots of people love him, bit perhaps he's so sui generis that nobody really sounds like him, and can't?

This is a pretty well known one to people here, with Jan Hammer basically sounding like Air or Zero 7 in 1977:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWOsFwC8iIs

The Temptations - Papa Was a Rolling Stone (proto-disco and dub)

That Jan Hammer track is great, sounds like a touchstone for Thundercat, also a bit for Louis Cole, or even Dirty Projectors in bits of the melody?

Also I like the links between the Jan Hammer/John McLaughlin bands and Lou Reed's band (Fernando Saunders, Tony "Thunder" Smith).

he also anticipates oneohtrix's retro jan hammer-isms here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV178eVyHo0

xp The dj edits of Don't You Know are fun. There's a couple out there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7sBGBGDvhg

he also anticipates oneohtrix's retro jan hammer-isms here

this suggests something of the way that i'm hearing a lot of these - not so much as ahead of their time, as clarifying how certain aspects of a particular moment's sounds and forms could be picked up decades later and taken in different directions.

That there the Brit Pop in 1987

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3aTXMwKGKY

1977. The main synth pulse, particularly at the start, sounds not only like the sort of acid house throbs thrown into a few early 90s indie tracks - e.g. Paris Angels' Perfume (Loved Up), Spacemen 3's Big City, the Hypnotone mix of Sheer Taft's Cascades - but also like the trance-y throbs thrown into a few turn-of-the-millennium pop tracks - e.g. Andreas Johnson' Glorious, Sonique's It Feels So Good, A1's Take on Me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqyQKdN6JtI

1986 but very 90s, sort of Saint Etienne?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXQiK56n1-E

This one from 1979/1980 definitely sounded futuristic to my ears when I first heard it in 2003. Though in reality, it's mainly that some of the drum flourishes sound a bit Jungle-ish from the 90s, and the overall sound is kore agressive than most "new wave" or "minimal synth" or whatever stuff from '79-'82:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJtvFWc7FDE

too obvious?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZXRV4MezEw
cher - believe

Precursor to rock and roll that sounds like rock and roll to me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcpgTzDpW-Q
Rosetta Tharpe - That's All, 1938

Were there any other blatant uses of auto-tune before Believe? I usually bring up this Kid Rock one as the album was released several months before Believe was released as single, though it didn't really gain much traction till a year later, and this song wasn't released a single till the end of 1999/early 2000.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDshdJK9Rwg

Cher is a good one tbh, a decade later it would be used in virtually all popular music.

I guess "songs that sound ahead of their time in a bad way" could be a side topic.

re autotune here is (as far as I know) the first record to take from Cher & apply it to popular music the way generations of rappers & dancehall acts would after

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SX60IQQJBo

pre t-pain, future, etc

It isn't autotune but I get an autotune-y feel from the hit version of Rosie Gaines' Closer than Close (1997). All it really is the effects of a sped up vocal track afaict

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeZvGW01BDQ

Sonido Lasser Drakar - visions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfXIcZCGu1U

Predicts crystal castles in 2003.