1st 5 Albums you HAVE heard from RYMs All Time Esoteric List

http://rateyourmusic.com/charts/esoteric/album/all-time/1

These are albums with high ratings but few raters.

I guess I won't count the movie scores--which I've only heard while watching the films.

96. Wanda Jackson- Rockin' With Wanda
118. The Dillards- Wheatstraw Suite
187. Jerry Jeff Walker- Viva Terlingua!
254. Brad Paisley- Time Well Wasted
267. George Jones- I Am What I Am

and continuing...

286. Merle Haggard- Mama Tried
362. Holst- The Planets (von Karajan)
371. Fela Kuti- Afrodisiac
381. Dwight Yoakam- Dwight Sings Buck
405. Marcos Valle- Vento Sul

30 - Bar Kokhba, 50th Birthday Celebration Vol 11
35 - Morton Feldman, For Philip Guston
56 - George Lewis, Homage to Charles Parker (one of the greatest records ever, seriously, SEARCH THAT SHIT OUT)
81 - Various Artists (Disney): Chilling, Thrilling SOunds of the Haunted House (great sfx record for any 8-year-old...I played this a lot, not just at Halloween)
276 - Gato Barbieri, Last Tango in Paris (favorite film score)

this is difficult, cause I've heard some of those classical compositions (Shoenberg - Verklarte Nacht, Holst - Planets, Reich's Music for 18 Musicians) but not on those albums. After that it's the Psycho and Kill a Mockingbird soundtrack.

107 Patton Oswalt - 222
120 McCoy Tyner - Echoes of a Friend
147 Richard Pryor - Wanted: Richard Pryor, Live in Concert
157 Beethoven - Symphonies No. 5 in C minor & No. 6 in F major (The Berlin Philharmonic Orch. cond. Herbert von Karajan)
282 Ennio Morricone - Il mio nome è Nessuno

I also had heard a lot of the classical compositions but not the specific recordings.

Jeff Mills - Live at the Liquid Room
Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
Thomas Köner - Nuuk
Derek & Clive - Derek & Clive (Live)
The Caretaker - A Stairway to the Stars

198. Neil Hamburger - Raw Hamburger
217. Richard Thompson - 1000 Years of Popular Music
218. Terry Allen - Lubbock (On Everything)
219. Dollar Brand - Good News From Africa. Aside: This album fucking rules.
495. Gravitar - Now the Road of Knives

That 217-219 stretch is really coincidental.

I've heard tons of classical but I have no idea regarding those particular recordings.

36 Nino Rota - La dolce vita (1960)
37 Art Blakey - A Night at Birdland, Vol. 2 (1954)
52 Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians [Ensemble Modern] (1999)
53 Ray Charles (1957)
85 Hugh Mundell - Africa Must Be Free by 1983 (1978)

40. Mississippi Fred McDowell I Do Not Play No Rock 'n' Roll (1969)
54. Prince Lasha & Sonny Simmons Firebirds (1967)
79 Erasmo Carlos Carlos, Erasmo (1971)
87. Henry Flynt You Are My Everlovin' / Celestial Power (2001)
108. Tony Conrad Four Violins (1996)

I think I have different recordings on the Ives, Messiaen, and probably some of the other classical as well. Did not include film soundtracks in list.

187. Jerry Jeff Walker- Viva Terlingua!

^^^ love this btw

you people into tropicalia should find an mp3 blog with that Erasmo Carlos record on it. It's greeaaaaat. I wish I could afford an LP copy of it.

17 v/a - The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Primary Phase
53 Ray Charles - Ray Charles
64 v/a - The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Secondary Phase
77 Harry Belafonte - Belafonte at Carnegie Hall
91 Buddy Guy & Junior Wells - Play the Blues

The two Hitch-hiker's seem like a cop-out to list separately, so here's the next one:

110 Air - Air Lore

30 - Bar Kokhba, 50th Birthday Celebration, Vol. 11 - (I love this album, one of my favorites from Zorn's catalog)
51 - Jeff Mills, Live at the Liquid Room, Tokyo (Classic! Bangin!)
333 - Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Wenn der Südwind weht
429 - Various Artists - Tribute Albums - Charles Mingus, Weird Nightmare: Mediations on Mingus
476 - Leon Redbone, On the Track

Also have:
477 - Alejandro Jodorowsky, The Holy Mountain Soundtrack
595 - The Firesign Theater, Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him
716 - The Residents, 13th Anniversary Show Live in Tokyo
752 - Fela Kuti, Coffin for Head of State
832 - Circle, Paris-Concert

I stopped in the 800s, but I'll have to check out the rest of this list - I wish I were familiar with more of these!

I also had heard a lot of the classical compositions but not the specific recordings.

ditto. I'm going to be strict about that one.

17. Hitch-Hiker's Guide (via the radio)
64. Hitch-Hiker's Guide 2 (ditto)
104. Messiaen - Turangalila-Symphonie
121. Cracow Klezmer Band - De Profundis
130. Henry Rollins - Get in the Van

then richard pryor, derek & clive, taraf de haidouks, alice donut, bailey/tacuma/weston and CARDIACS.

lots of interesting stuff on this list, actually.

19- Giacomo Puccini-Tosca [Maria Callas/Giuseppe di Stefano/Tito Gobbi; Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Milano/Victor de Sabata]
20- Various Artists- Musicals / Cast Recordings 1970-79 A Little Night Music [Original Broadway Cast] (1973)
63- Richard Wagner- Der Ring Des Nibelungen [Sir Georg Solti] (1970)
151- Luiz Melodia- Pérola Negra (1973)
205- Johann Sebastian Bach- Matthäus-Passion [1998-recording - Bostridge/Selig/Rubens/Scholl/Gura/Henschel/Collegium Vocale Gent/Philippe Herreweghe] (1999)

It's interesting that such a simple formula would generate such a great list.

The all-time greats list is pretty good too, though much more obvious.

Yeah, I'm taking notes from that list. (xpost)

11. laurence of arabia - maurice jarre

16. velma - cyclique

18. charles ives - symphony no.4

24. star trek 2: the wrath of khan - james horner

45. gustav holst - the planets

48. hedwig & the angry inch

61. gil scott heron & brian jackson - bridges

69. alec costandinos - romeo & juliet

73. west side story

81. chilling thrilling sounds of the haunted house

90. the passage - degenerates

that's all the stuff i've heard and owned out of the first 100. all on vinyl except for hedwig and the velma album.

21 Keith Jarrett
Sun Bear Concerts Piano Solo: Recorded in Japan (1978)

37 Art Blakey
A Night at Birdland, Vol. 2 (1954)

52 Steve Reich
Music for 18 Musicians [Ensemble Modern] (1999)

54 Firebirds
Prince Lasha & Sonny Simmons
Firebirds (1967)

75 Roky Erickson and the Aliens
I Think of Demons (1987)

1,2,4,6,26 - I have a bunch of those classical recordings, mostly scored for under two quid and mostly on the rather dubious basis that their covers didn't look like total cheese (this isn't so easy with 70s Beethoven vinyl). Will vouch for the Bohm Beethovens and Wagners, that guy really is the fuckin' Bohm. And the Michelangeli Debussy is a beauty tooty too.

My guess is the list will be mostly Scandinavian. Let's see:

73. West Side Story (Broadway Cast)
251: De Lillos: Hjernen er Alene
252: Radka Toneff: Fairytales
272: Les Miserables (Original Broadway Cast)
536: The Aller Værste: Materialtretthet

I have heard lots of the classical works, but not those particular recordings. Incredibly I have never heard Crowded House's farewell live CD (generally not interested in live recordings)

Also note that the three Norwegian albums above are all part of the Norwegian "canon" more or less. They are about as far from "esoteric" as they can get in Norway.

20. Original Broadway Cast - A Little Night Music
73. Original Broadway Cast - West Side Story
453. John Cage - Indeterminacy
628. Marvin Hamlisch - The Sting
721. Erik Satie - Works for Piano [I think this is the version I have; it's played by Aldo Ciccolini, at any rate]

1. Claude Debussy - Préludes Volume 1 (Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli) (1978)
5. Luigi Nono - Guai ai gelidi mostri & Omaggio a György Kurtág [Ensemble Recherche/André Richard]
31. György Ligeti - György Ligeti Edition 1: String Quartets and Duets [Arditti String Quartet]
74. Olivier Messiaen - Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps [Yordanoff/ Tetard/ Desurmont/ Barenboim]
92. Béla Bartók - The 6 String Quartets: Takács Quartet

NickB OTM re: the Debussy et al. Cheap Deutsche Grammophon vinyl etc is where it's at.

52. Steve Reich - Music For 18 Musicians
108. Tony Conrad- Four Violins
185. Arvo Pärt - Berliner Messe / Magnificat / Summa
464 Brötzmann / Van Hove / Bennink - Balls
614. La Monte Young - The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer From the Four Dreams of China

still wondering about the inclusion of a Reel Big Fish live album in that bounty

Fuck considering George Jones and Merle Haggard "esoteric" when they sold hundreds of thousands in their prime and absolutely lived on the radio. Pretty sure I Am What I Am is gold if not platinum.

8) Johann Sebastian Bach
Sechs Suiten für Violoncello Solo BWV 1007 - 1012 [Pablo Casals]

27) György Ligeti
The Ligeti Project II: Lontano / Atmosphères / Apparitions / San Francisco Polyphony / Concert românesc [Berliner Philharmoniker/Jonathan Nott]

31) György Ligeti
György Ligeti Edition 1: String Quartets and Duets [Arditti String Quartet]

101) Hildegard von Bingen
A Feather on the Breath of God [Gothic Voices / C. Page]

118) The Dillards
Wheatstraw Suite

50. Love is the Thing, Nat King Cole
53. Ray Charles
54. Firebirds, Prince Lasha and Sonny Simmons
93. Side by Side: Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges Play the Blues
94. Etta James Rocks the House

Rofl at Cole, a Number One album for months upon its 1957 release; Ray Charles, who is, um, Ray Charles; Duke Ellington; and Etta James, a major presence in the R&B charts of the '60s (hi, Geir!) being considered "esoteric."

Is that 1999 version of Music for 18 Musicians any good?

this is difficult, cause I've heard some of those classical compositions (Shoenberg - Verklarte Nacht, Holst - Planets, Reich's Music for 18 Musicians) but not on those albums.
― Ludo

yeah, 'xactly. thought the same thing. not sure *all* those particular classical performances are all that 'esoteric' really...

my fist 5 offa teh eso'list:
26. Gorecki, Symph.3
27. Ligeti Project, II
30. Bar Kokhba
31. Ligeti Project, 1
36. La dolce vita OST - hey, I've watched teh goddam movie, so I have heard the music, right? right?? ("esoteric albums" my ass! :)

the next 5, howevers...
47. Michel Legrand (see 36)
110. Air, Air Lore
185. Arvo Pärt, Berliner Missa (etc)
228. Moondog, Elpmas
312. Muzsikas, Nem ...

xpost

Country is "esoteric" on RYM, aside from Johnny Cash.

51. Jeff Mills - Live atthe Liquid Room
52. Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
107. Patton Oswalt - 222
201. Neil Hamburger - Raw Hamburger
365. Archie Shepp - The Magic of Ju-Ju

xpost

Yeah, I get that, President Keyes. That's the problem.

So classical music is filed under "esoteric" now?

1. Claude Debussy - Préludes, Vol. 1 (Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli)
4. Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony No. 6, "Pastorale" (Wiener Philharmoniker, Karl Böhm)
5. Luigi Nono - Guai ai gelidi mostri & Omaggio a György Kurtág (ensemble recherche, André Richard)
8. Johann Sebastian Bach - 6 Suites for solo cello (Pablo Casals)
10. Ludwig van Beethoven - The Late Piano Sonatas (Maurizio Pollini)

Excepting the Greekcore band, I've heard all the compositions listed in the top ten, but not necessarily those recordings.

And the next five:

15. Amália Rodrigues - Com Que Voz
27. György Ligeti - The Ligeti Project, Vol. 2
30. Bar Kokhba - John Zorn's 50th Birthday Celebration, Vol. 11
31. György Ligeti - György Ligeti Edition, Vol. 1
44. Arnold Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht / Variationen für Orchester (Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan)

13. VA - Sweeney Todd, Demon Barber of Fleet Street OBC
20. VA - A Little Night Music OBC
30. Bar Kokhba - 50th Birthday Celebration
52. Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians
59. Johann Sebastian Bach - 6 Brandenburg Concertos

So classical music is filed under "esoteric" now?

Virtually any single recording of classical music will get few ratings or reviews.

Earlier, RYM would let people add composers' works without specifying recordings, but they have become stricter there now.

Then my next five are;

62. VA - Into the Woods
65. Jerry Goldsmith - Chinatown ST
73. VA - West Side Story OBC
121. The Cracow Klezmer Band - De Profundis
167. Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 1 (Bernstein)

I've heard a lot of the earlier Classical stuff, but except for the two I listed, I have no idea if I heard the same recording.