An Electric Storm cover

An Electric Storm

Released

There’ve been a lot of weird pop collaborations over the years, but this team effort between jazz bassist/electronic engineer David Vorhaus and notable BBC Radiophonic Workshop veterans Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson — best known for their groundbreaking electronics work on Doctor Who — has to rank up there. Technically a pop record but filled with uncanny effects, weird moans, and surreal poetry on the first half and absolutely jaw-dropping ambient compositions on the second, it all culminates in an improvised piece called “Black Mass: An Electric Storm in Hell,” which sends 21 gigawatts of electric current through the River Styx. Unprecedented at the time, shocking even now.

Jeff Treppel

Recommended by

Suggestions
La Marcha del Golazo Solitario cover

La Marcha del Golazo Solitario

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs
Excavation cover

Excavation

Ben Monder
The Great Conspiracy cover

The Great Conspiracy

The Peanut Butter Conspiracy
Polyhymnia cover

Polyhymnia

Yazz Ahmed
Tomorrow cover

Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Keith West
Starry Starry Night cover

Starry Starry Night

Paul Clarvis, Liam Noble
Swirling cover

Swirling

Sun Ra Arkestra
Nespithe cover

Nespithe

Demilich
Black Focus cover

Black Focus

Yussef Kamaal
Spry from Bitter Anise Folds cover

Spry from Bitter Anise Folds

Rebecca Foon, Rachel Levine, Fifths Of Seven, Spencer Krug
White Light/White Heat cover

White Light/White Heat

The Velvet Underground
Jazz in Silhouette cover

Jazz in Silhouette

Sun Ra & His Arkestra