The 10 most eccentric rock albums of the 1970s, according to Far Out Magazine

The Seventies were the decade when imagination took power, when experimentation reached the most unthinkable heights, surprising even rock's own fanbase. Starting from this premise, Far Out magazine has drawn up its own list of “The 10 most eccentric experimental albums of the 1970s”. Experimental records deemed capable of shaking to the core the certainties that rock had built up until that point. “If music fans thought the Beatles had already revolutionised everything in the Sixties, then they were in no way prepared for what was coming in the following decade – Callum MacHattie points out in the introduction – The Seventies opened with the Fab Four now behind them. Driven forward by the culture of innovation they had helped create, music entered a new era dominated by the wildest experimentation, where anyone could put anything on the table and call it music. It was a decade of enormous innovation and diversity, which is why it's remembered as the greatest of them all. For the most part, this new experimental wave still managed to crystallise into coherent forms – Far Out continues – Just think of Pink Floyd's ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon‘ or Shuggie Otis's ‘Inspiration Information’. Records that turned radical ideas into something accessible, guiding the listener into unknown territory with pop sensibility and a certain familiarity. But there were also albums that abandoned any mediation altogether. They saw the horizon of possibility thrown wide open and pushed forward without worrying too much about who would actually listen to them. So, even in the Seventies — an era in which the culture of freedom had already broken down every mental boundary — these works still seemed impossible to classify. The sheer brilliance of their ambition exceeded even the expectations of an already extremely open-minded period”.

Here, then, are the albums that in the Seventies set new standards for musical experimentation, according to Far Out's ranking of the 10 most eccentric experimental albums of the 1970s, drawn up by the British magazine (full feature here).

10. Can — "Tago Mago"
9. Funkadelic — "Maggot Brain"
8. Lou Reed — "Metal Machine Music"
7. John Cale and Terry Riley — "Church of Anthrax"
6. Tonto's Expanding Head Band — "Zero Time"
5. Bo Hansson — "Lord of the Rings"
4. Brian Eno — "Another Green World"
3. Allen Ginsberg — "The Complete Songs Of Innocence and Experience"
2. Van der Graaf Generator — "Pawn Hearts"
1. Faust — "The Faust Tapes"

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