...truly original.

Sigur Ros come to mind instantly. It's hard to achieve their level of originality, but they do so brilliantly.

Let's have 'em. Who else?

Would you class Burial as original? I have no idea. I think he's great.

Pomplamouse

Tom Zé
Yes, he is still currently making music. And he is still like nobody else.
Whether or not you think that's a good thing, it a matter of taste, but I love him.

TV On the Radio


. . . can we just leave the french for 'grapefruit' out of this? I feel like its been tattooed on my ass. ugh

Good call, and I would indeed.

The Books

I think that producers are more original than most current musicians. I'd say that Bangladesh has a pretty unique sound.

I'd actually put a strong case up for Kenny Werner , especially his 2007 record, Lawn Chair Society. A peculiar blend of jazz & electronics. Very very good.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/6z25

His new record is a little strange as well, jazz/classical hybrid. Unfortunately that maybe ten quid wasted.

I don't get what's so original about Burial.

Could we let this go without some mention of Mike Patton?
The guy is a freak.
Maybe you could point to Captain Beefheart as an obvious point of reference, but I think that he takes it even farther, and does more exploration... kinda like a vocal version of John Zorn.

Serious answer:

Dirty Projectors

When he came out, no one sounded like his productions. Often copied, but still, nobody can capture his sound entirely.

That's what.

i'm an outsider to the genre so i might not pick up on some subtle twist, but it sounded fairly familiar to me.

To me it just sounds like the dubstep version of shitty, boring trip-hop, but whatever.

Slight stylistic variations on something very familiar and unexciting. "Cool" downtempo blah.

Isn't this where we have the existential argument that there is nothing truly original?

Let's hope that we've all already come the understanding that it's a relative and pretty subjective term.

Who do you feel It's closely mirrored to?

And what is Dirty Projectors?

pretty much prooves that you don't understand his music, or dubstep for that matter.

Animal Collective
cLOUDDEAD

Max Tundra

keep seeing this name. what's he like?

I will say that within a genre, no one really matches what Andrew Bird is doing. In my opinion, of course.

on the surface, it's just electronica. but this dude drops everything imaginable into the music, and the arrangements are unlike anyone else i've heard in that genre.

electronic-ish. weird pop music. i really don't know how to describe him.