Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho

Oral Moses, vocal; Michael Bierylo, electric guitar and programming; Ken Field, flute; Erik Lindgren, piano; Rick Scott, synthesizer; Jason Marchionna, percussion

One of the most off-beat ideas to come across my desk in a long time is a collaboration between electro-prog band Birdsongs of the Mesozoic with Oral Moses, who is a singer of spirituals. At times it approaches the chamber of horrors dimensions of recordings that never should have been made, but you’re so glad they were anyway—like country singer Don Gibson’s late-’60s session with Los Indios Tabajares, a pair of easy listening mariachi, which finally resurfaced more than 20 years later on a German import. But this is precisely what makes this music interesting to listen to for me. There’s never a moment I’m listening when I’m not questioning why they chose to do this: it’s very unsettling, which is at the heart of what a truly new sonic experience is.

—FJO