Amon Tobin, "Precursor"
One of the big trends of rap beats was taking old soul music and speeding it up so that it sounds like the Chipmunks. Here, Amon Tobin sounds like he's doing kind of the same thing, only with cartoon sound effects. Why not?
Arsonists, "Underground Vandal"
Beautiful drum loop on this song.
Negativland, "Fruitcakes, Suka-Brand Coffee, Power Failure, Citizens Band Parakeet etc."
Negativland hosted a show called Over The Edge on Berkley's KPFA, providing an outlet for surreal radio strangeness. I actually caught the show once while going to camp in Berkeley, and it was a mess but also entertaining. They also put out a set of (lightly) edited shows on CD, and I have a bunch of those. This is from Volume 6, the Wilsaphone Stupid Show, which was pieced together out of old found audio and family recordings from David "The Weatherman" Wills. What you hear on this, um, song is pretty representative of Over the Edge in general.
Torche, "Shine On My Old Ways"
A great example of the shiny and heavy approach Torche has. And listen to that feedback! Glorious. Also, a repeat.
Poster Children, "She Walks"
I don't know how long it took me to realize that this album is actually called Flower Plower, not Flower Power. Anyway, nice when sometimes bands decide to not go with distorted guitars.
Arab Strap, "The Shy Retirer"
Despite what you might guess, no, Arab Strap isn't a Belle & Sebastian side project. They are products of the same Glasgow scene, and some B&S folks have guested on Arab Strap albums. The B&S album The Boy With the Arab Strap is named that in tribute to this band as well. I've got a couple of Arab Strap albums, and neither has really grabbed me that much, though.