Words get in the way: your favourite instrumentals

[Trollheart]

Sometimes you just want the singer to go take a smoke break and let the music do the talking. Post your favourite instrumental tracks, any genre.

First off and I have to tip my hat to an all-time classic, Fleetwood Mac's unmistakable "Albatross". Released in 1969 - over fifty years ago now, can you believe it? I was only six! - it crops up on just about every instrumental compilation album with names like "Relaxation", "Moods", "Chill" or any variation of such. It's a lovely, relaxing piece, led by John McVie's almost heartbeat bass, Mick Fleetwood's cymbals that seem to sigh like waves, and Al Green's guitar work, starting mid-range and later going into the higher scales. The perfect piece to kick back to and let it all wash over you.

Another one I really like is from one of the Alan Parsons Project's early albums, I, Robot. It's a great little piece that also crops up on Vangelis' The City, under a different title, but here it's called "Genesis Ch 1 V32", whihc presents something of a mystery to me, but you don't care about that. Both tunes though do engender a great feeling of drama and majesty.

This one, I have to admit, took me so by surprise when I first heard it, as I had no idea it was an Eagles number. You'll recognise it probably as the theme music to the old BBC sci-fi TV show The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but it's actually called "Journey of the Sorcerer" and is from the Eagles' album One of These Nights. Great banjo from Bernie Leadon and some truly exceptional keyboard with powerful drums. Great music, but I can only ever seen Arthur Dent in space when I hear it!

[SGR]

Okay, I'll take the low hanging fruit for lack of something better to think of off the top of my head at the moment. No 'Best Instrumentals' thread would be complete without this one:

[Trollheart]

Love this one!

"Chi Mai (The Life and Times of David Lloyd George)" - Ennio someone

[Oriphiel]

[Guybrush]

I like quite a bit of instrumental music, but here are a couple.. that I may already have posted elsewhere.

The title track on Return to Forever's No Mystery has been a regular in my rotation the last 15-20 years or so. I adore it 🙂 and prefer it over the similarly acoustic Romantic Warrior title track which I'm sure has many more listeners.

I'm sure I posted this before too, but whatever. On an album full of great songs and moments (We Like It Here), I've found myself returning to this one as I just live the groove, riff and energy of this one 🙂

[Lisnaholic]

^ After first expecting Snarky Puppy to be Skinny Puppy, I enjoyed that track, especially when the guitar comes in at about 3 mins in.

I also thought this thread might be intended for instrumentals by bands with vocalists, for which I can offer this short but charming soundbite :-

The Tindersticks' lead singer has his face on the cover, but clearly was out of the studio and missed his cue when they were recording this track:-

If it's just about instrumentals, well, that's a pretty big field to be choosing from !

[Trollheart]

It's for any instrumentals, whether instrumental bands like Yellow Magic Orchestra (?) or Explosions in the Sky etc, artists like Vangelis or Tomita, or bands/artists who occasionally do instrumentals, like Genesis, Fleetwood Mac, or even Black Sabbath (anyone remember this one?

"Laguna Sunrise" - Black Sabbath

"The Messiah Will Come Again" - Gary Moore

"Bella Nova" - Asia

[Guybrush]

When I was a kid, I loved Transformers and watched the mid 80s movie repeatedly.

That soundtrack is etched into my brain and the instrumental score by Vince DiCola is still pretty great if you can get with the tremendous cheesy 80s vibe 😄 Needless to say; a lotta synth.

Here's an example:

[Lisnaholic]

^ That's not bad, but knowing where it's from kind of brands it as "action movie soundtrack" and that flavour was difficult to wash out as I listened to it.

"Laguna Sunrise" - Black Sabbath

^ I think I preferred this instrumental, as it's less dramatic. In fact, I'm often in the mood for lo-fi, lo-drama instrumental jams, and when I am, I might pick something by Causa Sui or Luop Garou:-

They're not precisely favourite instrumentals, but I like them exactly because of the way the albums they are from form a kind of rolling wash, without any special standouts - and when you listen, every moment seems just right.
(Anyone who pays attention to such things may recall that Xurtio was a member of both MB and Luop Garou.)

[Trollheart]

One of my very favourites from Genesis, short and the more effective as it prefaces the massive 23-minute epic "Supper's Ready". Steve Hackett is such a good guitarist!

"Horizons" - Genesis

For something a bit more uptempo

"Ride the Sky" - Night Runner

And we can't forget the Greek genius, now can we? Sadly missed.

"To the Unknown Man" - Vangelis ( @Lexi Darling will be well aware of this one!)

[Guybrush]

A couple of mentions from the Canterbury scene. There's of course lots there:

I love Gong's blend of fusion with lots of melodic percussion, a change that happened when Daevid Allen stepped away and it became Pierre Moerlen's band for a while. Of course that's also Allan Holdsworth on guitar.

National Health is one of the greatest things to come out of that scene, though they came about rather late as they're a sort of Hatfield 2.0. They deserve much more attention than they get. Their music isn't easy, but this might be their catchiest track.

[Lisnaholic]

I remember that I first heard those Pierre Moerlin's Gong albums (Gazeuse! and Expresso II) because they were featured in the jazz/prog album club that you used to run, Guybrush.

Because of all the percussion and xylophone in those albums, they made me think of what is probably my favourite Moondog track:-