This thread makes me think Lou’s should be Heavy Metal Machine Music. 
ETA: Did my brain add Heavy to that title?
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MMS is such a great album… I might make them listen to that… What would a room of 17 year olds do with that?
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Y’all are looking for the “Nurse with Wound List.”
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I notice a distinct lack of female musicians on the list.
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In which case you are also looking for this -
A lack which would, I trust, be in part remedied if this list wasn’t so full of very ooooooooooolllld stuff. There are many female musicians who could make that list but if you are compiling such a list from more recent vintage it would be impossible not to have a lot of female artists on the list. EDIT - this list is quite focused on “rock” and jazz which were not the most inclusive genres in ye olden tymes.
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Einstürzende Neubauten
Psychic TV
Throbbing Gristle
23 Skidoo
Cabaret Voltaire
Jah Wobble
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Good call! I nominate this album from Annette Peacock, and would argue (after a recent listening) Joni Mitchell’s “Hissing of Summer Lawns.” That album’s a lot weirder than I remember it being.
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Life is a rock, but the radio rolled me 
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Right? I was hoping to see The Shags. Or Laurie Anderson.
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All these records, and yet no discussion of what “avant garde” is.
anyway, I nominate “Full on Night” by Rachel’s (and Matmos)
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Einsturzende Neubauten - Haus der Luge
Pere Ubu - Modern Dance
Pere Ubu - Ray Gun Suitcase
Zappa - Weasels Ripped My Flesh
Kraftwerk - Radioactivity
Brian Eno - Music for Airports
Photek - Modus Operandi
808 State - Thermo Kings
Godflesh - Selfless
Therapy? - Nurse
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Part of the issue with classical music on this list is that the album isn’t usually the medium by which classical music is judged so much as the composition. There isn’t a single recording of In C or Rites of Spring or 4’33 that is completely definitive. I guess if I had to pick a classical album for such a list it would be Black Angels by Kronos Quartet, maybe?
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How about some Delia…
Daphne Oram, mayhaps:
More recent… Jessica Rylan (Can’t):
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As far as women go, I had Yoko Ono and Ikue Mori in my list, so it isn’t like they were completely absent even in old stuff. I would add Alice Coltrane, Carla Bley, Moe Tucker and Zeena Parkins to a longer list.
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I think the complaint was about the original post’s lack of women, not our follow ups.
I was just looking for Bley’s Escalator over the Hill to post, but there aren’t any complete copies readily available.
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One of the earliest avant-garde musicians to experiment with electronics in history was a woman:
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Damn it, there was a more recent artist, who would take broken records, lay them on top of each other on the record and play that… I can’t remember he name now. Anyone know who I’m talking about? I can’t find her with a google search…
Oh! This is pretty good stuff…
Here, just check out this list you lot… the BBS is yelling at me for posting too much:
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Yeah, that’s reasonable. I was introduced to Henry Cow via “In Praise of Learning” and worked backwards to the previous two. I’d say her vocals are an acquired taste, I came to like them after hearing the Art Bears LPs she did post-HC. The live versions of those tunes with her on the HC Concerts album are better than the studio versions.
Dolphy’s “Out To Lunch” should be on the list I think. Same with at least one minimalist work like Reich’s “It’s Gonna Rain”, or Terry Riley’s “In C.”
People forget, but Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” was very avant garde at the time. Now it’s a classical standard and fan favorite, but there was a riot at its premier.
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Maria Chavez?
Still avant garde by most metrics, but no longer groundbreaking since it’s similar to what Christian Marclay and Phillip Jeck did in the 80’s and 90’s.
[ETA: I’m not putting her down, I’m still just scratching my head at how we are defining “groundbreaking” here. I could make a long list of great avant garde LPs, but most of them are covering territory already mapped out.]
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