United States Of America, The

While most obviously an antecedent of Broadcast's icy, out-rocked torch songs (indeed, "The American Metaphysical Circus" out-Broadcasts Broadcast), you can hear the United States of America's nervous, modulated psychedelia in acts as diverse as Current 93 and Pram. This was daring stuff, even in 1968, when seemingly every band was splicing tape, echoplexing the hell out of everything and generally being far-out. USA have long been relegated to the specialist and trainspotter bins, but their debut is as worthy of discovery and critical re-evaluation as Can and Neu! were a few years ago. Necessary history lessons, here.