It may have gone a tad Pete Tong in the 1980s, but the decade before that saw the creation of one of the industry's most invigorating and perplexing commercial record labels – Virgin. Under the entrepreneurial eye of Richard Branson (and financed, effectively, by the massive success of boy wonder Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells), Virgin signed up a broad range of left-field acts. From Henry Cow, Faust, Gong, Fred Frith and Robert Wyatt (all bow!) to Klaus Schulze, Egg, Kevin Coyne, Hatfield & the North and Ivor Cutler (all hail!), Virgin ruled the very choppy waves. Of course, come the signing of Sex Pistols to the label and everything changed. Still, if you're looking for genuine oddballs, bona-fide avant-pop and some cray-zee sounds, then, well, it's time to lose your Virginity, innit? virgin40.com
Download: Faust, Krautrock; Ivor Cutler, The Dirty Dinner; Robert Wyatt, Yesterday Man