Penguin Cafe Orchestra Essentials

A wonderful oddity of '70s and '80s music, Penguin Cafe Orchestra was led by quirky composer Simon Jeffes. It was hard to say if they were a classical music troupe playing wonky jazz songs, or an experimental collective that wrote electronic pop, or an avant-garde folk band who helped to invent new age music. In fact, the PCO were all of that and more, which was perhaps why one of their early benefactors was Brian Eno. They even became minor pop stars in Britain thanks to unexpected hit single "Perpetuum Mobile". Sadly, Jeffes died in 1994, but his son has since revived the band.