Ex /r/listentothis mod here. I am hipster facista certified. I can recommend you 70 artists in three 88 minute mixtapes I put together. Once upon a time, these would have all gone into the...
Ex /r/listentothis mod here. I am hipster facista certified. I can recommend you 70 artists in three 88 minute mixtapes I put together. Once upon a time, these would have all gone into the /r/listentothis bestofs. They are obscure, and positive, all within 2-3 years old, and cartwheel through as many genres as I can cram into these things. It's more fun than a jigsaw puzzle for me.
Normally I'd warn you that these mixtapes will cause funk neck, but now I'll just warn you that you are going to put on weight playing this game. I listen to these until they wear out, then...
Normally I'd warn you that these mixtapes will cause funk neck, but now I'll just warn you that you are going to put on weight playing this game. I listen to these until they wear out, then replace them. Only the survivors of dozens of spins make the final cut. These are keter class earworms, my favorite.
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan I dove into your playlists headfirst. I haven't had this much fun with new music in forever! Probably since I...
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan I dove into your playlists headfirst. I haven't had this much fun with new music in forever! Probably since I discovered Mother's Cake and KGATLW in the same month. You have impeccable taste, and a new follower on spotify
I'm glad my psychotic obsession with finding music can make someone happy. :) The albums all of these tracks come from are pretty baller as well. There are a couple one hit wonders in there (at...
I'm glad my psychotic obsession with finding music can make someone happy. :)
The albums all of these tracks come from are pretty baller as well. There are a couple one hit wonders in there (at least so far in said artist's career) but for most of them, you'll find a banging discography behind each track.
I've found a few new bands and songs I like by going to radio.garden and checking out radio stations in foreign countries and major metropolitan areas. Lots of chaff to sift through but it can be...
I've found a few new bands and songs I like by going to radio.garden and checking out radio stations in foreign countries and major metropolitan areas. Lots of chaff to sift through but it can be fun regardless.
Second this, if you’re bored or just itching to discover something brand new to you. Radio.garden + Shazam is a godsend. There’s also Radiooooo which is similar to radio.garden except for...
Second this, if you’re bored or just itching to discover something brand new to you. Radio.garden + Shazam is a godsend.
There’s also Radiooooo which is similar to radio.garden except for travelling through time
I find most of my new music through various music collages on RED. I've been enjoying the "4th Wave Japan" Collage that's been introducing me to artists like Hiroshi Yoshimura.
I find most of my new music through various music collages on RED.
I've been enjoying the "4th Wave Japan" Collage that's been introducing me to artists like Hiroshi Yoshimura.
I do relatively often depending on if I’m feeling “sick” of the stuff I’m listening to or not. I’ve amassed a pretty large Spotify library because of it. For my taste, it’s relatively easy to find...
Do you go make active efforts to find new music?
I do relatively often depending on if I’m feeling “sick” of the stuff I’m listening to or not. I’ve amassed a pretty large Spotify library because of it.
If so - how?
For my taste, it’s relatively easy to find new music;
Soundcloud is a massive hub of niche music, you just have to be willing to slog through it to find the gold.
Spotify’s recommendation algorithm is alright, but the real way to find new stuff is by checking user made playlists. Type in whatever kinda music or vibe you’re into and then scroll through a playlist. Being specific is key here; the more adjectives you put in your search, or the more there are in a playlist title, the better it’s gonna be.
Send me new music (please). That off-the-wall shit that you wouldn't recommend to anyone else ... The more obscure and unknown the better because the more likely it'll actually be new.
Ohhhh baby here we go, this is my jam. Here we go, with varying levels of obscurity/weirdness:
Yameii Online - loading : Yameii is kinda like a more edgy hatsune miku, in the sense that she’s entirely fictional and her vocals are made with vocaloid.
Jakey - DRIVE OFF A BRIDGE : Jakey is NakeyJakey, this is pretty standard hip hop but there’s some nice references to “old” romcoms throughout the album (which is also called ROMCOM)
Delto - Cold : Some nice hyperpop, contrary to the name it actually is quite cozy :)
Nosgov - lungs : more hyperpop, nosgov’s tracks are a little hit and miss, but this one is an absolute banger. Another good one by her is into ash
Obscure and unknown coming up: smiiillleee Youtube recommended me this a few months back. I usually find my weird and new music through youtube. I also find it through albums. Like I would have...
Obscure and unknown coming up: smiiillleee
Youtube recommended me this a few months back.
I usually find my weird and new music through youtube. I also find it through albums. Like I would have never found 青春ただいま進行中 if it was not for it being in the same album as ナナプラス＋. I also find music from it being from the same artist/circle.
I've really enjoyed using Bandcamp to find new music. It's especially fun to narrow it down to my country/city and see what's coming up through that. Turns out there's more NZ country artists out...
I've really enjoyed using Bandcamp to find new music. It's especially fun to narrow it down to my country/city and see what's coming up through that.
Turns out there's more NZ country artists out there than you'd think!
Oh I'm going to try this. I've previously tried Bancamp's best albums by genre and did not enjoy any of their picks, but keen to see if I get anything good by trying locally.
Oh I'm going to try this. I've previously tried Bancamp's best albums by genre and did not enjoy any of their picks, but keen to see if I get anything good by trying locally.
One of the best methods I've found for discovery on Bandcamp is to look up a band you already know and enjoy then check out the listed profiles of users that have bought from that artist since...
One of the best methods I've found for discovery on Bandcamp is to look up a band you already know and enjoy then check out the listed profiles of users that have bought from that artist since their profile shows the other music they've purchased. It's a great way of getting recommendations from people with similar taste.
I check RateYourMusic daily. It’s a website where you vote music (albums mainly) and you can see charts based on genres/rating and so on. It’s great to discover new music and genres if you sort by...
I check RateYourMusic daily. It’s a website where you vote music (albums mainly) and you can see charts based on genres/rating and so on.
It’s great to discover new music and genres if you sort by “best” as it will list the most rated albums of the year.
The only “problem”, that is actually the best part for me, is that it’s skewed towards more technical and interesting music instead of pop or music that you listen on the radio.
Oh boy, I don’t see RYM mentioned much these days! I used to use it religiously back in the day, around 2008-2012. I still occasionally visit every now and again, but it feels like the community...
Oh boy, I don’t see RYM mentioned much these days! I used to use it religiously back in the day, around 2008-2012. I still occasionally visit every now and again, but it feels like the community has become smaller or less active. At one point, new releases would get hundreds of reviews in the first week, whereas these days it’s seems to be just a handful except for the super big artists. Maybe it’s a result of streaming and music becoming more diverse and available?
My understanding is that RYM is steadily growing. If it was the size it was now in 2008, it would probably be considered huge, but it's just not blown up the same way Goodreads or IMDB have, which...
My understanding is that RYM is steadily growing. If it was the size it was now in 2008, it would probably be considered huge, but it's just not blown up the same way Goodreads or IMDB have, which is probably a good thing.
I think less reviews is a shift in its culture rather than engagement, as the userbase is skewing younger. RYM introduced Comments on the side of albums which has encouraged a sort of low-level discussion around any release, which I really enjoy (until I don't). There's usually a good handful of comments on any album, and popular releases will hit thousands.
Chronic RYM user here. I can confirm that the skew is real haha. It also sucks that some rly cool and underrated music are not given the time of day, but its nice to see the populace shifting or...
Chronic RYM user here. I can confirm that the skew is real haha. It also sucks that some rly cool and underrated music are not given the time of day, but its nice to see the populace shifting or warming to things. Always nice, anyway.
RYM can be a pretty gnarly echo chamber. Similarly to how the first post on a thread will often receive the most upvotes, great records will often get pushed aside as most people just check the...
RYM can be a pretty gnarly echo chamber. Similarly to how the first post on a thread will often receive the most upvotes, great records will often get pushed aside as most people just check the top listings.
It's a great resource, but if you want to distinguish your taste, and not just follow the critics, you have to really be thorough in your delving of the charts..
I mentioned it earlier, but it's a great way to track related artists, and the genre listings are fairly accurate since it's crowd sourced. So, you can find where you should continue to look very easily.
I never used Spotify or similar personalized services as I prefer local lossless files so I've felt like I've been kind of missing out, lol. But fairly recently I've been taking a more active...
I never used Spotify or similar personalized services as I prefer local lossless files so I've felt like I've been kind of missing out, lol. But fairly recently I've been taking a more active interest in music. Private trackers have been quite useful for discovery and expanding my tastes because of the user collages. Off the top of my head, I have in the past randomly encountered random new things from the YouTube sidebar in Invidious of music I already like, from maps in osu! or similar games, SiIvaGunner rips, and the footer recommendations in releases on Bandcamp (less obscure songs, but good nonetheless, that I probably wouldn't have encountered otherwise).
Here are a few tracks I like that I see have less than a few thousand views on YouTube:
Do you know Tidal? It should have a higher quality sound than Spotify, and you can listen offline too. I can't really vouch for the quality as my setup and hearing isn't that refined hahah
Do you know Tidal? It should have a higher quality sound than Spotify, and you can listen offline too.
I can't really vouch for the quality as my setup and hearing isn't that refined hahah
I never know if a person means "new" music that's new for them or "new" music, as in this year. Anyway, let me split the difference and limit myself to talking about an artist that has a 2023...
TL;DR Send me new music (please).
I never know if a person means "new" music that's new for them or "new" music, as in this year.
Anyway, let me split the difference and limit myself to talking about an artist that has a 2023 release but is also relatively obscure. If you already know her, @Nadya, my apologies. Maybe someone else reading this comment will find something new.
Sainkho Namtchylak - Where Water Meets Water: Bird Songs and Lullabies (Russia, 2023, avant-folk). Recorded live without any significant edits, this short album is the voice of one woman amid the sounds of ocean and history. One woman in an asylum on an abandoned, plague-ridden island, singing to the sea and letting the sea sing back to her. Letting memory seep into her bones. Water meets water, that place between dreaming and waking, between life and death.
Sainkho, an overtone throat-singer from Tuva, is as genuine as it gets, and she's been bold enough in the past to work her traditional music with downtempo and art pop sensibilities. Hell, even industrial! Last year (2022), she bewitched my ears with an incredible collaboration called "Lightkeeper". Imagine being so unique and interesting a vocalist that another artist modifies mechanical instruments around your personality and style, creating an industrial womb from which you can chant, wail, and groan your poetry!
But my first brush with Sainkho's genius was her 1998 album, "Naked Spirit". This is everything Yoko Ono* wishes she had been. The mysterious wailing, screeching vocals are perfect, reaching out to define the spaces around it. It is authentic, beautiful, and frightening... if you stare too long into the naked flame. Take a spirit journey across high, frozen plains where the warm, soft percussion sets your pace and the xomus (jaw harp) leads you like a diviner's wand back home.
Allow me to offer you my music recommendation playlist, which I've been adding to for years. It's in reverse chronological order, the most recent releases are generally first. It contains a lot of...
Allow me to offer you my music recommendation playlist, which I've been adding to for years. It's in reverse chronological order, the most recent releases are generally first. It contains a lot of experimental, avant-garde, or otherwise obscure music.
I find a lot of music through blogs. Here is a list of my go-tos:
Bandcamp itself has a lot of good lists and articles, which is convenient because Bandcamp is also my preferred platform for buying/downloading music.
Can This Even Be Called Music? has some truly strange stuff. The guy who runs this site is really cool and also runs a small netlabel called Not Music, which I released an album on last year.
The Quietus has a pretty good selection of music reviews, tending to focus more on UK artists in the electronic and post-punk categories.
Everything Is Noise has reviews for albums of all kinds of categories, though they are not afraid to cover extreme metal and other experimental music.
Echoes and Dust another site for eclectic music reviews, perhaps more post-rock and post-metal than other such sites.
Invisible Oranges - this hilariously named site is my go-to for metal releases; they cover all kinds of really bizarre, experimental metal that you probably wouldn't happen to bump into otherwise.
Sputnik Music is more a review/rating aggregator than a blog, but is a good way to find trendy-but-not-totally-mainstream releases in the metalcore and hip-hop scenes.
Pitchfork - alright, everyone knows this site... but I have to mention it because I spend so much time digging through the most obscure music I can find that I risk becoming out-of-touch with the mainstream. I've honestly found quite a few good albums through this site, so it deserves a mention.
Honestly my spotify has gotten pretty damn good on its weekly recommended, it still gets plenty of misses but sometimes it gives my outright gold like THE BOBBY LEES. Absolutely stellar band and...
Honestly my spotify has gotten pretty damn good on its weekly recommended, it still gets plenty of misses but sometimes it gives my outright gold like THE BOBBY LEES. Absolutely stellar band and the album Bellavue is top notch.
As for recommendations, while they're not that unknown I will still mention Death Grips for having maximum "Don't recommend this to people" energy, Heilung is a group who performs traditional gemantic chanting, clipping. Is a horror rap duo(iirc), capenter brut isnt that unknown but they and anyone who made music for Hotline Miami is fantastic, and finally I'll mention Megachurch who is an instrumental heavy metal group that is made to mock megachurches.
on the subject of memes, unironically meme pages (/mu/ in my younger years, specific circlejerk subreddits for certain genres) tend to have some of the best recommendations. because the recs...
on the subject of memes, unironically meme pages (/mu/ in my younger years, specific circlejerk subreddits for certain genres) tend to have some of the best recommendations. because the recs you'll get have gone through to process that you describe in the OP about being "unknown" into either going deeper into obscurity, or plain old admitting they're not that obscure but popular for a reason.
sadly i have no tried and true method of finding good music. some of the best i've found is in a throwaway comment online, or through friends, talking music. there's something algorithms can't quite seem to get, or maybe taste is too fickle a thing to really get.
anyways for a rec that won't be obscure to dutch people,but might be elsewhere: Spinvis. although part of the appeal is the lyrics
Honestly I had the same issue and it seemed to just stop doing it after a while. Sorry I can't give much more help than that. Well except for les claypool and his billion projects, still thinks I...
Honestly I had the same issue and it seemed to just stop doing it after a while. Sorry I can't give much more help than that. Well except for les claypool and his billion projects, still thinks I should like them.
Like I said I mainly brought them up just bevause they hit the vibe you mentioned and you never know if someones heard of something or not. I don't use 4chan either so didnt know they were big there.
If you make a playlist of stuff you enjoy, then force spotify to populate it with new things using that 'enhance' feature it will sift out some more music for you that's somewhat related to the...
If you make a playlist of stuff you enjoy, then force spotify to populate it with new things using that 'enhance' feature it will sift out some more music for you that's somewhat related to the music already in that playlist. It's far from perfect but one can shake some extra nuggets out of their discovery system this way. Honestly, though, no algorithm is going to beat human curation. That's why other users' playlists on spotify will always be the best way.
I recently found a fun little country band called "The Trials of Cato" who I've been enjoying. "Thundamentals" are a band from the Blue Mountains outside Sydney who I'm told are classified as hip...
I recently found a fun little country band called "The Trials of Cato" who I've been enjoying.
"Thundamentals" are a band from the Blue Mountains outside Sydney who I'm told are classified as hip hop. I have no idea if this is true because quite frankly I do not normally listen to that kinda music but I love these boys.
"The Rizzos" are a lot of fun and absolutely fucking tiny. I think I make up a measurable percentage of their monthly listens on Spotify. I highly recommend them.
"Charming Disaster" are... eclectic? They're very goth-core and unbelievably indie in a really charming and interesting way, based out of Brooklyn in New York and are just fun. I love Ocean City from them, it's so fun.
"AlicebanD" is a UK-based artist who hasn't really put anything out since the early 2010s but I love all her stuff. She's one of the very few artists that I keep FLACs of around on my phone and use Poweramp with decent headphones to play them at near-audiophile levels just for like... walking around. I like to buy FLACs of the work of artists I really like, but I rarely actually listen to them on my phone since it's just a bit of a waste most of the time. Not these ones!
Nice recs. I'm pretty sure I first found both The Rizzos and Charming Disaster through the "weather" segments on Welcome to Night Vale, which in retrospect is where I found a LOT of the music I...
Nice recs. I'm pretty sure I first found both The Rizzos and Charming Disaster through the "weather" segments on Welcome to Night Vale, which in retrospect is where I found a LOT of the music I like. Haven't listened to the podcast in many many years and a lot of the smaller artists featured probably aren't around anymore, but that was some good well-curated indie music back in the day.
Don't really know my genres too good but I'll throw some recommendations along with their "vibes" (according to me, I know I sound insane) stumblebriar lullaby - Bridge Enthusiast - walking...
Don't really know my genres too good but I'll throw some recommendations along with their "vibes" (according to me, I know I sound insane)
For finding music, I use a variety of some discord servers I'm in (just patrol the music channel and listen to some songs now and then), last.fm, and YouTube Music. There's a feature to generate a radio from an artist or several artists, but setting it to discover "mode" and just let the algorithm guide you.
One of my favourite things to do on RateYourMusic- you can sort by 'Esoteric' instead of by score. This gives you albums that usually <100 people have given an usually high score. This means...
One of my favourite things to do on RateYourMusic- you can sort by 'Esoteric' instead of by score. This gives you albums that usually <100 people have given an usually high score.
This means you're often getting albums that a small niche of people feel very passionately about. It's hit and miss by nature, but a great way of finding 'scenes' you weren't already aware of.
Second the esoteric feature. Really cool feature for charts. RYM also massively overhauled their recommendations amd inteoduced a dedicated tab for it. Concurrently, idk if this is a baseline...
Second the esoteric feature. Really cool feature for charts.
RYM also massively overhauled their recommendations amd inteoduced a dedicated tab for it. Concurrently, idk if this is a baseline feature but album recs at the bottom (if you're a supporter at least) of a page are truly a godsend.
I will say, I was very excited the the RYM recommendation overhaul was released, but I haven't found too much value in it. Whatever algorithm it uses to deliver the albums just feels off, and...
I will say, I was very excited the the RYM recommendation overhaul was released, but I haven't found too much value in it. Whatever algorithm it uses to deliver the albums just feels off, and seems to result in users getting very similar suggestions - there seemed to be a collective realisation that everyone was getting that same betcover!! album. Maybe because it's the least offensive album on the whole site for RYM users?
Similarly, RYM's 'Compatibility' feature which should in theory connect you with users with similar tastes, when in reality it serves up the same set of users who I guess happen to have rated everything by its most common rating.
I just don't think RYM is powerful enough to recognise meaningful trends between user behaviour. Which is fine - very few sites have, even the big players.
But totally agree - the hidden gem is that 'Suggestions' box on each album, I think for precisely the opposite reason - the results are never the same (refresh the page and it changes), and so it's a bit quickfire and a bit unruly, and you never know when you might hit gold.
If you just want to find obscure stuff you could just sort through RYM or AOTY genres and sub-genres and look for albums with the least number of reviews to check out. Now if you want quality...
If you just want to find obscure stuff you could just sort through RYM or AOTY genres and sub-genres and look for albums with the least number of reviews to check out. Now if you want quality recommendations of obscure music that is another thing altogether. Finding good music takes work, and either you, or someone else, will have to put in the legwork to get there.
Being part of a music tracker has been the best way I've personally been able to expand my musical horizons. There is way too much good music out there for any one person to find it all on their own. It absolutely helps to have a community of obsessive music nerds to pull from. One of my favourite things is browser user curated collages of albums. I've found some really cool stuff that I never would have been exposed otherwise.
That being said, enjoy some recommendations. Some of this is pretty known in their specific genres, some of it less so. Hopefully someone finds something to enjoy.
In regards to Spotify going in loops, I have found that clearing the app cache periodically helps with it. Also, you can permanently (or at least for a while) tell it to specifically NOT recommend...
In regards to Spotify going in loops, I have found that clearing the app cache periodically helps with it. Also, you can permanently (or at least for a while) tell it to specifically NOT recommend a specific song in another song's radio if it keeps coming back. That, and spamming the "next song" button. Eventually, it seems to let itself go.
For finding new music I tend to go into Spotify and go into song radios manually, then keep branching. You can get some pretty wild and obscure artists this way.
In regards to recommendations, I'll try to write down everyone I feel relevant but I'm bound to miss some... might edit this post if they pop into my head. I'll also limit myself to six artists for now just so I don't spend like an hour on this.
The Pom-Poms (Peppy High-School pop, big "popular girl in class vibes")
This is such a fun band with not many songs, very catchy and a little corny in the same way listening to Green Day as an adult might be. Putting on sunglasses and listening to this on the street gives me unbelievable amounts of confidence. Not all of their songs are amazing in my eyes, but they just scratch an itch that other bands don't quite do for me anymore. Favorite Song: Sunshine.
Related: Kitty (Chill, very dreamy and lo-fi, a little depressive at times)
The vocalist from the above band's solo work is very different thematically. It has a similar "teenager in their room" kinda feel to me. Favorite Song: Disconnect.
KNOWER (Dance(?), High BPM, Insane drum/keyboard lines)
This is a duo project (featuring many, many other artists in a lot of their songs) by Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi. They are both among the best in raw technical talent in their instruments alive right now (in my humble opinion). I discovered them recently and so am still going through their discography, but my favorite song so far is actually one of their new ones: The Abyss. The lyrics are a tad pretentious but, honestly, I can't be mad when they're so good (my opinion).
YUKIKA (Light k-pop, ventures into the bubbly zone at times but not to the extent of the hyper-industrialized mainstream, which I also love but find redundant to link here unless someone's interested)
I haven't really listened to her new material but her 2020 album Soul Lady is her best stuff in my eyes; very digestible introduction to k-pop if you've never ventured there. Favorite Song: pit-a-pet.
Ky Vöss (moody electro-pop, ethereal vocals, synth)
An artist I only recently found - not much of an opinion yet, but I figured I'll include her here. Favorite Song (so far): Combat.
CASIOPEA (Japanese Jazz Fusion)
Probably the most "mainstream" band on this list with a few 2M+ videos, but I just have to put this here in case anyone who's a fan of fusion hasn't heard of them. Personally, I think these guys are some of the best live performers of all time. Instead of a favorite song, I give you: CASIOPEA AGAIN, a two hour stitch of live performances. I'm linking this instead of a song because although they have plenty of music on Spotify, their insane live solos are probably the highlight of the band.
Of Montreal (indie-pop)
/mu/ users probably already know him, but I can't resist recommending his stuff. The new records took a much more electronic and avant-garde approach to his style which I personally don't like as much - the sound I'm recommending him for is his 2005-2015 discography. Hissing Fauna is probably his most well-known and accessible work. Favorite Song: The Past is a Grotesque Animal.
girl_irl (rap, synth, high-bpm)
A more aggressive, more electronic, and I suppose mature take on the same vibe The Pom-Poms give me. Favorite Song: Sting.
Honorable Mentions + Song (will probably edit this a lot, and I'll put some more mainstream stuff in here too for people looking to get into genres):
Black Dressesi feel obligated to post this seeing how these two pushed me out of the closet. depressive, oppressive, and just generally miserable vocals backed by noise. music for the terminally-online
(PLEASE BE NICE)
Sorry if I mis-attributed a genre, I never know how to categorize my music. I'm also not really in the online music scene these days and I live somewhat far (culturally) from the west, so I apologize if these are actually very well known. If someone does happen to take a liking to these I have a bunch more.
Honestly, I'm more fond of Story 1 even though I know that Story 2 is considered the better track by most. The narrative in Story 1 is just so evocative, you really step into Randy's shoes......
Honestly, I'm more fond of Story 1 even though I know that Story 2 is considered the better track by most. The narrative in Story 1 is just so evocative, you really step into Randy's shoes... though, I suppose that could be said for all of the "Story" songs.
From what I can tell the polarization of clipping. fans happens when talking about Splendor & Misery. I adore the album, but have run into quite a few listeners who feel otherwise. I'm curious what you think of it.
Of course. I've personally always had a bias for Casio because of how vibrant they are. Haroumi Hosono, although a different vibe, is also a really fun foray into Japanese music. I really should...
Of course. I've personally always had a bias for Casio because of how vibrant they are.
Haroumi Hosono, although a different vibe, is also a really fun foray into Japanese music. I really should have put him on the list... oh well.
I like KNOWER cause everything pretentious about em is mostly jokes, but also half-truths. I do think you're right, I just like thinking of their stuff that way. If their editing is anything to go...
I like KNOWER cause everything pretentious about em is mostly jokes, but also half-truths. I do think you're right, I just like thinking of their stuff that way. If their editing is anything to go by, kinda antagonistic too haha.
Also seeing Deerhunter as indie and acoustic is p funny considering the gem of theirs that is Cryptograms.
Admittedly with a lot of these I haven't listened to their full discography, and in general it's super hard for me to accurately assign genres. As for KNOWER, I guess the danger with those kinds...
Admittedly with a lot of these I haven't listened to their full discography, and in general it's super hard for me to accurately assign genres.
As for KNOWER, I guess the danger with those kinds of lyrics and vibes is that people who aren't in on it can take it the wrong way.
I find YouTube is a terrible way to discover music. A lot of the best and most obscure stuff simply doesn’t exist there, because it is rare and coveted and the people who own it usually aren’t...
I find YouTube is a terrible way to discover music. A lot of the best and most obscure stuff simply doesn’t exist there, because it is rare and coveted and the people who own it usually aren’t willing to hand it out for nothing. Sometimes you might strike gold but find those videos get taken down eventually.
Going to record shops is a great way to talk to an expert and get recommendations. Tools like Spotify and last.fm aren’t terrible for discovery, but they have similar limitations to YouTube. Finding a local venue and checking their listings is always great, too.
But ultimately I’ve found nothing comes close to the communities on private trackers for recommendations and discovery.
It’s nothing special, but since you mentioned Aesop, you might find some stuff you like in this Spotify playlist
Both are very interesting recs, thanks! I get the impression you’re into chiptune but if you’re not you’ll definitely enjoy trash80 in that playlist, I think they use a lot of c64 in their work....
Both are very interesting recs, thanks! I get the impression you’re into chiptune but if you’re not you’ll definitely enjoy trash80 in that playlist, I think they use a lot of c64 in their work. Chiptune as a genre is very limited but interesting. I’d liken it to writing haiku, limited and challenging but when it’s done right it slaps. That’s a whole new wormhole of discovery, too.
That’s probably where I’m going wrong with yt though, my recs are a mish mash of songs I’ve been sent over the years, things I absolutely love but others not so much. The containers are a great way around this for sure, but an incredibly complex solution, still. A seedbox may be a good alternative to torrent on a server that doesn’t technically touch your work device, but it’s still a grey area. My last work machine was essentially a bricked Chromebook which wouldn’t have even allow me to access external websites, so perhaps not.
A cheaper, less risky solution could be an arm based home server using a raspberry pi or something similar instead. I did that for years until I ran out of space.
Variation is the spice of life, I don’t update that playlist too much but when something catches my ear and I remember to, I’ll stick it in there. Sometimes obscure to me might be something from a popular artist that I feel deserves way more recognition than their more mainstream stuff. Other times it might be a Japanese flute cover of an old band in from my local area. That’s the beauty of art and subjectivity, it can mean something completely different to everyone. I hope you can find new things to enjoy too!
I find most of my new music on YouTube by subscribing to record labels I like and a few music channels. Mostly for drum and bass, occasionally house and techno. Not sure how well it works for...
I find most of my new music on YouTube by subscribing to record labels I like and a few music channels. Mostly for drum and bass, occasionally house and techno. Not sure how well it works for other genres but I can barely keep up lol
I listen to tonnes of genres, but a lot of them are older labels so for me this wouldn’t work out too well in my case. Drum and bass is such an incredibly diverse genre in and of itself, so I’m...
I listen to tonnes of genres, but a lot of them are older labels so for me this wouldn’t work out too well in my case. Drum and bass is such an incredibly diverse genre in and of itself, so I’m not surprised you’re struggling to keep up. SoundCloud, band camp and Discogs always seemed more effective for finding white label and VIP mixes of tracks for me though.
Spotify's Discover Weekly does a good job of recommending new music based on what you've been listening to. Much better than other recommendation engines in my experience.
Spotify's Discover Weekly does a good job of recommending new music based on what you've been listening to. Much better than other recommendation engines in my experience.
I guess it’s time to shill for Battle of the Bits again. This site is full of music competitions, so everything is original and most of it isn’t published outside their fundraising albums. There...
This site is full of music competitions, so everything is original and most of it isn’t published outside their fundraising albums. There is a tremendous amount of talent on display and you are sure to find some new favorites.
Many of the competitions are for chiptunes - which is a bonus to me - but if you don’t care for them they have other categories including ones without gear restrictions (known as Allgear in the site’s parlance).
If I'm really feeling that itch I look at mixes. I like to do it on yt because there's eventually some dude who went and timestamped the whole thing like a legend. I used to go SoundCloud diving...
If I'm really feeling that itch I look at mixes. I like to do it on yt because there's eventually some dude who went and timestamped the whole thing like a legend. I used to go SoundCloud diving but I stopped a few years ago cuz they made a bunch of weird changes (i don't even remember what but it kinda killed it for me). Spotify is just meh for finding new music but it does pull through sometimes, so I'll give Spotify some wiggle room sometimes with a backup playlist just in case there's nothing.
these days I mostly listen to the *artist* Radio on Spotify --- then I have a way to also download those tracks to FLAC so I have them when the radio changes. If I like something I give it a heart...
these days I mostly listen to the *artist* Radio on Spotify --- then I have a way to also download those tracks to FLAC so I have them when the radio changes. If I like something I give it a heart and look it up later etc.
Basically, get into Lee Fields, all of Colemine Records, El Michel's Affair, Khruangbin, The Middle East, BADBADNOTGOOD (specifically Sour Soul with Ghostface), and then tuck into CZARFACE (7L, Esoteric (who sounds like Jay-Z), Inspectah Deck) --- CZARFACE is all comic themed and super good and fun.
I was using a combination of different subreddits to explore music genres I'm interested in before the most recent debacle over there. Sad to say I'm not really sure how I plan to discover new...
I was using a combination of different subreddits to explore music genres I'm interested in before the most recent debacle over there. Sad to say I'm not really sure how I plan to discover new music moving forward. Maybe here?
I dont usually share my musical preferences as taste is subjective like you mentioned above, but who knows, maybe we have similar tastes. Lately I've really been into alot of instrumental music. I find it easier to listen to while I work.
I've been using Obscure Sound since 2010ish? They used to put out downloadable monthly playlists, but that got shutdown about 8 years ago. They still have amazing recommendations and playlists!...
I've been using Obscure Sound since 2010ish? They used to put out downloadable monthly playlists, but that got shutdown about 8 years ago. They still have amazing recommendations and playlists!
Jeff Hamada over at Booooooom used to make a yearly summer playlist/mashups that were incredible. Same deal, had to stop putting them out a long time ago. I still have some of the originals if anyone is interested. Now I sometime find new music through Booooooom on their shared music videos.
Lastly, and I think like most folks here, Spotify still does a pretty great job at giving me music I want. Often I'll make a playlist in a certain genre and some of their suggested adds that you find towards the bottom are incredible. It does push you towards music you are likely to already listen to though.
I sometimes check out the new releases on bandcamp.com Either from single categories, or from all. I mostly click on albums/songs if the Cover speaks to me, and sometimes I find really good...
I sometimes check out the new releases on bandcamp.com
Either from single categories, or from all.
I mostly click on albums/songs if the Cover speaks to me, and sometimes I find really good artists that way
Here's a playlist of people covering popular songs in the style of Surf Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvgiNBg0HyE&list=PL3508B0AF6869389F&index=2 That channel also has some other lists of...
(A bit more raucous) Dog Faced Hermans Mary Houdini
As for finding new music, I search YouTube for cover versions of popular songs, then I sort by number of views. Once you get below about 100 k views you start turning up smaller lesser known groups who have sometimes got interesting music on their channel. (And I love comparing covers to the original, this might be a topic I start in future).
Sometimes "obscure" might mean "really popular at a time and place, but not here and now", so in that spirit here's Rita Pavone. There's an intensity about her performance that's perhaps a little bit ferocious, a tiny bit unhinged. It's great though. Datemi un Martello (if I had a hammer) This song is often sun in a happy-clappy way ("oh, isn't love lovely!") but her? She's got a hammer and she's going to do some damage. Viva la Pappa col Pomodoro and another video Viva la Pappa col Pomodoro This is from a play / musical, and the lyrics about a bowl of tomato & bread soup are surprisingly revolutionary.
The history of the past
by now has taught us
that hungry people
make a revolution
Why? We were hungry
we fought
therefore Bon Appetite
let's have breakfast.
We are polar opposites on this part. I moderated /r/music, /r/listentothis, and other music subs with some folks here up until 2018, then I got burned out and became a dad. 2008-2017 was when I...
I went through a period of musical stagnation from around 2008-2017 where I rarely found or enjoyed any new music.
We are polar opposites on this part. I moderated /r/music, /r/listentothis, and other music subs with some folks here up until 2018, then I got burned out and became a dad. 2008-2017 was when I was exploring music daily. I've sorta been resting on my laurels when it comes to music ever since because holy moly I still have so many artists to work through from back then. Of course I still listen to music that people recommend to me, but I'm not seeking it out much at all. Like basically no activity in the music subreddits even though I was still active on reddit until the recent API situation - the most I'll do in terms of discovery is a Spotify mix at this point. Here are songs from my most listened-to contemporary artists:
Scott Hirsch - No No: JJ Cale is in my top 3 artists of all time, and Scott Hirsch is a Durham, NC musician who has several songs that sound like and reference JJ. If you like it, listen to Big Passenger. He and JJ Cale are amazing foot-tappin' music.
Colter Wall - Big Iron: I got really into outlaw country the last 10 years, so I have to recommend Colter Wall out of Saskatchewan. Somehow this guy is only 27 with a voice like that, more foot-tappin' goodness from him. I feel like I should be lassoing steer but really I'm working on spreadsheets at the office.
Also pinging /r/Amarok in case he cares to listen. I think 3 of these artists were from our Best Of lists: Babe Rainbow, Scott Hirsch, and Daniel T. They've all since released new albums that have been amazing, especially Babe Rainbow who have 5 solid studio albums at this point. Even heard their track Morning Song in an Allstate commercial during the pandemic.
I heard the first track (Faraway Look) on Yola's first album on one of those NPR Austin 100 playlists in 2019, and I was wildly impressed. The closest I usually get to Country is Americana, but...
I heard the first track (Faraway Look) on Yola's first album on one of those NPR Austin 100 playlists in 2019, and I was wildly impressed. The closest I usually get to Country is Americana, but man - she's got pipes!
To tell you the truth, the number one way I still find new music is by looking for anything tangentially related to whatever I'm interested in at the time. I'll look up fanmade playlists for...
To tell you the truth, the number one way I still find new music is by looking for anything tangentially related to whatever I'm interested in at the time. I'll look up fanmade playlists for books/video games/characters on Spotify and also on 8tracks (which tends to have more obscure stuff than Spotify), I'll even type words or phrases into lyric sites and see what pops up.
As for recs, here are some artists I like who are actively releasing new music and who have ~150k or fewer listeners on Spotify, from most known to least. I was going to include song recs but it got a bit long, so let me know if you want specific suggestions.
Verdena - Italian alt-rock/grunge with quirky lyrics.
Filmmaker - Best description I've got is horror arcade game music.
Pink Milk - Swedish post-punk that will basically drown you in reverb. Strikes me as a band that might play in Twin Peaks.
Big Blind - Industrial/Darkwave with Iranian influences. Criminally underrated imo.
A lot of Dais Records artists fit these criteria as well and are worth checking out.
And here's some...other stuff. I learned through digging for these links that I'm still essentially a goth 14 year old anime lover deep down inside, wow
CocoRosie - Harmless Monster - One of my top 10 songs. What's it about? What's the genre? Who knows! I found it on a playlist for my fave obscure character in an aggressively pornographic visual novel.
Foreign Slippers - Dead Inside - Beautiful, atmospheric, creepy, pretty sure I found it on someone's World of Warcraft roleplay blog.
cali≠gari - hakkyou channel - I randomly downloaded this off Limewire in high school. If I understand the lyrics right, it's about a fetus that has gone insane because it's been stuck in its mom for over a year.
Maggie Smith - 100 Needles for Zil - The artist wrote this based on a popular user in a Reddit BDSM community and posted it there maybe 10 years ago?
Pathologic 1 game OST - To quote the top comment, "It really does sound like Half Life's soundtrack directed by Genghis Khan."
Wow I had no idea 8tracks had relaunched. It was by far my favorite way to discover new music. Though it's a shame it can only play via YouTube now. Better than nothing at least, and it still has...
Wow I had no idea 8tracks had relaunched. It was by far my favorite way to discover new music.
Though it's a shame it can only play via YouTube now. Better than nothing at least, and it still has my old likes saved.
I rarely listen to computer generated suggestions. I really prefer to have a human suggest me something especially since it's more likely to be an artist or genre I've not spent much time with. I...
I rarely listen to computer generated suggestions. I really prefer to have a human suggest me something especially since it's more likely to be an artist or genre I've not spent much time with. I just wish more of my friends liked music for more than just background noise or nostalgia.
Bandcamp is pretty much THE place to find random music. Their curated features are wonderfully niche and gives serious what.cd vibes (RIP what.cd :( ) Here are some of my picks: Bloodywood -...
Bandcamp is pretty much THE place to find random music. Their curated features are wonderfully niche and gives serious what.cd vibes (RIP what.cd :( )
Here are some of my picks: Bloodywood - Rakshak - heavy metal + bhangra + rap. Heavily political as well - Gaddaar, the intro song, is incredibly good. Djinn and Miskatonic - Forever in the Realm - Sludgy, drudgy, sickeningly good doom metal. Natural Information Society - Since time is Gravity - Psychedelic, wild and weird. It's just off kilter and weird and all over the place. But somehow works well together. Oberst and Buchner - Marble Arch - some out-there type electronica. It's good as background music and it's even better for just sitting down and having a listen. I've improv'd over these tracks at random - super fun. LIFAFA - Superpower 2020 - wonderful experimental electronic/house music with vocals. It's in Hindi, and it's also very political but it's so good.
I definitely do. Imo there are some horribly underrated and appreciated projects like these Hannah Epperson - Upsweep Chester Watson - A Japanese Horror Film Armand Hammer - Haram (Only 10/10...
I definitely do. Imo there are some horribly underrated and appreciated projects like these
Hannah Epperson - Upsweep
Chester Watson - A Japanese Horror Film
Armand Hammer - Haram (Only 10/10 album I’ve ever heard)
I've been actively cataloging music for probably about 15 years now. WhatCD poweruser, and now a Redacted poweruser.. I go through record labels in their entirety to dial in on an artistic image...
I've been actively cataloging music for probably about 15 years now. WhatCD poweruser, and now a Redacted poweruser..
I go through record labels in their entirety to dial in on an artistic image generally, and then will hone in on the artists of that label that I appreciate. If it's fruitful, I'll investigate the related artists, as there's usually a mastermind behind it all. That's one way.
Alternatively, I've been through almost every genre on RYM, and the top 100-200 albums. I would then use those artists to investigate their scenes, related artists, and labels.
It's become very exhausting and I don't have time anymore. I've hierarchically sorted all of my music by super genre, genre, and sub genre.. as many layers as is required. I think I have enough now, so I don't actively search.
If I were to give you the deepest, sickest, wildest cuts, here would be a few:
Cutting edge British post punk from the late 70s, Polish American Japanese art student makes hardcore breakbeat from the 90s, and a Beefheart influenced art punk record with some Mongolian throat singing from 00, respectively..
Let me know if you want more :) those are easy 8.5/10 albums.
My music listening and finding at the moment is maninly through last.fm. I've used spotify on and off but I've found that it doesn't really give recommendations that I vibe with. Most of my...
My music listening and finding at the moment is maninly through last.fm. I've used spotify on and off but I've found that it doesn't really give recommendations that I vibe with. Most of my favourite obscure artists were found a few years ago, mainly through mixcloud - which I stopped using when they no longer allowed people to post their track lists. This thread has given me some inspiration to start branching out a bit again and to find some new music channels.
Anyway, here are a few of my favourites:
Masato Minami, Japanese folk/ rock singer. His album Kaikisen/ The Tropics is incredible. You can listen to the whole thing here but if I had to recommend just one song, it would be this one.
Kimmo Pohjonen, Finnish accordian player who makes amazing sounds. My favourite album of his is Kluster. I'm also going to include a video of one of his performances because he has a great stage presence and energy.
Bachar Mar-Khalifé, French-Lebanese singer and instrumentalist. My favourite track of his is Insomnia.
I force myself to only listen to albums released in the current year whenever I drive (to/from work, for example). I will other situations (at home, at work, etc), it depends on my mood. And which...
I force myself to only listen to albums released in the current year whenever I drive (to/from work, for example). I will other situations (at home, at work, etc), it depends on my mood.
And which ones do I choose, and how? The illegal way. Every weekend, I go to scene release websites, check the mp3 releases for the genres I like (rock, metal, alternative, jazz, pop, etc), see the 2023 releases from the past week (new albums get released on Fridays, so that's when they appear online), give those that catch my eye a quick listen (bandcamp, deezer, etc), and I get those I like.
About "catching my eye": this comes from back in the iRC scene days, I guess it's a "good success %" skill. If I'm bored and have time, I'll check everything I can, but if not, it's based on feel. Also regarding the old scene days, albums rarely (almost never) leak in advance.
edit: forgot to mention, I also like to make "best of the year" album lists at the end of the year. I make a rock/metal one, and an "other genres" one.
I used to take more time for discovery and go through a thousand plus new albums per year checking out at least a song or two and determining whether they demanded more attention or skipping past....
I used to take more time for discovery and go through a thousand plus new albums per year checking out at least a song or two and determining whether they demanded more attention or skipping past. In recent years I haven't made the time and maybe go through 100 in a year and only pick up 10-20 albums generally from bands I already liked and not new discoveries.
I tend to focus on a few genres because I can at least find a higher rate of likability and not be wasting my time as much going through a genre where I've found 1/1000 success rate. For me those genres are Stoner/Psych, Post Rock/Metal and the various sub genres that generally associate with those. Although it is always nice to come across something I like wildly outside these genres, like a breath of fresh air.
"I bet I'd like <genre>" and then listen to it. For example, I listened to a bunch of death metal and deathcore for a month a few years ago and it didn't stick. I listened to Archspire out of a...
"I bet I'd like <genre>" and then listen to it. For example, I listened to a bunch of death metal and deathcore for a month a few years ago and it didn't stick. I listened to Archspire out of a fascination for their sound and technicality early last year and went to a Whitechapel concert they opened, and it made me a genre convert after seeing three bands I'd never really listened to live (Whitechapel, Entheos and Signs of the Swarm).
I think most people can like most things if they can form a connection to it somehow. In my exlerience this connection, even a small one, generally is what is required to find new music.
A major way I find music is through collaborators (easy with hip hop and EDM), or tour listings (bands don't open/get opened by bands they don't like usually), and, occasionally, an algorithim somewhere actially finding something I'm into. I'm always looking for new stuff, but don't go out of my way to find it.
I've had pretty good success listening to SiriusXM's new music stations, it's really kept me out of the slump. I think it's most similar to MTV's "New Music Countdown" from the mid-90's at least...
I've had pretty good success listening to SiriusXM's new music stations, it's really kept me out of the slump. I think it's most similar to MTV's "New Music Countdown" from the mid-90's at least in format (not presentation, radio not video).
The only thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is exclaim as it is an amazing indie music magazine that covers a lot of North America and some international music. It's mostly online but I personally...
The only thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is exclaim as it is an amazing indie music magazine that covers a lot of North America and some international music. It's mostly online but I personally rely on it for reliable reviews of new music. The year-end lists are a must if you missed anything.
One of the ways I discover new music is using an artist or band that I really like and Google any collaborations they've done. Then search for those guys. Rinse and repeat. Also while I know...
One of the ways I discover new music is using an artist or band that I really like and Google any collaborations they've done. Then search for those guys. Rinse and repeat. Also while I know everyone has they're favorite style, I always try and listen to completely different styles and try to find a band that I like, and then do then above.
Also I use Amazon Music, and by picking an artist and requesting a station of that artist, it will play somewhat similar styles, and sometimes something that is completely different.
While I really enjoy 70s, 80s classic Rock, using the above methods, somehow got me to some bluegrass, southern soul Rock and stuff that I've really been enjoying.
Some to consider
Andrew Duhon - anything from his album The Moorings
Steep Canyon Rangers -- highly recommend anything where Steve Martin is NOT singing. The song Sweet Spot is a good place to start.
Dead South -- I really like their song In Hell I'll Be In Good Company
I try to go through the new albums section of tidal's "metal" genre every Friday. I try to give every album a fair spin of at least one song, unless I really instantly know it's not for me. Most...
I try to go through the new albums section of tidal's "metal" genre every Friday. I try to give every album a fair spin of at least one song, unless I really instantly know it's not for me. Most weeks i find something new I like!
I'm in a couple of Music Leagues with friends and people I work with, which has definitely introduced me to some new stuff. I haven't had the same experience when joining leagues with randos --...
I'm in a couple of Music Leagues with friends and people I work with, which has definitely introduced me to some new stuff. I haven't had the same experience when joining leagues with randos -- that usually ends up with playlists full of very popular music or very specific tastes. Having a dozen or so people with tastes you're familiar with and who are all trying to keep things fresh works pretty well, though sometimes the popular/obvious choice is just too good to pass up.
My process is getting on Apple Music, picking a Kishi Bashi song to create a station from, enjoying the first song (always by Kishi Bashi), skipping through the next four tracks that sound nothing...
My process is getting on Apple Music, picking a Kishi Bashi song to create a station from, enjoying the first song (always by Kishi Bashi), skipping through the next four tracks that sound nothing like what I want or am looking for, then switching over to my all Kishi Bashi playlist. I have seriously done this like 5 or 6 times.
My recommendations playlist got hosed when I started listing to LoFi while studying, and now that's all Apple Music thinks I want to hear. I think I'm also just getting old and doing a terrible job finding new stuff.
tl;dr Have you tried all the music of Kishi Bashi? I'd try out the songs Bright Whites, Manchester, Confessions at the End of the World, The Ballad of Mr. Steak, In Fantasia, m'Lover, Angeline, and Summer of 42 off the top of my head for a broad brush.
Lately I’m just letting Apple Music play the next song and generally it gives me bangers. My dilemma is do I even want to download and listen to the banger again or just forget it and move on. My...
Lately I’m just letting Apple Music play the next song and generally it gives me bangers. My dilemma is do I even want to download and listen to the banger again or just forget it and move on. My consumption of music completely changed when I switched to streaming it versus maintaining a meticulous downloaded collection.
I kind of hate it but also I don’t have the time anymore to curate a library these days.
Call me old school, but my primary method of finding new music is just going to shows. Local shows at cheap venues usually, but also taking the time to show up for opening acts at larger shows. I...
Call me old school, but my primary method of finding new music is just going to shows. Local shows at cheap venues usually, but also taking the time to show up for opening acts at larger shows.
I also really like Shady Pines Radio which is like, kinda the best radio station in Portland, Oregon. It’s not on AM or FM airwaves, it only exists online, but there’s a different show on every hour, and each show has its own unique voice and focus and is hosted by a real human DJ. You’ll find everything from classic punk and ska to dreamy electro synthwave to prank phone calls to b-sides from big artists to new music from local artists and everything in between. I hear something new every single time I tune in. The app has a show schedule where you can bookmark your favorite shows and you’ll get a notification before they start so you don’t forget to tune in, and there’s a chat room where listeners can interact. It’s a lot of fun and these days I use it more than I use Spotify. Check it out, and if you don’t like what you hear check it out again later when something completely different will be on.
I'm in a band/project so as I've been researching artists I'm similar too, I've gone down a big rabbit hole of screamo and emo-aligned music from this generation. That's right now. Actively, I use...
I'm in a band/project so as I've been researching artists I'm similar too, I've gone down a big rabbit hole of screamo and emo-aligned music from this generation. That's right now.
Actively, I use RYM, Twitter diving, recs from mutuals, and such. RYM is my main superpower bc their rec features are bar none.
I spent a long while writing a comment with a ton of recs but then my browser just crashed before I finished and I want to die. The short version: check out osu!'s featured artists list, it is...
I spent a long while writing a comment with a ton of recs but then my browser just crashed before I finished and I want to die.
I mostly listen to post-rock, post-metal, etc and Spotify Discover Weekly playlist works decently well for me. I also follow bands, so the "Release Radar" playlist helps me stay on top of new...
I mostly listen to post-rock, post-metal, etc and Spotify Discover Weekly playlist works decently well for me. I also follow bands, so the "Release Radar" playlist helps me stay on top of new releases.
Spotify auto-generated playlists, like the weekly list that so many people are blown away by in my circles, didn't work for me at all. None of it. What works for me is to pick a song I currently...
Spotify auto-generated playlists, like the weekly list that so many people are blown away by in my circles, didn't work for me at all. None of it.
What works for me is to pick a song I currently like and use "go to song radio" from the options menu on Spotify. That's their phraseology for "similar songs", and via that it does give me a mix of known and new songs that I like.
What also does it for me is friends recommending something. I'm fifteen times more likely to enjoy it if someone recommended it than if I stumble upon it myself. The takeaway being, I suppose, to ask friends to open up your Spotify weekly playlist and recommend stuff from there to you!
The only reason I have accounts for streaming services was to leverage their algorithmic recommendation. But the two services I've tried (Deezer and Spotify) don't really do what I was looking...
The only reason I have accounts for streaming services was to leverage their algorithmic recommendation. But the two services I've tried (Deezer and Spotify) don't really do what I was looking for, since they prioritize mostly giving you stuff you've already heard.
Where I find new music:
I don't often find people who share my taste in music, but when I do they are a wealth of recommendations.
https://www.gnoosic.com/ is kinda scary at how good it can be. The gist is that you give it 3 artists, and it spits out a list of artists you might like. I've had it give me artists with less than 1000 listeners on Spotify who were absolute bangers.
Spotify's Discover Weekly and Release Radar playlists both consistently serve entirely new music, but only refresh once a week.
A couple recommendations (genre labels are probably wrong, but they give a ballpark):
Ex /r/listentothis mod here. I am hipster facista certified. I can recommend you 70 artists in three 88 minute mixtapes I put together. Once upon a time, these would have all gone into the /r/listentothis bestofs. They are obscure, and positive, all within 2-3 years old, and cartwheel through as many genres as I can cram into these things. It's more fun than a jigsaw puzzle for me.
Normally I'd warn you that these mixtapes will cause funk neck, but now I'll just warn you that you are going to put on weight playing this game. I listen to these until they wear out, then replace them. Only the survivors of dozens of spins make the final cut. These are keter class earworms, my favorite.
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan I dove into your playlists headfirst. I haven't had this much fun with new music in forever! Probably since I discovered Mother's Cake and KGATLW in the same month. You have impeccable taste, and a new follower on spotify
I'm glad my psychotic obsession with finding music can make someone happy. :)
The albums all of these tracks come from are pretty baller as well. There are a couple one hit wonders in there (at least so far in said artist's career) but for most of them, you'll find a banging discography behind each track.
I've found a few new bands and songs I like by going to radio.garden and checking out radio stations in foreign countries and major metropolitan areas. Lots of chaff to sift through but it can be fun regardless.
Second this, if you’re bored or just itching to discover something brand new to you. Radio.garden + Shazam is a godsend.
There’s also Radiooooo which is similar to radio.garden except for travelling through time
Wow, thanks for introducing me to this. This is amazing. Link for the curious.
Thank you for introducing me to Radio Garden. It's amazing!
I find most of my new music through various music collages on RED.
I've been enjoying the "4th Wave Japan" Collage that's been introducing me to artists like Hiroshi Yoshimura.
How does this work? All I see is a login screen. Is it invite only?
I do relatively often depending on if I’m feeling “sick” of the stuff I’m listening to or not. I’ve amassed a pretty large Spotify library because of it.
For my taste, it’s relatively easy to find new music;
Soundcloud is a massive hub of niche music, you just have to be willing to slog through it to find the gold.
Spotify’s recommendation algorithm is alright, but the real way to find new stuff is by checking user made playlists. Type in whatever kinda music or vibe you’re into and then scroll through a playlist. Being specific is key here; the more adjectives you put in your search, or the more there are in a playlist title, the better it’s gonna be.
Ohhhh baby here we go, this is my jam. Here we go, with varying levels of obscurity/weirdness:
Yameii Online - loading : Yameii is kinda like a more edgy hatsune miku, in the sense that she’s entirely fictional and her vocals are made with vocaloid.
Jakey - DRIVE OFF A BRIDGE : Jakey is NakeyJakey, this is pretty standard hip hop but there’s some nice references to “old” romcoms throughout the album (which is also called ROMCOM)
Delto - Cold : Some nice hyperpop, contrary to the name it actually is quite cozy :)
Nosgov - lungs : more hyperpop, nosgov’s tracks are a little hit and miss, but this one is an absolute banger. Another good one by her is into ash
Rapid fire hyperpop so I can move on to another genre
blxty - awful
Orchid - Psycho
emorave - thats the way it goes i guess...
C3NTELL4 - The Realm Of Haruko : This is “sextrance”, super fast and distorted, frequently taking melodies from other edm tracks.
NSD - Hai La Noi : Terrorcore, very loud.
Uruk-Hai : This is dungeon synth, if you like this I intend to write a full “intro to dungeon synth” post at some point.
I’ll stop there because I don’t want to indulge too much lmao. If you want any more reccs let me know :).
Obscure and unknown coming up: smiiillleee
Youtube recommended me this a few months back.
I usually find my weird and new music through youtube. I also find it through albums. Like I would have never found 青春ただいま進行中 if it was not for it being in the same album as ナナプラス＋. I also find music from it being from the same artist/circle.
I've really enjoyed using Bandcamp to find new music. It's especially fun to narrow it down to my country/city and see what's coming up through that.
Turns out there's more NZ country artists out there than you'd think!
Oh I'm going to try this. I've previously tried Bancamp's best albums by genre and did not enjoy any of their picks, but keen to see if I get anything good by trying locally.
One of the best methods I've found for discovery on Bandcamp is to look up a band you already know and enjoy then check out the listed profiles of users that have bought from that artist since their profile shows the other music they've purchased. It's a great way of getting recommendations from people with similar taste.
I check RateYourMusic daily. It’s a website where you vote music (albums mainly) and you can see charts based on genres/rating and so on.
It’s great to discover new music and genres if you sort by “best” as it will list the most rated albums of the year.
The only “problem”, that is actually the best part for me, is that it’s skewed towards more technical and interesting music instead of pop or music that you listen on the radio.
Oh boy, I don’t see RYM mentioned much these days! I used to use it religiously back in the day, around 2008-2012. I still occasionally visit every now and again, but it feels like the community has become smaller or less active. At one point, new releases would get hundreds of reviews in the first week, whereas these days it’s seems to be just a handful except for the super big artists. Maybe it’s a result of streaming and music becoming more diverse and available?
My understanding is that RYM is steadily growing. If it was the size it was now in 2008, it would probably be considered huge, but it's just not blown up the same way Goodreads or IMDB have, which is probably a good thing.
I think less reviews is a shift in its culture rather than engagement, as the userbase is skewing younger. RYM introduced Comments on the side of albums which has encouraged a sort of low-level discussion around any release, which I really enjoy (until I don't). There's usually a good handful of comments on any album, and popular releases will hit thousands.
Chronic RYM user here. I can confirm that the skew is real haha. It also sucks that some rly cool and underrated music are not given the time of day, but its nice to see the populace shifting or warming to things. Always nice, anyway.
RYM can be a pretty gnarly echo chamber. Similarly to how the first post on a thread will often receive the most upvotes, great records will often get pushed aside as most people just check the top listings.
It's a great resource, but if you want to distinguish your taste, and not just follow the critics, you have to really be thorough in your delving of the charts..
I mentioned it earlier, but it's a great way to track related artists, and the genre listings are fairly accurate since it's crowd sourced. So, you can find where you should continue to look very easily.
I never used Spotify or similar personalized services as I prefer local lossless files so I've felt like I've been kind of missing out, lol. But fairly recently I've been taking a more active interest in music. Private trackers have been quite useful for discovery and expanding my tastes because of the user collages. Off the top of my head, I have in the past randomly encountered random new things from the YouTube sidebar in Invidious of music I already like, from maps in osu! or similar games, SiIvaGunner rips, and the footer recommendations in releases on Bandcamp (less obscure songs, but good nonetheless, that I probably wouldn't have encountered otherwise).
Here are a few tracks I like that I see have less than a few thousand views on YouTube:
cruyff in the bedroom - she goes to the world's end. Really like this one.
SOKIF - The butterfly flies over a cloud
Do you know Tidal? It should have a higher quality sound than Spotify, and you can listen offline too.
I can't really vouch for the quality as my setup and hearing isn't that refined hahah
I never know if a person means "new" music that's new for them or "new" music, as in this year.
Anyway, let me split the difference and limit myself to talking about an artist that has a 2023 release but is also relatively obscure. If you already know her, @Nadya, my apologies. Maybe someone else reading this comment will find something new.
Sainkho Namtchylak - Where Water Meets Water: Bird Songs and Lullabies (Russia, 2023, avant-folk). Recorded live without any significant edits, this short album is the voice of one woman amid the sounds of ocean and history. One woman in an asylum on an abandoned, plague-ridden island, singing to the sea and letting the sea sing back to her. Letting memory seep into her bones. Water meets water, that place between dreaming and waking, between life and death.
Sainkho, an overtone throat-singer from Tuva, is as genuine as it gets, and she's been bold enough in the past to work her traditional music with downtempo and art pop sensibilities. Hell, even industrial! Last year (2022), she bewitched my ears with an incredible collaboration called "Lightkeeper". Imagine being so unique and interesting a vocalist that another artist modifies mechanical instruments around your personality and style, creating an industrial womb from which you can chant, wail, and groan your poetry!
But my first brush with Sainkho's genius was her 1998 album, "Naked Spirit". This is everything Yoko Ono* wishes she had been. The mysterious wailing, screeching vocals are perfect, reaching out to define the spaces around it. It is authentic, beautiful, and frightening... if you stare too long into the naked flame. Take a spirit journey across high, frozen plains where the warm, soft percussion sets your pace and the xomus (jaw harp) leads you like a diviner's wand back home.
*apologies to any Yoko Ono fans out there
Allow me to offer you my music recommendation playlist, which I've been adding to for years. It's in reverse chronological order, the most recent releases are generally first. It contains a lot of experimental, avant-garde, or otherwise obscure music.
I find a lot of music through blogs. Here is a list of my go-tos:
Honestly my spotify has gotten pretty damn good on its weekly recommended, it still gets plenty of misses but sometimes it gives my outright gold like THE BOBBY LEES. Absolutely stellar band and the album Bellavue is top notch.
As for recommendations, while they're not that unknown I will still mention Death Grips for having maximum "Don't recommend this to people" energy, Heilung is a group who performs traditional gemantic chanting, clipping. Is a horror rap duo(iirc), capenter brut isnt that unknown but they and anyone who made music for Hotline Miami is fantastic, and finally I'll mention Megachurch who is an instrumental heavy metal group that is made to mock megachurches.
on the subject of memes, unironically meme pages (/mu/ in my younger years, specific circlejerk subreddits for certain genres) tend to have some of the best recommendations. because the recs you'll get have gone through to process that you describe in the OP about being "unknown" into either going deeper into obscurity, or plain old admitting they're not that obscure but popular for a reason.
sadly i have no tried and true method of finding good music. some of the best i've found is in a throwaway comment online, or through friends, talking music. there's something algorithms can't quite seem to get, or maybe taste is too fickle a thing to really get.
anyways for a rec that won't be obscure to dutch people,but might be elsewhere: Spinvis. although part of the appeal is the lyrics
Honestly I had the same issue and it seemed to just stop doing it after a while. Sorry I can't give much more help than that. Well except for les claypool and his billion projects, still thinks I should like them.
Like I said I mainly brought them up just bevause they hit the vibe you mentioned and you never know if someones heard of something or not. I don't use 4chan either so didnt know they were big there.
If you make a playlist of stuff you enjoy, then force spotify to populate it with new things using that 'enhance' feature it will sift out some more music for you that's somewhat related to the music already in that playlist. It's far from perfect but one can shake some extra nuggets out of their discovery system this way. Honestly, though, no algorithm is going to beat human curation. That's why other users' playlists on spotify will always be the best way.
I recently found a fun little country band called "The Trials of Cato" who I've been enjoying.
"Thundamentals" are a band from the Blue Mountains outside Sydney who I'm told are classified as hip hop. I have no idea if this is true because quite frankly I do not normally listen to that kinda music but I love these boys.
"The Rizzos" are a lot of fun and absolutely fucking tiny. I think I make up a measurable percentage of their monthly listens on Spotify. I highly recommend them.
"Charming Disaster" are... eclectic? They're very goth-core and unbelievably indie in a really charming and interesting way, based out of Brooklyn in New York and are just fun. I love Ocean City from them, it's so fun.
"AlicebanD" is a UK-based artist who hasn't really put anything out since the early 2010s but I love all her stuff. She's one of the very few artists that I keep FLACs of around on my phone and use Poweramp with decent headphones to play them at near-audiophile levels just for like... walking around. I like to buy FLACs of the work of artists I really like, but I rarely actually listen to them on my phone since it's just a bit of a waste most of the time. Not these ones!
Nice recs. I'm pretty sure I first found both The Rizzos and Charming Disaster through the "weather" segments on Welcome to Night Vale, which in retrospect is where I found a LOT of the music I like. Haven't listened to the podcast in many many years and a lot of the smaller artists featured probably aren't around anymore, but that was some good well-curated indie music back in the day.
Don't really know my genres too good but I'll throw some recommendations along with their "vibes" (according to me, I know I sound insane)
stumblebriar lullaby - Bridge Enthusiast - walking through a nice creek on a warm summer day
Keemy Cassanova - Akeem Ali - you are a pimp
Your Soul - Forrest. - i'm inventing my own genre here, im calling it beachside ukulele because that's what it is
Hey Ya (Cover?) - KAMAUU - very nice rendition of the Outkast classic
Home Call - The Toxic Avenger - homesick for a home you know no longer exists
honey milk island - leon chang - just a nice joyful jaunt through a happy place
I have a lot more of these, so let me know!
For finding music, I use a variety of some discord servers I'm in (just patrol the music channel and listen to some songs now and then), last.fm, and YouTube Music. There's a feature to generate a radio from an artist or several artists, but setting it to discover "mode" and just let the algorithm guide you.
One of my favourite things to do on RateYourMusic- you can sort by 'Esoteric' instead of by score. This gives you albums that usually <100 people have given an usually high score.
This means you're often getting albums that a small niche of people feel very passionately about. It's hit and miss by nature, but a great way of finding 'scenes' you weren't already aware of.
A couple recs while I'm here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRzj0ogqlC4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMiPrlTJIbQ
Second the esoteric feature. Really cool feature for charts.
RYM also massively overhauled their recommendations amd inteoduced a dedicated tab for it. Concurrently, idk if this is a baseline feature but album recs at the bottom (if you're a supporter at least) of a page are truly a godsend.
I will say, I was very excited the the RYM recommendation overhaul was released, but I haven't found too much value in it. Whatever algorithm it uses to deliver the albums just feels off, and seems to result in users getting very similar suggestions - there seemed to be a collective realisation that everyone was getting that same betcover!! album. Maybe because it's the least offensive album on the whole site for RYM users?
Similarly, RYM's 'Compatibility' feature which should in theory connect you with users with similar tastes, when in reality it serves up the same set of users who I guess happen to have rated everything by its most common rating.
I just don't think RYM is powerful enough to recognise meaningful trends between user behaviour. Which is fine - very few sites have, even the big players.
But totally agree - the hidden gem is that 'Suggestions' box on each album, I think for precisely the opposite reason - the results are never the same (refresh the page and it changes), and so it's a bit quickfire and a bit unruly, and you never know when you might hit gold.
If you just want to find obscure stuff you could just sort through RYM or AOTY genres and sub-genres and look for albums with the least number of reviews to check out. Now if you want quality recommendations of obscure music that is another thing altogether. Finding good music takes work, and either you, or someone else, will have to put in the legwork to get there.
Being part of a music tracker has been the best way I've personally been able to expand my musical horizons. There is way too much good music out there for any one person to find it all on their own. It absolutely helps to have a community of obsessive music nerds to pull from. One of my favourite things is browser user curated collages of albums. I've found some really cool stuff that I never would have been exposed otherwise.
That being said, enjoy some recommendations. Some of this is pretty known in their specific genres, some of it less so. Hopefully someone finds something to enjoy.
Backxwash - Wail of the Banshee industrial hip-hop, horrorcore
Cindy Lee - Lucifer Stand hypnagogic pop, noise pop
Dragged Into Sunlight - Buried With Leeches death metal
Essaie Pas - Depassée par le fantasme minimal synth, synthpop
Ghais Guevara - This Ski Mask Ain't For COVID political hip-hop
John Talabot - Depak Ine balearic beat, deep house
Malokarpatan - V Brezových Hájech Poblíž Babinej Zjavoval Sa Nám Podsvetný Velmož black metal, folk metal
Murmuüre - Primo Vere atmospheric black metal, avantgarde metal
Papangu - Ave-Bala avantgarde metal, zeuhl, progressive metal
PDP III - Walls of Kyoto ambient, electroacoustic
Qrixkuor - Zoetrope death metal, black metal
Sd Laika - Gutter Vibrations deconstructed club, uk bass
Tchornobog - The Vomitting Tchornobog (Slithering Gods of Cognitive Dissonance) death metal, black metal
Tzusing - Residual Stress industrial techno, ebm
Zora Jones - Sister's Blade uk bass, future bass, purple sound
In regards to Spotify going in loops, I have found that clearing the app cache periodically helps with it. Also, you can permanently (or at least for a while) tell it to specifically NOT recommend a specific song in another song's radio if it keeps coming back. That, and spamming the "next song" button. Eventually, it seems to let itself go.
For finding new music I tend to go into Spotify and go into song radios manually, then keep branching. You can get some pretty wild and obscure artists this way.
In regards to recommendations, I'll try to write down everyone I feel relevant but I'm bound to miss some... might edit this post if they pop into my head. I'll also limit myself to six artists for now just so I don't spend like an hour on this.
This is such a fun band with not many songs, very catchy and a little corny in the same way listening to Green Day as an adult might be. Putting on sunglasses and listening to this on the street gives me unbelievable amounts of confidence. Not all of their songs are amazing in my eyes, but they just scratch an itch that other bands don't quite do for me anymore. Favorite Song: Sunshine.
The vocalist from the above band's solo work is very different thematically. It has a similar "teenager in their room" kinda feel to me. Favorite Song: Disconnect.
KNOWER (Dance(?), High BPM, Insane drum/keyboard lines)
This is a duo project (featuring many, many other artists in a lot of their songs) by Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi. They are both among the best in raw technical talent in their instruments alive right now (in my humble opinion). I discovered them recently and so am still going through their discography, but my favorite song so far is actually one of their new ones: The Abyss. The lyrics are a tad pretentious but, honestly, I can't be mad when they're so good (my opinion).
YUKIKA (Light k-pop, ventures into the bubbly zone at times but not to the extent of the hyper-industrialized mainstream, which I also love but find redundant to link here unless someone's interested)
I haven't really listened to her new material but her 2020 album Soul Lady is her best stuff in my eyes; very digestible introduction to k-pop if you've never ventured there. Favorite Song: pit-a-pet.
Ky Vöss (moody electro-pop, ethereal vocals, synth)
An artist I only recently found - not much of an opinion yet, but I figured I'll include her here. Favorite Song (so far): Combat.
CASIOPEA (Japanese Jazz Fusion)
Probably the most "mainstream" band on this list with a few 2M+ videos, but I just have to put this here in case anyone who's a fan of fusion hasn't heard of them. Personally, I think these guys are some of the best live performers of all time. Instead of a favorite song, I give you: CASIOPEA AGAIN, a two hour stitch of live performances. I'm linking this instead of a song because although they have plenty of music on Spotify, their insane live solos are probably the highlight of the band.
Of Montreal (indie-pop)
/mu/ users probably already know him, but I can't resist recommending his stuff. The new records took a much more electronic and avant-garde approach to his style which I personally don't like as much - the sound I'm recommending him for is his 2005-2015 discography. Hissing Fauna is probably his most well-known and accessible work. Favorite Song: The Past is a Grotesque Animal.
girl_irl (rap, synth, high-bpm)
A more aggressive, more electronic, and I suppose mature take on the same vibe The Pom-Poms give me. Favorite Song: Sting.
Honorable Mentions + Song (will probably edit this a lot, and I'll put some more mainstream stuff in here too for people looking to get into genres):
(Shuggie)
(He Would Have Laughed)
(Labyrinth | ラビリンス)
(FORBES LIST)
(GOATMEAL)
(A Remark You Made)
(Dethroned)
(Body & Blood)
(The Angel of Doubt)
(what if i should fall asleep and slipp under)
(PLEASE BE NICE)
Sorry if I mis-attributed a genre, I never know how to categorize my music. I'm also not really in the online music scene these days and I live somewhat far (culturally) from the west, so I apologize if these are actually very well known. If someone does happen to take a liking to these I have a bunch more.
Honestly, I'm more fond of Story 1 even though I know that Story 2 is considered the better track by most. The narrative in Story 1 is just so evocative, you really step into Randy's shoes... though, I suppose that could be said for all of the "Story" songs.
From what I can tell the polarization of clipping. fans happens when talking about Splendor & Misery. I adore the album, but have run into quite a few listeners who feel otherwise. I'm curious what you think of it.
I love Casiopea, have you checked out either T-Square or Masayoshi Takanaka?
Of course. I've personally always had a bias for Casio because of how vibrant they are.
Haroumi Hosono, although a different vibe, is also a really fun foray into Japanese music. I really should have put him on the list... oh well.
I like KNOWER cause everything pretentious about em is mostly jokes, but also half-truths. I do think you're right, I just like thinking of their stuff that way. If their editing is anything to go by, kinda antagonistic too haha.
Also seeing Deerhunter as indie and acoustic is p funny considering the gem of theirs that is Cryptograms.
Admittedly with a lot of these I haven't listened to their full discography, and in general it's super hard for me to accurately assign genres.
As for KNOWER, I guess the danger with those kinds of lyrics and vibes is that people who aren't in on it can take it the wrong way.
True
I find YouTube is a terrible way to discover music. A lot of the best and most obscure stuff simply doesn’t exist there, because it is rare and coveted and the people who own it usually aren’t willing to hand it out for nothing. Sometimes you might strike gold but find those videos get taken down eventually.
Going to record shops is a great way to talk to an expert and get recommendations. Tools like Spotify and last.fm aren’t terrible for discovery, but they have similar limitations to YouTube. Finding a local venue and checking their listings is always great, too.
But ultimately I’ve found nothing comes close to the communities on private trackers for recommendations and discovery.
It’s nothing special, but since you mentioned Aesop, you might find some stuff you like in this Spotify playlist
Both are very interesting recs, thanks! I get the impression you’re into chiptune but if you’re not you’ll definitely enjoy trash80 in that playlist, I think they use a lot of c64 in their work. Chiptune as a genre is very limited but interesting. I’d liken it to writing haiku, limited and challenging but when it’s done right it slaps. That’s a whole new wormhole of discovery, too.
That’s probably where I’m going wrong with yt though, my recs are a mish mash of songs I’ve been sent over the years, things I absolutely love but others not so much. The containers are a great way around this for sure, but an incredibly complex solution, still. A seedbox may be a good alternative to torrent on a server that doesn’t technically touch your work device, but it’s still a grey area. My last work machine was essentially a bricked Chromebook which wouldn’t have even allow me to access external websites, so perhaps not.
A cheaper, less risky solution could be an arm based home server using a raspberry pi or something similar instead. I did that for years until I ran out of space.
Variation is the spice of life, I don’t update that playlist too much but when something catches my ear and I remember to, I’ll stick it in there. Sometimes obscure to me might be something from a popular artist that I feel deserves way more recognition than their more mainstream stuff. Other times it might be a Japanese flute cover of an old band in from my local area. That’s the beauty of art and subjectivity, it can mean something completely different to everyone. I hope you can find new things to enjoy too!
I find most of my new music on YouTube by subscribing to record labels I like and a few music channels. Mostly for drum and bass, occasionally house and techno. Not sure how well it works for other genres but I can barely keep up lol
I listen to tonnes of genres, but a lot of them are older labels so for me this wouldn’t work out too well in my case. Drum and bass is such an incredibly diverse genre in and of itself, so I’m not surprised you’re struggling to keep up. SoundCloud, band camp and Discogs always seemed more effective for finding white label and VIP mixes of tracks for me though.
Spotify's Discover Weekly does a good job of recommending new music based on what you've been listening to. Much better than other recommendation engines in my experience.
I guess it’s time to shill for Battle of the Bits again.
This site is full of music competitions, so everything is original and most of it isn’t published outside their fundraising albums. There is a tremendous amount of talent on display and you are sure to find some new favorites.
Many of the competitions are for chiptunes - which is a bonus to me - but if you don’t care for them they have other categories including ones without gear restrictions (known as Allgear in the site’s parlance).
If I'm really feeling that itch I look at mixes. I like to do it on yt because there's eventually some dude who went and timestamped the whole thing like a legend. I used to go SoundCloud diving but I stopped a few years ago cuz they made a bunch of weird changes (i don't even remember what but it kinda killed it for me). Spotify is just meh for finding new music but it does pull through sometimes, so I'll give Spotify some wiggle room sometimes with a backup playlist just in case there's nothing.
these days I mostly listen to the
*artist* Radioon Spotify --- then I have a way to also download those tracks to FLAC so I have them when the radio changes. If I like something I give it a heart and look it up later etc.Basically, get into Lee Fields, all of Colemine Records, El Michel's Affair, Khruangbin, The Middle East, BADBADNOTGOOD (specifically Sour Soul with Ghostface), and then tuck into CZARFACE (7L, Esoteric (who sounds like Jay-Z), Inspectah Deck) --- CZARFACE is all comic themed and super good and fun.
I was using a combination of different subreddits to explore music genres I'm interested in before the most recent debacle over there. Sad to say I'm not really sure how I plan to discover new music moving forward. Maybe here?
I dont usually share my musical preferences as taste is subjective like you mentioned above, but who knows, maybe we have similar tastes. Lately I've really been into alot of instrumental music. I find it easier to listen to while I work.
Buckethead - Mount Shasta
Plini - Every Piece Matters
Intervals - D.O.S.E.
Andy James - After Midnight
John Butler - Ocean
I've been using Obscure Sound since 2010ish? They used to put out downloadable monthly playlists, but that got shutdown about 8 years ago. They still have amazing recommendations and playlists!
Jeff Hamada over at Booooooom used to make a yearly summer playlist/mashups that were incredible. Same deal, had to stop putting them out a long time ago. I still have some of the originals if anyone is interested. Now I sometime find new music through Booooooom on their shared music videos.
Lastly, and I think like most folks here, Spotify still does a pretty great job at giving me music I want. Often I'll make a playlist in a certain genre and some of their suggested adds that you find towards the bottom are incredible. It does push you towards music you are likely to already listen to though.
I go down rym charts (best of all times, best of 70's, best of 2023, best of Jazz) and listen to everything :
https://rateyourmusic.com
I sometimes check out the new releases on bandcamp.com
Either from single categories, or from all.
I mostly click on albums/songs if the Cover speaks to me, and sometimes I find really good artists that way
Here's a playlist of people covering popular songs in the style of Surf Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvgiNBg0HyE&list=PL3508B0AF6869389F&index=2
That channel also has some other lists of cover versions - Rockabilly covers
Pussycat and the Dirty Johnsons Get out of my Face, Kneejerk, Trouble with the Devil
Moving away from rockabilly to lo-fi indie noise
Christine's Cat Your Love Is
Shop Assistants Safety Net - normal version, and colour video.
Golden Dawn My Secret World
The Fizzbombs Surf Around
(A bit more raucous) Dog Faced Hermans Mary Houdini
As for finding new music, I search YouTube for cover versions of popular songs, then I sort by number of views. Once you get below about 100 k views you start turning up smaller lesser known groups who have sometimes got interesting music on their channel. (And I love comparing covers to the original, this might be a topic I start in future).
Sometimes "obscure" might mean "really popular at a time and place, but not here and now", so in that spirit here's Rita Pavone. There's an intensity about her performance that's perhaps a little bit ferocious, a tiny bit unhinged. It's great though. Datemi un Martello (if I had a hammer) This song is often sun in a happy-clappy way ("oh, isn't love lovely!") but her? She's got a hammer and she's going to do some damage. Viva la Pappa col Pomodoro and another video Viva la Pappa col Pomodoro This is from a play / musical, and the lyrics about a bowl of tomato & bread soup are surprisingly revolutionary.
The history of the past
by now has taught us
that hungry people
make a revolution
Why? We were hungry
we fought
therefore Bon Appetite
let's have breakfast.
Sometimes I think a track is obscure, eg Pushy Parents - Secret Secret but it turns out they're not that obscure Pushy Parents - Secret Secret official video
We are polar opposites on this part. I moderated /r/music, /r/listentothis, and other music subs with some folks here up until 2018, then I got burned out and became a dad. 2008-2017 was when I was exploring music daily. I've sorta been resting on my laurels when it comes to music ever since because holy moly I still have so many artists to work through from back then. Of course I still listen to music that people recommend to me, but I'm not seeking it out much at all. Like basically no activity in the music subreddits even though I was still active on reddit until the recent API situation - the most I'll do in terms of discovery is a Spotify mix at this point. Here are songs from my most listened-to contemporary artists:
Yola - Love All Day (Work All Night): a country soul/r&b singer, this song reminds me of Aretha Franklin's cover of The Weight with Duane Allman on slide guitar.
Babe Rainbow - All the Power: they're a psychedelic rock/pop band from Australia with a ton of range. The first song is like their take on LCD Soundsystem, but here's another that sounds like the War on Drugs.
Scott Hirsch - No No: JJ Cale is in my top 3 artists of all time, and Scott Hirsch is a Durham, NC musician who has several songs that sound like and reference JJ. If you like it, listen to Big Passenger. He and JJ Cale are amazing foot-tappin' music.
Colter Wall - Big Iron: I got really into outlaw country the last 10 years, so I have to recommend Colter Wall out of Saskatchewan. Somehow this guy is only 27 with a voice like that, more foot-tappin' goodness from him. I feel like I should be lassoing steer but really I'm working on spreadsheets at the office.
Daniel T. - Back Again (feat. Turbotito): I guess you would call this tropical house music. Turbotito was a member of nu-disco/chillwave band Poolside who had this famous take on Neil Young's Harvest Moon. Here's Daniel T.'s most popular track, which is more spacey and awesome.
Also pinging /r/Amarok in case he cares to listen. I think 3 of these artists were from our Best Of lists: Babe Rainbow, Scott Hirsch, and Daniel T. They've all since released new albums that have been amazing, especially Babe Rainbow who have 5 solid studio albums at this point. Even heard their track Morning Song in an Allstate commercial during the pandemic.
I heard the first track (Faraway Look) on Yola's first album on one of those NPR Austin 100 playlists in 2019, and I was wildly impressed. The closest I usually get to Country is Americana, but man - she's got pipes!
To tell you the truth, the number one way I still find new music is by looking for anything tangentially related to whatever I'm interested in at the time. I'll look up fanmade playlists for books/video games/characters on Spotify and also on 8tracks (which tends to have more obscure stuff than Spotify), I'll even type words or phrases into lyric sites and see what pops up.
As for recs, here are some artists I like who are actively releasing new music and who have ~150k or fewer listeners on Spotify, from most known to least. I was going to include song recs but it got a bit long, so let me know if you want specific suggestions.
And here's some...other stuff. I learned through digging for these links that I'm still essentially a goth 14 year old anime lover deep down inside, wow
Wow I had no idea 8tracks had relaunched. It was by far my favorite way to discover new music.
Though it's a shame it can only play via YouTube now. Better than nothing at least, and it still has my old likes saved.
everything scrobbled to last.fm has helped, tidal new + radios are good. Music genre subreddits (RIP), KEXP, Colors, From the Basement etc.
I rarely listen to computer generated suggestions. I really prefer to have a human suggest me something especially since it's more likely to be an artist or genre I've not spent much time with. I just wish more of my friends liked music for more than just background noise or nostalgia.
Some slightly obscure albums I enjoy:
cEvin Key - The Dragon Experience
2NU - Ponderous
Big Business - Head for the Shallow
Myuu - Ballad Collection
Bandcamp is pretty much THE place to find random music. Their curated features are wonderfully niche and gives serious what.cd vibes (RIP what.cd :( )
Here are some of my picks:
Bloodywood - Rakshak - heavy metal + bhangra + rap. Heavily political as well - Gaddaar, the intro song, is incredibly good.
Djinn and Miskatonic - Forever in the Realm - Sludgy, drudgy, sickeningly good doom metal.
Natural Information Society - Since time is Gravity - Psychedelic, wild and weird. It's just off kilter and weird and all over the place. But somehow works well together.
Oberst and Buchner - Marble Arch - some out-there type electronica. It's good as background music and it's even better for just sitting down and having a listen. I've improv'd over these tracks at random - super fun.
LIFAFA - Superpower 2020 - wonderful experimental electronic/house music with vocals. It's in Hindi, and it's also very political but it's so good.
I definitely do. Imo there are some horribly underrated and appreciated projects like these
Hannah Epperson - Upsweep
Chester Watson - A Japanese Horror Film
Armand Hammer - Haram (Only 10/10 album I’ve ever heard)
Lemme know what you think of these!
I've been actively cataloging music for probably about 15 years now. WhatCD poweruser, and now a Redacted poweruser..
I go through record labels in their entirety to dial in on an artistic image generally, and then will hone in on the artists of that label that I appreciate. If it's fruitful, I'll investigate the related artists, as there's usually a mastermind behind it all. That's one way.
Alternatively, I've been through almost every genre on RYM, and the top 100-200 albums. I would then use those artists to investigate their scenes, related artists, and labels.
It's become very exhausting and I don't have time anymore. I've hierarchically sorted all of my music by super genre, genre, and sub genre.. as many layers as is required. I think I have enough now, so I don't actively search.
If I were to give you the deepest, sickest, wildest cuts, here would be a few:
The Pop Group - Y
Bogdan Raczynski - Thinking of You
Old Time Relijun - Witchcraft Rebellion
Cutting edge British post punk from the late 70s, Polish American Japanese art student makes hardcore breakbeat from the 90s, and a Beefheart influenced art punk record with some Mongolian throat singing from 00, respectively..
Let me know if you want more :) those are easy 8.5/10 albums.
Edit: Formatting and some info
Need to listen to The Pop Group
My music listening and finding at the moment is maninly through last.fm. I've used spotify on and off but I've found that it doesn't really give recommendations that I vibe with. Most of my favourite obscure artists were found a few years ago, mainly through mixcloud - which I stopped using when they no longer allowed people to post their track lists. This thread has given me some inspiration to start branching out a bit again and to find some new music channels.
Anyway, here are a few of my favourites:
I force myself to only listen to albums released in the current year whenever I drive (to/from work, for example). I will other situations (at home, at work, etc), it depends on my mood.
And which ones do I choose, and how? The illegal way. Every weekend, I go to scene release websites, check the mp3 releases for the genres I like (rock, metal, alternative, jazz, pop, etc), see the 2023 releases from the past week (new albums get released on Fridays, so that's when they appear online), give those that catch my eye a quick listen (bandcamp, deezer, etc), and I get those I like.
About "catching my eye": this comes from back in the iRC scene days, I guess it's a "good success %" skill. If I'm bored and have time, I'll check everything I can, but if not, it's based on feel. Also regarding the old scene days, albums rarely (almost never) leak in advance.
edit: forgot to mention, I also like to make "best of the year" album lists at the end of the year. I make a rock/metal one, and an "other genres" one.
I used to take more time for discovery and go through a thousand plus new albums per year checking out at least a song or two and determining whether they demanded more attention or skipping past. In recent years I haven't made the time and maybe go through 100 in a year and only pick up 10-20 albums generally from bands I already liked and not new discoveries.
I tend to focus on a few genres because I can at least find a higher rate of likability and not be wasting my time as much going through a genre where I've found 1/1000 success rate. For me those genres are Stoner/Psych, Post Rock/Metal and the various sub genres that generally associate with those. Although it is always nice to come across something I like wildly outside these genres, like a breath of fresh air.
Some obscure recs from me:
!!! (chk chk chk) - AM/FM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO_AofgXHFU&ab_channel=WarpRecords
††† (Crosses) - Bitches Brew https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBN-1Q0_Fiw&ab_channel=SumerianRecords if you like Deftones
9mm Parabellum Bullet - ロング・グッドバイ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Scb4cAfXx1c&list=OLAK5uy_nFlzYK-9-8ihNXTuGmDk_JFYgr3bvIDsU&ab_channel=9mmParabellumBullet-Topic
Astrosoniq - Faustian Bargain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjrnfXtBiNM&ab_channel=TheStonerMania
Bijou Noir - Do This to Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHfbW-ibzCw&ab_channel=GIVE%2FTAKE
Banquet - Burning Bridges https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjJTgqd7BHk&ab_channel=APap
Black Tropics - Devil's Kings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el_y9ft320g&ab_channel=BlackTropicsOfficial
Bluescreens - Misfire https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QrSoHr8Wpg&ab_channel=PandaDrum%26BassMixShow
Boris - Melody https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr4i5jXlSjg&ab_channel=IbrahimBayram not really obscure but some of the best Post Rock/Metal
Curvs - Don Johnson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6h65PKaTMY&ab_channel=Curvs-Topic
Deiv Id Fuzz - Playa Automica https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRxnvFv8HZU&ab_channel=DeivIdFuzz-Topic
Electrocado - Lo-fi Blues https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbPDFIlfcxY&ab_channel=Electrocado-Topic
Elephant Tree - Circles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYs9nZ3Cvqw&ab_channel=MagneticEyeRecords
Ghostride - White wings of Death https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znRASlgV_5s&ab_channel=Ghostride-Topic
Grajo - I am the Sea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzFem0oRIJU&ab_channel=CultOfDoom
Holy Fuck - Neon Dad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQKck84Nxbg&ab_channel=KEXP
Kairon; IRSE! - Valorians https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64M_AKe3XVk&ab_channel=TropicalContactHigh
Koloto - Fox Tales https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6kB78-pk1A&ab_channel=Konectt
Only made it through K of my library, so lmk if you want me to continue through to the end.
"I bet I'd like <genre>" and then listen to it. For example, I listened to a bunch of death metal and deathcore for a month a few years ago and it didn't stick. I listened to Archspire out of a fascination for their sound and technicality early last year and went to a Whitechapel concert they opened, and it made me a genre convert after seeing three bands I'd never really listened to live (Whitechapel, Entheos and Signs of the Swarm).
I think most people can like most things if they can form a connection to it somehow. In my exlerience this connection, even a small one, generally is what is required to find new music.
A major way I find music is through collaborators (easy with hip hop and EDM), or tour listings (bands don't open/get opened by bands they don't like usually), and, occasionally, an algorithim somewhere actially finding something I'm into. I'm always looking for new stuff, but don't go out of my way to find it.
I've had pretty good success listening to SiriusXM's new music stations, it's really kept me out of the slump. I think it's most similar to MTV's "New Music Countdown" from the mid-90's at least in format (not presentation, radio not video).
The only thing I haven't seen mentioned yet is exclaim as it is an amazing indie music magazine that covers a lot of North America and some international music. It's mostly online but I personally rely on it for reliable reviews of new music. The year-end lists are a must if you missed anything.
One of the ways I discover new music is using an artist or band that I really like and Google any collaborations they've done. Then search for those guys. Rinse and repeat. Also while I know everyone has they're favorite style, I always try and listen to completely different styles and try to find a band that I like, and then do then above.
Also I use Amazon Music, and by picking an artist and requesting a station of that artist, it will play somewhat similar styles, and sometimes something that is completely different.
While I really enjoy 70s, 80s classic Rock, using the above methods, somehow got me to some bluegrass, southern soul Rock and stuff that I've really been enjoying.
Some to consider
Andrew Duhon - anything from his album The Moorings
Steep Canyon Rangers -- highly recommend anything where Steve Martin is NOT singing. The song Sweet Spot is a good place to start.
Dead South -- I really like their song In Hell I'll Be In Good Company
I do, but it's usually just going to "recommendations" from my spotify playlists. Sometimes it's helpful sometimes not so much
I try to go through the new albums section of tidal's "metal" genre every Friday. I try to give every album a fair spin of at least one song, unless I really instantly know it's not for me. Most weeks i find something new I like!
Bookmarking because I desperately need new tunes
I'm in a couple of Music Leagues with friends and people I work with, which has definitely introduced me to some new stuff. I haven't had the same experience when joining leagues with randos -- that usually ends up with playlists full of very popular music or very specific tastes. Having a dozen or so people with tastes you're familiar with and who are all trying to keep things fresh works pretty well, though sometimes the popular/obvious choice is just too good to pass up.
My process is getting on Apple Music, picking a Kishi Bashi song to create a station from, enjoying the first song (always by Kishi Bashi), skipping through the next four tracks that sound nothing like what I want or am looking for, then switching over to my all Kishi Bashi playlist. I have seriously done this like 5 or 6 times.
My recommendations playlist got hosed when I started listing to LoFi while studying, and now that's all Apple Music thinks I want to hear. I think I'm also just getting old and doing a terrible job finding new stuff.
tl;dr Have you tried all the music of Kishi Bashi? I'd try out the songs Bright Whites, Manchester, Confessions at the End of the World, The Ballad of Mr. Steak, In Fantasia, m'Lover, Angeline, and Summer of 42 off the top of my head for a broad brush.
Lately I’m just letting Apple Music play the next song and generally it gives me bangers. My dilemma is do I even want to download and listen to the banger again or just forget it and move on. My consumption of music completely changed when I switched to streaming it versus maintaining a meticulous downloaded collection.
I kind of hate it but also I don’t have the time anymore to curate a library these days.
On the bandcamp app
Wormhat by rong
Call me old school, but my primary method of finding new music is just going to shows. Local shows at cheap venues usually, but also taking the time to show up for opening acts at larger shows.
I also really like Shady Pines Radio which is like, kinda the best radio station in Portland, Oregon. It’s not on AM or FM airwaves, it only exists online, but there’s a different show on every hour, and each show has its own unique voice and focus and is hosted by a real human DJ. You’ll find everything from classic punk and ska to dreamy electro synthwave to prank phone calls to b-sides from big artists to new music from local artists and everything in between. I hear something new every single time I tune in. The app has a show schedule where you can bookmark your favorite shows and you’ll get a notification before they start so you don’t forget to tune in, and there’s a chat room where listeners can interact. It’s a lot of fun and these days I use it more than I use Spotify. Check it out, and if you don’t like what you hear check it out again later when something completely different will be on.
I'm in a band/project so as I've been researching artists I'm similar too, I've gone down a big rabbit hole of screamo and emo-aligned music from this generation. That's right now.
Actively, I use RYM, Twitter diving, recs from mutuals, and such. RYM is my main superpower bc their rec features are bar none.
Here are some things I enjoy from recent memory:
If you're feeling lucky....
I spent a long while writing a comment with a ton of recs but then my browser just crashed before I finished and I want to die.
The short version: check out osu!'s featured artists list, it is full of bangers.
I mostly listen to post-rock, post-metal, etc and Spotify Discover Weekly playlist works decently well for me. I also follow bands, so the "Release Radar" playlist helps me stay on top of new releases.
Spotify auto-generated playlists, like the weekly list that so many people are blown away by in my circles, didn't work for me at all. None of it.
What works for me is to pick a song I currently like and use "go to song radio" from the options menu on Spotify. That's their phraseology for "similar songs", and via that it does give me a mix of known and new songs that I like.
What also does it for me is friends recommending something. I'm fifteen times more likely to enjoy it if someone recommended it than if I stumble upon it myself. The takeaway being, I suppose, to ask friends to open up your Spotify weekly playlist and recommend stuff from there to you!
The only reason I have accounts for streaming services was to leverage their algorithmic recommendation. But the two services I've tried (Deezer and Spotify) don't really do what I was looking for, since they prioritize mostly giving you stuff you've already heard.
Where I find new music:
A couple recommendations (genre labels are probably wrong, but they give a ballpark):