The Syndicate

When I say "new" in the thread title, I mean "new to you" and not "new to the world". The latter is still applicable though if you have something relevant to talk about.

My adoption of favorite artists tends to be pretty arbitrary; I explore music at random within the RYM charts and a few isolated gems stand out. I'd like to talk about the most recent, a band called Marble Sounds. They're mostly suitable to the classic indie rock aesthetic, though there are a lot of electronic and dream pop influences present too. Their 2016 album "Tautou" is very good, I'd recommend anyone with Spotify give it a try. It is probably available on some other media too.

Here's a taste:



I'm sure many of you who make a serious hobby out of listening to music have encountered some new musical fascinations in recent memory. I'd love to hear about them.

Wow, I am really digging that sound. Definitely checking them out.

Here are a couple of songs from albums I've recently heard that I really dug:

Lil Ugly Mane - experimental/abstract hip-hop, interesting beats and instrumentals with strange lyrics and interesting flows from ugly mane. It's sort of similar to El-P I think.


Roly Porter - Third Law is a spacey dark ambient album that almost sounds like a crazy horror soundtrack, it's a fun and engaging listen as far as ambient goes.

My favorite Marble Sounds song is Good Occasions

Does anyone use Spotify? I love their Discover Weekly playlist. Each week it gives you 30 songs tailored to your personal tastes. Each week I always find at least a handful of songs that I really like.

This is my favorite song from this week's playlist. Nothing groundbreaking, but I love the melancholy atmosphere of it.

Muslimgauze was an incredibly prolific producer, who has over 100 albums and counting (his back log is still being released posthumously). His style was diverse, ambient techno, IDM, industrial, ethno-ambient, drone, and so on. A vast majority of the ethnic influences are due to his research into the Muslim world, and his subsequent (very) ardent pro-Palestine stance. I've really dug everything I've heard from him, fans of any of the aforementioned genres probably do too.

(Warning: the video is from a documentary and contains the slaughter of a cow, viewer discretion advised)

Thanks for sharing folks.

I've also heard the new Roly Porter album, AP. It's definitely interesting, though I grant I've not immersed myself very deeply into any type of ambient music new or old. I've just heard this new album by Aythis and I really liked it. Fantastic piano uplifting an otherwise dreary and cold thing.

Not an immediately new fascination as I discovered this artist last summer, but I go through periods of listening to a lot of post-rock (it's a really good balance between nice instrumental background for homework or other activities and also very beautiful, intricate, and epic/dramatic for serious listening) and I've really enjoyed the work of Sleep Dealer:

JaggedJimmyJay wrote:Thanks for sharing folks.

I've also heard the new Roly Porter album, AP. It's definitely interesting, though I grant I've not immersed myself very deeply into any type of ambient music new or old. I've just heard this new album by Aythis and I really liked it. Fantastic piano uplifting an otherwise dreary and cold thing.

Is that banjo I hear towards the end? That's quite pretty and I'll have to check it out.

I'm really enjoying Marble Sounds btw, I've listened to all three of their albums twice now and they're beautiful.

nutella wrote:I'm really enjoying Marble Sounds btw, I've listened to all three of their albums twice now and they're beautiful.

Yeah I've been focusing solely on 2016 music over the last few weeks, but the Marble Sounds album caused me to detour through their three albums. Great band.

Today I was introduced to The Jezabels. It's not on YouTube, but I'd recommend y'all check out their track "Stamina". Fantastic.

I've spent most of the last three years listening exclusively to Radical Face. He's got a new album coming out next month. Here's a song:

I've recently came across yet another great ambient/drone band who released this track this year.

Sloonei wrote:I've spent most of the last three years listening exclusively to Radical Face. He's got a new album coming out next month. Here's a song:

Hell yeah I love me some Radical Face. So much emotion, beautiful music. Didn't realize there was another album coming out! I love the whole Family Tree concept. (Always Gold... and Ghost Towns... holy shit i cry every time)

Really enjoyed Radical Face. I've learned to trust nutella's judgement in music.

I also heartily recommend the Paper Kites, another of my favorites. Somewhat similar, mellow sound and lovely harmonies. Here's an EP of theirs that I never tire of.

I listened to three Radical Face albums for the first time today. Very good start.

I have been listening to these guys for quite a little while, but I always like to give them credit whenever I get a chance. I really like their unique sound, and some of their lyrics are super creative. They're an indie band from Toronto.

A couple friends just posted this song on tumblr and I've never heard of this band before but I guess my friends saw them open at a Jukebox the Ghost concert recently and got into them and HOLY SHIT I CAN SEE WHY. THIS SONG IS SO GOOD




Definitely gonna listen to the rest of their stuff because wow, what a sound. Also just anything with orchestral strings in it is guaranteed to make me weak in the knees.


Edit to say this band sounds really cool from their website. apparently they invite tons of random people to perform with them and stuff. http://www.thefamilycrestfamily.com/about/ Damn I bet they'd be an awesome live experience.

Yay! I loooooove The Family Crest. Yes, they are beyond awesome. They also collaborate with loads of talented musicians across the country on their albums (and often for live shows). They definitely deserve a listen. I am so happy to hear that they are gaining a bigger and bigger fandom. They deserve it.


Edit: I see you found that out. I just got so excited that you posted about them I freaked out and posted before even reading the rest of your post.

I heard this song on a playlist some time ago, but I forgot to save it. I was looking for it recently but couldn't remember any words, just the beat. Then today it showed up on my Discover Weekly Spotify playlist I thought I would share.

It's not a "new" musical fascination really, I've loved Tim Hecker ever since Ravedeath, 1972, but his new album is amazing.

This one is new to me if you count November last year as new, but got dam, Car Seat Headrest (yes ik they really are running out of band names) is fucking marvelous. He's a lo-fi rock artist that started recording music in his car, hence the name of the band, and progressively taught himself to make fuckin' amazing music. This is my favorite song from Twin Fantasy (2011).



Last year he got signed to Matador Records and released an album called Teens of Style, which is just a bunch of better produced remakes of old songs pretty much. This spring he's coming out with his first album of original material since he got signed, called Teens of Denial, and I caaaaan't waaaaiiiiit. I think this dude has the potential to become a cult/indie legend, the sort of artist hipsters in the 2030s are gonna idolize. The new album looks like it's gonna have a much cleaner sound, which might take a bit to get used to, but the songs out so far are pretty damn good. This is his latest.



Thanks ekeknat so much for making me listen to him!

Fantastic song from someone who I hope makes it big:

My new obsession is 70's Electric British Folk.

I'm starting to get into Shearwater -- they have a number of albums and I've only heard one or two so far but I'm liking them.

One of my biggest musical obsessions lately has been Pat the Bunny. I don't like a lot of folk punk but he hits the spot.

SleepResearch_Facility is a dark ambient band that makes music that is both musical and functional, their music is for falling asleep to but it's also just really good ambient (if you are into that sort of thing)

You are all posting relatively unknown bands wich are great to discover, but i ve been so distracted all my life that i didnt arrived to the greatness that its David Bowie until like 2 years ago. I mean, i obviously knew him and even loved some of his songs, but i became a super fan, like obsessive fan , like listen to all his albums fan, like owning t shirts with his face on it at my old age! fan, somehwere in 2014. Damm is he amazing. And then, suddenly, he died

Still can get over it

Also, how come theres no farewell thread to David Bowie or something like that? I thought i was gonna see one when i clicked in the music section. I cried for days when i hear and im still sad all this months later. Never a death of someone famous affect me this much, not even George Harrison or Freddie Mercury (i was a little girl when it happened, but me and my sister were huge fans of queen, dance at his music all the time and watched the videos all day, and when we hear we shouted "oh no! queen died!" -we thought his name was queen-).


Anyways, how awful is to live in a Bowieless world?

Sophie wrote:Also, how come theres no farewell thread to David Bowie or something like that? I thought i was gonna see one when i clicked in the music section. I cried for days when i hear and im still sad all this months later. Never a death of someone famous affect me this much, not even George Harrison or Freddie Mercury (i was a little girl when it happened, but me and my sister were huge fans of queen, dance at his music all the time and watched the videos all day, and when we hear we shouted "oh no! queen died!" -we thought his name was queen-).


Anyways, how awful is to live in a Bowieless world?

n my continuing fascination with electric English folk of the 1970s, I bought a Steeleye Span album today, and was shocked to see, buried deep within the liner notes, David Bowie's name credited with alto saxophone on a single track. What a random record for him to be on. The guy is like an onion.

thellama73 wrote:

Sophie wrote:Also, how come theres no farewell thread to David Bowie or something like that? I thought i was gonna see one when i clicked in the music section. I cried for days when i hear and im still sad all this months later. Never a death of someone famous affect me this much, not even George Harrison or Freddie Mercury (i was a little girl when it happened, but me and my sister were huge fans of queen, dance at his music all the time and watched the videos all day, and when we hear we shouted "oh no! queen died!" -we thought his name was queen-).


Anyways, how awful is to live in a Bowieless world?

n my continuing fascination with electric English folk of the 1970s, I bought a Steeleye Span album today, and was shocked to see, buried deep within the liner notes, David Bowie's name credited with alto saxophone on a single track. What a random record for him to be on. The guy is like an onion.

lol, that is random. Amazing

Sophie wrote:Also, how come theres no farewell thread to David Bowie or something like that? I thought i was gonna see one when i clicked in the music section. I cried for days when i hear and im still sad all this months later. Never a death of someone famous affect me this much, not even George Harrison or Freddie Mercury (i was a little girl when it happened, but me and my sister were huge fans of queen, dance at his music all the time and watched the videos all day, and when we hear we shouted "oh no! queen died!" -we thought his name was queen-).


Anyways, how awful is to live in a Bowieless world?

I and a few others did post about it in the Music Mews thread, but a separate thread would have been warranted because yeah it's Bowie. What a genius.

Enrique wrote:This one is new to me if you count November last year as new, but got dam, Car Seat Headrest (yes ik they really are running out of band names) is fucking marvelous. He's a lo-fi rock artist that started recording music in his car, hence the name of the band, and progressively taught himself to make fuckin' amazing music. This is my favorite song from Twin Fantasy (2011).



Last year he got signed to Matador Records and released an album called Teens of Style, which is just a bunch of better produced remakes of old songs pretty much. This spring he's coming out with his first album of original material since he got signed, called Teens of Denial, and I caaaaan't waaaaiiiiit. I think this dude has the potential to become a cult/indie legend, the sort of artist hipsters in the 2030s are gonna idolize. The new album looks like it's gonna have a much cleaner sound, which might take a bit to get used to, but the songs out so far are pretty damn good. This is his latest.



Thanks ekeknat so much for making me listen to him!

Car Seat Headrest is amazing. His new album, Teens of Denial is something I've been listening to nonstop for the last 48 hours.

Back at the Festival I went to a few days ago, right after Sigur Ros, another artist caught me by surprise with an almost delectable set - Slow Magic, an electronica / DJ artist of some sorts. I already ransacked throught the few recordings he released and there are a few songs that are earmwork right now, notably



and (for the harmonic progression)



He played with a lot more percussion on stage - and there is a concert clip of Corvette on Facebook, but not sure I can embed the link.

Anyway, this isn't really my type of music, but when it's a bit rafined or has some interesting samples, it can catch my ear. Any other suggestions like this?

The Mars Volta, Amputechture - a friend recommended this one to me last week, and I've listened to it on almost a daily basis. Damn good album.

The Decemberists - these guys are fantastic! I bought a couple of their albums like 2-3 years ago, but only just recently got around to listening to them. They're something special in the current Indie/Folk scene.

Paul Simon - There are a few artists/bands I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I've never gotten around to checking out with any depth (thinking about starting a thread about this). Paul Simon is in that group, but that is quickly changing. I really liked what I heard after listening to Graceland.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:The Mars Volta, Amputechture - a friend recommended this one to me last week, and I've listened to it on almost a daily basis. Damn good album.

My least favourite TMV - meaning it slides down towards the hate zone - but inb4 Epignosis will cheer you on that.

Metalmarsh89 wrote: The Decemberists - these guys are fantastic! I bought a couple of their albums like 2-3 years ago, but only just recently got around to listening to them. They're something special in the current Indie/Folk scene.

Strong stuff, but they've been aimless for the past couple of records. With good intent, even, I hear.

Metalmarsh89 wrote: Paul Simon - There are a few artists/bands I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I've never gotten around to checking out with any depth (thinking about starting a thread about this). Paul Simon is in that group, but that is quickly changing. I really liked what I heard after listening to Graceland.

I never plan to check him in detail (already did S&G and that felt enough), but ugh, true story following: I fancied this song in my childhood because it had a hooky chorus, was airing on MTV and had a cool video or something, but since I totally forgot what it was, except for the hook and the image of two people having a dance routine while playing on brass instruments, that somehow got stuck in my brain. Sometime last year I finally heard it again - on speaker at a supermarket, I think, lol - listened to the lyrics carefully, then went home to check the source.

The result of my investigation: my acquired taste music lover persona is now fully compromised by the fact that one of my 3-year old earworm guilty pleasures was listening to Paul Simon's You Can Call Me All (off Graceland, incidentally). Fok.

Ricochet wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:The Mars Volta, Amputechture - a friend recommended this one to me last week, and I've listened to it on almost a daily basis. Damn good album.

My least favourite TMV - meaning it slides down towards the hate zone - but inb4 Epignosis will cheer you on that.

Amputechture is like Tarkus for me. It contains my all-time favorite pieces by the bands ("Tetragrammaton" and "Tarkus," respectively), and some other excellent material, but the the albums as a whole are uneven and in places not engaging.

Ricochet wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote: The Decemberists - these guys are fantastic! I bought a couple of their albums like 2-3 years ago, but only just recently got around to listening to them. They're something special in the current Indie/Folk scene.

Strong stuff, but they've been aimless for the past couple of records. With good intent, even, I hear.

The first five albums are a string of pearls...after that, just a string, really.

Ricochet wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:The Mars Volta, Amputechture - a friend recommended this one to me last week, and I've listened to it on almost a daily basis. Damn good album.

My least favourite TMV - meaning it slides down towards the hate zone - but inb4 Epignosis will cheer you on that.

Perhaps it's an accessibility thing. Perhaps it's a mood thing. I've also listened to their first two albums occasionally over the last couple years. I definitely enjoyed moments from them, but not quite to the extent of this one.

Ricochet wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote: The Decemberists - these guys are fantastic! I bought a couple of their albums like 2-3 years ago, but only just recently got around to listening to them. They're something special in the current Indie/Folk scene.

Strong stuff, but they've been aimless for the past couple of records. With good intent, even, I hear.

Hazards of Love is excellent imo. The King is Dead is less consistent, but has some standout songs. I'm still meaning to pursue them beyond these two albums.

Ricochet wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote: Paul Simon - There are a few artists/bands I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I've never gotten around to checking out with any depth (thinking about starting a thread about this). Paul Simon is in that group, but that is quickly changing. I really liked what I heard after listening to Graceland.

I never plan to check him in detail (already did S&G and that felt enough), but ugh, true story following: I fancied this song in my childhood because it had a hooky chorus, was airing on MTV and had a cool video or something, but since I totally forgot what it was, except for the hook and the image of two people having a dance routine while playing on brass instruments, that somehow got stuck in my brain. Sometime last year I finally heard it again - on speaker at a supermarket, I think, lol - listened to the lyrics carefully, then went home to check the source.

The result of my investigation: my acquired taste music lover persona is now fully compromised by the fact that one of my 3-year old earworm guilty pleasures was listening to Paul Simon's You Can Call Me All (off Graceland, incidentally). Fok.

You're not a true proghead. :P

I love The King Is Dead but I also really recommend you check out all of their other albums. The Crane Wife is probably the best, it's absolutely amazing, so go for that one next if you can.

I also love Paul Simon I was basically raised listening to S&G as well as his solo stuff. I don't know all of it bc we mostly listened to a few compilation albums of his biggest hits but they're very good, some of my favorites are from Graceland and The Rhythm of the Saints. I absolutely LOVE the Central Park live version of "The Cool, Cool River" (it's miles better than the album version and is so fucking good)

Rules

Are the embedded youtube vids not working for anyone else?

Here's a link to my new jam: "Stars" by Future Generations

They're not working for me either, figured it was my connection being poop.

This week in bands I wish I'd known about before, like, two days ago, both thanks to my Discover Weekly playlist on Spotify: TTNG and Hrvrd.

TTNG (formerly This Town Needs Guns, and to be fair I think I'd heard the name before but somehow never listened). Math rock. Something about those hard-to-follow time signatures hidden within crazy, catchy and/or beautiful guitar and drum parts. I've been impressed by and totally engrossed in every track I've heard so far.







HRVRD, I don't even know how to describe. More straight up alt rock but with a really unique sound. Almost like a more early-2000s vibe, I really can't quite put my finger on what it is but something about this band's sound really captured me.

Always good to encounter a great new band right as they're working on a new album. There Will Be Fireworks?
Extremely emotive indie rock from Scotland.

Talk about your impulse purchases. I just bought a 10-CD box set by industrial/noise pioneer Maurizio Bianchi without ever having heard even a snippet of his music. I'm listening to it now. It's pretty good. You know, if you like horrible noise.

A 10-CD set sounds like a bit too much, but yeah, he's got some good stuff. Remember having listened to Symphony for a Genocide, Mectpyo Bacterium and god knows what else.

It took me way too long so I'm really late to the party on this stuff, but I've finally started actually getting into hip-hop! I've really enjoyed the Death Grips albums I've heard (the first few so far), and upon a coworker's recommendation I also enjoyed an apparently pretty old classic, Nas' album Illmatic. Really good stuff. And right now also via recommendation I am absolutely loving the album CLPPNG by clipping, a group fronted by Daveed Diggs of Hamilton fame. Gooooooood shit.