Music Recommendations

Wow, thanks for the many recs. That should be enough to keep me busy for quite a while...

I've been listening to a bit more Sonic Youth lately, and while I've somewhat warmed to them, they're still not a band that I'd really ever listen to for enjoyment. The vocals annoy me, their songwriting seems oddly... grounded compared to the ambitious explorations of pretty much every other noise/experimental rock band I've heard, their music always has this really smug feel to it, (I guess that's a subjective thing) all their songs (That I've encountered) run for between 3 and 9 minutes, (Compared to the 34 minute track on To Be Kind, and all the scattered 50 second tracks on Pop Tatari, again, this seems really grounded) the list goes on...

edited 26th Nov '14 3:35:57 PM by CardsOfWar

I really love the song "To The Stars" by Randy Edelman (that one song from Dragonheart and movie trailers). The "compositions" I think they're called. So dumb with music I have no idea what the genre would be called. It's what kids these days call "Epic music". I have gained a loving of songs that start off sad but become enlightening at the end.

Looking for a song for a Tabletop Role-Playing Game character... Do any of you guys know any songs with lyrics that are good for an All-Loving Hero? Any music genre is fine, but the lyrics need to be in English (so my play group can understand it without translation). Bonus points if the singer is female. Also: if we could stay away from Messianic Archetype type music—I know those two tropes have a lot of overlap, but the character's just super nice, not Crystal Dragon Jesus.

Blam.

edited 16th Mar '15 5:28:48 PM by PhysicalStamina

That one's really good :).

Pepe Deluxé: Contain Thyself.

Amon Düül II - Jail-House-Frog

I adore experimental psychedelic/progressive stuff, as long as it's not too experimental, and it'd be awesome if I could find more stuff like this.

edited 7th Apr '15 6:27:31 AM by SCPH7503

Amon Düül's stuff is usually called Krautrock, which was often lumped in with Prog back in the day.

Other Krautrock bands you may like and who are not too experimental include Music/{{Neu!}}, Harmonia, Cluster (namely, the albums Zuckerzeit and Sowiesoso, which are more electronic in nature), the more rhythmic tracks of Can (check "Halleluwah" for a masterclass in endurance - same for the Neu! tracks such as "Hallogallo" or "E-Musik"), and Faust IV by Faust (their previous albums are way more intense, with a few exceptionally different tracks such as "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl".

I really like Cup's sound, though the repetition of Neu bugged me. Repetition isn't my thing, never has been. Think I've got one or two new bands to check out, though, much appreciated.

Can anyone recommend me any Power Metal albums that have a high percentage of fast songs on them? By fast I'm talking about songs like Helloween's "I'm Alive" and Iron Savior's "Titans of our Time". Looking through the genre I've found that many bands tend to put only two or three fast songs on each album and the rest are either semi-fast, mid-tempo, or ballads. I'm looking to buy some albums that I could listen to while running, and I want the most bang for my buck.

So I'm wondering if there is anything similar to the kind of Spanish guitar/flamenco-inspired stuff used in the Ace Combat Zero soundtrack. Specifically, the underlying guitar parts throughout "Zero", most especially the section from around 1:49 to around 2:57—that link is the best example of what I have in mind—and to a lesser extent, the first seven seconds or so of "The Demon of the Round Table", and the first five seconds or so of "Contact".

In the latter two songs, the relevant portion is relatively brief—it's Ace Combat, after all, so most of the songs are their usual brand of ambient electronic/orchestral stuff. But I really dig the Spanish guitar portions, and I'm wondering if there's more music that is just that kind of thing without all the epic sweeping orchestral and operatic stuff. (Although if there is other music like that, I'd be totally down for that as well.)

I've dinked around on Pandora with flamenco stations but most of what I'm hearing is more mild-mannered and romantic; I would like to hear stuff more like what's on the AC soundtrack, i.e., high-tempo, energetic, almost aggressive in tone. Wikipedia's article on Flamenco hasn't been very promising; most of the "variants" on flamenco that I'm finding there are in the opposite direction, i.e., instead of "flamenco but more aggressive" I'm finding "flamenco but more chill" and "flamenco but with electronic influences".

edited 1st May '15 11:21:32 AM by SolipSchism

The Gipsy Kings' album Roots is divided between stuff like that and more chill flamenco. As far as I know, Roots is their only completely acoustic album.

And Carlos Montoya was even more aggressive, though he's usually just solo guitar.

Enrique Montoya is (I think) a bit more traditional.

SolipSchism: You may want to check out the soundtrack of Guacamelee!. Here is a video containing all the tracks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1cRRyRhPvc

Also, this track from Gurumin: A Monstrous Adventure.

edited 3rd May '15 3:04:46 AM by GlennMagusHarvey

I'm at work (well, drill) so I can't pull up those videos right now, but I will check all of that stuff out when I get home.

What music is this and where can I get more?

Sounds like your average 80s Hair Metal song to me.

Looking for Garage Rock albums. I've already got the Nuggets boxset, but I don't know which of the artists on it are worth getting an album from and which only had one good song. Any suggestions?

The debut album of the 13th Floor Elevators is worth getting.

The Monks: Black Monk Time is garage rock, and one of my desert island albums.

and : Have both of those. They are great albums as y'all both say.

Also now I'm looking for something a bit more specific. I want more songs with harmonies like the ones in Dirty Water and You Really Got Me. The ones that are just the backing vocalists extending the last syllable of the line into the lead vocalist's next lines.

Just dropping in to say that I got distracted but *finally* got around to checking out those tracks. They are all helpful, especially that Gipsy Kings track, which is gorgeous. It's weird that I have a bit of familiarity with Gipsy Kings (like, a little bit) but didn't think of them. I'll check out more of their stuff. Thanks!

Looking for two separate things:

1) Dark, minimalist instrumental stuff, either post-rock or more ambient / neo-classical. This and this are good examples, as well as the majority of Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles or Mogwai tracks.

2) Calm, acoustic music as found in the following NPR Tiny Desk Concerts: The Milk Carton Kids, Great Lake Swimmers and Daughter.

2) Sam Amidon (I have Bright Sunny South and Lily-O; can't comment on his other albums), Entertainment for the Braindead (my favorites are Hydrophobia and Roadkill). Gileah's first album The Golden Planes is kind of borderline—it has songs like this, but also songs like this.

Looking for a specific kind of metal track—one that's about the power of hope. Sure, life is rough, and horrible things happen to good people, but the world goes on and better days are coming, a theme like that. I'd prefer epic metal, but anything where the average listener can easily make out the lyrics would do.

You're most likely to find that type of song in the Power Metal genre. I feel like a lot of Dragonforce songs qualify, and "The Game" is a good one without any fantasy themes. "New Millennium" by Dream Theater is the one I can think that's most explicitly about hope.