I need input!

[Zuglufttier]

Hey,

I really like this music forum

But my problem is that I really need new input. Years ago I started out with rock, then punk, hardcore punk. Nowadays I think I have listened to most kinds of music and I really wait for something new. I really loved to explore electronic music and I'm currently listening to that style the most I think. I checked out rock, blues, country, folk, jazz, classical stuff, pop and all other kinds... Actually I love all kinds of music I ever came upon. If the artist has something good to say or some nice sounds to show, I'm always willing to listen.
But actually I need something new that will give me the feeling like I had when listening to Radiohead's "Kid A" for the first time or R.E.M.'s "New adventures in HiFi". They are some albums in my collection that really moved me deeply and changed the way I live today. I miss this feeling and don't know exactly what I should look for...

Don't really know how to explain this... Maybe it's just because now I have a rather good overview of what is available and what I might like and what not. Maybe there is too much music for me to choose from.

Does anybody have a similair feeling or is there somebody with a good advice for me?

 

[Davey]

Yeah, know that feeling well, as I'm sure most of the people around here do. That's what keeps us going, always exploring, looking for that prize, the drug.

Here's 10 from about the last 10 years that had a big effect on me personally, but doesn't mean that they'd have any of the same impact in your life ...

Lisa Germano - Geek The Girl
Laika - Silver Apples of the Moon
Built To Spill - Perfect From Now On
Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West
Dirty Three - Ocean Songs
Black Heart Procession - 2
Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
Blonde Redhead - Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
Solex - Low Kick and Hard Bop
Notwist - Neon Golden

I have talked about most of them at one time or another around here, and I'm sure you might've heard most of them before because none of them are obscure, but they all have something special for me. Conversely, Kid A was never the revelation for me that it is for many of you. I do like it, but just never loved it.

 

[s m @]

I can fully get behind the Modest Mouse and Built to Spill recos above. Your question is too general, so I'll go with my stock answer and say go get the new Mogwai record when it comes out. Kid A is one of my all time favourites.

 

[asmox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zuglufttier I checked out rock, blues, country, folk, jazz, classical stuff, pop... ...good advice for me?

i sense a general lack of metal, electronic, progressive, and various experimental things. most of these recommendations may require a certain degree of openness and patience, though all are rewarding listens in the end IMO.

i dunno how you feel about screamy vocals, but you can start off with Death. they were responsible for some of the greatest technical, artsy, thrashy, deathly metal since Watchtower.

speaking of which, you could also check out Watchtower.. who almost single-handedly created the technical metal genre in the late 80's. on that note, check out Atheist and Cynic.. both of which took what Watchtower/Death started, and mixed it in with a jazz backdrop. Atheist took a thrashier approach, while Cynic remained firmly rooted in the jazz fusion camp, with touches of avantgarde throughout, though still pretty metal.

following that path, you can move on to Gordian Knot.. which is the brainchild of Sean Malone, ex-Cynic bassist/stick wizard. it's an all instrumental melting pot of metal, prog, jazz, fusion, world music, and classical inflections. also has ex-Cynic drum mastermind Sean Reinert, and various guest musicians spread over two albums.. including Watchtower/Spastic Ink guitarist Ron Jarzombek, Dream Theater bassist John Myung, Bill Bruford and Trey Gunn of King Crimson fame, Genesis' Steve Hackett, and others.. a pretty great project.. awesome synergy. very much unlike most supergroups around today.

there's Spastic Ink, which is Ron Jarzombek's project (who is my personal guitar hero!!). it's totally great tech-metal. Ron also has an upcoming instrumental project called Machinations of Dementia, with Lamb of God's Chris Adler on drums and Cannibal Corpse's Alex Webster on bass. i'm honestly expecting this to blow pretty much every other band out there into the water. you can check out some clips here.

if you like folk, have you ever thought about 'folk metal'? check out Fintroll and Skyclad, for a good start.

ever consider female-fronted metal? check out this website.

if you're up for a different outlook on what's possible in music, check out a band called Behold... the Arctopus. they are, quite simply, headspinningly beautiful, supremely complex, impossibly dense, totally eargasmic, instrumental avantgarde tech-metal perfection. it's pretty challenging music, but it totally rules.

into industrial music at all? you can try something like Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, Ministry, or Throbbing Gristle.

if you've ever had any interest in symphonic neo-classical metal, check out Artension, Ring of Fire, and Vitalij Kuprij's solo albums. you can always try Dragonforce, which is just mind-numbingly fast novelty symphonic power metal that serves little purpose beyond inciting reactions such as, 'HOLY ****** THAT'S FAST!!!'. pretty fun to listen to.

look up Throne of Chaos, namely the 'Pervertigo' album. it's finnish melodic death metal with a lot of clean vocals and a great sense of humor in the lyrics. many people complain about the presence of clean vocals in melodic death, but i honestly don't know what in the world they're all talking about. Throne of Chaos makes it work so great.

Andromeda is a really good technical/prog metal, with some really great guitar work throughout.

how do you feel about electronic music? you might want to check out Plaid. the duo creates very diverse and musically aware electronica, that at times can't really be recognized as electronic at all. Venetian Snares is another good artist to check out here.

also check out the following:

Bubblemath, which is highly unique and really good progressive-ish rock.

Freak Kitchen, which is.. umm.. i don't know. Mr. Bungle meets Frank Zappa? awesome, either way.

Frantic Bleep - sort of an avantgarde mix of Arcturus, Death, Opeth, and moody ambience. all in all, really good scandanavian prog/tech metal.

Bumblefoot - coolest guitarist ever.

The Tangent - modernized version of the Flower Kings? who knows. great music.

Ozric Tentacles - psychedelic prog/space/art rock with touches of ambient and electronic throughout. great stuff.

Hiromi - progressive-ish piano trio.

Ephel Duath - the purest example of "jazz metal" i've ever heard, i think. vocals are split 50/50 between generic screaming and John Wetton-style singing.

you may like some of that, or none of it, who knows.. at least it's something new to try.

 

[Jasper994]

Sorry, not trying to thread crap, but is your other name "Johnny 5"?

 

[Zuglufttier]

@Davey: I know some of these bands and I see that you like Super Furry Animals (your avatar...). It's one of my favourite bands right now actually, the new album is great

But I have Neon Golden by Notwist and The Lonesome Crowded West by Modest Mouse. I bought more records from both bands, especially Modest Mouse. I absolutely love "good news for people who love bad news". I might check out the other bands, next time I'm about to order something new.

@ s m @: I also do have 3 or 4 albums by Mogwai and would be really glad to pick up a new album by them

PS: I saw them live and it was my best live experience till now...

@ asmox: I'm into experimental electronic

This means stuff like Aphex Twin, Venetian Snares, Autechre and so on. But I never got to really like metal, don't know why. The only band that might fall into this genre and gets listened by me nowadays is System of a Down. They make music that is fun to listen to in my opinion. I often get the feeling that metal in general is rather boring for me.
But after reading your post twice, I noticed that the things you considered don't look like normal metal, so I might check these out too

Last time I was really impressed by music in general was when I found out that there was ambient. I took a listen to Music for Airports by Brain Eno and since then I even listened to more and more electronic music. Right now Mouse on Mars is one of my favourites here.

Thanks for the posts till here but I hope some people can give me even more recommendations!

 

[catachresis]

Hey Zuglufttier, if you liked REM's New Adventures, have you tried their ground-breaking earliest albums: Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning and Fables of the Reconstruction?

If you enjoy Brian Eno's early ambient experiments (I'm assuming you've checked out Music for Film) have a go with John Fahey, one of the granddaddies of American ambient experimentation. Best of the Vanguard Years is a terrific place to start.

 

[Davey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zuglufttier Right now Mouse on Mars is one of my favourites here.

Yeah, they're a fun band. Iaora Tahiti is my favorite, but I like all I've heard. I don't like it as much when they start getting too playful like on Niun Niggung, which was consequently the last one I got, but I guess that's just me.

If you just want one serious rec, go with Laika's second album Sounds of the Satellites. Near perfect mix of both Margaret and Guy vocals. Really unparalled what they were able to create. The imagery and sense of atmosphere and depth is just amazing. Sounded as fresh last night and this morning as when I anxiously bought it in 1997.

 

[Davey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by catachresis If you enjoy Brian Eno's early ambient experiments (I'm assuming you've checked out Music for Film) have a go with John Fahey, one of the granddaddies of American ambient experimentation. Best of the Vanguard Years is a terrific place to start.

Yeah, good advice. And if you want something kind of like a merging of the souls of John Fahey and Brian Eno, look for comments Masonjar and myself have made around here about the excellent Cul de Sac Crashes to Light, Minutes to Its Fall from 1999. Surf rock meets post-rock in a guitar drawn, synth enhanced, middle eastern desert, albeit one that might not be on our planet. Brilliant music and one of my favorites of the last few years. These guys will take you on a real magic carpet ride. All instrumental and a very nice recording with mucho headphone delights too. Even HDCD.

 

[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zuglufttier I need something new that will give me the feeling like I had when listening to Radiohead's "Kid A" for the first time or R.E.M.'s "New adventures in HiFi". They are some albums in my collection that really moved me deeply and changed the way I live today. I miss this feeling and don't know exactly what I should look for...

Either do I! Those are my favourite releases of those two elite bands and frankly I don't expect to encounter albums of their caliber very often. Like others have suggested, sometimes I've had to explore old classics I wasn't previously an owner of.

 

[Zuglufttier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by catachresis Hey Zuglufttier, if you liked REM's New Adventures, have you tried their ground-breaking earliest albums: Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning and Fables of the Reconstruction? If you enjoy Brian Eno's early ambient experiments (I'm assuming you've checked out Music for Film) have a go with John Fahey, one of the granddaddies of American ambient experimentation. Best of the Vanguard Years is a terrific place to start.

Having about ten albums here by R.E.M. and Murmur is one of my secret favourites. Not as perfect as the last releases but I enjoy it every time. The early stuff sounds strange sometimes but then again very, err, I don't know, it just feels good somehow

Considering Brain Eno, I need to check out more stuff from him first and Music for Films will come some day. I will look for John Fahey anyway...

 

[catachresis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zuglufttier Having about ten albums here by R.E.M. and Murmur is one of my secret favourites. Not as perfect as the last releases but I enjoy it every time. The early stuff sounds strange sometimes but then again very, err, I don't know, it just feels good somehow Considering Brain Eno, I need to check out more stuff from him first and Music for Films will come some day. I will look for John Fahey anyway...

I've got to say that I wasn't on to REM from the very beginning (It was Fables before I really noticed them) but I was hugely impressed with them until about the time they did Automatic for the People at which point my enthusiasm about collapsed. I think Monster is quite good and New Adventures but nothing they've made has done it for me like the mythic-realism of their early college rock albums. So I'm just old and bitter now.

John Fahey, however, is an utter hoot! I don't claim to know all his work, and my favourites are his later periods. I won't get into his musicianship and virtuosity, but it's evident. Nat Hentoff, the Grand Old Man of 50s Jazz reviewers, writes gushing liner notes for Fahey's 70s record Of Rivers and Religion and it's merited. But ultimately, what I like best about Fahey is his lyrical sense of humour: for a genius, he still keeps his work sharp and light. His 1974 Best of JF has a photo of him being attacked by a stuffed badger. His 90s Best of compilation is subtitled [after Freud's seminal work] The Return of the Repressed. And the abovementioned Of Rivers and Religion shows what looks like a Civil-War era daguerreotype of a church revival held on a large raft on a wide river. Read the liner notes, and it actually turns out to be a sepia-ed photo taken at the Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River Raft ride at Disneyland in the early 60s.