cover image source: Giphy
We've kinda gone down similar roads before — I'm looking at you Strange Edition. What can I say? I'm drawn to the unusual. And to be clear, I don't think think "niche" equates to strange, rather it just means kinda specialized or targeted for a specific group... I suppose many music genres could be considered niches, so if you want to go in that direction, I definitely won't stop ya. Looking forward to hearing y'all's different takes on this one!
How we do
In this weekly series, folks can chime in and drop links to whatever it is they've been listening to recently + browse others suggestions. You can follow the suggested genre if you'd like, but don't feel confined to it; you're free to suggest whatever you wanna. 🙌
If you're interested in having other discussions about music, consider following the aptly named #music discussions organization.
So, what's a niche type of music that you're into!? Note: you can embed a link to your song using the following syntax {% embed https://... %}. This should work for most common platforms!
Looking forward to listening to y'all's suggestions! 🎶
Top comments (22)
My first thought:
wow this is fantastic - thank you for sharing!!! I've very loosely listened to a bit of Archive but am gonna give them a more detailed listen today
See this!
Oh wow! This is super cool. 😀
What a great sonic collage. I love the kinda call and response nature betweeen the wicked, brash beat and the soft angelic vocals. The 2 sample-heavy solos (at least, I think they're using samples, haha) that come in on separate occassions are also incredible.
Plus, excellent music video! I'm gonna dive into the second video ya shared from them in a little bit.
I'm a huge fan of exotica. Sometimes it gets rolled into the over-broad label of "tiki music," but it's a specific kind of music that flourished mid-20th century that came out of American fantasies about the supposed paradise of life in the Pacific Islands. It's survived in part because a lot of it is great music. Les Baxter and Martin Denny are two of the founding fathers of the genre, and I'm a particular fan of Martin Denny.
It's pretty much all instrumental, so it makes great programming music.
Ooooo very interesting! I'd not heard of this before. This is super cool! I like all the animal sound effects in this recording. Gonna have to tune into more Martin Denny!
Oh, man, the animal sound effects are almost the best part. If you'd like an easy way to dip your toe in the waters, check out some of the podcast episodes in the archive of Exotic Tiki Island, especially "Classic Exotica music for dimly lit Tiki Bar" (show 52).
exotictikiisland.com/eti-podcast/
Nice!! Thanks for opening the doors for me here. I'll tune into this one tomorrow morning. ☕️
I'm about halfway through episode 52 and this is super cool. Very atmospheric. 🏝
I really struggle with focusing so lately I've been trying to find music that calms my mind and helps me maintain focus for long periods of time - found dungeon synth to be an incredibly effective genre for that so started compiling this playlist a couple weeks ago
and in that same vein I've got this kind of ethereal acoustics/vocals list I've been building
Interestingly both playlists are kinda offshoots of black metal, I've been trying to explore genres I've never really gone deep into and I've been discovering a ton of new music going down this path
and then when I'm looking for something heavier I also have this doom/stoner metal playlist I've been slowly adding to
I have been rapidly expanding my collection of niche playlists lol
oh and speaking of focus music this album completely controlled my life like third year at university lol I don't really listen to it anymore because it gives me anxiety listening to it bc I so heavily associate it w allnighter homework/finals studying but great album nonetheless
Holy cow, I really like this. Def scratches that retro synth itch!
But also, haha I can totally understand how that association would spoil it for ya. I've got a few tunes like that. Interesting how music is so tied to memory!
25 years ago Windows 98 controlled my life :-)
Oooo very nice! I'm always down to explore your playlists, Chris.
I really don't know much black metal either, so it'll be cool to follow ya into these different subgenres and offshoots.
One of my best friends growing up who I used to jam with was the drummer of a doom metal trio called MAKE... I have this album of theirs which is pretty dam rockin', but that's about as deep as I've gone. Been meaning to explore some other stuff like this so that I'm better versed next time I speak to my friend. I'm totally gonna tune into the aptly named doomscrolling playlist so I can study up.
So, I know this is different than what's on your forestral acoustic desolation playlist, but I've been listening to a musician named James Chatfield today who plays a lot of ethereal acoustic music in the woods and your playlist title popped into mind. Granted, I think this is less "desolation" and more hopeful/peaceful... it's so relaxing. 😌
Hope you dig it, Chris!
Seriously into synthwave and early electronica at the moment. Listened to "Rise of the Synths" OST by Ogre, a bit Space Cassette and Boards of Canada, the afternoon was Pheadra (1974) and Sorcerer OST (1977) by Tangerine Dream.
No vocals, very moody but dripping with emotion.
YES was literally just thinking about how I need to listen to more Tangerine Dream I'll add them to my queue for today - thank you for sharing!!
Tangentially related to oldschool synth I've got this playlist I was working on a while back you might like - not so much instrumental though as iirc most of these tracks have vocals but they'e some nice strange synthy bops:
I loooove electronic music lol
Today I've gone for some old school Ed Harrison/0Edit
Wow, I'm digging this one!! Super cool! The image reminds me of Metal Gear kinda.
This is a similitude of another new music, when I listened this music, I loved.
I also struggle with focus. Lately, I've been playing around with Polyrhythms on myNoise.net (cool project). I'm liking it. mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/polyrhyt...
Oh awesome, Mary!! I absolutely love mynoise... use the rain sounds to sleep every night. It's probably my most used app.
I've spoken about mynoise on DEV a few times actually like in my post Ever donate to a developer who created something you like?:
I recently donated to the creator of myNoise. I use this site every night as a white noise machine for when I'm trying to sleep and it's amazing.
The other day I noticed a donation section of their site and decided I wanted to give them a little something. They wrote me back and were super thankful + incredibly friendly!
It was just a nice reminder that there are lots of cool people out there creating interesting things and giving them away to the world without expecting anything in return. 🙂
I'm totally gonna check out the polyrhythms now. 🙌