Here's a showcase of creative new music from outside the usual cities. These albums rock my world, and originate in Gdansk, Northumberland, Nizhny Novgorod, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Copenhagen, & Dresden.
As I mentioned in the article, I haven’t found a shortcut—so I have to pursue a very time-intensive approach. I wish I could provide some simple methodology, but I haven’t found one yet. What I described in the article (i.e., devoting 2-3 hours per day to listening to new albums drawn from hundreds of sources) is my ‘brute force’ solution. If others have suggestions for fast tracking the process, I’m interested in hearing them.
Thanks for sharing Ted, good calls and very interresting.
My own taste is mostly rock spectrum, but am open to other styles.
I left a list of bands in a previous post of yours, mostly rock but hey, even in rock there is new blood creaping in.
I have found that the YouTube channels of WDR Rockpalast ( public broadcaster) and AB Ancienne Belgique (venue) have a good number of live preformances in various styles of music.
There are also blogs / websites that review and interview genre specific bands and artists, these are the best for new music.
There are YouTube channels pushing genre specific bands and artists, subscribe and new stuff will pop up every week. I like Morphy for stoner and rock
In the US NPR Tinydesk sessions can be a good source.
YouTube channels of festivals can have nice surprices, search Pinkpop, Lowlands, Pukkelpop for example, the festival announcements and lineups are also a source of what is hot.
An other option can be Wikipedia, look for bands and their members and find out what they have done in other bands or worked with other artists.
Most public radio and tv stations have reviews on the website.
Use the YouTube algoritm to your advantage, look up say Billy Strings and within a couple of vids new vids with him are popping up, he has quite the number of collabs, search his collabs and new vids will pop up feeding the chain.
Right - I guess I'm more interested in how you determine what new albums you listen to and how you find them, what those hundreds of sources are. Do you scroll endlessly through Bandcamp until something catches your eye? Do you keep a giant calendar of when certain albums are coming out? Do you have your own Honest Broker, and if so, who is it?
Hi, thanks for asking, every year you have end off year album lists, or rankings of "best" releases of the year, these lead to listening the albums, a good start.
I mostly go by reviews in genres, a quick read and listen reveals quality, then follow up on a deeper dive if the music perks up my ears.
Over time you will know wich reviewer to follow, cause they are honest and do listen for their own pleasure. When they are surprised or say it took them multiple sessions to get into an artist or album you might strike silver, even gold.
As for known bands, just subscribe to their pages, bandcamp or YouTube channels and get notifed. There is way to much music available to go browsing on bandcamp.
My own taste is heavy stuff lately, so here is a list of websites i found last year.
These are some pages with a lot of surprises in heavier genres, the invitationals end of year on heavyblogisheavy have led to other reviewers and reviews.
Boss Keloid is one of those finds, the latest album is weird, heavy and wonderful if heavy is your thing, quirky time signatures with surprising audible singing yet heavy as heck. An other band is King Buffalo, very varied and high quality, three albums in a row, a luxury...
Take your time to search reviews in your prefered genres and learn whom has intelligent things to say about a band/artist/album, not just to get paid to do a review.
I first heard Hania Rani on her album Esja a few years ago. Amazing stuff. If you haven't heard it I'd suggest the tracks Eden and Hawaii/Oslo. For me, I prefer the instrumentals to the vocal tracks, but it's all wonderful.
Thanks Ted. Some great music there. In particular I found Tony Karapetyan Trio album to be remarkable. Abrikos is just gorgeous and I thought Human Nature was an object lesson in how to arrange a modern pop song for a modern jazz ensemble.
Noël Akchoté must still be in his early 50s, not sure where you read he worked with Chet Baker (although he did a tribute album decades later), I'm not sure he even recorded anything at all yet in the 80s...
anyway, dunno if he's still recording something almost every day and putting everything online hours if not minutes later like previous decade, but his output still must be as huge than John Zorn & Buckethead combined although most in digital only form
as for his renaissance trip, he's doing that for a decade I think,, lookup for "early music series" on bandcamp or (gesualdo's) "madrigals for 5 (electric) guitars" published on David Grubbs' Blue Chopsticks in the US
hey ted ,this is richie beirach ,,what about our 5 cd box set release on jazzline called EMPATHY ??WITH JACK ETC ,,NOT GOOD ENOUGH ??
SHIT
I can’t stop listening to Lady Wray’s album! That’s what I’ll be recommending on my newsletter this Sunday.
If Hania Rani's music is any indication, this list is going to be one great listen. Thanks!
Belarus: https://youtu.be/515b60cul6o
Ted, I wonder if that is a bad translation of steel STRING guitar. Because a steel guitar is an entirely different beast. Gorgeous music indeed.
Thank you for this.
Wait, you didn't answer the question - where do you look to find good new music? Or where can I find the interviews where you answer that?
As I mentioned in the article, I haven’t found a shortcut—so I have to pursue a very time-intensive approach. I wish I could provide some simple methodology, but I haven’t found one yet. What I described in the article (i.e., devoting 2-3 hours per day to listening to new albums drawn from hundreds of sources) is my ‘brute force’ solution. If others have suggestions for fast tracking the process, I’m interested in hearing them.
Thanks for sharing Ted, good calls and very interresting.
My own taste is mostly rock spectrum, but am open to other styles.
I left a list of bands in a previous post of yours, mostly rock but hey, even in rock there is new blood creaping in.
I have found that the YouTube channels of WDR Rockpalast ( public broadcaster) and AB Ancienne Belgique (venue) have a good number of live preformances in various styles of music.
There are also blogs / websites that review and interview genre specific bands and artists, these are the best for new music.
There are YouTube channels pushing genre specific bands and artists, subscribe and new stuff will pop up every week. I like Morphy for stoner and rock
In the US NPR Tinydesk sessions can be a good source.
YouTube channels of festivals can have nice surprices, search Pinkpop, Lowlands, Pukkelpop for example, the festival announcements and lineups are also a source of what is hot.
An other option can be Wikipedia, look for bands and their members and find out what they have done in other bands or worked with other artists.
Most public radio and tv stations have reviews on the website.
Use the YouTube algoritm to your advantage, look up say Billy Strings and within a couple of vids new vids with him are popping up, he has quite the number of collabs, search his collabs and new vids will pop up feeding the chain.
Good luck!
Right - I guess I'm more interested in how you determine what new albums you listen to and how you find them, what those hundreds of sources are. Do you scroll endlessly through Bandcamp until something catches your eye? Do you keep a giant calendar of when certain albums are coming out? Do you have your own Honest Broker, and if so, who is it?
Hi, thanks for asking, every year you have end off year album lists, or rankings of "best" releases of the year, these lead to listening the albums, a good start.
I mostly go by reviews in genres, a quick read and listen reveals quality, then follow up on a deeper dive if the music perks up my ears.
Over time you will know wich reviewer to follow, cause they are honest and do listen for their own pleasure. When they are surprised or say it took them multiple sessions to get into an artist or album you might strike silver, even gold.
As for known bands, just subscribe to their pages, bandcamp or YouTube channels and get notifed. There is way to much music available to go browsing on bandcamp.
My own taste is heavy stuff lately, so here is a list of websites i found last year.
https://www.heavyblogisheavy.com/category/features/best-of-2021/
https://morefuzz.net/
https://monsterriff.com/
https://doomcharts.com/
These are some pages with a lot of surprises in heavier genres, the invitationals end of year on heavyblogisheavy have led to other reviewers and reviews.
Boss Keloid is one of those finds, the latest album is weird, heavy and wonderful if heavy is your thing, quirky time signatures with surprising audible singing yet heavy as heck. An other band is King Buffalo, very varied and high quality, three albums in a row, a luxury...
Take your time to search reviews in your prefered genres and learn whom has intelligent things to say about a band/artist/album, not just to get paid to do a review.
Good luck!!
You familiar w DISCO?
I first heard Hania Rani on her album Esja a few years ago. Amazing stuff. If you haven't heard it I'd suggest the tracks Eden and Hawaii/Oslo. For me, I prefer the instrumentals to the vocal tracks, but it's all wonderful.
Wow, excellent selection of music! I'm definitely going to contact many of them for release in our HD download store bluecoastmusic.com
I agree about the Hermeto Pascoal album. I know him more by reputation than by the actual music, but this one is wonderful.
SVIN👍
BTW Biosphere 'Shortwave Memories' rocks my world 😎
Thanks, Ted! Glad to hear you like our album.
All the best, Henrik from SVIN.
Thanks Ted. Some great music there. In particular I found Tony Karapetyan Trio album to be remarkable. Abrikos is just gorgeous and I thought Human Nature was an object lesson in how to arrange a modern pop song for a modern jazz ensemble.
Noël Akchoté must still be in his early 50s, not sure where you read he worked with Chet Baker (although he did a tribute album decades later), I'm not sure he even recorded anything at all yet in the 80s...
anyway, dunno if he's still recording something almost every day and putting everything online hours if not minutes later like previous decade, but his output still must be as huge than John Zorn & Buckethead combined although most in digital only form
as for his renaissance trip, he's doing that for a decade I think,, lookup for "early music series" on bandcamp or (gesualdo's) "madrigals for 5 (electric) guitars" published on David Grubbs' Blue Chopsticks in the US
https://bandcamp.com/search?item_type=&q=early+music+series
https://www.discogs.com/release/6587414-No%C3%ABl-Akchot%C3%A9-Gesualdo-Madrigals-For-Five-Guitars
Oh my goodness. I'm telling everyone I know to check out Hania Rani! Thank you!