[georgedcc]

Lotsa questions. Let's have a look.

I don't actively look for new music, but I'll stumble upon it, either on this site or from friends in real life. As for exploring new genres, at the age of about 16 I had the realisation that 90% of my music was very similar and from there I actively sought out soul legends, blues music, hip hop, folk, jazz etc. At this point, I'm not sure there's any genre of music I don't listen to (so long as we don't get bogged down in sub-genres). I obviously have my favourites, I don't love all genres equally, I don't listen to much metal music for example, but every now and then I'll enjoy a metal album.

As for when I get bored, it varies. Sometimes I really fancy listening to something new, but sometimes I can't be arsed with it and I just stick on something I already love. Right now, there's a few recently downloaded albums on my iTunes I want to listen to soon (Country Sleep by Night Beds and True North by Bad Religion), but I'm listening to Want One by Rufus Wainwright at the moment, which I adore and know like the back of my hand. Sometimes I just want something familiar.

Sometimes I'll get a real craving to hear a certain type of sound and I'll spend a couple of days listening to exclusively that genre or artist. This doesn't happen too often though.

The last new (as in, new to me) album I listened to was Daydreams & Nightmares by Those Dancing Days, which sounds like Tegan and Sara covering The Cure. Pretty cool stuff. The last new (as in, just released) album I listened to was And So I Watch You From Afar's latest, which is good fun.

[georgedcc]

Originally Posted by Sean Rizzo

I LOVE it when bands use unconventional and exotic instruments and particularly I love it when bands use the sitar. If anyone can rec me anything including that and I end up enjoying it, I will love you forever.

Not a band, but if you love the sitar and you don't listen to the music of the Shankar family, you're seriously missing out.

Ananda Shankar is probably the most accessible as he merged traditional sitar playing with Western Influences, he plays some seriously incredible stuff.

Won't embed them if it messes up your browser, so here are some youtube links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpJK6TQi-70
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzyTj2MZ7k8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFpfXGifKKg

If you end up enjoying him, make sure you listen to his uncle, the legendary Ravi Shankar, who is more traditional, but no less amazing. He sadly died about a month ago actually.His daughter Anoushka Shankar also is a musician and definitely worth listening to as well. Ananda is probably my favourite of the three though, so start with him.


I checked out Ume as well, thanks! Yeah, they sound similar, it's pretty cool stuff. Can definitely see myself listening to this more.

[georgedcc]

Originally Posted by Sean Rizzo

This is actually really cool, although the video and the synthesizer patterns are making me go "ohai there 1969". I'll definitely look into this more. Does this guy adjust his style as the current musical focus changes? If so, that would be SUPER cool to actually observe and see how he can incorporate the sitar over all kinds of generational changes. I'll definitely check out his uncle since I'm into the traditional style more so than this.

Another thing that would be really cool is if sitar shredding is actually do-able and the musical possibilities that go along with that. I really wish more musicians would think outside the western box in terms of arrangements and instrument choice.

Just to throw this out there, it's one of my favorite videogame tracks ever and it has a lot of elements of world/tribal music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bckgyhCo7Lw

Yeah, as Ananda got older he incorporated different sounds into his sitar playing. Some of his 90s stuff has a hip-hop influence, which is kinda cool.

As far as heavier/metal music goes, I found this list which may interest you; http://rateyourmusic.com/list/titusfox/sitar_and_metal

[georgedcc]

Originally Posted by SpyKi

The last thing I got into that was new to me that I ended up absolutely loving was The Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit which was another band I had initially written off in that past because it didn't do anything for me and I thought I didn't like Scottish accents in music, haha. Fucking awesome album though.

One of my absolute favourite albums ever. There's no album that I'd say is better than it, there's a few that I'd put as equal to it, but nothing better. It's perfect.


Anyway, to use this thread for its proper purpose, here is a really cool jazz drummer that I've been listening to recently. She's only 15 as well. I made a thread for her that predictably got no replies ha.