Brazilian music is famous worldwide — from bossa nova, to choro, to samba.
Bossa is cool, choro is amazing, but my favorite things about samba is that despite being “pop music” it still has complex rhythms and harmonies.
My top favorite thing is the prevalence of the 7 stringed guitar and their use of counterpoints (i.e., parallel melodies).
I love how what (I think) started as guitarists just playing harmonies, turned into them improvising bass lines and counterpoints every once in a while, which eventually became them doing MOSTLY counterpoints and bass lines and barely playing the harmony lmao.
These bass lines and counterpoints, from what I understand, are often times arpeggiations of the chords and so forth, but they add such an amazing effect to the music.
Examples:
- This guy solo playing over a recording.
- This solo guitar + singer.
- Most music by Cartola which features the absolute timeless 7 stringed legend Dino. This one is a classic.
Check out [email protected] where I post 2 new releases every day if you want a constant stream of recommendations.
For some immediate recommendations of things that have been released in the last few months which I’ve particularly enjoyed -
Deft Design - Fragments EP
Mystic State - Yozakura
Lysergene - A City of a Thousand Trades
Ome - Guess Your Not EP
I tried to pick a few things that are all different kinds of styles / feels. If you want more of a particular type though hit me up and I’ll try and recommend some more :)
Goddamn bruh, you’ve got some pretty refined taste. How do you even find this stuff? The music on the last two projects is more my style, but i liked everything that you recommended. Definitely joining your community! Thanks a lot o7.
I’ve been into this style of music heavily for about 8 years now and was aware of it pretty much since its inception in the 00s, I also DJ this kind of music, so I have a large list on bandcamp that I follow to try and stay up with as many releases as I can. I’ll also listen to shows on SoundCloud from places like rinse FM, swu FM, infernal sounds dubstep and subtle FM to name but a few and will search out tracks and new artists I hear on there. I’ll also occasionally check the Juno charts if I have run out of new music to listen to and in the last year started building up a follow list on Spotify to check new releases there that I may have missed from all the other avenues.
Lysergenes style is sort of known as “Dungeon” so you could use that word to find other artists but I strongly suggest you also check out Distance (this is my favourite track) he has a lot of that kind of style stuff and is an amazing producer.
Not sure on a name for Omes style but if you like his stuff an artist I can recommend is Kercha.
Don’t wanna throw a million names at you at once otherwise you won’t bother but happy to make more recommendations I’d you want them. I look forward to hopefully seeing you around the community :D
Have a great day!
Thanks for the recommendations bruv. Have a great day as well!
You seem knowledgeable so I figured I’d ask a more specific question, any recs for fans of UK style (like Scream and Loefah )? I’m digging this Mystic State, too.
The older the better!
Hey!
Sorry somehow I missed this response in my inbox!
Whilst I did listen to some of the old stuff around the time of its inception it wasn’t my primary music focus so I’m not too knowledgeable about things I can recommend for older stuff.
I would suggest having a dig through some of the labels that have been around for a long time. People like System Music, Deep Medi, Sentry Records or Nice Up Records to name a few.
The skream track you linked is more dubwise style having a heavier dub reggae influence which isnt really my jam either but Nice Up Records seem to concentrate more on that kind of sound so may be a good place to start.
If you liked the Mystic State album linked I would highly recommend checking out the label D-BLK, they have been releasing a lot of really good music that is just a bit different to everything else. This is one of my favourites from recently by Shu.
Sorry I can’t be more specific with any recommendations as I love to spread the dubstep love but I’m not so knowledgeable about the older stuff as I really started immersing myself properly in this scene more around 2016-ish.
I hope you can at least find something you like amongst what I have linked!
You could also check out Swamp 81 which is Loefahs label but that isn’t really dubstep, they put out a lot more 130bpm, left field bass sort of stuff, still some great stuff in there but again not my wheelhouse as much so I’m not as knowledgeable even though I do like a little trip into 130 every now and then :D
Hey awesome thanks! This helps a lot, I’ll check all that out!
No worries. If you want some more label suggestions or find something you particularly like and would like more similar please feel free to PM me and I’ll happily help however I can to point you in the direction of more!