How do you find new music?

[Cardenio I]

I've got in a bit of a rut with my listening habits at the moment. These things happen sometimes, and then a recommendation or chance review or mention will lead you to an artist which may open up a whole constellation of music. But right now, I got nothing. Doesn't need to be new to the world, just new to me. I need an encounter, maybe several. I wanna pop my little ear through a music gloryhole and get hot some hot melody pumped into my lughole.

Where do you go for music? Reviews, podcasts, spotify, forums? My friends, lend me your gloryholes.

[Famous Mortimer]

We've got some of the more knowledgeable people I've ever happened across (nags and NoSleep, to name but two; the legendary Twed to name but three) on this forum, and of the new music I've listened to in the last decade, an awful lot of it has come from this forum.

Find a freeform radio station, check out the listings for a host who sounds interesting, and try that way too. WFMU is fantastic, and there's one local to me called KDHX that has some great stuff on it too.

[Gregory Torso]

I like to click around on the wfmu archives, put a show on and see what sticks. There's a huge amount of variety and lots of weird obscurities, or you can search playlists for an artist or band you already like and find the show they were played on, listen to it and you'll probably find new stuff you dig.

Edit: as Famous Mortimer already said.

[a duncandisorderly]

this, but I gravitate towards KXLU's overnight playlist, & shazam stuff that I like. shazam is good because it keeps a list of whatever you've shazammed & there are links off to youtube & so on.

https://radio.garden/listen/kiss-canaries-kiss-fm/PyD4O1Zq

eh, not that particular station, btw- that's just where it was when I saved the link....

[purlieu]

This place, people posting stuff on Facebook, browsing genres on Discogs. I occasionally have a skim through reviews on The Quietus, Line of Best Fit, Pitchfork and A Closer Listen.

Properly dedicated music forums are the best places. You'll find a lot of interesting stuff around here, but I used to post on the At Ease Radiohead board, and the 'Other Music' forum there was incredible in the broad range of passionate and knowledgable music lovers. You'd get 20 or 30 new threads a day. I'm sure there are a lot of excellent Subreddits like that.

[Norton Canes]

A Closer Listen

Ooh, that looks great, didn't know that one.

Apart from sources already mentioned I'll look at the album review and new tracks pages on thefourohfive.com and sometimes trawl latest releases on Bandcamp by the genres I like - the returns can be thin but it's worth a go.

[Twed]

We've got some of the more knowledgeable people I've ever happened across (nags and NoSleep, to name but two)

I've been turning people on to Len diligently for years and you can't even be bothered to include me.

[Twed]

You have truly stolen my sunshine.

[Famous Mortimer]

You have truly stolen my sunshine.

the legendary Twed to name but three

[Famous Mortimer]

As long as you can filter out the review bombast, those "best 50 albums of the year" lists at places like Pitchfork can often net a few gems you've not heard of. I got endless amazing recommendations from Serge too :(

[Gregory Torso]

Bandcamp

Yeah Bandcamp can be great if you follow people with similar tastes, it's like the digital online version of going round to a cool dude's house and looking through their record collection.

[checkoutgirl]

Youtube. It's got nearly everything and this is coming from a former vinyl person.

[Cuellar]

The first John Grant album I ever heard (Grey Tickles, Black Pressure) I chose on Spotify because I thought the cover was funny. Luckily the music was right up my alley.

[rasta-spouse]

I generally browse people's end-of-year lists for music. But they all seem to be putting pop music in them. The needledrop guy (Fantano?) and numerous magazines, all a bit boring. Also going through James Acaster's Perfect Sound Whatever (he reckons 2016 was the best year for music ever, and he seems like a post-rock guy, which is what I like). But that list is kind of disappointing too.

Have no idea how to keep up with modern stuff. I've enjoyed finding out about Death Grips though, like them a lot. Who are good online music critics who've got good lists for this last decade?

[studpuppet]

I come here. No, seriously. Must be fucking mad...

[jobotic]

Mixes. Factmix, Xlr8r, Needle Exchange, Secret thirteen.

There's some right cack in there but also found a lot of gems.

[non capisco]

Sit on my weary 41 year old arse and wait for Nags to tell me about it.

[purlieu]

Ooh, that looks great, didn't know that one.

ACL is one of the very few sites that treats free download self-released Bandcamp stuff as seriously as internationally distributed physical releases, which is one reason I love it. I've got a fair few CDs there's no way I would have ever come close to stumbling across without it.

[BeardFaceMan]

If you use last.fm, thats good for new music thats similar to what you listen to.

[Twed]

You have kept me versed and on my feet.

[NJ Uncut]

"recommended / similar artists" on Spotify; (spam) is also quite good (big up to Flouncey, but when Buzby starts waxing lyrical about the synths used it's fucking magic for getting you interested); I watch telly with Soundhound IDing a ton for me and got into a lot that way; word of mouth, and least often but most fun, banging a load of acid at music festivals and thus opening my aural doors to stuff I'd perhaps never otherwise seek out (JC Satan, The Go! Team, Ghostpoet, Suuns are acts I discovered this way)

Also a piracy site I'm on does massive packs, sometimes based on lists or collections like Pitchfork's top 500 songs of various decades up til present, or top 100 albums of the 2010s or whatever, so I literally just randomly click in the extracted folder, playing songs until I like something

[Famous Mortimer]

Mixes. Factmix, Xlr8r, Needle Exchange, Secret thirteen.

There's some right cack in there but also found a lot of gems.

I've been listening to some XLR8R mixes - never heard of them before you mentioned them - and they're great. Well, some of them. But there's hundreds of hours of new things to discover there.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Worldwide FM.
Mary Anne Hobbs on 6 music.
Bleep Mailing List.
List threads.

[alan nagsworth]

I'm flattered being mentioned here. Thank you very much.

Music mags like Wire are still decent - the recent one had a beginners guide to death metal which was wicked. Suggested artist maps on last.fm and Spotify are also great. Spotify's weekly recommendations playlist had put me on to some banging stuff, both very obscure and very obvious. Solid algorithms at work there.

[NJ Uncut]

Don't do it all too often but listening to random overseas radio (TuneIn) is fuckin boss. French psychedelia radio for example can... like any music radio station I suppose, occasionally hammer you with clunky ol' obvious hits, but then you get some obscure outfit you'd have slim chance of hearing otherwise and it can be exciting!

[jobotic]

I've been listening to some XLR8R mixes - never heard of them before you mentioned them - and they're great. Well, some of them. But there's hundreds of hours of new things to discover there.

I have a dead battery but when laptop is up and running I'll a browse of some of my favourites. Which will probably be the ones you don't like!

I shouldn't have said they were mostly cack, a few are and a few are types of music that aren't my kind of thing. And some are ace.

[Famous Mortimer]

Talking of places that host mixes, I found crackmagazine.net, which seems to have more of an eclectic mix than your average...dancy, electronicy sort of thing. But their website is absolute dogshit and I can't make head nor tail of it, nor can I play / download any of their mixes (the play button appears broken). Ah well.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Speaking of mix sites I'm pretty annoyed Mixcloud have hobbled their free service to limit plays of mixes and have removed backwards seeking. There's no way I'm paying for it, because it's pretty buggy.

[Darles Chickens]

I've discovered some pretty great bands I'd never have heard of otherwise through https://www.zeilsteen.com/

[a duncandisorderly]

Don't do it all too often but listening to random overseas radio (TuneIn) is fuckin boss. French psychedelia radio for example can... like any music radio station I suppose, occasionally hammer you with clunky ol' obvious hits, but then you get some obscure outfit you'd have slim chance of hearing otherwise and it can be exciting!

I do this all the time. especially college stations where the half-asleep amateur DJs ramble on for hours about how they're going to instagram their playlist later while they're having their corn-flakes, & where ten minutes of dead air before anyone notices is not at all unusual. KXLU (USC at loyola marymount) was the first one I looked up because I went there in 2002 with my band & was fascinated by the set up. last night I was listening to its SF equivalent at stanford. I keep LP4 minidiscs or very long 1/4" tapes handy to archive chunks of these things, & shazam things I'm curios about (though a lot of the time, the bands are unsigned, hence the archiving. the bits I want to keep, I'll copy off before re-using the disc/tape/whatever. outside of the UK, the tune-in app still lets you record though you still can't export the files easily.

but the radio-garden site I linked above.... the best use for an old ipad.