Alternative music tastes and influences

[Depone]

Alright guys and gals? It's been a long time since I started a topic, and well, it's a Sunday, and feeling philosophical so what else am i going to do?!

Basically as some of you may know, I have 'splintered' off from making Dubstep, and barely give it any notice anymore, and now making pretty much anything 'bass music/edm' related. Like Legend4ry recently, I gave music making a break for a while, totally not intentionally but life changed, priorities changed (for the good mind, i'm much happier) and I just drifted out the scene for a while. But now I feel like I'm coming back afresh! Which is only good, as I was getting bummed out by the general state of dubstep and empty music label promises vs reality. Sorry for the negativity but basically I wasn't getting the fulfilment I initially had when i started getting music releases under 'Depone' (I will never forget and say thanks to FSTZ for giving me my first music release!)

Now I'm drifting from the point I wanted to make,
Currently I have been working on a lot of house/electronica jams and loving the creative freedom. Not that Dubstep didnt give me this creative flow, but I felt like for a long time I was somewhat restrained by this one genre. And I think i have more creativity and musicality than most 'bro'step, but that was the music choice and flava of the minute at the time so I stuck with it.
Now, I don't do a lot of clubbing these days, and I do listen to EDM at home now and again, and I enjoy it, but I try not make it the focus of my productions. I much rather listen to some Trojan box sets or my funk/soul/disco 45s or even 70s/80s pop and take inspiration from them. What somebody said to me recently, and was quoted in the lead up to daft punks new album, is that you have to look back to go forward. Now i'm not desperately trying to break new grounds with my music, but at the same time, not worrying about the constraints of the specific genre. I'm trying to let it organically grow, and what comes of it, comes of it! In short= Mix it up I say!

And because of this, what has struck me recently is that because i'm not yet affiliated with much house/edm music just yet (new starts and all) I have just been making my own sound thats not influenced by any sole genre itself and I have been coming up with much more creative results.

This thread is basically here just to say broaden your horizons, If making dubstep- Don't just listen to dubstep in daily life, that way you'll get stale all too quick. Look outside your box and you will become a much better as an artist and musician in the end of it all.
Oh and I still read DSF every now and again, but will likely re-register with the new Alias, so you won't see much Depone posts from now on in.

[wub]

Been listening to a lot of jazz recently, so going to suggest Art Pepper;



Loving the vibes on this thread btw

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

I sampled this in a hip hop instrumental im making at the moment.



Led to me listening to lots of swing and jazz. I must admit they often have the catchiest hooks haha.

[wolf89]

I actually barely listen to much of the musical styles I make. haha

[hutyluty]

Yeah I reckon it's probably the easiest way to kill your love of a genre: listening to it whilst trying to also produce it, raking over every little nuance for synths and chord progressions to replicate your tunes, in my experience it takes about 6 months to become completely disenchanted (basically me and dubstep). I tend to only listen to house or technoey tunes when I'm mixing or when I go out, just enough to feel inspired but not generally enough for me to get sick of the stuff. When I do listen to stuff it'll tend to be coherent albums like Jon Talabot- Fin or Gerry Read-Jummy rather than just listening to random singles or the big tunes atm like I used to.

But yeah, electronic stuff I've been into recently: I listen to a lot of stuff which might be called IDM but tbh IDK what the actual genre is . My favouritest album of last year was probably Vessel- Order of Noise, this track apparently being my most listened to on the mp3 player. It goes along with stuff like Actress, Basic Channel, Chris Clark, Kuedo, Old Apparatus, ooooo and Andy Stott etc as music I really concentrate on when I listen to it in order to fully appreciate it, as opposed to studying the subtleties in order to replicate them in a track, which gives a surprisingly different result- you come to love a track more for the details garnered by several repeats rather than being frustrated by them.

I've also been digging back through my dad's record collection which is something every kid should do, with music which I feel like I should have heard before like New Order (this has been my jam for the last couple of weeks), The Smiths, The Cure, Talking Heads, REM, Jesus and Mary Chain, Echo and Bunnymen etc but also stuff which has been slightly been a bit more lost to the past like The Psychedelic Furs, Magazine, Killing Joke, Sisters of Mercy and House of Love. My dad always goes on about how much he hates dance music or whatever, but if you listen to a lot of these records you can hear most of them are all quite repetitive, with the bassline being pretty prominent and tight in with the drums, it's not such a gap from go from stuff like this to disco at the time,as blondie showed who got played at indie clubs aswell as the commercial disco places alongside stuff like Thelma Houston and Baccara and the like, which was obviously part of the origin of house and techno. They're great records to find samples from too.

I also listen to a fair bit of indie music from when I was a kid, aswell as more contemporary stuff, though only the more mainstream end of it (I would probs get ripped apart by indieforum.com lol), stuff like Idlewild, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Manic Street Preachers,Braids, Interpol, Best Coast etc etc etc

I'd go into the pop songs I like aswell but this post has already been self indulgent enough

[Crimsonghost]

Metal (duh). Gojira has been a big influence.

One of the best drummers around + odd metering = amazing track.



Blues.

B.B. King. This might be one of the best live albums ever recorded.



And of seriously, how can you not lose you shit when you hear purple rain? Of course, all his songs have been taken off youtube, so here's a bootleg.

[Libra]

All good responses!

PS here I am! ha

[SunkLo]

If I squint, your logo kinda looks like Libro
That can be your brostep alias.


Also as for inspiration, can't touch the soul grooves. For a bass-centric genre, the majority of dubstep sure is light on bass and drum lock. Where the vibes at?

[OfficialDAPT]

Listen to some Kenny G sax solos

[wolf89]

Well, I've got no idea how much these are influencing my music I make but this is what I listen to mainly at the moment.

[dotcurrency]

I love listening to 80-90s pop/r&b/soul (Prince & Michael Jackson anyone?). hell I even sing a long regardless of whose around and who hears
I also agree that listening to the genre(s) that you try to make hinders your creativity and aids your frustration. However, I honestly love listening to EDM. I'll admit that most of my pain and suffering comes from trying to remake certain sounds/structure heard in other EDM songs, and I want to end this by all means, but I can't stop listening to EDM. That would mean stopping what started all this for me.



EDM is my problem but also my pleasure. What to do?

[hutyluty]

no to youtube walls. YES to explaining why you like the songs

[Reversed]

I was thinking about making this thread too a while ago, but I was too lazy to do so.
Anyways, I don't actually listen to a lot of electronic music, this is more my direction:

goddamn this intro, so good:

new stuff from exivious, as awesome as to be expected

classic

masters of composition IMO:

crazy lyric and song writing as well as meaning:

and of course there's other stuff like tool and some post rock bands and lots of bands that play crazy odd meter stuff and weird chords too... odd meters and polymetric are pretty fun

[Genevieve]

This was going to become a 'luk at all the diverse music i listn 2' thread from the getgo >.>

I make few conscious decisions in my music. Except I often listen to music similar to what I'm making around the time I'm producing it to help with some technical problems I'm facing, and purposely avoid it most of the time because I've oversaturated myself with it during production and DJ'ing

[AcidRat]

uhhh I like led zeppelin, pink floyd, the beatles, bb king... the list goes on.

Anything that peaks my interest I try to take notes from and do something different but similiar.

Very into duane eddy. Can't get that song Movin and Groovin outta my head
Don't really listen to much dubstep anymore... listen to electro house sometimes when I'm in the mood, I've shifted away from most of these genres and regained my love for rock. Though, I'm still going to keep making tunes because I like doing it

[Reversed]

This was going to become a 'luk at all the diverse music i listn 2' thread from the getgo >.>

And what exactly is wrong with that, except for your way of expressing it? I actually am curious about what music people on here listen to because it can't be all about dubstep, and it sure is relevant on this subboard because of the technical aspects of it.

[futures_untold]

Hi Matt

Hope you're well and ain't coughing still!

Just want to say thanks for all the good responses you've posted on DSF as Depone and for your tune 'DX7 Heaven' which I still listen to regularly

Whatever you post under next, I'm sure you'll be on the ball still.

Keep it up!

Take care

[efence]

three tracks im loving right now. all great summer road trip knockers

[Aufnahmewindwuschel]

thats stuff i take some inspiration from every now and then

[Libra]

Hi Matt

Hope you're well and ain't coughing still!

Just want to say thanks for all the good responses you've posted on DSF as Depone and for your tune 'DX7 Heaven' which I still listen to regularly

Whatever you post under next, I'm sure you'll be on the ball still.

Keep it up!

Take care

Cheers Pat! You always chime in with your knowledge, good to see your still kicking.