Alongside ranting about politics and stuff that generally irritates us, our substack - VIBES - contains a real mixed bag including music tech, music - new and old - and the business which surrounds it, food and art with the occasional music based podcast.
Before releasing our last album I wrote an article ‘To stream or not to stream’ discussing the merits of streaming platforms vs. releasing exclusively to Bandcamp and physical media. If you have time check it out.
Substack is a great place. Thanks again for being here.
Hi Simon, thank you so much for popping up and commenting. That is surprising about Ditto; though I don't think Soundrop is perfect, it distributes/publishes to seemingly every platform ever (and you can always choose which ones to eliminate or include). I have visited your own page and will be commenting on one of yuor "mixed bag" - i.e. non-music - posts. There is quite a bit there for me to get my own teeth stuck into and it may take time, but I am on board. Cheers.
Hi Tony! A very nice and interesting post. I started Reflect & Relax Cafe, a series of playlists on Spotify and YouTube, as a challenge, a New Year's resolution to listen to more and different music. It's a mix of indie, folk, Americana, singer-songwriters, alternative/country music and everything in between, mostly chilled out, acoustic tunes, which I update bi-weekly. Here's the link: https://open.substack.com/pub/reflectandrelaxcafe?r=tmghd&utm_medium=ios
This is so true. It is also a shame that lots of local record shops are closing/downsizing due to less demand. It becomes even more important to go out and support these areas, as not only does it help the business, but also new artists to be found as well.
Hopefully, one more way to find new music will come to fruition with the launch of 3221+ my new interactive music app. The aim is to run themed competitions that start daily, and last a week, in a knockout format. Two days of nominations are followed by 5 days of voting with the top 32 (available in a playlist) matching off until a final winner is found.
Already, during beta testing, the need to fins songs that match criteria (such as certain words in song titles) has led me to the discovery of new artists and music. We aim to have at lease one competition a week dedicated to new new music with artists and fans able to make nominations.
Launching in August, more details are available at www.3221plus.com
You took the words right out of my mouth. I’m currently putting out a series of posts about this exact subject. I’m also one of the people that needs to investigate things one at a time, another theme rolling around in my head! Check my Substack if you’re inclined. It’s new and amateur, but I’m getting the hang of it.
Thanks for being here Thomas. And good luck with your own Substack Thomas. As I wrote, I had no idea when I came on here that I would find so many good people writing about good music!
I've been a member of the Drowned In Sound Community site for almost 20 years now, and it has been a constant source of wonderful new music recommendations. Every Friday there's a thread on all the latest releases people in the community recommend that week, and it's always a broad spectrum of stuff. I've discovered so much amazing music through that community, I'm thoroughly indebted to it.
And another invaluable resource over the past few years has been the excellent music magazine Loud And Quiet, who are on hiatus at the moment, but I'm hoping they'll be back soon.
Hey there whatever your name is (always nice to have first names here!),
Thank you. I subscribe to DiS newsletters though they tend to be sporadic; but I have not mosied around the community pages that you linked to, They look like a good place for obsessives who enjoy interacting. And Loud and Quiet is also well worth the recommendation, looks like the online mag is posting regularly, is there an actual magazine that's been forced into temporary hiatus? Good links both. Cheers.
Hah, sorry, I have to remain anonymous as I draw comics that would probably get me into trouble at work if anyone there figured out it was me. ;-)
Loud and Quiet did until recently have a physical magazine you could subscribe to, and that's the bit that's on hiatus, but the website is still getting sporadic updates for reviews and podcast stuff.
How people discover "new" music is a constant source of fascination (and, often, confusion!) for me! It was interesting to read this and learn how you do it - as well as picking up a few tips along the way. One positive of the neverending parade of information on social media is that occasionally something interesting catches my eye (or ear) - and I screen shot it to investigate further later.
I write about music but from quite a personal perspective - and it is a never-fading thrill when someone tells me they discovered something new to them via my Substack!
Thank you Becky, I like the look of your own calming posts and have subscribed - I am especially interested in how death metal bands can provide moments of calm during existential chaos but that's part of the charm of us having these individual pages. Screen-shotting is a good idea - taking photos of interesting concert fliers/posters I do quite often - and yes, it;s always lovely to know you have turned someone else on to a piece of good music. Thanks for being here and hope you keep commenting.
This is a wonderful article, thank you! I do try to spend as much time as possible on musical discovery but found it hard when I was working (just retired a few weeks ago) to stay on top of it all. I did manage to giveaway good listen to at least 300 new albums a year and have been compiling a top 50 album list for over a decade (mainly for my own enjoyment although I did publish my 2023 AOTY list on Substack).
I’m traveling for a few months before relocating to the UK in January. At that point I’ll have a little more time to discover new music. I’ve saved this post to help point me in the right direction, particularly the online radio suggestions as that’s not a source I’ve really tapped before. But I’m also hoping to get back into vinyl and expect that to open up some new musical discovery sources as well.
I’m still finding good recommendations on Spotify playlists, whether the Release Radar or some individual music press playlists like NPR or Line of Best Fit. Even the Discovery Weekly playlists have generated some good new music over the years.
Way back in the day I used to buy CMJ New Music religiously and the magazine and the included CD used to yield so many gems for me. There doesn’t seem to be anything quite like that anymore and I miss it.
The best musical discovery source I’m into right now is Substack for sure. The comments section on Kevin’s Monday article is always a must visit and I’m subscribed to at least a couple dozen great writers here who continue to feed me new (or new-to-me) music. It’s been an absolute joy to be here for the last year and my musical universe has expanded significantly.
Hey Mark, thanks for finding your way here and sharing your experiences. You sound like one of those men who has never lost their love of new music and only wants to increase it as they hit retirement age. The sample CDs have always had merit but because so few were ever themed, they tended to be hit-and-miss. Same with a lot of New Release playlists of course but much of the fun is in the finding.
As someone who took a year out in 2016 I am interested in your post-retirement travel period. SOlo? Family? Far-off or familiar places? I have a couple of travel postings here myself and my One Step Beyond podcast covered that ground considerably so feel free to respond. Cheers!
Hi Tony, definitely hit and miss on the sampler CDs but I could usually find 3-5 new to me artists on those CMJ samplers each month. I am indeed a guy that continues to love new music and expect that to increase in retirement.
For our retirement travels it’s my wife and I (we have no kids). We’re avid long distance walkers so that’s what we’re doing between now and November. We’re 15 days in to our walk of the UK’s 630-mile South West Coast Path which will take us ten weeks including rest days. After a few days off in London, in mid-September we head to Switzerland to hike 700 miles along the Via Francigena to Rome.
After all our walking is done we’re gonna go visit some Christmas markets in Europe (Stockholm, Copenhagen, Prague, Vienna) before returning home to Bermuda for the holidays. We ring in the new year in a log cabin in the mountains of North Carolina before relocating to the UK to live in January.
It’s an ambitious agenda for sure! We’re calling it the intermission between the second and third chapter of our lives.
As a dad, I'm the one always seeking new indie music while one son loves the 90s and metal (and plays / sings it) and the other loves the 80s. I've just always have had an insatiable appetite for discovering new music. If photography weren't the creative outlet I've taken up in the last 1.5 years to counteract 15+ years of corporate experience, I'd probably be exploring what I could do in the world of music instead.
In the car I listen to XMU. Online I subscribe to Bandcamp updates. I was a Paste magazine subscriber back when it was print and came with a disc of new-to-me music. Also was an early subscriber to Third Man Records and had s many new artists vinyl shipped to me.
Spotify was great when I was on it but quit it about 2 year ago. Now on Apple Music but it does not seem to feed me as much new music...but I'm also not putting as much effort into curating lately.
Great to hear about the Hudson Valley suggestions as I am in northern NJ.
Have you seen or heard Kingston Kane yet? Immediate fan.
I saw them at last year's Rosendale Street Festival.
This fest seems to be a great place to discover new local music. The next one is coming up on July 20/21.
Thanks for all of this Joe. I'm happy to hear Kingston Kane if you'd like to send a specific recommendation? And yes, the Rosendale Street Fest can be great for music. Can also be a heat trap depending on the weather. Bandcamp is clearly popular with many people, and Paste is yet another magazine that went online only. Can't blame them but it's not like turning physical pages. Cheers and welcome to Wordsmith,
Great article Tony - excellent options for music discovery throughout! Radio is still such a great way to find things that aren’t in the algorithm - Soho is great, Brighton has a good one called 1BTN (online/Mixcloud), then there’s 6 Music which has some terrific shows, including Iggy Pop’s which is consistently diverse and surprising…
I do find stuff on Spotify too, of course, and their ‘blend’ feature where you can share a blended playlist with a (musically sympathetic) partner or pal is actually really good for regularly repopulating with what you’re both listening to.
I bought an album last night (Pete Jolly’s ‘Seasons’) on the strength of an Instagram reel clip from Dust and Grooves, which is possibly a first for me…
The record shop option is not to be underestimated - it’s discovery on a whole different level, as you never know what you’ll find, especially in the second-hand shops. I love that. And I love flipping through the artwork as a route to discovery. Some shops do curation quite brilliantly - I felt like I wanted to buy 75% of the records when I visited Capsule Records in Hove (UK), which also has a cool QR code listening option https://recordshopstories.substack.com/p/record-shop-story-3-capsule-records. I usually buy one or two records in a shop but leave with a huge smile and a bunch of new Spotify searches to check out too.
Hey Rich, welcome to Wordsmith and thanks for all your great comments here. I do know about 1BTN - I believe at least one DJ doubles up on The Face Radio - and I edited out early references to 6 Music, NPR and KEXP as I wanted to get straight into the nitty gritty.
I actually know Brightpon & Hove reasonably well, I was 5 nights in HOve on my last trip, and yet because I'm always cruising straight into Brighton and Resident Records, did not know about Capsule. Thanks for that; I have bookmarked your article to read later.
Thanks for the welcome, Tony... Yes, Brighton has a wealth of record shops, and Capsule's only been going just over a year I think. They're doing it well though, for a 'new' vinyl shop (ie not second-hand).
Yeah, that's the Dust and Grooves I meant... Eilon's photos are amazing, and there are loads of good music recs in the interviews too.
Thanks for the signal boost, Tony! I really appreciate it. You've got me in some great company here. The weekly chat on my page has grown far beyond what I dared think it would, and I constantly find new music in there. There really is something for everyone.
I'd also second The Big Takeover as "required reading." SW Lauden turned me on to it, and I'm grateful that he did. It takes me forever to get through an issue, as I keep finding new, wonderful rabbit holes to fall down.
Similarly, thank you for turning me on to Yashiv Cohen & Tel Aviv Soul Club. I'm listening to a previous show as I type this. It's fantastic!
Hi Kevin, your Monday morning comments are my Monday morning reminder of my first bulleted point: You Can't Hear It All. Best following up on one act or recommendation and giving it time of day (per the Corita Kent quote below). To that end, I have found with these niche radio DJs to start trusting a handful of DJs and letting them lead me. I can't listen to every station but if I come to trust one person and their one show, I feel like I get to know them in the process and their taste in music which I come to trust. Cheers.
Thank you so much for the mention, Tony! While ambient is one of the styles of music I am writing quite frequently about, I always say I cover 'experimental' music, which can be kind of a vague term, but to me it means music that’s not too predictable and manipulative, from a wide range of genres – ambient and experimental electronic, jazz and free improvised music, modern composition, leftfield hip-hop, post-rock and noise rock, avant-garde pop, and more.
Again, thanks for the shout-out. I am looking forward to diving into your other recommendations. My main sources for new music are Substacks like yours, The Wire, NTS Radio, newsletters from indie retailers like Bleep & Boomkat, Bandcamp Daily, and personal recommendations from friends.
Hey Stephan, thank you. I have updated the post to add the word "experimental" for Zen Sounds as that is 100% wholly accurate. While some styles are interchangeable, I think the clarification here is important. Thank you also to the link to NTS Radio, for anyone else reading the comments, it's this: https://www.nts.live/ and it looks fantastic. And if we were to add categories, this is one that was on my mind but not written down (due to the move I did not get the long window to write this piece I would have preferred):
8) Ask a friend.
Personal recommendations are invaluable. The back-and-forths I have with my 19-year old are superb, especially as right now, his tastes seem a little different to mine. But in general, so much great music has come to me from someone telling me about it. And especially, and this would have been more applicable in younger more active gig-going days, when a second and third person told you about something, you knew it was likely to be special.
In my defense for omitting such a basic and obvious method, I did end by citing the importance of "interaction."
Cheers and happy hunting, and happy writing about your trophies. (No animals harmed in that sentence.)
Thank you for mentioning my new EP, Tony. I'm honored that you like it. I'm very happy that you checked out Shida Shahabi's music. Her touch, grace, and sense of space are impeccable. My wife and I are flying to London in August to see her open for PJ Harvey at Gunnersbury Park. It's going to be epic!
Hey Nolan, you a re welcome, because your release post was a perfectly good example of my pausing, pressing play, enjoying what I heard and deciding to pause further and follow a link. (Side note: I wish more people would follow more links on my posts but I should just be happy they read them in the first place.) I do hope you're going to do more in the UK than visit Gunnersbury Park, though your commitment here is on a level, for such an obscure artist, that it deserves highlighting. Thanks again for the recommendation - your link worked!
I never miss Yesterday's Papers on YouTube, which focuses on mid 60's to early 70s UK rock and pop, and often profiling music that never charted. Beautiful videos and always interesting music. https://www.youtube.com/@YesterdaysPapers
One thing I miss are magazines. When I was in high school and had a radio show, I was all over Trouser Press. Later on, I loved the humor in "Q", but that mag seemed to change in the early 2000s. What few music magazines exist today are either too expensive or don't interest me.
Everything else online I've looked into is paywalled, clickbait, manufactured controversy, pay for placement, or ChatGarbage-based. Or they feature dissertation-length album reviews.
I will explore the links you've provided. Jumping into the Substack world reminds me of that Sister Corita Kent quote: "Find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while..."
Thanks for all of that Mark (and for being first on the comments). Certainly if we are going to add more categories, then:
7) Videos/YouTube
is on that list. I am not big for TV/films in general - it's probably my secret for getting things done - but I know plenty people who come across music that way, be it watching doc style shows like Yesterdays Papers through to demo videos such as have broken many an artist.
I also miss magazines, which is why I buy those ones I mentioned (and support fanzines as well). From what I can see, you seem like you ought to be a Shindig! fan. No?
And I have never heard that Corita Kent quote. Like "Be curious," it's simple advice for life.
Firstly, thanks for the recommendations.
My wife and musical collaborator, Suzy Starlite, are full-time musicians and constantly on the search of new inspiration. We subscribe to The Wire and read a many of publications you mentioned but now keen to delve into the others: it may take a while 🤩
Following your previous article - https://tonyfletcher.substack.com/p/why-i-left-spotify-for-qobuz - we checked out Qobuz, only to find our distributor, DITTO, doesn’t service that platform. It does look cool…
Alongside ranting about politics and stuff that generally irritates us, our substack - VIBES - contains a real mixed bag including music tech, music - new and old - and the business which surrounds it, food and art with the occasional music based podcast.
Before releasing our last album I wrote an article ‘To stream or not to stream’ discussing the merits of streaming platforms vs. releasing exclusively to Bandcamp and physical media. If you have time check it out.
Substack is a great place. Thanks again for being here.
Hi Simon, thank you so much for popping up and commenting. That is surprising about Ditto; though I don't think Soundrop is perfect, it distributes/publishes to seemingly every platform ever (and you can always choose which ones to eliminate or include). I have visited your own page and will be commenting on one of yuor "mixed bag" - i.e. non-music - posts. There is quite a bit there for me to get my own teeth stuck into and it may take time, but I am on board. Cheers.
Tony
Thanks Tony. I enjoy your writing - keep 'em coming...
Hi Tony! A very nice and interesting post. I started Reflect & Relax Cafe, a series of playlists on Spotify and YouTube, as a challenge, a New Year's resolution to listen to more and different music. It's a mix of indie, folk, Americana, singer-songwriters, alternative/country music and everything in between, mostly chilled out, acoustic tunes, which I update bi-weekly. Here's the link: https://open.substack.com/pub/reflectandrelaxcafe?r=tmghd&utm_medium=ios
Marc, thanks. So much music you've put out there, and given that a lot of it is stuff I don't know, is it safe to assume it's primarily brand-ish new?
Yes, Tony. For me, anything I’ve never heard before is new.
This is so true. It is also a shame that lots of local record shops are closing/downsizing due to less demand. It becomes even more important to go out and support these areas, as not only does it help the business, but also new artists to be found as well.
Hopefully, one more way to find new music will come to fruition with the launch of 3221+ my new interactive music app. The aim is to run themed competitions that start daily, and last a week, in a knockout format. Two days of nominations are followed by 5 days of voting with the top 32 (available in a playlist) matching off until a final winner is found.
Already, during beta testing, the need to fins songs that match criteria (such as certain words in song titles) has led me to the discovery of new artists and music. We aim to have at lease one competition a week dedicated to new new music with artists and fans able to make nominations.
Launching in August, more details are available at www.3221plus.com
Hey man! Thanks for the shout. Amazing to be in such fine company.
You took the words right out of my mouth. I’m currently putting out a series of posts about this exact subject. I’m also one of the people that needs to investigate things one at a time, another theme rolling around in my head! Check my Substack if you’re inclined. It’s new and amateur, but I’m getting the hang of it.
Thanks for being here Thomas. And good luck with your own Substack Thomas. As I wrote, I had no idea when I came on here that I would find so many good people writing about good music!
I've been a member of the Drowned In Sound Community site for almost 20 years now, and it has been a constant source of wonderful new music recommendations. Every Friday there's a thread on all the latest releases people in the community recommend that week, and it's always a broad spectrum of stuff. I've discovered so much amazing music through that community, I'm thoroughly indebted to it.
https://community.drownedinsound.com/c/music/5
And another invaluable resource over the past few years has been the excellent music magazine Loud And Quiet, who are on hiatus at the moment, but I'm hoping they'll be back soon.
https://www.loudandquiet.com
Hey there whatever your name is (always nice to have first names here!),
Thank you. I subscribe to DiS newsletters though they tend to be sporadic; but I have not mosied around the community pages that you linked to, They look like a good place for obsessives who enjoy interacting. And Loud and Quiet is also well worth the recommendation, looks like the online mag is posting regularly, is there an actual magazine that's been forced into temporary hiatus? Good links both. Cheers.
Hah, sorry, I have to remain anonymous as I draw comics that would probably get me into trouble at work if anyone there figured out it was me. ;-)
Loud and Quiet did until recently have a physical magazine you could subscribe to, and that's the bit that's on hiatus, but the website is still getting sporadic updates for reviews and podcast stuff.
Any record shop that stocks my favorite B52’s album « wild planet » is a shop well worth a visit 🤓
How people discover "new" music is a constant source of fascination (and, often, confusion!) for me! It was interesting to read this and learn how you do it - as well as picking up a few tips along the way. One positive of the neverending parade of information on social media is that occasionally something interesting catches my eye (or ear) - and I screen shot it to investigate further later.
I write about music but from quite a personal perspective - and it is a never-fading thrill when someone tells me they discovered something new to them via my Substack!
Thank you Becky, I like the look of your own calming posts and have subscribed - I am especially interested in how death metal bands can provide moments of calm during existential chaos but that's part of the charm of us having these individual pages. Screen-shotting is a good idea - taking photos of interesting concert fliers/posters I do quite often - and yes, it;s always lovely to know you have turned someone else on to a piece of good music. Thanks for being here and hope you keep commenting.
This is a wonderful article, thank you! I do try to spend as much time as possible on musical discovery but found it hard when I was working (just retired a few weeks ago) to stay on top of it all. I did manage to giveaway good listen to at least 300 new albums a year and have been compiling a top 50 album list for over a decade (mainly for my own enjoyment although I did publish my 2023 AOTY list on Substack).
I’m traveling for a few months before relocating to the UK in January. At that point I’ll have a little more time to discover new music. I’ve saved this post to help point me in the right direction, particularly the online radio suggestions as that’s not a source I’ve really tapped before. But I’m also hoping to get back into vinyl and expect that to open up some new musical discovery sources as well.
I’m still finding good recommendations on Spotify playlists, whether the Release Radar or some individual music press playlists like NPR or Line of Best Fit. Even the Discovery Weekly playlists have generated some good new music over the years.
Way back in the day I used to buy CMJ New Music religiously and the magazine and the included CD used to yield so many gems for me. There doesn’t seem to be anything quite like that anymore and I miss it.
The best musical discovery source I’m into right now is Substack for sure. The comments section on Kevin’s Monday article is always a must visit and I’m subscribed to at least a couple dozen great writers here who continue to feed me new (or new-to-me) music. It’s been an absolute joy to be here for the last year and my musical universe has expanded significantly.
Hey Mark, thanks for finding your way here and sharing your experiences. You sound like one of those men who has never lost their love of new music and only wants to increase it as they hit retirement age. The sample CDs have always had merit but because so few were ever themed, they tended to be hit-and-miss. Same with a lot of New Release playlists of course but much of the fun is in the finding.
As someone who took a year out in 2016 I am interested in your post-retirement travel period. SOlo? Family? Far-off or familiar places? I have a couple of travel postings here myself and my One Step Beyond podcast covered that ground considerably so feel free to respond. Cheers!
Hi Tony, definitely hit and miss on the sampler CDs but I could usually find 3-5 new to me artists on those CMJ samplers each month. I am indeed a guy that continues to love new music and expect that to increase in retirement.
For our retirement travels it’s my wife and I (we have no kids). We’re avid long distance walkers so that’s what we’re doing between now and November. We’re 15 days in to our walk of the UK’s 630-mile South West Coast Path which will take us ten weeks including rest days. After a few days off in London, in mid-September we head to Switzerland to hike 700 miles along the Via Francigena to Rome.
After all our walking is done we’re gonna go visit some Christmas markets in Europe (Stockholm, Copenhagen, Prague, Vienna) before returning home to Bermuda for the holidays. We ring in the new year in a log cabin in the mountains of North Carolina before relocating to the UK to live in January.
It’s an ambitious agenda for sure! We’re calling it the intermission between the second and third chapter of our lives.
This goes in the Save folder!
As a dad, I'm the one always seeking new indie music while one son loves the 90s and metal (and plays / sings it) and the other loves the 80s. I've just always have had an insatiable appetite for discovering new music. If photography weren't the creative outlet I've taken up in the last 1.5 years to counteract 15+ years of corporate experience, I'd probably be exploring what I could do in the world of music instead.
In the car I listen to XMU. Online I subscribe to Bandcamp updates. I was a Paste magazine subscriber back when it was print and came with a disc of new-to-me music. Also was an early subscriber to Third Man Records and had s many new artists vinyl shipped to me.
Spotify was great when I was on it but quit it about 2 year ago. Now on Apple Music but it does not seem to feed me as much new music...but I'm also not putting as much effort into curating lately.
Great to hear about the Hudson Valley suggestions as I am in northern NJ.
Have you seen or heard Kingston Kane yet? Immediate fan.
I saw them at last year's Rosendale Street Festival.
This fest seems to be a great place to discover new local music. The next one is coming up on July 20/21.
Thanks for all of this Joe. I'm happy to hear Kingston Kane if you'd like to send a specific recommendation? And yes, the Rosendale Street Fest can be great for music. Can also be a heat trap depending on the weather. Bandcamp is clearly popular with many people, and Paste is yet another magazine that went online only. Can't blame them but it's not like turning physical pages. Cheers and welcome to Wordsmith,
Great article Tony - excellent options for music discovery throughout! Radio is still such a great way to find things that aren’t in the algorithm - Soho is great, Brighton has a good one called 1BTN (online/Mixcloud), then there’s 6 Music which has some terrific shows, including Iggy Pop’s which is consistently diverse and surprising…
I do find stuff on Spotify too, of course, and their ‘blend’ feature where you can share a blended playlist with a (musically sympathetic) partner or pal is actually really good for regularly repopulating with what you’re both listening to.
I bought an album last night (Pete Jolly’s ‘Seasons’) on the strength of an Instagram reel clip from Dust and Grooves, which is possibly a first for me…
The record shop option is not to be underestimated - it’s discovery on a whole different level, as you never know what you’ll find, especially in the second-hand shops. I love that. And I love flipping through the artwork as a route to discovery. Some shops do curation quite brilliantly - I felt like I wanted to buy 75% of the records when I visited Capsule Records in Hove (UK), which also has a cool QR code listening option https://recordshopstories.substack.com/p/record-shop-story-3-capsule-records. I usually buy one or two records in a shop but leave with a huge smile and a bunch of new Spotify searches to check out too.
Hey Rich, welcome to Wordsmith and thanks for all your great comments here. I do know about 1BTN - I believe at least one DJ doubles up on The Face Radio - and I edited out early references to 6 Music, NPR and KEXP as I wanted to get straight into the nitty gritty.
I actually know Brightpon & Hove reasonably well, I was 5 nights in HOve on my last trip, and yet because I'm always cruising straight into Brighton and Resident Records, did not know about Capsule. Thanks for that; I have bookmarked your article to read later.
And as for Dust & Grooves, are you referencing this? Yet another gem of a site and project if so. https://dustandgrooves.com/the-vinyl-nomad-final-worldwide-photo-tour-for-dust-grooves-vol-2-book/
Cheers and hope you enjoy more of what is on here.
Tony
Thanks for the welcome, Tony... Yes, Brighton has a wealth of record shops, and Capsule's only been going just over a year I think. They're doing it well though, for a 'new' vinyl shop (ie not second-hand).
Yeah, that's the Dust and Grooves I meant... Eilon's photos are amazing, and there are loads of good music recs in the interviews too.
Thanks for the signal boost, Tony! I really appreciate it. You've got me in some great company here. The weekly chat on my page has grown far beyond what I dared think it would, and I constantly find new music in there. There really is something for everyone.
I'd also second The Big Takeover as "required reading." SW Lauden turned me on to it, and I'm grateful that he did. It takes me forever to get through an issue, as I keep finding new, wonderful rabbit holes to fall down.
Similarly, thank you for turning me on to Yashiv Cohen & Tel Aviv Soul Club. I'm listening to a previous show as I type this. It's fantastic!
Hi Kevin, your Monday morning comments are my Monday morning reminder of my first bulleted point: You Can't Hear It All. Best following up on one act or recommendation and giving it time of day (per the Corita Kent quote below). To that end, I have found with these niche radio DJs to start trusting a handful of DJs and letting them lead me. I can't listen to every station but if I come to trust one person and their one show, I feel like I get to know them in the process and their taste in music which I come to trust. Cheers.
Thank you so much for the mention, Tony! While ambient is one of the styles of music I am writing quite frequently about, I always say I cover 'experimental' music, which can be kind of a vague term, but to me it means music that’s not too predictable and manipulative, from a wide range of genres – ambient and experimental electronic, jazz and free improvised music, modern composition, leftfield hip-hop, post-rock and noise rock, avant-garde pop, and more.
Again, thanks for the shout-out. I am looking forward to diving into your other recommendations. My main sources for new music are Substacks like yours, The Wire, NTS Radio, newsletters from indie retailers like Bleep & Boomkat, Bandcamp Daily, and personal recommendations from friends.
Hey Stephan, thank you. I have updated the post to add the word "experimental" for Zen Sounds as that is 100% wholly accurate. While some styles are interchangeable, I think the clarification here is important. Thank you also to the link to NTS Radio, for anyone else reading the comments, it's this: https://www.nts.live/ and it looks fantastic. And if we were to add categories, this is one that was on my mind but not written down (due to the move I did not get the long window to write this piece I would have preferred):
8) Ask a friend.
Personal recommendations are invaluable. The back-and-forths I have with my 19-year old are superb, especially as right now, his tastes seem a little different to mine. But in general, so much great music has come to me from someone telling me about it. And especially, and this would have been more applicable in younger more active gig-going days, when a second and third person told you about something, you knew it was likely to be special.
In my defense for omitting such a basic and obvious method, I did end by citing the importance of "interaction."
Cheers and happy hunting, and happy writing about your trophies. (No animals harmed in that sentence.)
Thanks for the update, Tony. Really appreciate it. Would never harm any animal!
Thank you for mentioning my new EP, Tony. I'm honored that you like it. I'm very happy that you checked out Shida Shahabi's music. Her touch, grace, and sense of space are impeccable. My wife and I are flying to London in August to see her open for PJ Harvey at Gunnersbury Park. It's going to be epic!
Hey Nolan, you a re welcome, because your release post was a perfectly good example of my pausing, pressing play, enjoying what I heard and deciding to pause further and follow a link. (Side note: I wish more people would follow more links on my posts but I should just be happy they read them in the first place.) I do hope you're going to do more in the UK than visit Gunnersbury Park, though your commitment here is on a level, for such an obscure artist, that it deserves highlighting. Thanks again for the recommendation - your link worked!
This is what hooked me. Simply gorgeous.
https://youtu.be/RTTTXyZv81k?si=0jweq7hAO_oNTF5s
I never miss Yesterday's Papers on YouTube, which focuses on mid 60's to early 70s UK rock and pop, and often profiling music that never charted. Beautiful videos and always interesting music. https://www.youtube.com/@YesterdaysPapers
One thing I miss are magazines. When I was in high school and had a radio show, I was all over Trouser Press. Later on, I loved the humor in "Q", but that mag seemed to change in the early 2000s. What few music magazines exist today are either too expensive or don't interest me.
Everything else online I've looked into is paywalled, clickbait, manufactured controversy, pay for placement, or ChatGarbage-based. Or they feature dissertation-length album reviews.
I will explore the links you've provided. Jumping into the Substack world reminds me of that Sister Corita Kent quote: "Find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while..."
Thanks for all of that Mark (and for being first on the comments). Certainly if we are going to add more categories, then:
7) Videos/YouTube
is on that list. I am not big for TV/films in general - it's probably my secret for getting things done - but I know plenty people who come across music that way, be it watching doc style shows like Yesterdays Papers through to demo videos such as have broken many an artist.
I also miss magazines, which is why I buy those ones I mentioned (and support fanzines as well). From what I can see, you seem like you ought to be a Shindig! fan. No?
And I have never heard that Corita Kent quote. Like "Be curious," it's simple advice for life.
Thanks and cheers all round.