NTS radio https://www.nts.live (and the app) is my most recent favorite way to discover, underground/rare/undiscovered music, curated by humans that are experts in their scene or musicians themselves. Covers many genres
I love prog rock! It's probably my favorite genre of music, although calling "prog" a genre is sort of like calling "metal" a genre, as it's incredibly diverse. I'm a sucker for virtuosity, but the best of the genre is the stuff that blends that musicianship with a real sense of groove (Yes is probably my favorite, which is much more "fun" to listen than something like ELP, which I find pretty sterile).
No need to just stick with the classics, though - modern prog has branched out into so many different areas, there really is something for anyone who loves music out there. And it's also not necessarily limited to rock-oriented guitar driven music, there's "progressive" music being made in pretty much every genre these days, and a huge back catalog spanning decades to explore.
A couple places online that I've found great recommendations are:
* the /r/progressiverock subreddit (a little bit repetitive among the "classics," but still lots of good discussion and recs)
* MOROW - Prog rock radio, I've found a lot of cool stuff listening to this station
* The Best Radio You Have Never Heard - a somewhat eclectic but mostly rock oriented podcast, every two weeks he releases a 1-2 hour show which has lots of great music. This has been going for almost 20 years, and has been consistently excellent. One of my favorite things about TBRYHNH is that the host often finds cool "deep cuts" - live performances, B-sides, etc that you might not have heard before. This show is where I first heard Close to the Edge, it pointed me towards the excellent set of Yes shows that was released as "Progeny" a few years ago, the amazing live version of Time Passages from the Rhymes in Rooms album, Grey Cell Green by Ned's Atomic Dustbin, and dozens of other great tracks. Can't recommend it enough.
Mentally, I use handpicked spotify playlists as if it were an "indie" radio : They are curated (no Spotify algorithms), simple to "activate" (just play), and many are frequently updated.
One advantage is that I can easily "tag" certain music, to explore in depth, but also to find new playlists so that the cycle continues and the music never stops (like a radio).
Speaking of prog, I'm currently enjoying this 80+ hours playlist :) [1].
I have a (open source) side project that is a web radios player [0] and I also discover new music thanks to it.
There's a lot of great radios out there.
One feature I made for myself is to allow to save the current playing artist & song in a list to check it later (you need to create an account though).
If you like FIP you may also like Alternative Radio (French as well) [1]
I'm trying to identify the kind of music I like, and it's not particularly obscure, but I feel like it hasn't been made before and after 90s and early 2000s.
It's a range from mellow to energetic. On the mellow side we have trip-hop/lo-fi. Clear enough. Plenty of radios for this. On the energetic side we have complex beats like Prodigy. Seen a couple of radios. But in the middle, feels like there's nothing. I'm looking for bands like Garbage. KT Tunstall is similar. The only way I could describe it, is that it's jazzy/bluesy rock from 90s and early 2000s with cool/elegant sounding beats/bass. Quite a lot of Russian rock was like this too in that period. If anyone can identify what I'm talking about, give any pointers, I would much appreciate.
My god, that fits right in. Yes. Would love to find more pointers towards similar music. I didn't know this song (albeit sounds vaguely familiar), and it's instantly going on the playlist.
Edit: Half that album is going on the playlist. I definitely remember hearing erase/rewind, but never knew where it was from.
To reciprocate, here's little known, imo one of the most underrated records by KT Tunstall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWKj96zhCpw — the more you listen and hear detail, the more it grows on you.
Both of these are on a softer side, but I like heavier-sounding stuff in the same vibe too. (Like Paranoid by Garbage) Most of those tracks in my library are Russian however. :(
Maybe not necessarily for this crowd, but I've found that TikTok having the best recommendation system on the planet makes it actually really good for recommending music.
Finding good music is a hard problem, I realized that long ago as a LastFM user. LastFM showed that it was impossible to find another person with a music taste even remotely close to yours if you are a music lover with a reasonably eclectic taste. There just aren't nearly enough people in the world. So simple recommendation engines will always feel mediocre as they feed you music that people 'similar to you' (but there aren't any!) enjoyed.
Ultimately instead of relying on Spotify you need to seek out music yourself. A good analogy would be Tinder dating vs. reality or asking ChatGPT for cooking (hope you like your food bland and westernized!). You'll have best results if you seek out the niches, the nerds, the experts, the vibe synergies with your other interests and aesthetics. Look into the label that had an artist you really liked, learn more about the club where you had a really good night and how they curate, browse the files of the Soulseek user who had this niche song that you were searching for.
Muxtape was the best and I still miss it. It would be wonderful to be able to make mixtapes for friends and just share them without needing to be on Spotify or some other walled off service.
Readit News
Radio France Rock - Very interesting non trivial non top-charts playlists
https://www.radiofrance.fr/fip/radio-rock
Progulus - Mostly Prog Rock
https://www.progulus.com/rprweb/#page-playing
The Musical Box Radio - Prog Rock - A bit repetitive but nice playlists
https://radioarg.com/tmb/
No need to just stick with the classics, though - modern prog has branched out into so many different areas, there really is something for anyone who loves music out there. And it's also not necessarily limited to rock-oriented guitar driven music, there's "progressive" music being made in pretty much every genre these days, and a huge back catalog spanning decades to explore.
A couple places online that I've found great recommendations are:
* the /r/progressiverock subreddit (a little bit repetitive among the "classics," but still lots of good discussion and recs)
* MOROW - Prog rock radio, I've found a lot of cool stuff listening to this station
* The Best Radio You Have Never Heard - a somewhat eclectic but mostly rock oriented podcast, every two weeks he releases a 1-2 hour show which has lots of great music. This has been going for almost 20 years, and has been consistently excellent. One of my favorite things about TBRYHNH is that the host often finds cool "deep cuts" - live performances, B-sides, etc that you might not have heard before. This show is where I first heard Close to the Edge, it pointed me towards the excellent set of Yes shows that was released as "Progeny" a few years ago, the amazing live version of Time Passages from the Rhymes in Rooms album, Grey Cell Green by Ned's Atomic Dustbin, and dozens of other great tracks. Can't recommend it enough.
Deleted Comment
One advantage is that I can easily "tag" certain music, to explore in depth, but also to find new playlists so that the cycle continues and the music never stops (like a radio).
Speaking of prog, I'm currently enjoying this 80+ hours playlist :) [1].
[1] https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6U7YflqS9WyaJse5H7dyee
There's a lot of great radios out there.
One feature I made for myself is to allow to save the current playing artist & song in a list to check it later (you need to create an account though).
If you like FIP you may also like Alternative Radio (French as well) [1]
[0] https://www.radio-addict.com/
[1] https://www.alternativeradio.fr/
http://radio.garden/
(I don't know why it doesn't support https, maybe so they can embed streams from a gazillion random websites?)
It's a range from mellow to energetic. On the mellow side we have trip-hop/lo-fi. Clear enough. Plenty of radios for this. On the energetic side we have complex beats like Prodigy. Seen a couple of radios. But in the middle, feels like there's nothing. I'm looking for bands like Garbage. KT Tunstall is similar. The only way I could describe it, is that it's jazzy/bluesy rock from 90s and early 2000s with cool/elegant sounding beats/bass. Quite a lot of Russian rock was like this too in that period. If anyone can identify what I'm talking about, give any pointers, I would much appreciate.
Edit: Half that album is going on the playlist. I definitely remember hearing erase/rewind, but never knew where it was from.
To reciprocate, here's little known, imo one of the most underrated records by KT Tunstall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWKj96zhCpw — the more you listen and hear detail, the more it grows on you.
Here's a little known Sting record of a famous song, that's my favorite rendition of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqG7b5yNbGk
Both of these are on a softer side, but I like heavier-sounding stuff in the same vibe too. (Like Paranoid by Garbage) Most of those tracks in my library are Russian however. :(
Something special about those tunes; endless hours of playing Quake 3 at the age of 14.
It was my first ever music collection I could afford to download on 28.8 dial-up.
Now its a die'ing niche.
https://www.modarchive.org
https://www.wab.com
https://mod.haxor.fi/Aegis_and_Legend/mod.multicolour
Finding good music is a hard problem, I realized that long ago as a LastFM user. LastFM showed that it was impossible to find another person with a music taste even remotely close to yours if you are a music lover with a reasonably eclectic taste. There just aren't nearly enough people in the world. So simple recommendation engines will always feel mediocre as they feed you music that people 'similar to you' (but there aren't any!) enjoyed.
Ultimately instead of relying on Spotify you need to seek out music yourself. A good analogy would be Tinder dating vs. reality or asking ChatGPT for cooking (hope you like your food bland and westernized!). You'll have best results if you seek out the niches, the nerds, the experts, the vibe synergies with your other interests and aesthetics. Look into the label that had an artist you really liked, learn more about the club where you had a really good night and how they curate, browse the files of the Soulseek user who had this niche song that you were searching for.
I went through the opposite experience at college, I picked Damnation expecting it to sound like Deliverance.
You have to love bands that have records that you hate upon first impression then end up loving them after years.