Hello, fellow music lovers! I know it can be quite hard sometimes to renew your playlist when you feel you’ve listened to the same type of music for the past couple of months, I mean where do you even start from? Just typing „Yo Google, I want new music” doesn’t really give the best results…

Sometimes Spotify and Youtube are quite helpful in that matter, but you mostly end up listening to the same moody playlist you’ve been listening to for ages. But it’s okay, I’ve just compiled a list of music subgenres you should definitely listen to if you haven’t already!

1. Dark Jazz

Having a slower tempo than normal jazz (which really does make a difference to some of us), dark jazz is a contemporary style inspired by film noir soundtracks and creates a dark atmosphere (super obvious from the name, but let me say my story) which engulfs you completely. The biggest influences come from Miles Davis’ Ascenseur pour l’echafaud (or Lift to the Gallows, see below) and Angelo Badalamenti, along with the Dark Ambient genre.

The greatest representatives of this subgenre are the amazing Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble (Netherlands) and Bohren & der Club of Gore (Germany).

Although they disbanded in 2016, KDE offered 3 wonderful albums to listen to on rainy days and chilly afternoons: a self-titled album, followed by Here be Dragons and From the Stairwell. Their studio albums are all impressive and their live album, I Foresee the Dark Ahead, if I stay, is just as powerful (and my personal favourite):

If you’re a fan of this kind of instrumental, you can understand my sadness at the thought of their break up, but don’t worry, Bohren & der Club of Gore is still here! And they have 8 studio albums! Their style is slightly darker and slower than that of KDE, especially on their later albums, such as Sunset Mission or Midnight Radio:

They however experimented with more intense orchestration in their earlier albums, especially on Langspielkassette, which also features interesting voice samples.

So having talked about dark jazz, what should we cover next?

 

2. K-Pop

I know this is quite different from dark jazz (possibly at the other end of the spectrum?) but it’s really so catchy! Korean Pop does indeed resemble the pop we are used to normally, but it’s not in English anymore! Plus they have Asian boys that look fantastic… and sort of make you think of a korean version of N*SYNC (which broke a few fangirl hearts). Now I was just thinking of BTS (or Bangtan Boys), which definitely broke my heart with their songs and choreographies:

Although they have a really pop sound in this, the song that made them famous, No more dream has more rap to it than it does pop (and many others, like Not Today or Dope). And speaking of rap-like songs, it’s time to introduce Bigbang, a K-Pop band fusing many hip hop, dubstep and pop elements in their music:

I don’t think I’ve seen this much coolness in a while, these guys are rocking it. They somehow remind me of when Tokyo Hotel became more electronic in sound, don’t really know why.

But Exo are probably the climax of coolness in both sound and image, mixing English and Korean (also Korean and Chinese members, haha), pop and rap lyrics, hip hop, electronic and dance sounds in what makes an extremely catchy style (yeah, these guys are definitely my favourites – have you seen their dance? It’s amazing):

Now that we’ve seen K-pop, what’s up next?

3. Breakcore

This style is extremely crazy. It’s an electronic dance music subgenre, inspired by hardcore, jungle and industrial electronic music, which uses a large variety of samples, high tempos and heavy kick drums and breaks. One of the most notable artists of this genre is Igorrr, or Gautiere Serre, a French musician which combines elements of baroque, death metal and hip hop in his music, making it hard to classify him as only a breakcore musician:

A more classic example of breakcore comes however from Alec Empire, a german musician which started his DJ-ing career in the 90’s, both solo and as part of the Atari Teenage Riot, which had the purpose of opposing the Neo-Nazi subculture formed at that time in Germany. Alec would often use in his solo pieces samples of 60’s and 70’s funk, which is mainly a black style of music in order to express the same disdain towards that kind of ideology:

Pfew, a bit of history up there. Our breakcore story continues with Venetian Snares, a Canadian electronic musician which gracefully constructs his breakcore music using many symphonical music elements and beats from more harcore electronic genres (splittercore, speedcore):

I know that’s a bit to digest, but we have something very different up next. Are you ready?

4. Gypsy music

You’ve probably heard it many times before, but have you ever considered including it to your playlist? It was really amazing when I did! I know you may be thinking of the Gypsy Kings as the main representatives of this style, but they’re actually more into the flamenco and salsa music genres, as they’re singing mostly in Spanish. The gypsy style (performed mostly by Romani – no, they’re not the same as Romanians!) of music however is mostly instrumental, with many stringed instruments and a preference for cimbalom and double bass. The style is quite distinctive and has different versions depending on the region in which it is played. There are many popular bands originating in Romania, such as Taraf de Haidouks, Fanfare Ciocarlia or Mahala Rai Banda, which have a particularly joyful sound:

On the Serbian side, Goran Bregovic has had many Romani influences in his music and is often associated with this particular style:

As for Hungarian gypsy music, the sound is generally more related to folk, but there are also songs which bring out the joyful spirit of the Romani:

So that’s all folks! Thank you for joining me in this tour, hope you enjoyed!