How do you find out about music now

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Genuine question. I use grimeforum and here and that Ilove thing whatever and then random soundclouds, should I read music eurgh, what are they called? Are they websites? I like hiphop and grime and noise and probably free jazz, but I find the Wire hideous. I'm not writing in any sense of competition, I just genuinely don't know where to look nowadays, and I hate all my Facebook friends recommendations, they just go on about Mark Fisher and the Sleaford Mods.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
And all of you tories that tried to take over a forum by talking about boring house, begone man, your music is shite.
 

Leo

Well-known member
besides checking out some music websites, it's not a bad idea to sign up for a few weekly new releases emails from retailers. bleep and boomkat have lots of dance music, other genres covered from places like forced exposure, aquarius records, etc. granted, they are all stores/distributors who are trying to sell you things, so the write-ups aren't critical reviews but they do let you know what's new with descriptions and oftentimes sound files.

these don't cover much grime and hiphop, though FE and aquarius are decent for noise and free jazz.
 

glasshand

dj panic attack
mostly just check the 'likes' of dj/artists i like on soundcloud

it is tedious and u gotta rely on the prolific likers

as far as i can tell reliable honest sources that align with what i like are thin on the ground, bring back mp3 blogs
 

rubberdingyrapids

Well-known member
radio.

though might be 1 in every 15 songs that you really wanna find out more about.

music reviews.

i feel im constantly behind now though. but could also be cos i dont like as much as i used to, dont invest as much time in finding new music as i used to, or am just old. when i was really into grime and dubstep, sites like boomkat were perfect. now i dont really know what i like compared to back then (or just like a lot more), its harder and more time consuming/disparate.
 

Numbers

Well-known member
BANDCAMP!

I actually came to start a thread on it. I think we should do a thread for bandcamp 'name your price' jewels. There is some fucking great stuff to be found, really. Fact magazine does a monthly feature with great finds. I think Dissensus should be able to do even better.
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
Tumblr, web digging, this place, I still read Fact even though I slag them off about once a season for good measure in public (if you're reading this Tom, love you anyway, hire me and get rid of Alex Macpherson once and for all, this man knows fucking nothing), The Wire, a lot of digging through writer/blogger archives, picking up books on music, *takes a deep breath* radio, twitter, friends recommendations... I suppose that's it.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Thanks everyone. I listen to radar and trawl through the net, and stuff, I find soundcloud and bandcamp hard to use, hard ot have enthusiasm for them as formats even though there's obviously brilliant stuff on there. I use youtube alot I guess.

Havent checked boomkat but used to.
 

paolo

Mechanical phantoms
Resident Advisor and Juno Plus are quite good for keeping up to date with house and techno

The Quietus is OK as well. They sometimes have good reviews and interviews, mainly with experimental rock types
 

luka

Well-known member
I'd like to listen to radio shows from atlanta chicago Houston new york la oakland etc which is presumably possible
Any suggestions? Rap and r&b

I want both the people that actually break records and the people who play all the big hits
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
For rap music its hotnewhiphop.com, datpiff.com, livemixtapes.com, Complex, hiphopdx.com a couple of rap forums (the coli/kanyetothe.com)... I don't actually read any blogs nowadays, other than The Martorialist. Fake Shore Drive is good for Chicago stuff. Thizzler for Bay Area stuff (although I don't really go on there tbh.) Never really listen to/find any obscure underground/niche stuff, I tend to check out what's currently popular on those first few sites. I trust the popular taste, which is sort of the opposite of how I used to be with rap music, where I basically assumed that the most popular stuff was likely to be the worst.

And that's pretty much it for me, other than here. I've realised just by writing this reply that I'm in a very small bubble musically, these days. Dance music has ceased to exist for me, more or less (though I still explore old stuff from time to time - acid house, detroit techno etc.). And that makes me a sad panda.

I'm not sure there are hubs for discussion of dance music as there were in the past. Perhaps it was just for DNB and Dubstep that those things existed but ever since dubstepforum become uninteresting to me I haven't found another forum other than Dissensus with a high degree of activity. Perhaps all that discussion has migrated to YouTube and Facebook?

Also, I should listen to 1xtra more, cos whenever I've done that in the past its always thrown up some songs I never would have bothered checking out by myself.
 

Corpsey

bandz ahoy
Gave up pretty quickly, soooo many adverts. I think there might be some good mix shows on there, though, this was a morning show.
 

CrowleyHead

Well-known member
There are apps that allow you to connect to radio stations all over the world based around major metropolis in america, and I know a bunch of writers/bloggers use them to keep in touch with what's big in ATL, Cali, wherever... I can't remember which but I'll try to put them in here if I rediscover, I imagine one or two connects to Rinse, Kiss and 1Xtra as well for us folk here.

There's also youtube channels for a lot of stuff... Charlie "Drugmoney" has a channel where he hosts a lot of underground Atlanta stuff in the Rich Homie Quan/Young Thug axis, along with a bunch of other post-futuristic/swag people... And then for R&Bass or ratchet, you got the YoungCalifornia blog... Etc. etc.
 

trza

Well-known member
I like to check the various profiles and sites of the djs and bloggers and writers I follow. The front pages of record stores are nice to check out even if its just for the latest artwork. I still visit message boards and strangely can't look away even when half the people are lunatics (present company excluded).

For older music I have a habit of downloading everything I can find when I see a blog or resource that I like. Obscure music blogs have a pattern where someone starts sharing something for love of music or to share something they love with others, but after a while they get tired and stop updating or links expire or the dmca notices and takedowns make the whole thing not any fun. Resources for downloads or obscure databases have a way of disappearing overnight and you will only regret not grabbing something while you can.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
I love the boomkat mail out for the writing and for the fact you can listen to the music for every new single. The writing often has very little to do with the music it's ostensibly about but that's part of the fun.
 
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