Favorite Music List

**Kindred** · March 7, 2016, 5:47am

i love pvris. mirrors is a love anthem to me.

playlist i am working on: synthwave, 80s future-esque sound.

**Arkenbrien** · March 7, 2016, 10:39am

**Ovrki1** · March 26, 2016, 3:45am

There are 3 bands that I actually care about on a personal level. As you know, I love The Amity Affliction! (I have one tattoo and it’s of Amity:) Then there’s PVRIS! If you are unsure why, just check above or buy White Noise for yourself. The third band/musician I like (though I guess not literally love like TAA or PVRIS) is Starset. Quite possibly the most unique band of the three but without nearly the popularity. They only have one album that came out in 2014, which I want to point out was very successful.

I know, I know. If you haven’t heard of them or don’t care then that’s totally fine but if you know of any of these 3 bands you’ll probably be like, “I love those guys”! I’m pretty stiff myself when it comes to listening to other peoples taste in music, but I try to at least give people the benefit of the doubt by just listening.

**Ovrki1** · March 19, 2016, 9:58am

I’ve never heard of a band making a video for each one of their songs on a full album. (10 of them btw) Have you!?

Didn’t think so…

**Arkenbrien** · March 22, 2016, 10:02pm

I <3 chiptunes*.

*For me, recently, I’ve been thinking about music and what I like about it. After all, I for a while listened to nothing but baroque, especially if not exclusively J.S.Bach, easily the greatest composer of music to grace this earth. Consider this piece, which is his concerto for two harpsichords (my favorite instrument) in C major, third movement:

This is one of my all-time favorites. I mean, a fugue with 6 voices besides string accompaniment? Yet listen to the opening few moments - a solo, proclaiming a single theme, which is repeated, in keeping with the style of the fugue, throughout the piece through it’s many voices. The theme is simple, really. As with pretty much all Bach’s fugues, the beginning is simplicity itself, but it evolves into an elegant conversation between voices. Although the main theme is the … well, main theme, each and every part on it’s own is pleasant to listen to. Really it is.

And that’s part of what I see in chiptunes. Good chiptunes, that is, good being a relative standard as it is. Simplicity. You have one type of sound. You can manipulate that sound a little, but not much. Make some music with a single sound. That what 8bit music, aka chiptunes, is all about.

And that is what the best music is about. Taking something simple, and making something elegant out of it. Elevating something to a thing of beauty.

Dremescene Time Machine does an excellent job. I really like pretty much everything he does.

And that’s also what I don’t like about modern “classical” composers, like Stravinsky (BOOOOO HISSSSSS ), Wagner, Rachmaninoff, , Brahms, Tchaikovsky, etc, and even earlier composers, like Beethoven. They reach for something outside of the music itself to make it good, mostly appealing to the listener to make some sort of an emotional connection with the music. I’m not saying that they all made some pretty epic pieces, (Except for Stravinsky. Seriously, that guy had no business in the music world.) but they all generally fail in the basics. In making their music, they meander here and there, making many statements without actually saying anything, like an aimless sheep without flock or shepard.

I’ll prove it. Who knows the beginning of Beethoven’s fifth? If you don’t know it off hand, here’s a helpfull reminder:

Or the beginning of Super Mario? Seriously, who needs a reminder in that?

Pretty epic music, there.

You know why it’s epic?

Or why you remember that piece and go “Oh yeah, that’s some good stuff, there.”

Or even why you remember it?

Because it’s simple. The main theme of the first movement of his 5th is literally 4 notes. And Mario is, well, Mario.

However, you can go to pretty much any other piece, especially the later ones, (Especially Stravinsky), and reel from the dissonant disjointedness.

This is supposedly one of Stravinsky’s best pieces. Really, Stravinsky? They say that children are the ones that like his music the most, and that pretty much describes the maturity of non-children who like it IMO.

Let’s try that with Bach. Youtube “Bach”, select the first vid + jump to random point yields this result:

He doesn’t leave to wonder where the music is going. It’s direct. It’s easy to jump in and instantly understand. It’s simple. But despite it’s straightforwardness, it’s elegance makes the piece infinitely complex yet exceedingly ordered. That’s pretty much why Bach is the best composer of all time: none has matched his ability to take a simple tune and elevate it to such grandeur as to

That’s what modern composers seem to forget. Simpleness =/= dumb, repetitive, etc. If that’s your view when composing or even listening then the problem is with you, not the music.

But that’s what I like about chiptunes. Simplicity and an elegance of sorts. Sure, not all chiptunes are equal, and I’m not putting Dreamscene on the same level as Bach. But still, elegant in it’s simplicity makes Dreamscene instantly one of my favorite artists.

And that’s the way music should be. Music is infinite, and your ability to wield it is based on your lowest capacity to imagine. Music should be simple.

Make simple things. Make beauty.

**Arkenbrien** · April 2, 2016, 3:03pm

**Kindred** · April 11, 2016, 5:54pm

One of the calmer and better collections of chillstep I’ve encountered.

**JoergZdarsky** · August 4, 2016, 4:14pm

Just jumped to Carbon Based Lifeforms on Spotify, wasn’t aware of them, very nice and thank you for the recommendation!!

**pictbrige** · April 16, 2016, 11:23am

**Skyentist** · April 16, 2016, 5:28pm

Where can I get more chiptunes like that? I’ve been looking for a new sound lately and this is definitely it…

I’ve heard chiptunes(8bit) before but not much since I don’t know where to start looking.

Other than stalking this guy like a machine that is

**Arkenbrien** · April 17, 2016, 12:34pm

Honestly, I’ve just been listening to Demoscene Time Machine on a loop. I love his music. I have no shame in stalking this guy.

I found him on a playlist on Soundcloud. I know that I’ve heard some other great 8 bit there, but I’m far too tired to call it to mind atm. If you have time to listen to a bunch of random stuff and experiment then Soundcloud is the way to go. Just use their tag system and settle in.

If you like old/retro video game music, then there is no other source better than OverClocked Remix. It also has some artist’s original works, which may be worth checking out, but it’s mostly about nostalgia.

I’m going to look for some new artists just to add some variety. Or maybe just buy the rest of Demo’s albums.

Here’s one. Not chiptune, dubstep but I liked it.

https://soundcloud.com/dubstep/my-heart-by-different-heaven

THIS was the one I was thinking of:

EDIT (again) Here’s another… Oh wait, it’s demoscene.

@Skyentist Okay, after searching through bandcamp, I came across this guy. I like.

**shuhua2010** · April 17, 2016, 2:43pm

Light music:
Palace Memories(Sunset)

**Skyentist** · April 17, 2016, 6:07pm

I 'd this three times but only one counts.

Thanks! This is going to get me through the next few days of catching up on Complex.

Edit: found a solution.

**shuhua2010** · April 18, 2016, 1:14am

LIght music:
Returning Heart Garden
The Foggy Dew

**Ovrki1** · May 18, 2016, 2:28pm

Tears of joy this morning with the announcement of a new Amity album. Coming to a digital store near you on August 12th

**pictbrige** · June 3, 2016, 10:56am

Russian - Ukrainian musicians there are three of them

https://vk.com/theplace2b from Volgograd
https://soundcloud.com/teddykillerz

**77wisher77** · June 14, 2016, 5:45am

Tool
Metallica
Pantera
Royksopp
Gorillaz

**Kindred** · June 21, 2016, 4:37pm

EDIT: i posted bonobo link but turns out that was not what i’ve been listening to.

been listening to tycho, ended up listening to carbon based lifeforms.

usually i listen to instrumental heavy metal, but this is the only kind of music i can work with without getting distracted.

**Skyentist** · June 21, 2016, 3:30pm

I love Tycho! NPR interviewed him a few years ago and I’ve been hooked on him for study music ever since. I’ll check out bonobo when I have time…is it similar to Tycho?

**Kindred** · June 21, 2016, 4:34pm

i tread carefully by saying similar – as i don’t think i find bands that are exactly too alike. it’s a low key, ambient sound, and melodic. sometimes it’s hi-beat, sometimes low-beat, but its very calming to listen to. i clump music by mood and by their symphonic collective atmosphere rather than their subjected genre. in my own bias, i find it similar to tycho by that standard.

nujabes might be more musically in tune with tycho by theory, but i just go by the feel of the sound.