New Age music for slightly more mature tastes?

Not a fan of the oldies and not a fan of the latest chart topping Swedish-pop inspired stuff, dropping the heavy music tastes gained from late school years. Not yet so mature that I like silence, ambience, and very fine-grained detail of raw acoustics nor the interpretation of emotional, story-telling ability of classical.

What's left? Just exposing myself to a variety of music around the world, it's easy to say that I like almost anything, but my type of personality doesn't accept such vague answers. I mean, I find stuff like this is pretty impressive, but am I a fan of it?

Looking through what I like most in music lately, I seem to like diva-level singing voices that require great lung capacity and excellence over a wide range of notes, the kind that makes current pop singers sound like they're merely speaking lyrics with an accent. I like something that exudes some sort of energy from the performers. I like the depth of a full orchestral instrumental, favoring violins, cellos, piano, and exotic instruments, and I especially like it if it's used in a new age progressive manner. Even better if it seemingly makes use of what mankind has learned over the generations about music. I'm not into specific "genres", but more into how they're exploited in a musical composition that may combine a number of them.

Summed up, where's the new music for tweeners that don't quite fit in any sort of established music loving group, but loves music with enough passion that shallow beat compositions just don't cut it? Blue Man Group, Piano Guys, Lindsey Stirling (violin dubstep)...? Getting lost and not really finding any hits checking out stuff outside of the continent, to Asian, Middle Eastern, African, and/or Hispanic culture.

 

"new age for slightly mature tastes" sounds like you're trying to not say the word "jazz." Which I get, because The Wave and Kenny G have made a mockery of the word.

I'll semi-endorse this list at the link. It needs more Latin Jazz like Mongo Santamaria or Tito Puente, and some of the older stuff, especially Ellington/Strayhorn. Spotify is your friend.
http://www.westword.com/music/ten-e...t-jazz-but-want-to-become-more-versed-5693096

And check out where Bluegrass is heading these days, there's some cool work being done. Steep Canyon Rangers.

If you think Jazz is a very big word, classical is huge, it seems people lump in anything that's been formally written and arranged (rather than improvised) into the classical pile, so you get everything from Medieval chorales to the Star Wars soundtrack on classical radio.

Mikie, are we taking too many liberties with the "Free Zone"

 

Please check out Ozric Tentacles (trippy prog rock), Spyro Gyra (modern fusion), and Peter Gabriel's The Last Temptation of Christ (featuring Armenian duduk)



Also, I highly recommend RHCP BSSM and Miles Davis Kind of Blue, both of those albums were many years ahead of their time.

Com Truise is one of the few DJ's who has his own style:



Skinny Puppy - Warlock. One of the leaders of the industrial movement. They don't give a Sh!t what you think. This song kicks ass.



After the Burial - Your Troubles Will Cease and Fortune Will Smile Upon You - 8 string guitar - sick heavy



Last, but not least, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones. Electric banjo, best bassist in the world, fusion.



I love music. Do drugs that work. Enjoy.

 

Modern fusion sounds like an interesting genre, but Spyro Gyra has Bossa Nova-inspired sounds, which also falls under Jazz (like Blues does).

I used to like what was categorized as "epic/movie trailer" music:



Basically, if they found a way to combine a diva-level voice on top of epic/movie trailer music and made it high energy and emotional, I'd like to hear it.

 

The main issue I have with classical is jazz chord (chords that have 4 or more unique tones) are disallowed. Very sad/bland.

The two most avant garde musical styles IMHO are metal and jazz. And if you can fuse the two (like Animals as Leaders) you're WAY ahead of your time.

 

That example sounds more like movie soundtrack music to me. If you like that, it's cool...

 

This is as close as it gets to metal for me:



I think it's called Symphonic Metal. Not sure if even this plays on the radio, but it's really popular in Europe. I'm looking to get away from more well known genres, including this.

Looks like this music group, Rise, bills themselves as what I tried to describe as something between classical and rock/pop, but this piece is pretty average. They even tried to use the rep of Evanescence and Within Temptation to boost themselves.

Got to give props to the young guys out there in other cultures trying to do fusion. A culture that apparently believes their forms of ancient music heals and expert practitioners of it are doctors.

 

If you are interested in Indian type stuff, there is some influence on one of the world's most talented drummers:

The Arabic type beats are badass as well.

Sounds like you are interested in some new form of music and you're getting bored of the older stuff?

I really like John Scofield "A Go Go", jazz/funk fusion with MM&W. RATM is rap/metal fusion that is really good.

If you get *really* bored, check out Mr. Bungle, warning: they're eccentric...

http://www.spin.com/2014/05/mike-patton-biggest-vocal-range-octaves-chart-music/

I don't know much about New Age music, sorry. I just realized this but it seems to be relaxing and slower tempo...

 

I was just seeing what "modern fusion" sounds like if it weren't "modern Jazz fusion". Ratatat is a well known one that fuses electronic with hip-hop. Didn't mean to imply I'm a fan of this stuff, like it, or interested in it. I'm just in "discovery mode" right now, exposing myself to a variety of stuff that is relatively unknown or seeing where the top limits of music seems to lie. I checked out Mike Patton, but wide vocal range without much of anything else doesn't really impress.

Innovation in music is what I'm hoping to find, but haven't really discovered anything besides the 3 I listed in first post that seem to resonate with my tastes, and those are a bit on the shallow side compared to the "epic movie trailer" stuff I've heard. I've been exposed to soundtracks in other media, but even that's kind of lacking depth, energy, and emotion in it. For example, games published by Electronic Arts have access to big name composers and orchestral groups ($$$), not too unlike how Universal Pictures, MGM, Columbia, etc. offers access to not only big name composers, but also expertise in cutting edge computer graphics and effects.

I figure, with there being universities researching music and educating future composers, there should be something cutting edge in new music. Just turning my focus away from the conventional bands and singers that contracted deals with music labels and are happily racking up the cash (10-25% of record sales, ~75% of ticket sales), to those on the edge of known music boundaries trying to expand it, even better if they have good preparation to be successful at it, without being too far on the classical side.

Not sure why people are reading too far into the title and "genre" categories, and ignoring the context. The music shouldn't be old; ideally it should be new stuff that builds up on what was learned from good old music. The music should not be constrained to established genres where there are arbitrary rules that limits the sounds. It doesn't need to be done by young people or new artists. If you like an old band like Rush and they happen to be still playing today, and have adapted their sounds to expand on what they've learned in the past to sound fresh/new and still impressive, that's what this thread needs--Good new music with appreciable impressive talent, that preferably energizes and evokes emotion, and not just different nor something that you need be bored to bother listening to. If it breaks genres, that's a plus, but if it's good example of what specific genre can offer that can be universally liked by non-fans (perhaps this example of electronic), that's a plus too.

 

Then I suggest you check out avant garde musicians at NY's Juillard school, for example. Miles Davis attended but dropped out.

 

Mike Oldfield? (ignore the cheesy vids and focus on the music)

 

Have you checked out Dream Theater? I don't like their singer much but that entire band is extremely talented prog rock band with keyboard.

Here's a cool King Crimson cover by DT:

I would also suggest music from Amazon, Africa and aboriginal Australia perhaps:

start @ 1:06:

Oh, I forgot Relayer by Yes, that's way out there...

Liquid Tension Experiment (prog rock badass):



Don't forget this one (jazz fusion with some classical influences): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aura_(Miles_Davis_album)

It's truly amazing...

 

Mike Oldfield... curious because he was included on the Windows 7 installation and I didn't expect anything like that, but still sounds like something my old man listened to... after hearing the Australian Aboriginal music, I started to think back to Disney songs like in the Lion King. Then thought of the singing performance of Aladdin's A Whole New World, seeing where my standards lay compared to music I grew up on.

Liquid tension was pretty interesting, but I went looking in the other direction for less electronic and less hard/harsh sounds. Just feeling around, listening to things like Erhu covers, I find myself gravitating to the Far East for music. I normally prefer more depth than just 1 instrument/performer, but this gave me insight on how emotion can sort of be "modulated" or "flowed" through the keys:

 

The main thing to look for in any musical piece is dynamics (louder vs. quieter passages). If that is lacking, as is typically the case with a lot of the heavy metal bands, then it does seem amateur at best after a while.

Tool is a good example of a progressive rock band with decent dynamics. It's always nice to have a vocalist who can sing, scream and yell all in one neat package. Other good examples are Chris Cornell (circa 1994) and Phil Anselmo.

I know it's commercial but I've been listening to a lot of Tears for Fears recently as I grew up on the 80's music. Esp. "Everybody wants to rule the world". Nice song.

You can also check out Rabbit in the Moon, they're an electronic DJ outfit, interesting sounds as I recall.

 

Varaxis, check out Snarky Puppy and Jacob Collier. Youtube em, let me know what you think.