The endless void of music and genres is immense and feels like a black hole. I’ll never know it all. I don’t think it would be possible to make even a microscopic dent. This year, I’ve listened to 1,502 new songs, totaling to 106 hours and 15 min, or five days. That may seem pretty small in the grand scheme of things, but that’s only counting the first time I encountered the song. That does not even begin to encapsulate how many times I’ve replayed the immaculate gems that I have been lucky to hear, including “Seattle Party” by Chastity Belt and the album “Multi-Love” by Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Those are big finds if you aren’t yet aware.
Luckily, there’s Every Noise At Once, a website that will entirely terrify you or excite you, depending on your feelings toward vastness. Every Noise At Once consists of a scatter-plot that charts musical genres based on algorithms and an insane amount of data. There are 1,536 genres on the chart. Once you click on a genre, you are taken to another scatter-plot for artists that fall under the genre. You will spend an unreasonable amount of time exploring and listening on the website.
The website fully encapsulates my feelings toward music. The creator, Glenn McDonald explains the beauty of this resource: “You might not want to abandon your old life and stay there with them forever, but youʼll go home knowing that there are other ways to live.” McDonald sums up the feeling of finding exciting, intriguing genres and artists that alter your view of music and broaden your scope as a listener.
Based on my current list of favorite artists, I accumulated a list of genres that I myself have been excited to understand, or peruse. Here’s the good word on them.
Preverb: Car Seat Headrest holds court in this genre as a quintessential artist. This genre falls between neo-psychedelic, the genre I always go back to, and bay-area indie. Preverb is a musical term that means the opposite of reverb. Essentially, it is playing the reverb in reverse. It began in the 60s, which is evident when listening. It is widely used by artists that fall under the term psychedelic. This adds that echoey, chamber noise prevalent in psychedelic music. While the word “preverb,” describes a technical aspect, the playback creates a unique sound found in this genre.
Garage Psych: This genre falls in the middle of four other genres: lo-fi, experimental, space rock, and chamber pop. The genre can be explained by imaging a garage band, angst-ridden and thrashing, but add in a warm, experimental vibe. The songs follow a free form with extensive room for improvisation, but the sound is raw. It’s an incredibly appealing combination of two genres that seem to juxtapose each other. Real Estate falls under this category, with their comfortable, easy approach to garage rock.
Freak Folk: Strangely, this genre falls dangerously close to Italian progressive rock on one side, and experimental on the other. This genre can also be defined as Psychedelic Folk. If y’all haven’t caught the trend yet, it’s that I’m into any and all things psychedelic. Freak folk combines psychedelic and acoustic sounds. It modernizes folk music while keeping evident roots. Take a gander at Grizzly Bear or Hiss Golden Messenger for prime examples. The amount of overlap between genres depends on the artist. Animal Collective is an extreme example of an immense amount of psychedelic influence, almost making the folk unrecognizable. In most cases, freak folk represents those artists that use acoustic instruments to create a psychedelic sound.
