If I like synthwave music, which other genres should I pay attention to?
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A subgenre Shredwave is pretty sweet as its synthwave with like 80s shred guitar
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Some things off the top of my head would be the more dance-y contemporary side of Synthwave - something like Occams Laser - With You, or maybe more toward the Electronica side of things, like Birdy Nam Nam - Defiant Order. Daft Punk also work as a sort of Euro Disco kinda' distant cousin, too. At least these are the more upbeat proxies I know.
There's always Darkwave (The Neon Droid - Braindance), but it's like going from mild Indie to Nu Metal, so YMMV.
As a side note and potential rabbit hole, the first thing which popped into my head when skimming through that playlist was The Birthday Massacre - Science. I don't think they fall under Synthwave, but I find they do a wonderful job at incorporating the "synth" part into their unique voice!
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Synthwave sent me down the path of Vaporwave > Chillwave > Darkwave. There's a not-unrelated genre called Mallsoft. Somehow that got me into Library Music. I found a lot of music on Bandcamp and archive.org. You can get downloads of full albums and discographies for a few dollars, name your price, or for free.
If you're looking to do a deeper dive, the genre and sub genres are largely credited with being kicked off by Macintosh Plus - Floral Shoppe in 2011.
I listen to this stuff all day long while I'm working at home. My vaporware playlist is literally 7 days long (2350 songs). Here's some of my picks.
https://interloperecords.bandcamp.com/album/--7
https://9rhythm9.bandcamp.com/album/kmart
https://dreytnien.bandcamp.com/album/silicon-reality
https://obliqueoccasions.bandcamp.com/album/v1
https://obliqueoccasions.bandcamp.com/album/remnants
https://catsystemcorp.bandcamp.com/album/palm-mall
https://catsystemcorp.bandcamp.com/album/sunday-television-2
More Links
https://archive.org/search?query=synthwave
https://archive.org/search?query=vaporwave
https://archive.org/search?query=mallsoft -
darksynth
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Dance with the Dead?
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I thought your post said games for a second there and was excited to hear about synthwave games
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Some albums I like that are synthwave / vaporwave adjacent.
- The Weeknd - Dawn FM
- Saint Pepsi - Hit vibes
- Blank Banshee - Blank Banshee 0
- Burial - Untrue
- Unkle - psyence fiction
- Anything by massive attack
- DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
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Yea thats in the playlist I apparently forgot to link till now
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You could give Italo Disco a try, which is a predecessor to synthwave and a lot of electronic dance music.
A contemporary niche cousin that I liked to listen to a few years back is giallo disco, which is a contemporary imitation of dark synth music inspired by 80s Italian horror movies.
From there I progressed to trance and house, acid techno and other synth heavy dance music genres.
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Early 00-10s indie synth:
- Emancipator : Soon It Will Be Cold Enough
- All India Radio : Echo Other
- Boards of Canada
- Four Tet: There is Love In You
- Tycho : Awake
Similar video gamey music:
- El Heurvo : A Thing With Feathers
- Scattle : Sketch
- Com Truise
Early dubstep:
- Mala : Eyez
- Burial
- Zomby
- Skream
Late 90s breakbeat:
- Crystal Method : Vegas
- ILS : Bohemia, Music,
- Evil Nine : You Can Be Special Too
- Adam Freedland : Now & Them
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Outrun, obviously.
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Great suggestions everybody! Many thanks
