 Obscure Sound's logo | |
Type of site | MP3 blog |
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| Available in | English |
| Created by |
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| URL | www |
| Launched | 2006 |
Obscure Sound is an mp3 blog launched in the mid-2000s by Mike Mineo. The website is updated daily with articles and reviews covering a range of musical genres, including indie rock, indie folk and electronica.
Obscure Sound began as a small mp3 blog in February 2006. [1] Before launching Obscure Sound, founder Mike Mineo wrote for PopMatters [2] and Stylus Magazine . The website's noted focus on music that is "obscure" is outlined in its mission statement, which states a preference to feature "artists you’ve never heard of before."[ better source needed ] As such, New York Times journalist Jon Pareles identified that Obscure Sound "gather[s] hard-to-find songs for listeners to download directly." [3] Similar to other online music publications, Obscure Sound publishes reviews, interviews, videos, editorials, and forums.
In some cases, Obscure Sound has premiered underground music that later becomes popular. For example, following a feature published by Obscure Sound in 2010, The Guardian featured Canadian electronica artist Grimes as their feature "New Band of the Week" in 2011.[ better source needed ]The Guardian quoted Obscure Sound in their description of Grimes for her "late-night driving songs, hangover antidotes, [and] exotic lullabies." [4]
Obscure Sound has been featured in many publications and media worldwide. In addition to theNew York Times and The Guardian, Obscure Sound has also been featured in the Boston Globe , The Toronto Star , The Independent , The Observer , Wired , BBC Radio 1, Stereogum , New York Magazine and VH1’s "Best Week Ever." [5] In 2012, CD Baby included Obscure Sound on its list of "The Top 100 Must-Follow Music Resources on Twitter." [6] In 2013, Refinery29 included Obscure Sound on its list of "The Best Music Blogs That Aren't Pitchfork." [7] When NME printed its final issue in March 2018, Descrier News published a list of alternative "magazines, blogs, and zines that have replaced [NME]," which included Obscure Sound alongside other online music publications. [8] Their end of year lists have been used on the review aggregrate site Metacritic. [9]
Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock or "guitar pop rock". One of the primary scenes of the movement was Dunedin, where a cultural scene based around a convergence of noise pop and jangle became popular among the city's large student population. Independent labels such as Flying Nun began to promote the scene across New Zealand, inspiring key college rock bands in the United States such as Pavement, Pixies and R.E.M. Other notable scenes grew in Manchester and Hamburg, with many others thriving thereafter. In the 1980s, the use of the term "indie" started to shift from its reference to recording companies to describe the style of music produced on punk and post-punk labels. During the 1990s, grunge and punk revival bands in the US and Britpop bands in the UK broke into the mainstream, and the term "alternative" lost its original counter-cultural meaning. The term "indie rock" became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status. By the end of the 1990s, indie rock developed several subgenres and related styles, including lo-fi, noise pop, emo, slowcore, post-rock, and math rock. In the 2000s, changes in the music industry and the growing importance of the internet enabled a new wave of indie rock bands to achieve mainstream success, leading to questions about its meaningfulness as a term.
Indie pop is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and subsequently generated a thriving fanzine, label, and club and gig circuit. Compared to its counterpart, indie rock, the genre is more melodic, less abrasive, and relatively angst-free. In later years, the definition of indie pop has bifurcated to also mean bands from unrelated DIY scenes/movements with pop leanings. Subgenres include chamber pop and twee pop.
Teen Dream is the third studio album by American dream pop duo Beach House. It was released on January 27, 2010 as the band's debut album on the record label Sub Pop. Internationally, the album was released by Bella Union in Europe, Mistletone Records in Australia, and Arts & Crafts in Mexico. The album was produced by the band and Chris Coady.
Smother is the third studio album by British indie rock/dream pop band Wild Beasts released on 9 May 2011 by Domino Records. It reached #17 in the UK Albums Chart. According to the band, it represents a more synthesiser-based sound than previous efforts, influenced by "moving to Dalston", Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector, minimalist composer Steve Reich, noise pop duo Fuck Buttons, and Mary Shelley's book, Frankenstein.
100% Publishing is the seventh studio album by English grime artist Wiley. It is named "100% Publishing" because the album was written, produced and mastered in its entirety by Wiley while working independently of a label. Big Dada re-signed Wiley to release the album and was released on 20 June 2011. The first single, "Numbers in Action", was released on 5 April 2011.
Claire Elise Boucher, known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her early work has been described as "lo-fi R&B." Overall her work has been categorized as synth-pop, electropop, art pop, indie pop, dream pop, and experimental pop and also incorporates dance, hip hop, and rock. Her lyrics often touch on science fiction and feminist themes. She has released five studio albums.
Visions is the third studio album by Canadian musician Grimes. It was released through 4AD on February 21, 2012. Her first since signing with 4AD, the album was recorded entirely on Apple's GarageBand software in Grimes' apartment over a three-week period. It was mixed by Grimes and her manager, Sebastian Cowan, at their La Brique Studio Space in Montreal. Visions was streamed on the NPR website a week before it was released in the United States.
Kill for Love is the fourth studio album by American electronic music band Chromatics. It was released on March 26, 2012, by Italians Do It Better. On May 7, 2012, a drumless version of the album, containing 11 songs with no percussion, was made available by the band for free download.
Shrines is the debut studio album by Canadian electronic music duo Purity Ring. It was released on July 20, 2012, by 4AD. Purity Ring recorded the album separately at home over several months, sending their parts via email. Shrines has been described as an electropop, synth-pop, dream pop, and indie pop album, incorporating hip hop-inspired production and "striking" lyrics. It was produced by Purity Ring, with additional production by Jon Hopkins.
Planta is the fourth studio album by Brazilian indie rock band CSS. It was released on June 11, 2013. The album was produced by David Sitek. It is the band's first album recorded without guitarist Adriano Cintra, who left the band in November 2011.
Dead is the debut studio album by Scottish indie group Young Fathers. It was released on Anticon and Big Dada on 31 January 2014. The album was the winner of the 2014 Mercury Prize. On 2 November, Dead entered the official top 100 UK album chart for the first time, four days after their Mercury success, debuting at number 35.
English Graffiti is the third studio album by English rock band The Vaccines. It was produced by Dave Fridmann, with co-production from Cole M. Greif-Neill at Fridmann's New York studio. The album was released on 25 May 2015 through Columbia Records and charted at #2 upon release. The album marked the band's first release in two years, following the Melody Calling EP, and their first full studio album release in three, following Come of Age in 2012. Young stated that Fridmann was chosen due to both his track record in making "consistently fantastic records". It is the last album recorded with drummer Pete Robertson, who left the band after completing their 2016 U.S. tour.
Art Angels is the fourth studio album by Canadian musician Grimes, aka Claire Elise Boucher. It was digitally released on November 6, 2015, through 4AD, and in physical formats on December 11. Boucher began planning the record in 2013 as the follow-up to her third studio album, Visions; however, for unknown reasons, she scrapped most of the material from these sessions and began a new set of recordings in 2014. The track "Realiti", which came from the earlier recordings, was released as a demo in early 2015.
Beach Music is the sixth studio album by American musician Alex G, released on October 9, 2015, through Domino Recording Company, his first album under the label.
C86 is a cassette compilation released by the British music magazine NME in 1986, featuring new bands licensed from British independent record labels of the time. As a term, C86 quickly evolved into shorthand for a guitar-based music genre characterized by jangling guitars and melodic power pop song structures, although other musical styles were represented on the tape. In its time, it became a pejorative term for its associations with so-called "shambling" and underachievement. The C86 scene is now recognized as a pivotal moment for independent music in the UK, as was recognized in the subtitle of the compilation's 2006 CD issue: CD86: 48 Tracks from the Birth of Indie Pop. 2014 saw the original compilation reissued in a 3CD expanded edition from Cherry Red Records; the 2014 box-set came with an 11,500-word book of sleevenotes by one of the tape's original curators, former NME journalist Neil Taylor.
Twentytwo in Blue is the second studio album by American indie rock band Sunflower Bean. It was released on March 23, 2018 under Lucky Number in the UK and Mom + Pop Music worldwide.
EARMILK, sometimes stylized in all caps, is a North American online music publication. Launched in the late 2000s by Montrey Whittaker, Blake Edwards and Eric DeFazio, Earmilk publishes on a variety of music genres, often covering hip hop, electronica and pop music.
Otherness is the second studio album by English musician Adam Bainbridge, under their solo project Kindness. It was released on October 13, 2014 through Mom + Pop Music and Female Energy.
1000 Gecs is the debut studio album by American hyperpop duo 100 Gecs. It was released on May 31, 2019, through Dog Show Records two days after the single "Money Machine" was released.
Miss Anthropocene is the fifth studio album by Canadian musician Grimes, released on February 21, 2020. It marked her first album in over four years, since she released Art Angels. It was officially announced on March 19, 2019. The album's name is a pun on the feminine title "Miss", and the words "misanthrope" and "Anthropocene", a neologism popularised in the year 2000 by Paul J. Crutzen that was proposed to denote the current geological age the Earth is in. The album is a loose concept album about an "anthropomorphic goddess of climate change" inspired by Roman mythology and villainy. Miss Anthropocene is Grimes' final album on record label 4AD, to which she has been signed since 2012. The album is darker in style than Grimes' 2015 album Art Angels, containing inspiration from the sounds of industrial music.