samedi 11 Mar 2006, 23h09m

I posted this over in the Instrumental music that makes you feel recommendations thread, but I spent enough time on it that I figured I might as well share it with everyone. Basically, it's a list of "instrumental" artists I enjoy; I've tried to refrain from listing many of the more well known artists. If I've missed any or you know of artists I may enjoy, please feel free to comment!

Post Rock:
1 Mile North (very ambient/minimalistic)
A Silver Mt. Zion (a GY!BE offshoot (very traditional Post Rock), some albums have a few lyrics but they're very tasteful)
Colleen (again on the ambient side; reminiscient of múm).
Do Make Say Think (traditional)
Don't Mess With Texas (traditional, but very good)
Fly Pan Am (another GY!BE offshoot; different, good, not my favorite)
Hrsta (again, a GY!BE offshoot; there are some occasional, but very played-down lyrics. One of my personal favorites)
Mono (fairly traditional, but another favorite of mine)
Rachel's (very classical-oriented; incredibly good)
Set Fire to Flames (yup, ANOTHER GY!BE offshoot; this one is much more on the ambient/noise side)
Saxon Shore (upbeat, fairly EITS-influenced)
Sonna (traditional)
Tarentel (ambient/noise)
The Evpatoria Report (traditional, reminiscient of Saxon Shore)
The Six Parts Seven (moderately traditional, but slower. very good.)
The Swords Project (very indie-influenced)
This is a Process of a Still Life (traditional, but pretty upbeat)
World's End Girlfriend (noise/japanese influenced)
Yndi Halda (traditional, pretty upbeat, very EITS-ish)

Noise/Noise Rock/Math Rock:
Agata (Noise/Noise Rock; solo project of Melt-Banana guitarist)
Animal Collective (very indie-influenced; lots of lyrics, but the tracks where there are none, or at least very few, are amazing! Check out Visiting Friends; the rest of that album is great, too.)
Battles (Math Rock; mixture of ex-Don Cab, ex-Helmet, etc. members)
Dianogah (Math Rock with a Post Rock influence)
Don Caballero (in my opinion, the greatest Math Rock band ever. Absolutely stunning stuff)
Hella (amazing Math Rock/Noise Rock)
Lightning Bolt (very heavy japanese influenced Noise/Noise Rock. Not for everyone)
Merzbow (simply stated: noise.)
Nisennenmondai (pretty heavy japanese Noise Rock)
OOIOO (more japanese Noise Rock; a little more on the playful/electronica side.)
Paul Newman (great Math Rock)
Rumah Sakit (more great Math Rock)
The Books (no "traditional" lyrics, but lots of talking; indie-influenced, similar to Animal Collective; very good)
The Mercury Program (Math Rock but with a fairly heavy electronica feel)
Tyondai Braxton (Math/Noise Rock; also a member of Battles; interesting and good)
Volta Do Mar (more amazing Math Rock! very good stuff, especially At the Speed of Light or Day)

Ambient:
Boards of Canada (one of my all-time favorites! Often classified as IDM. Very intelligent song structures; endless facets)
Brian Eno (the pioneer of ambient music)
Eluvium (big favorite of mine! Lambent Material is amazing)
Labradford (a bit on the Post Rock/electronica side, not one of my favorites)
Max Richter (very Post Rock and classical influenced)
Oval (more on the glitch/noise side)
Pan American (Labradford member's solo project)
Robert Rich & B. Lustmord (great dark-ambient stuff; check out their solo work too)
Scorn (dark/industrial ambient)
Stars of the Lid (awesome)
Susumu Yokota (heavy Japanese influence, very good)
The Dead Texan (very similar to Stars of the Lid; very good)

Metal:
Green Carnation (plenty of lyrics in most of their stuff, but their album Light of Day, Day of Darkness is amazing!)
Isis (great heavy instrumentals)
Jesu (occasional lyrics, tasteful, very good.)
Pelican (a big favorite of mine; amazing stuff)
Sunn o))) (dark/doom/metal drone/ambient… interesting stuff)

A fair number of the artists I've listed have a number of tracks with some lyrics, but the vast majority of these tracks use them in a VERY unconvential manner (used much more as another instrument than traditional lyrics); don't be scared off by them just because you're looking for new instrumental artists! Apropos, there were two artists I really wanted to list, but they are very much considered "traditional" with respect to lyrics: My Bloody Valentine (circa Loveless) and Cocteau Twins (circa Blue Bell Knoll). I urge you to relisten to them as the artists intended! Don't focus on the fact that someone is singing, but let it blend into the other layers as if the sound wasn't being produced by human vocal chords; in fact, that's the whole reason the lyrics are either inaudible/incomprehendable or completely nonsense/made-up words.

I really tried to refrain from listing electronica and classical/contemporary classical artists (since they're instrumental by nature and not really the focus of this group), but a couple might have slipped out.

EDIT: fixed a few tags.