Great music few are aware of. Any genre.


To start with :
1. Al di Meola - Cielo e Terra. Vinyl, Japanese sounds best,
2. Sussan Deyhim - Madman of God. CD.
3. Hellborg/Velez - Ars Moriende. CD, track Love Death Ritual.
4.Steve Roach/Jorge Reyes - Vine Bark&Spore. CD. Atmospheric, tribal ambient.
inna
"Aurora" by Jean-Luc Ponty and band.  Sort of the MJQ of fusion.  And very well recorded IMHO.
Although not unknown, Ojos de Brujo was as fine a band as I've ever heard.  Just a fascinating combo of influences, technique and energy.

In a different genre, Steel Pulse, particularly the early albums, were mesmerizing.
@hifiman5 ive been listening to the artists via Tidal, and haven’t been able to find any of the compilations on their discography.  We still have a couple of record/cd stores around here and I’ll check and see if they have any Stockfisch holdings.  I’ve really been enjoying Sara K., Allen Taylor and Sammy Vomacka thus far.
simonmoon, it is my opinion that it was primarily Emerson's keyboard playing that displayed and contained his classical training and knowledge, his writing less so. I find the ELP songs devoid of the musical sophistication, wit, and wisdom found in the work of Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks, Randy Newman, Frank Zappa, Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher (Procol Harum), and a few others. As always, just one opinion. It's all good!
rob, I like your style.

Further down the rabbit hole of epic stoner Doom Metal:

Sons of Otis -- Songs for Worship
Conan -- Blood Eagle
Bongripper -- Miserable

And, no one on this forum will like or be ready for this, but super fresh absolutely brilliant technical death core:

Rings of Saturn -- LugaL KI En

So many metal subgenres in my collection, don't tempt me to share further.

Resolving a violin concerto is one thing, but take one of these titles to a dealer to audition some gear. They might give you the piece for free to get you out of the store (almost a true story).



@stmike   My pleasure!  The "Closer to the Music" samplers are awesome.  No throwaway cuts at all.  If you haven't already done so, try to get a Stockfisch DMM-CD/SACD.  Fantastic sound quality!
@bdp24 

" Emerson got a lot of credit for being a "Classically" trained keyboardist playing Rock music. He did that, though, not by using Classical compositional knowledge to create new, song-form music, but rather by playing music written by Classical composers for an orchestra, in a Rock band."

This was only a small amount of Emerson's material. Most of his output were original compositions, informed by classical composition.

Tarkus, Karnevil 9, Take a Pebble, The Endless Enigma, Trilogy, just to name a few. 
I’ve been listening to a lot of the Stockfisch label recordings (per Hifiman5) over the past few days, and they’ve been bringing me much pleasure.  Thanks for the tip!
Les Nubians first album:Princesses Nubiennes, was released by Virgin worldwide in France, Switzerland, and Belgium in June 1998 before coming out on Omtown/Higher Octave in the U.S. in September of that year. It became America's most successful French-language album in more than a decade. Total love-making music. Strongly suggested you listen with another human of your choice.
"World's End" by Andwella, solo guitar work by Dale Kavanaugh ," Music for Solo Guitar","Toccata in Blue", and 20th Century Variations.  Cristina Azuma's solo guitar cd "Contatos" is stunning. 
orpheus10, Hellborg plays custom acoustic bass guitar, that's unusual instrument. Sussan Deyhim is a great singer, she moved from Iran to New York in her youth. She used to be a professional dancer over there. For Roach/Reyes also listen to Suspended Memories - Forgotten Gods -.

Inna, since you had one record I was familiar with I had to check the rest. Sussan Deyhim got a thumbs up, I'll have to get that.

Steve Roach- Jorge Reyes is worth another listen in a different mood.

In order to get into Helborg/ Velez, a few tokes on the hash/hish pipe would most certainly help; that music is other worldly.
Do take a listen of Yngwie Malmsteen with New Japan Philharmonic.
I think, youtube quality is better than that of Japanese cd that I have.
He is a great player whatever I might think of what he mostly plays. The orchestra is excellent too. He composed this.
Bluesy/psych rock: All Them Witches - "Our Mother Electricity"
Trippy/psych rock: Samsara Blues Experiment - "Long Distance Trip"

There is an absolutely incredible album from 1997 that few people are aware of: Greetings From Planet Love, by The Fraternal Order Of The All. The album’s title and the group’s name should give you a hint as to what the music and lyrics sound like!

It is a tongue-in-cheek parody of the psychedelic era, done superbly well. It is the product of Andrew Gold, a name that will be familiar to listeners of a certain age. For you younger listeners, look him up. You have GOT to hear it! Especially you, whart!!

+1 Chicken Shack. Stan Webb is fantastc. The Blue Horizon sessions is a great box set. I also have several other albums and a live DVD of Stan and sone of his current crew.

Maceo Parker has some fantastic albums. Fred Wesley too.

Jean Michel Jarre

Imelda May

The Waifs

Tony Allen

Nils Landgren

Hey Nigreta/Curse of Lono

The Boogie Patrol

Ron Armus 
Shout out for SnackeyP on Chicken Shack.   I love the combo of Christine McVie's vocals and Stan Webb's guitar.

I'd add Zachary Richard to the list.  He's a Cajun musician who plays across a great many styles and often sings in French.  His early live album "Fatras!" is great, high energy Cajun dance music featuring an impossibly young Sonny Landreth on guitar.  Much later, he recorded "Cap Enrage", a lovely collection of French language ballads.  In between were a series of great crossover records that blended pop, blues, rock, and Zydeco.
Visible Cloaks - Reassemblage

Juana Molina - Halo

And if you're not into wide spectrum electronica titles and into guitar tones and a dynamics work out, I HIGHLY second the Blake Mills - Heigh Ho recommendation. Room sound + insane engineering plus incredible musicianship and songwriting.
Hi inna,  Get Dream theater,  images and words,  Get the best recorded version,  this is progressive rock, How ever,  you will find out what your system is made of, 🎼🎶🎵
Allison Pierce - Year of the Rabbit

I found this one in Tidal’s Folk/Americana genre.

Allison has the voice of a melancholy angel. She writes nice melodic songs. Great album, IMHO.

For you vinyl folks, Amazon has this on vinyl and it was recorded in computer free analogue mode.
For rock try Mia Dyson - "Parking Lots" and "Struck Down"
For blues try Trampled Under Foot - "Badlands"
Gorecki: Symphony #3 (of Sorrowful Songs)  Available on vinyl as the soundtrack of the French movie 'Police'.

David Hykes / New Harmonic Choir: Hearing Solar Winds




Ryuichi Sakamoto - Async
Chuck Johnson - Balsams
Huerco S. - For Those of You That Have Never

Can’t get enough of those three albums. Pure bliss!! Highly recommended for anyone needing a brain vacation.

All available to stream on Tidal.  I have the last two on vinyl as well, a real treat.



The Asylum Street Spankers from Austin TX, part Texas swing, part vaudeville, astonishing musicianship and all acoustic. Sadly they broke up about 5 years ago, they never quite made it. Quite a few of their releases are on Tidal the rest Bandcamp.
Recent find for me is Steve Howell. Acoustic folk style blues, pre-war blues/jazz.
Yes! The Muleskinner album is fantastic, and that live TV appearance was put out on VHS tape. I don't know about DVD. Speaking of Peter Rowan, he joined Seatrain in time for their second album (s/t, produced by George Martin), and the version on that album of Lowell George's great song "Willin' " is my favorite.
Muleskinner--the quintessential hippie bluegrass band.  They made one album and there is an audio recording available of a local PBS TV appearance (probably wasn't called PBS yet, but...)
Peter Rowan, Clarence White, David Grisman, Bill Keith and Richard Greene.  Man, what a band!
Chicken Shack.  They are not well known but are pretty amazing late 60's/early 70's white blues from the U.K.
If you like jams you will like them.  No radio friendly material that I am aware of.  Even better...  
@toddverrone

Likewise about meeting another with similar interests in "electronica"
(though I'm all over the map on any given day, week, month)...

Hope you do spend some time at A Closer Listen.  Will be surprised you don't come away with a candidate for purchase.

In turn, I will see what I can find from djrum

A few others for you (and anyone else that's interested)...

Coppice Halifax - High Hawaiian Fog
Tangent - Collapsing Horizons
Fort Romeau - Insides (kinda old school sounding synths at the start)
Umbersun is great. Thanks. Might want to check out

SPK -- Zamia Lehmanni: Songs of Byzantine Flowers
Yeah Bill, and Emerson's grim ending was shocking. Not being able to play anymore was more than he could bear. Richard Manuel, pianist of The Band, did himself in too. Broke my heart, and Eric Clapton's too. He was a great admirer of Richard.
Jimmy LaFave
Start with "Cimarron Manifesto" or "The Night Tribe"

Poetic Austin (by way of Oklahoma) songwriter/rocker/Dylan devotee. His voice may not be to everyone’s taste. Think of a male early Lucinda Williams, the way his voice breaks and cracks. I like it just fine. He made great, rich music. He left us last May but his music deserves to live on and on.
Not talking about the ELP or prog stuff, just straight piano playing, classical style. No pretensions of it being prog or rock. Yeah, I dug the The Band quite a bit back in the day. I was simply giving Emerson his due for being a superb keyboard player.
Yup Bill, Emerson got a lot of credit for being a "Classically" trained keyboardist playing Rock music. He did that, though, not by using Classical compositional knowledge (ala Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks, Randy Newman, Gary Brooker, a few other Pop and Rock keyboardists, especially Garth Hudson of The Band) to create new, song-form music, but rather by playing music written by Classical composers for an orchestra, in a Rock band. For me, that didn’t work---it sounded silly. Pictures At An Exhibition, written by Mussorgsky for solo piano, but better known in the version orchestrated by Ravel, played by a Rock band? Uh, no thanks. In contrast, Garth Hudson used his knowledge of music theory to play great Classically informed parts in his organ playing in The Band. Matthew Fisher did the same in Procol Harum. That’s more like it! For me, at any rate.

@bdp24 - nope, didn't even know of Emerson 'til the first ELP record. Emerson was an amazing pianist and keyboard artist. There are video clips of him performing works of a classical nature. The whole "prog rock" thing got overdone, and lost traction, but I still listen to early ELP, I have a couple of The Nice on early UK pressings. 
Leslie West- a whole other story. Lon-guy-land boy as I remember. I first saw him and Mountain (with the great Felix Pappalardi) open for Tull right before Aqualung was released. (I think Glenn Cornick was still playing bass). Leslie was a tone monster. No shredding, no impeccable fingering technique, but he could pull more soul out of a few notes than many more technically proficient guitarists. (The leads in Theme for an Imaginary Western come to mind). 
FWIW, we went to hear Crimson a couple weeks ago. I wasn't a long time fan, only really cared about the first album, though I had passing familiarity with Red, Larks Tongue and a few other tracks from the Wetton era. (Greg Lake's voice on the first album was gorgeous, but got lost in the mix). This band put on one of the best shows I have ever attended- well produced, no sonic overload, tighter than hell- three drummers, everybody, from the woodwind player to the bassist, played dead on--
Very few "old" acts that are still around can even approach what they did in their heyday. These guys, from what I gather, are in better form than ever. Fripp, of course, was as inscrutable as ever- looking like a retired haberdasher or banker, sitting on a stool, conducting and occasionally playing these psychotic, psych fills on vintage Les Paul's that were run through synthesizers. Crazy good show if you can catch it. 
I think, it's their best album. Neo-classical dark wave par exellance. Quite different from what Malmsteen sometimes plays. But at times he does play great stuff.
@inna holy crunk man! That (The Umbersun by Elend) was epic! I can't say I've ever heard such a combination of styles/textures/sounds. Let the darkness in!
@ghosthouse Yeah, it's funny about that label name. The Ulrich Schnauss album came out before the record label existed.. not sure about the connection.

It's great to meet another member who appreciates electronic listening music. If you like a bit more movement to your chill electronic music, check out djrum. His ep 'mountains' strikes a great balance between calm and energetic. The tracks and nice and long too, so they develop at a stately pace. 

I'll certainly be checking out 'a closer listen'. Thanks for the tip!