Looking for new genres...

Ladysmith Black Mambazo does various types of South African choral music, some flavored with pop. Sardinian choral music , such as that of Tenores di Bitti, is also interesting (think middle-eastern prayer-caller meets barbershop quartet). For something more exotic, try throat (or overtone) singing, such as that of Huun-Huur-Tu.

Here is something you may find new and hopefully interesting. This is the kind of stuff I tend to listen to as well as flamenco and other world beat genres. I find this quite wonderful. The CD title is "Khrishna Lila" by "DJ Cheb i Sabba". The sound quality is quite good, a tad bit to the right of neutral like so many recordings these days. The CD is a sampling of well known indian devotional ragas but with twist of kinder & gentler infusion of DJ electronics without going overboard. Tracks 6 through 9 are all fantastic.

Here is a review by someone named NUSRAT DURRANI:

"dj Cheb i Sabbah’s long-awaited release Krishna Lila completes his trilogy of beautifully crafted LP’s inspired by Vedic mythology and the art and science of dance music. Shri Durga, (1999), a paean to the Goddess Durga (the sister of Lord Krishna according to The Puranas, (ancient Sanskrit scriptures), was theme music for a utopian, futuristic fantasy created from the essence of ancient ragas, modern technology and diverse cultures. It was an ambitious and unusually accomplished album that quickly became a cult classic and is a staple for DJs, seekers of Hindu spirituality and people with heart and soul alike. Extracting mellifluous tunes, swirling rhythms and burning beats from a stellar cast of musicians including the late Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, Ustad Sultan Khan, Bill Laswell and Mala Ganguly, Cheb i Sabbah’s first album was an intoxicating excursion into trance and tenderness that is copied to this day.

MahaMaya, (2000), the remix project, was inevitable and innovative. A host of DJs from the "Asian underground" movement were itching to de-scramble Shri Durga’s genetic code and re-interpret the tunes. In Sanskrit, "mahamaya" means "greater illusion" and reflects the transient nature of things. In keeping with this concept, tracks like Shri Durga and Ganga Dev, were transformed by premiere global dance outfits such as Transglobal Underground, State of Bengal and Fun-da-mental. The album’s standout cuts- Bally Sagoo’s hallucinogenic take on Kese Kese and TJ Rehmi’s tripped-out remix of Durga Puja are considered club classics stateside and in Europe.

Cheb i Sabbah’s latest tribute to the Gods, Krishna Lila (the divine pastimes of Krishna), is an album of bhajans sung in praise of Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and traces the evolutionary arc of this gifted and spiritual artist to a new high. A bhajan is a simple song sung in praise of God that conveys complex truths, and Krishna Lila presents this devotional style of classical Indian music in a modern context that is easily accessible, soulful and liberating. Most bhajans were written in India between the 14th and 17th century and cover a spectrum of musical styles that range from chants (dhun) to the more sophisticated thumri, a light classical style of singing practiced in North India. The best traditional bhajans are distinguished by their poetic content and were made famous by the great saint-musicians like Mirabai, Surdas and Kabir.

An attempt to reinvent an ancient and evolved art form that celebrates the Gods would be a daunting task even for a trained local musician. For an "outsider" to succeed in this project would be unlikely at best. Yet, Cheb i Sabbah has crafted a classic that is deceptively simple at first blush but underneath its skin has the skill and complexity characteristic of a true work of art. Krishna Lila has a fragile, fragrant beauty that lingers long after the disc has stopped playing. Like all his projects, Cheb i Sabbah has approached this one with reverence for the culture it represents and has taken no shortcuts. The album has been in production for two years. Most of the musicians were recorded in Madras, Bombay and New Delhi, India, and others in New York and San Francisco. Sung in five different languages, it is strewn together like acoustic jewellery, the common thread being bhakti yoga (devotion) to Krishna. Lustrous, new gems are interspersed with uncut traditional pieces that echo timelessness not often heard on a CD.

Krishna Lila is organized in two parts. The first five tracks recorded in South India are evocative of Krishna’s pastimes in the garden of Vrindavan.
Dressed in garments of gold, and with an orange flower tucked behind his ear, he wanders through the garden playing his magic flute. The gopis (cowgirls) are entranced by the sweetness of the music. Some are bathing in the nearby pond. They emerge, still wet and askew. Others are breastfeeding their babies but cannot wait to set their eyes upon Krishna. They trip through the cool grass. Drunk on the melody of the flute they sway through the trees until they finally feast their eyes upon him and fall to the ground to kiss his feet.

The next four tracks are recorded in North India and include vocals and some instrumentation in the distinctive thumri style. The album opens with Narajanma Bandage, based on raagam Dharmavati, sung in Kannada by Baby Sreeram and recorded in Madras. It creates a slow, sensual and swirling samadhi (trance): the Blue God has appeared in the incandescent moonlight. After torrential rain and a graceful violin solo, singer Baby Sreeram returns to the full moon night of Vrindavan to deliver in the Tamil language, Maname Diname, one of Krishna Lila’s highest points. Her voice weaves in out of Bill Laswell’s erotic bass line and Karsh Kale’s beautifully restrained percussion. Tiny white flowers burst against the spiritual sky. Anjali, an instrumental, gently breaks the intensity. The gleaming, curvaceous notes of A. K. Devi’s Saraswati vina, a string instrument like the sitar, hold it together. This first journey ends with Raja Vedalu, a rapturous drum n bass bhajan in Sanskrit that seems to accompany the gods as they thunder across the sky to the sound of Vedic chanting in praise of Lord Vishnu and his consort Lakshmi.

Krishna is worshipped as the eighth avatar (incarnation) of the supreme god Vishnu and one of the heroes of the Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. To many Hindus he represents rupa (divine beauty), prema (divine love) and lila (playful actions associated with the divine). He is said to perfectly represent two forms of love- vatsalya (motherly love) and madhurya (sweet passionate love). Legend has it that Krishna had 16,108 wives and each one worshipped him more than the other. Krishna Lila is Cheb i Sabbah’s homage to the Blue God’s lovers and also pays tribute to his role as a nayaka (ideal hero). Lagi Lagan, based on raga Bilas Khan, was recorded in Bombay and begins the second part of the album. It has young bhajan singer Radhika crying a poem of Mirabai in Vrajbasi, a North Indian dialect. Her sensual voice is carried on the soft bed of bass and percussion like a bride in a palanquin on the shoulders of men. A bittersweet flute, rendered by Deepak Ram, follows her to Krishna. She is wedded to his feet.

Tum Bin Shyam (without you, Krishna), an instrumental thumri, is delicate and pure. Pandit Ulhas Bapat’s santur spreads slowly like a fire traveling over a sea of tabla and percussion. On the other side is a street, in a city, in another time, where again, Radhika is singing Rupa Tujhe Deva (your divine form) in Marathi, a potent cocktail of rave and rapture based on raga Mishra Pilloo that rides high on Sufi beats. The album closes on a languid, contemplative note with Govinda, based on raga Bhairavi, an instrumental that washes us gently ashore with some ravishing exchanges between the two brothers, K. Sridhar and K. Shivakumar on sarod and violin.

Krishna Lila arrives at a poignant time when millions of troubled people are looking for answers to the question: what has gone wrong with the world? Although it is a celebration of a Hindu God, it has a universal appeal much like Sufi music and invites you to seek answers through the worship of God, love and goodness. It works on both the spiritual and sensual levels and is a drunken mix of timbre and tone, body, beats and soul.

Cheb i Sabbah is a bird or a saint. He was spinning magic rhythms in Paris in the 60s. He was a part of the iconoclastic troupe The Living Theatre. He was born in Algeria, is a cult figure in San Francisco and has a Hindu and Sufi heart. He dresses in crimson and smokes clove cigarettes. He has worked with jazz trumpeter Don Cherry and produced live concerts with a host of musicians including qawali maestro Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. With his music Cheb i Sabbah is bringing together the traditions of Asia, Arabia, Africa and the West. He is known as a dance floor mystic and has a sadhu’s hair. Krishna Lila is a spacious and uplifting album that is wide open for interpretation.

Only Cheb i Sabbah could have delivered this to us."

Here are some music links:

http://www.echoes.org/essgenres.html
http://www.allmusic.com/

Here are my favorite record labels and their artists:

http://www.projekt.com/projekt/artists.asp
http://www.cleorecs.com/

Happy Listening

Rich

http://www.echoes.org/

Any more recommendations. please?

I like Tavener's "Thunder Entered Her."

Thanks guys, great recommendations. I'm quite familiar with World music, especially with its Celtic stream, didn't listed it assuming it's a subclass of Folk. I guess I'm looking for kind of 'upgraded' world music, something like Peter Gabriel's 'Passion', with high level of emotional and structural complexity...
Neoclassics is new for me, and I really liked John Tavener, Arvo Part, have to try others yet. Just curious how good is the last Tavener's CD from RR? And, in general, which their CDs to start from?

Dmitrydr-I would doubt you could even exhaust the genres you like.
Try reading related music magazines on the genres you like,you are bound to find new artists both similar and different to ones you like.
Try www.allmusic.com this is a great website because it always has related artists and descriptions of musical genres and sub-genres.
Related to what T bone mentions you could try Ambient music with great musicians like pianist Harold Budd or indeed the Eno classics.
Your descriptions are a little vague-have you tried Jan Garbarek who is pretty hard to catergorise due to the different types of music he's produced.
As such as much as some Audiogoners can help you really need to do the ground work yourself as only you know what you've heard and how far you are willing to test your tastes.
Good luck.

Try some "world music" or modern classical. In the category of "world music", if you like vocal music, you might try flamenco (try El Cameron), Fado (Mariza, or A. Rodriguez), or some of the work by Portuguese group Madredeus. You might try also some African music (try South African "Iscathamiya" (sp?) music, and Mbalax from Senegal (Youssou N'Dour is the most famous practitioner)). You could also try Algerian Rai music or other north African music. I don't much care for the pop-ish aspect of much Rai music but it's worth a listen to learn about it. If you haven't had much exposure to tango music, I would suggest you give it a try - I love it and think it is addictive. Cuban music has gotten more exposure since Buena Vista Social Club but not many people have dig much deeper and there is a lot there if you like the genre. Other things Ry Cooder (who helped bring BVSC to market) has delved into are also worth a listen (try Vishwa Mohan Bhatt's guitar/sitar-like Indian 'classical' music).

Otherwise, if you haven't and are so inclined, you could also try "modern" classical music such as works by John Rutter, John Tavener, Arvo Part, Philip Glass, or John Williams. I happen to be a big fan of Arvo Part and Tavener.

Punk rock despite being nowdays already too trivial and traditional has a unique blends with other styles if applied with contemporary literacy:
How'bout Country Punk?
Positively I'd define the genre that is performed by "Frigg a go-go" band.
Jazz Punk is more famous and can be represented by more bands such as "Lounge Lizards", "Curlew", "Pere Ubu"(previousely playing at more traditional punk rock)... George Cartwright from Curlew had made his few solo albums in similar style.
----------------------------------------
Jazz derivatives and some examples
----------------------------------------
Jazz have lots of different directions and styles but I wouldn't define anything well-known such as Jazz-Funk or Fussion...

Art-Jazz
I'd define something beyond improvisation - more close to the organized composition or opus that definitely may have all neccessary division of a classical composition such as prologue, development, coda or whichever applies. The composers and musicians that represent this genre are Phillip Johnston and Lindsay Cooper as far as my knowlege goes.

Progressive Jazz
I'd define as a blend of Fussion, Ambient and Funk together in one where musicians, composers although represent the same style but seem totally different from each other. I still can't distinguish Charlie Parker from Gerry Mulligan or Artie Show from Harry James because they represent the same style and play alike. That isn't the case with Progressive Jazz that had been evolved throughout years of musical development... The representatives of such style are too many but few of them are David Sylvian, Ruichi Sakamoto, Fish for Fish, Arsenal(Russia).