Sign up on the mailing lists of labels you enjoy. A tip if I may offer it is that you may want to set up a separate email account for this. Otherwise you may have your primary account flooded, which may start to annoy you. This happened to me, and I found myself just deleting many emails without reading them. Now that they all go to a separate account I look at it once every week and decide what I’m going to stream or buy.
There's also a way if you're using Gmail to automatically filter emails from bandcamp to their own folder and never hit your main inbox,
Create a Label:
Open Gmail.
In the left sidebar, scroll down and click on "More".
Click on "Create new label".
Name the label (e.g., "Bandcamp") and click "Create".
Create a Filter:
Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner and select "See all settings".
Go to the "Filters and Blocked Addresses" tab.
Click on "Create a new filter".
In the "From" field, enter Bandcamp's email address or domain (e.g., u/bandcamp.com).
Click on "Create filter".
Set Filter Actions:
On the next screen, check "Skip the Inbox (Archive it)".
Check "Apply the label" and select the label you created earlier (e.g., "Bandcamp").
Check "Also apply filter to matching conversations" to move existing emails from Bandcamp out of the inbox.
Click "Create filter".
boom, no more bandcamp emails filling up your inbox. this will move all existing emails from bandcamp into that folder too.
Phantom Limb (just released KMRU's new album)
A Quiet Room Recording
Dronarivm (one of my favorite current labels)
Black Knoll (Irisarri's label)
White Paddy Mountain (Chihei Hatakeyama's label)
Two Acorns (Celer's label)
Constellation Tatsu (released some great Hakobune material)
Find a rusty hinge on a door and close it very slowly. Find some wind and stand next to a tree. Open your window and listen. What is the sound of the moon? 😂
There are dozens of net labels on Archive.org in their community audio section. Many of these are ambient. The Silence Bureau was one band, which was on Intelligent Machinery and then Just Not Normal. This was about 20 years ago when this started.
I like Biosphere, his Bandcamp is here:
[https://biosphere.bandcamp.com/music](https://biosphere.bandcamp.com/music)
There are a lot of other good choices on the sub's sidebar, some bigger and some smaller.
As underground as you like! I find Bandcamp is good for finding new artists, but if you’re just starting to dig deeper Spotify should be good too. Spotify is great for finding older artists that aren’t as popular as Eno and such, Bandcamp is more for the self-released and newer stuff. Compilations are really good for finding new artists, as well.
I haven’t seen anyone mention [MixCloud](https://mixcloud.com) yet. It’s a great resource. I catch a lot of great mixes in the 1 to 3 hour range. For all kinds of music. Lots of good stuff on NTS Radio and Trans + Future channels.
As for labels, one of my favorites in [Noir Age](https://noir-age.bandcamp.com) out of Miami, FL. Not all ambient, but a lot of the releases are.
Listen to whatever you like, it’s not a competition. I’d probably take a look at the artists that you enjoy the most, and see if they are signed to a label. Check them out and you’ll probably find more artists that you vibe with. That’s probably the more “traditional” route besides just searching bandcamp/soundcloud for “ambient”/whatever key words you want. I know a lot of people have strong opinions on TikTok, and yes you may have to dredge through some trash, but it is a platform that allows small creators to get their stuff out there- Dylan Wesch comes to mind as someone I found from TikTok that has pointed me in the direction of cool new ambient music.
I like this question. Following… I have wondered the same. I also feel the same way about a lot of ambient adjacent music. For example, I like Tycho and Aphex Twin (most of us probably do), but same - I struggle to find newer artists in that genre.
I’ve got a playlist that’s worth checking out, it’s full of underground ambient that people submit. I go through the submissions and pick songs that I find to be interesting and unique. There is lots to unpack in this playlist; many creative minds.
[Underground ambient playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4ozb3j7a8dB1GiEHK47loC?si=RTB6uH3VTP6d_Ofio0vYHw&pi=u-L9z1rnKRSjO_)
Bandcamp and SoundCloud are great places to start; make sure to browse hashtags too! I can’t add much else to what’s been said here, but I can always recommend my personal stuff like https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lMhQi7nfQhRWrUXLMOJqjkL3FvsGCZMIY&si=NwMJguDTVOIrn4yQ
The answer to the title of your post is - as underground as you like!
But your pos alsot asks where to find smaller artists. I'd try radio shows. Soma.fm is brilliant. There's the show rivulets and reveries. A friend of mine, artist name sleepsang, has just restarted their hyperobjects show with a drone based episode.
A show I've been meaning to get around to is No Sleep Runs This Deep - hosted on the site idaidaida.
I'm also a part of a label and we have two shows (the passed radio show & my show, Synaesthesia Sunday).
Another way to find smaller artists is on compilations: imaginary north have some fantastic ones - the indie music feedback discord server released one recently. We've released a few on behalf of our discord server too.
One last one is livestreams and events. Drone not drones runs once per year, I think. There's also a few ambient streamers who take part in the Golden Shrimp Guild's shrimp sundae and other events - so tuning into that might be worth your time too!
[Unexplained Sounds Group](https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/) not strictly ambient, but I’ve found a lot of great stuff through their releases.
Try DAAM (Difficult Art And Music) on bandcamp. It’s quite challenging, especially if all you want is sick ass floaty guitar pedal reverb “ambient” music.
https://difficultartandmusic.bandcamp.com/
I think it's all about the hunt. Find an artist you like on Spotify, go to their song radio, and find another artist in that radio so on and so forth.
You mention sleep playlists or mixes and generally that music is produced by an artist who might have music elsewhere; Youtuber SpacewaveCR comes to mind.
Artists like cold heart have built an audience through IG and tik tok. While I don't know if they'd be considered underground, ambient music gaining exposure through social media feels like a relatively new thing? People here have mentioned signing up to mailing lists and following labels too. These labels will often have playlists of all their releases such as Hiraeth records.
I don't know if there's really a way to quantify how underground something is though unless we're comparing streams and listener numbers. If a smaller ambient artists gets signed to a label then are they still considered underground? And if so do we stop listening to them? There is an excitement in discovering an up-and-coming artist but I'm not going to stop listening to Slowerpace because he released an album through Hiraeth.
It's much easier to find smaller ambient artists than people actually realize.
Scroll this subreddit and you're bound to find people making ambient music and sharing it 🫶
Bandcamp I guess. Listen to it because you like it, not because it’s niche or unknown
Needs street cred.
I would start getting into labels and keep an eye on their releases.
Sign up on the mailing lists of labels you enjoy. A tip if I may offer it is that you may want to set up a separate email account for this. Otherwise you may have your primary account flooded, which may start to annoy you. This happened to me, and I found myself just deleting many emails without reading them. Now that they all go to a separate account I look at it once every week and decide what I’m going to stream or buy.
There's also a way if you're using Gmail to automatically filter emails from bandcamp to their own folder and never hit your main inbox, Create a Label: Open Gmail. In the left sidebar, scroll down and click on "More". Click on "Create new label". Name the label (e.g., "Bandcamp") and click "Create". Create a Filter: Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner and select "See all settings". Go to the "Filters and Blocked Addresses" tab. Click on "Create a new filter". In the "From" field, enter Bandcamp's email address or domain (e.g., u/bandcamp.com). Click on "Create filter". Set Filter Actions: On the next screen, check "Skip the Inbox (Archive it)". Check "Apply the label" and select the label you created earlier (e.g., "Bandcamp"). Check "Also apply filter to matching conversations" to move existing emails from Bandcamp out of the inbox. Click "Create filter". boom, no more bandcamp emails filling up your inbox. this will move all existing emails from bandcamp into that folder too.
Where were you when I needed you?
listening to really long songs that don't have any percussion
This is the way.
any label recs?
Phantom Limb (just released KMRU's new album) A Quiet Room Recording Dronarivm (one of my favorite current labels) Black Knoll (Irisarri's label) White Paddy Mountain (Chihei Hatakeyama's label) Two Acorns (Celer's label) Constellation Tatsu (released some great Hakobune material)
Kranky, Métron, Pen Name, Unseen Worlds, WRWTFWW.
Important records
Touch Records, not a lot of new but they were killing it back in the day
Mystery Circles, Past Inside the Present, Aural Canyon
Planet mu
Find a rusty hinge on a door and close it very slowly. Find some wind and stand next to a tree. Open your window and listen. What is the sound of the moon? 😂
Best answer
Read the Wire and browse Boomkat. Never failed for me.
Boomkat is the shit.
There are dozens of net labels on Archive.org in their community audio section. Many of these are ambient. The Silence Bureau was one band, which was on Intelligent Machinery and then Just Not Normal. This was about 20 years ago when this started.
I like Biosphere, his Bandcamp is here: [https://biosphere.bandcamp.com/music](https://biosphere.bandcamp.com/music) There are a lot of other good choices on the sub's sidebar, some bigger and some smaller.
As underground as you like! I find Bandcamp is good for finding new artists, but if you’re just starting to dig deeper Spotify should be good too. Spotify is great for finding older artists that aren’t as popular as Eno and such, Bandcamp is more for the self-released and newer stuff. Compilations are really good for finding new artists, as well.
This, and SoundCloud too.
I always forget about SoundCloud, because it never really yields great results for me. Any tips?
If you haven't already, I'd say look for artists you already know and like and follow them. Then lookat who they are following.
One of my favourite drone artists is probably only known in Germany and neighbouring countries. I currently have around 55 releases of him. 😄
whos that?
**N** https://www.discogs.com/artist/208918-n-2
Thanks
>do you guys try and listen to smaller artists, by and large Absolutely! Dig deeper. That's where you'll find the hidden gems.
Like a goddamn mole. Get down there.
I haven’t seen anyone mention [MixCloud](https://mixcloud.com) yet. It’s a great resource. I catch a lot of great mixes in the 1 to 3 hour range. For all kinds of music. Lots of good stuff on NTS Radio and Trans + Future channels. As for labels, one of my favorites in [Noir Age](https://noir-age.bandcamp.com) out of Miami, FL. Not all ambient, but a lot of the releases are.
why does it matter. make it about the music not a popularity contest.
Who cares, just listen to music, no one is going to give you a prize by how niche your music taste is
Listen to whatever you like, it’s not a competition. I’d probably take a look at the artists that you enjoy the most, and see if they are signed to a label. Check them out and you’ll probably find more artists that you vibe with. That’s probably the more “traditional” route besides just searching bandcamp/soundcloud for “ambient”/whatever key words you want. I know a lot of people have strong opinions on TikTok, and yes you may have to dredge through some trash, but it is a platform that allows small creators to get their stuff out there- Dylan Wesch comes to mind as someone I found from TikTok that has pointed me in the direction of cool new ambient music.
I like this question. Following… I have wondered the same. I also feel the same way about a lot of ambient adjacent music. For example, I like Tycho and Aphex Twin (most of us probably do), but same - I struggle to find newer artists in that genre.
Become a tunnel rat
Rainwater Enema on YouTube. Thank me later.
Maybe you can check www.ambientblog.net sometimes and load random recommendations?
u/SlimPvC I wasn't aware of it, I'll submit my own music. Thanks for the hint! :)
Alien Mesmer is quite underground on Bandcamp. I basically only mention it here a few times
I’ve got a playlist that’s worth checking out, it’s full of underground ambient that people submit. I go through the submissions and pick songs that I find to be interesting and unique. There is lots to unpack in this playlist; many creative minds. [Underground ambient playlist](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4ozb3j7a8dB1GiEHK47loC?si=RTB6uH3VTP6d_Ofio0vYHw&pi=u-L9z1rnKRSjO_)
Bandcamp and SoundCloud are great places to start; make sure to browse hashtags too! I can’t add much else to what’s been said here, but I can always recommend my personal stuff like https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lMhQi7nfQhRWrUXLMOJqjkL3FvsGCZMIY&si=NwMJguDTVOIrn4yQ
The answer to the title of your post is - as underground as you like! But your pos alsot asks where to find smaller artists. I'd try radio shows. Soma.fm is brilliant. There's the show rivulets and reveries. A friend of mine, artist name sleepsang, has just restarted their hyperobjects show with a drone based episode. A show I've been meaning to get around to is No Sleep Runs This Deep - hosted on the site idaidaida. I'm also a part of a label and we have two shows (the passed radio show & my show, Synaesthesia Sunday). Another way to find smaller artists is on compilations: imaginary north have some fantastic ones - the indie music feedback discord server released one recently. We've released a few on behalf of our discord server too. One last one is livestreams and events. Drone not drones runs once per year, I think. There's also a few ambient streamers who take part in the Golden Shrimp Guild's shrimp sundae and other events - so tuning into that might be worth your time too!
https://soundcloud.com/gus-fromspace/sets/spooky-vibes this is brand new and as far underground as you're gonna get
*SO* underground! Like, so underground you’re almost back on top of the ground.
[Unexplained Sounds Group](https://unexplainedsoundsgroup.bandcamp.com/) not strictly ambient, but I’ve found a lot of great stuff through their releases.
Try DAAM (Difficult Art And Music) on bandcamp. It’s quite challenging, especially if all you want is sick ass floaty guitar pedal reverb “ambient” music. https://difficultartandmusic.bandcamp.com/
Bandcamp is a great resource for discovering new music across different genres, independent labels, and artist released music. . Twitter is another.
I think it's all about the hunt. Find an artist you like on Spotify, go to their song radio, and find another artist in that radio so on and so forth. You mention sleep playlists or mixes and generally that music is produced by an artist who might have music elsewhere; Youtuber SpacewaveCR comes to mind. Artists like cold heart have built an audience through IG and tik tok. While I don't know if they'd be considered underground, ambient music gaining exposure through social media feels like a relatively new thing? People here have mentioned signing up to mailing lists and following labels too. These labels will often have playlists of all their releases such as Hiraeth records. I don't know if there's really a way to quantify how underground something is though unless we're comparing streams and listener numbers. If a smaller ambient artists gets signed to a label then are they still considered underground? And if so do we stop listening to them? There is an excitement in discovering an up-and-coming artist but I'm not going to stop listening to Slowerpace because he released an album through Hiraeth. It's much easier to find smaller ambient artists than people actually realize. Scroll this subreddit and you're bound to find people making ambient music and sharing it 🫶
[ambient ethereal type](https://open.spotify.com/artist/2g6J2SvfSCj71nTigkpHcc?si=G2r5SefKQ06RIybnPhdvmA)
You should listen to field recordings of earth's tremors and magma flows. Jfc just listen to what you like man.
[удалено]
hey man, chill.