Favorite non-anime/japanese artists?

[hayama]

Who are your favorite musical artists besides those who make anime music/are japanese?

Among mine are "art-rock" band Muse, the Swedish band Kent, and Icelandic Bjork. Those are artist who I consider to be sort of akin to those who make anime music, as their much of their music have the same dramatic, cinematic feel to them (at least to me anyway). I've also recently found a sort of tribal sounding Australian band, Dead Can Dance, that have really mystified me with their atypical sound. Again, very dramatic.

I also am greatly drawn in by Alternative and Folky artists like Rilo Kiley and Death Cab For Cutie, though recently the latter has become slightly annoying to me due mostly to some of the fans out there (I always hate seeing the lyrics to some of my favorite songs on some moronic "emo" teen's myspace). Though I do like Rilo Kiley's rock songs, I'm more drawn in to their folky music, and adore the lead singer's recent "solo" album, "Rabbit Fur Coat".

Another is They Might Be Giants, whom I've started listening to again after a three year or so fallout, and have been reminded of that quirkiness that originally drew me into them. I have aged a fair amount in the past three years though, and find myself listening to their serious works more than some of their more ridiculous songs, which is a bit difficult. Not many TMBG songs are serious.

[Fellini 8.5]

Ah, TMBG!  I saw them at a club in Buffalo, oh, maybe 15 years ago.  A great show then, and I hear it's even better now.  That said, I have a harder time getting into most of their post-"Flood" stuff, gems though there be.  Their lyrics are awesome, on paper, but somehow I'm no longer in sync with style.  I can appreciate it, but I just don't get into it that much.

My all-time favorite for at least 10 years now is Stereolab, a French band that's a little hard to describe.  Sometimes it seems like it's a sort of dissonant, repetitive droning, but when you dig into the heart of it, there's a fantastic pop sensibility, with catchy, untypical melodies, ethereal female vocals (in both French and English, sometimes switching in the same song), and a distinct lack of much in the sythesizer department beyond a classic Moog organ.  I really can't recommend them enough, though to dig beyond their more accessable "hits" may be a bit of an aquired taste.

In my "heavy rotation" lately when I've been in a bit of a "chill" mode (which is quite often these past few years), I've been listening to a lot of Röyksopp and Zero 7.  They're probably the ones I most enjoy out of the whole "Ibiza" club sound (trip-hop, trance, chill... whatever it is that genre is supposed to be).  They're heavy on the looping and samples, but they're usually of original instrumentals, and there's a bewitching layering of vocals, melodies, and rythyms that usually hit the mark every time.  A lot of fun, and it works while relaxing by the lake, taking a long drive, or getting work done around the house.  (of which I've only been doing 2 out of the three... go figure)

Other slightly older, yet worthy groups (in a similar vein) to look up would be Portishead, Massive Attack, and Single Gun Theory.

I like a wide variety of other stuff, but that should do the trick for now.

[Ombrenuit]

I think for all of us there are two different kinds of music we may or may not enjoy.

For the most part, and myself,  have music I listen to when I'm happy, music that makes me feel ecstatic, no worry in a world, having a great time, strong, slick, etc. We all have music like this that we enjoy, the kind of music we can share with our friends and listen in the car.

There is also music for some of us that is very personal, spiritual, that leaves us vulnerable, exposing our fears, our dreams, inspiring true love, deepest sorrow. This is the kind of music you don't normally find on the radio, the music you don't normally share aside from a few that are very close to you. The kind that makes you think and after you listen to it, you feel like you are a different person entirely, or at least, it inspires with a sense of truth, a sense of real life experience, sentiment, nostalgia, reflection. I'm not sure how to describe it.

For me, for the past two years, the band I keep discovering and re-discovering that fits both catagories, but maintains a sense of experience and reflection, sometimes ecstatic, sometimes despairing absolutely, would be the Cure. It was a band started in the late 70s and continues to make albums, though their most notable expansive, profound effort was the Disintegration album (winning them Best British Band in the early 90s).

Depending on my mood, there is always an era that reflects it, and in a poetic way I've never been touched with before, they have been able to express things to deeper then I, at least, never thought possible. None of their albums are the same at all, and they experiment with new styles maintaining a refreshing sound throughout their careers. They of course had their albums I don't like as much as others, some that took a long time to grow on me.

But if you have ever heard a song that seems to lift your spirits so much that you want to simply laugh it out, or a song that has made you want to cry with it's sad, truthful beauty, this is largely how I feel about this band. It has changed how I understand and feel about love. And oh so often it seems when I wake up feeling like the world has become a mess I can't pull apart, like waking up from the dream of yesturday--it has gotten so complex! I never understood it--and then clarity.

Yuki Kajiura is the only artist that feels the same way, as if the music is being made just for you. Like when you hear that song on the radio, and the guitar is going wild, but it never goes as wild as you would have liked, yet this band does everything to a dramatic satisfaction you have always been looking for. It achieves everything creativily that you always hoped it would. It's not trying to be anything, it just is, and it seems to reflect everything you have ever felt, something you feel you can understand, with a strange power and deep complexity, touching your truest thoughts and hopes.