Sample the weird – and the wonderful – on International Strange Music Day. What’s that, you ask? Well, International Strange Music Day – on 24 August – encourages people to listen to a type of music they don’t normally listen to. It’s an invitation to venture down the sonic rabbit hole and discover bizarre sounds.
It’s easy to always stick with your favourite genre. But, let’s be honest, in the grand scheme of things it makes for a bland musical diet. Experiencing various types of music is good for you. Studies prove that different genres of music affect the mind and body in different ways. Ambient house, chillout and downtempo music helps with focus. Smooth jazz relaxes the body, pop music helps improve endurance and classical fights depression and sparks creativity.
New music gives your brain a workout too. “You may not be aware of it but your brain has to do a lot of computing to make sense of it,” claims one Johns Hopkins otolaryngologist.
Be adventurous on International Strange Music Day. We’ve enlisted some of our DJ and producer pals to lead you out of your comfort zone with their International Strange Music Day album recommendations…
Dave Seaman
International Strange Music Day recommendation: Tune-Yards Sketchy (4AD)
Genre: Off-kilter indie pop
What it’s like: It’s experimental whilst still being enjoyable, boundary pushing whilst still retaining pop sensibilities. A celebration of outsider art pop.
Listen because: I’ve been a big fan of Merill Garbus and Nate Brenner’s off-kilter indie pop for several years and Sketchy encapsulates all that’s great about their music.
My strange music message: Listen to a wide array of musical styles so you don’t get stuck with tunnel vision syndrome that club music can perpetuate.
Giorgia Angiuli
International Strange Music Day recommendation: Timo Krantz Ambient mt. 174-963 (MT Recordings)
Genre: Ambient
What it’s like: Ambient music created with special frequencies called solfeggio frequencies. I love this album very much because it gives a sense of peace and helps me to feel more relaxed.
Listen because: These special tones are well-known to balance our energy and keep our body, mind and spirit in perfect harmony. The artist titled each track with the tone he used. For example, 639 Hz – Connecting/Relationships.
My strange music message: Different music opens different pathways and responses in our mind. It’s so important to expand our thinking and different music helps us to be open minded and feel different emotions.
Lobito
International Strange Music Day recommendation: Mort Garson Mother Earth’s Plantasia (Homewood Records)
Genre: Psychedelic plant Moog music.
What it’s like: Psychedelic music for plants with feelings or music for psychedelic people who think they’re plants.
Listen because: It might help you grow. Literally, this is an album that was specifically made to make houseplants happy.
My strange music message: Music is built on experimentation so by definition anything innovative is strange. If you don’t expand your musical boundaries you can’t ever create anything new.
Rudosa
International Strange Music Day recommendation: Aril Brikha Deeparture In Time (Art of Vengeance)
Genre: Electronic
What it’s like: It’s not a million miles away from the 4/4 electronic music I play and work with on a daily basis but it’s far deeper. I play this when I want to unwind or am travelling on a long trip.
Listen because: Its hypnotic melodies and organic use of vintage drum sounds always keep me entertained. It’s relaxing but at the same time great to get lost in and lose track of time.
My strange music message: I always try and find music that isn’t what I play in my sets just to draw influences into my own productions. I tend to have mainly obscure music on my Spotify as it’s a good release from techno.
Mick Wilson, PaperMacheTiger
International Strange Music Day recommendation: Silver Apples Oscillations (Kapp Records)
Genre: Electronica, but really, I haven’t got a clue. ‘Strange’ is the best category to place this in.
What it’s like: This is completely out there – electronica folk meets psychedelia and indie acid. It’s a series of sonnets dictated over an electronic backdrop of drones and noise. It’s pretty strange stuff but when you dive deep it’s quite innovative.
Listen because: You won’t hear anything like it ever again. Some have attempted to create something similar but never capture the same raw, bonkers-ness this portrays in a serious manner. Bands like Add N to X have taken influence from these guys.
My strange music message: It’s very important to open the ears and the mind to the possibilities that live outside what we class as the norm. Be odd, be weird and rejoice in it!
Somersault
International Strange Music Day recommendation: Shigeto No Better Time Than Now (Ghostly International)
Genre: Electronica, maybe IDM.
What it’s like: Deep, wonky instrumental hip-hop out of Detroit. This album is all about super lush sound textures paired with organic, complex rhythms and mind-expanding sound design. The tracks all feature a mix of acoustic and electronic sound sources, as well as a sublime balance of played and programmed musical elements. The end result is something incredibly technical in its layering and production but sounds completely honest and accessible. It’s an album that doesn’t demand your attention but supports you to really envelop yourself in its details if you allow it.
Listen because: The Rhodes in Soul Searching is enough of a reason on its own. My heart melts a little bit every time I hear those chords come in, even after nine years. Listen to the album to appreciate just how engaging instrumental music can be in the less-trodden territory inbetween banging and ambient. Put the album on in your lounge room while sitting in a comfortable position with the lights down and see where it takes you.
My strange music message: With our music consumption habits being completely changed through algorithm-curated streaming services, I think it’s incredibly important to spend time seeking music that hasn’t passed the process of market approval. Music is completely subjective and what is different from the norm will resonate with listeners who choose to seek rather than settle on their music choices. There is an endless supply of inspiration on tap for those willing to seek it.
Vander
International Strange Music Day recommendation: Tego Calderón El Abayarde (Jiggiri Records)
Genre: Reggaeton
What it’s like: Medicine for the soul.
Listen because: It’s good to learn from different cultures.
My strange music message: Although I don’t like the term “strange music”, I think it’s very important to listen to music we normally don’t listen to in order to get new inputs from different niches and sub-cultures. Also, it helps us to realise there is much more out there than what we do.
Anthony Pappa
International Strange Music Day recommendation: The Future Sound of London Lifeforms (Virgin)
Genre: Leftfield, dub techno, ambient, downtempo, experimental.
What it’s like: In one word, it’s brilliant.
Listen because: It’s different, inspirational and experimental.
My strange music message: Listening to strange music – or music I wouldn’t normally play as a DJ – is a good way to draw outside-the-box inspiration and ideas for my own productions.
Sumluv
International Strange Music Day recommendation: Alan Hawkshaw Frontiers of Science (Bruton Music)
Genre: Electronic/stage and screen
What it’s like: We describe this album as the original soundtrack for an intergalactic trip between planets. It’s like a story, and the more deeply we listen to the album the more magic it delivers. Definitely a gem in our personal collection.
Listen because: This is one of the most incredible synth-based records. It has a dark vibe but also beautiful and iconic moments. This is where you’ll probably find the most beautiful pads and arpeggios in the whole world. Our favourite tracks are Sky 1, Eternity and Voyager.
Our strange music message: It’s kind of easy to listen to the music that appears at the top of the main music apps, but if you dig deep you find gems that probably can influence or change your vision. If you’re into music production you need new inputs. Listening to strange or different music, for us, is a must.
Omer Tayar
International Strange Music Day recommendation: Múm Finally We Are No One (FatCat Records)
Genre: Indietronica, folktronica, dream pop, glitch pop.
What it’s like: Dreamy, playful and quirky in the most beautiful way.
Listen because: The band consists of an Icelandic bunch that met while operating a theatre for kids. You can clearly hear their inner child is very much alive and present in their music. It’s beautiful, experimental and almost naive at times without being pretentious. It can be eerie, a bit haunting, but in the most perfect way. They regularly use toys to build beats or play tunes and the playfulness of their music is pure inspiration.
My strange music message: Working in the music industry, we sometimes forget the word ‘music’ is derived from the Greek word ‘muse’. It’s always refreshing and exciting to encounter music with a distinguished feel to it. We never know what will inspire us. Sticking to the things we already know is convenient but not challenging. Strange music can be intimidating and scary but it can also become your muse – inspiring and even life-changing.
Elif
International Strange Music Day recommendation: Warpaint Exquisite Corpse (Rough Trade Records)
Genre: Indie rock, art rock, psychedelic rock, dream pop, maybe a little shoegaze.
What it’s like: Emotional, ethereal, lush, psychedelic and hypnotic.
Listen because: Warpaint is a super cool all-female band. For me, around a decade ago, their name symbolized putting on some kind of make-up, either a happy face or warpaint, ultimately being strong and getting on with your life after a failure or break up. I never avoid feelings. To be able to put that warpaint on, you need to heal by feeling all the downs, not going around but going through the pain. I remember how well their tracks helped me through a painful break up or just the blues, both in my headphones or at an intimate gig. I love how much emotion they can transmit with taunting vocals, intricate melodies, dreamy atmospheres and spacey textures.
My strange music message: Listening to ‘strange’ music challenges your predisposition to like something that is familiar to you while pushing you to adapt to new types of arrangements, timbres, tempos, different structures, different time signatures, even completely different instruments and harmonies. It makes you relate to music in a different way, especially if you are producing or playing music in a certain genre.
By learning to appreciate different soundscapes, you are expanding your soul to the unknown, and it’s exciting. I believe listening to different music makes you think differently, feel differently, react differently. You can get fresh ideas and push your own creative boundaries. The strange becomes the norm after it gets enough attention – keeping you at the cusp of innovation.
Rashid Ajami
International Strange Music Day recommendation: Jahnavi Harrison Like a River to the Sea (Mantralogy)
Genre: Kirtan/world music
What it’s like: This type of music feels like a journey. It’s rich, warm and emotional. Listening to this music is like meditation. One could describe it as music for the soul.
Listen because: It opens the heart and helps us be mindful and at peace. Emotive yet grounding, it’s something especially needed in the digital and busy world we live in. Rooted in ancient traditions, it also takes us on a journey in time.
My strange music message: It’s so important to broaden our musical exploration. It’s the same as travelling to different countries or eating new types of food. In order to learn, feel and be inspired, we need to explore the beautiful variations of music that exist.
Simon Doty
International Strange Music Day recommendation: Buddy Magnolia (I Am Other)
Genre: Hip-hop/rap
What it’s like: On Type of Sh*t with Wiz, I love the unmistakable sound of the Prophet 6 synthesis fused with tough drums. It’s basically the same two elements I use in my tracks but in the totally different context of hip-hop with Buddy’s LA flow on top.
Listen because: The production by Mike & Keys is quality. I’m less concerned with the lyrical content of modern hip-hop. The vocal is just another instrument in the arrangement but I just love the beats and vibes.
My strange music message: It’s important to listen to different music because you never know where inspiration will come from. I’ve found samples, vocals and melodic elements from countless genres outside of electronic music that continue to inform and influence my productions. You need to mix it up!
Batavia Collective
International Strange Music Day recommendation: Oval Voa (Uovooo)
Genre: Organic electronic, ambient, experimental, folktronica fusion.
What it’s like: South American folk meets glitchy electronic music legend Markus Popp.
Listen because: The album is a bizarre yet wonderful journey, a gorgeous resonant sound palette. It features some guitar rambles and spine-tingling vocals from Agustin Albrieu, Aiace’s luscious folklore style chants, Hana Kobayashi’s inventive pop sensibilities, two soulful interpretations of an Oval classic from Maité Gadea and laptop songwriter Andrés Gualdrón.
Our strange music message: Variety is always good. Listening to different kinds of music and styles helps us to be better musicians, to expand our horizons and find out new things about production techniques and musical composition. Every musical style can teach us different lessons about what it means to play.
Back N Fourth
International Strange Music Day recommendation: Fever Ray Fever Ray (Rabid Records)
Genre: Electronic pop
What it’s like: It’s dark but has really good synth elements and random drum patterns, which give a real moody vibe. It really reminds us of Björk with some Sia in the mix also. A really unique sound with some really strange vibes going on.
Listen because: The production has some real spaced out feels, although some tracks are dark on the album some of the synths are really moody and feel good. The vocals are really creepy and strange but powerful at the same time.
My strange music message: Listening to the same music all the time as a producer would really leave you one dimensional. Listening to a wide range of music really helps develop your ear for new sounds and arrangements.
Main photo: Ryan Howerter/Unsplash
