r/alternativemusic

Everyone talks about “genre”, but the most alive bands broke that cage a long time ago.
I’m not drawn to the straight line — I’m drawn to the one that bends, cracks, gets dirty.
The sound you can’t place anywhere, the one that slips out of the frame.
That’s where I feel the blood.

Hello to anybody that may see this, i’m not expecting many answers but i’m not sure where to go for music and this is the closest i can think of. For the past few years i’ve gotten really into this certain genre of music and i’ve never been able to fully grasp what it is. i only ever hear music like this in the background of videos. it’s more of an ambiance and mellow tone but it gives off some… ethereal, liminal, divine feeling?? i haven’t been able to collect many samples or songs over the years but here are a few that i do have if you recognize any

Anthony Septim - Eternal Fog (Album)
Mac DeMarco - 20200229 2 (Song)
Machine Girl - Uzumaki 0:24-0:26 (Clip, but the song has similar parts)
Machine Girl - Because I’m Young Arrogant And Hate Everything You Stand For 1:22 (same with uzumaki)

This really is just a shot in the dark, i’ve had friends tell me it sounds like sleeping music lol. but i never seemed to get a grasp, anyways if you happen to know what i’m talking about, please please please help me out. Thank you!!

I would love to know about any classic alternative songs/albums/artists that I need to listen to as well as ones that are more obscure and lesser known!

Hey my friend made this song for the girl he didn't even date, its his fourth song, I would really appreciate if you can support him..

Also Spotify link: https://open.spotify.com/track/20wgOnXAGx2VPPqfiBPsAx?si=4cbaa2f9f2584f92

So these are the tracks featured in Freak Havoc this week https://www.mixcloud.com/freakhavoc/freak-havoc-110526/ . It’s the usual mix of cutting edge new music alongside cult and classic tracks by artists that Influenced the genres:

Car Seat Headrest - Destroyed by Hippie Powers
Modern Woman - Johnnys Dreamworld
Irked - Who Asked?
Thee Headcoatees - Davy Crockett
Tom Emlyn - A Series of Misunderstandings
Worn Thin  - For Myself
American Football - No Feeling (feat Brandon Yates)
PVA - Enough
Smashing Pumpkins - Rhinoceros
Ratboys - Light Night Mountains All That
Tropical Fuck Storm - Chameleon Paint
Black Flag - Black Coffee
Fig Dish - When Shirts Get Tight
Adrian Belew feat David Bowie - Gunman
Beak> - Yatton
Benton - Wanna Be Like You
Jefferson Airplane - Young Girl Sunday Blues
Alexis Taylor & Mike Simonetti - Perfect Kiss
Aldous Harding - Venus in the Zinnia (feat. H. Hawkline)
Billy Fuller - Three Blind Mice
Ora Cogan - High Noon
Kim Gordon - Play Me
Deary - Seabird
Roxy Music - More Than This 
Weird Nightmare - Where I Belong
Folk Bitch Trio - Foreign Bird
Hannah Cohen - Golden Chain
Anita Lane - The Next Man That I See
Wickr Spgt - Francois Mitterrand

Anything in there that you like?

Okay so here is what happened.

I was at my friend's place last night. There were maybe eight of us, drinks, music on shuffle in the background, everyone talking over each other the way you do. And then "Don't You Leave Me Now" by Brian Struk came on.

I had it in a playlist I shared to the speaker and I had genuinely forgotten it was in there. And within about thirty seconds, two separate conversations stopped. Someone said "wait, who is this?" Another person said "this voice." And then we all just kind of listened.

That's the moment I decided to write this post. Because I've been following Brian Struk since 2020 and I have watched this slow, quiet, inevitable build happen in real time, and I am baffled that more people aren't talking about him.

Let me tell you what I know.

Brian is based in Dublin. Makes Alternative POP. But those two words don't really cover it. The production is layered and modern without chasing trends. The melodies are the kind that live in your head for days without you noticing they moved in. And the voice. I need to talk about the voice.

He has this vibrato that doesn't feel like a technique. It feels like a physical response to what he's singing. On "Don't You Leave Me Now" it comes in at exactly the moments where the lyric breaks open and it just undoes you. Same on "Pain Sneaks In," which is a different kind of song but hits with the same emotional precision. And then there's "TAKE ME," which I'd describe as the track where you realize this is not a guy who stumbled into a good sound. This is someone who knows exactly what he's doing with every single element.

The songs are about something real. Faith. The weight of personal growth. The parts of yourself you're still negotiating with. He's described art as his way of communicating, weaving stories through music, visuals and metaphors, and you can hear that intention in every track. Nothing feels accidental.

Now here's the part that makes his story genuinely wild.

Before the music, Brian was a professional magician. Not the casual kind. He performed hundreds of shows for major international brands including Dell, Red Bull and Crowne Plaza. He appeared on Got Talent. He built a career in live performance that most entertainers would consider a full and complete thing in itself, and then he pivoted, completely, into making music. He studied Music Production in Dublin and worked with Billboard number one mixing engineers. He does everything himself, production, cinematography, video editing, graphic design, the whole creative world around his music is his own hand.

He also has a high end velvet shirt line worn by celebrities. Which sounds like a separate thing but somehow makes total sense when you understand how he operates. Everything is deliberate. Everything is considered. There is a creative philosophy running underneath all of it that he actually wrote a book about called The Vision, which I have read and which I think about more than I should.

He's approaching 800,000 views combined across YouTube. Independently. No label machine. No playlist payola. Just the work.

If you want a place to start: "Don't You Leave Me Now" for the voice. "Pain Sneaks In" for when you want something that sits with you. "TAKE ME" for when you want to understand what this artist is actually capable of.

I've been watching this build since 2020 and something feels different right now. The numbers are moving. The word is spreading. Last night was the first time I've seen it happen in a room in real time and I needed to put it somewhere.

That somewhere is here. Go listen.