[Radioactive Poltergeist]

I would also add Nass Marrakech. They are a North African band who play in the Gnawa tradition but also draw on Japanese influences and Afro-Cuban percussion and stuff. It is really awesome.

[atsonicpark]

Just listen to harry partch.

I dunno why. Just do it.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by DeadDiscoDildo

I've always been fascinated with combining beatlesque pop and classical music (even tho that's kind of baroque pop?)

sgt pepper's?

Originally Posted by DeadDiscoDildo

I also then started getting into lots of Greek music and found a connection between that and Surf Rock etc.

you know dick dale was from a diddle eastern family, right? in fact his first surf rock "hit" or whatever was simply an arrangement of a famous middle eastern song...

a look into wikipedia sez greek with turkish influences (greek refugees)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misirlou

Originally Posted by DeadDiscoDildo

So my question is: Any other kinds of obscure ethnic music/rare or just not mainstream classical music you guys would reccomend for me?

every unusual thing you could want and more is here. i'll save the enumeration & post you this link:
http://www.sublimefrequencies.com/

[fugazifan]

maybe van dyke parks would be up your alley

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by DeadDiscoDildo

I've got a good grasp on pop but I really want to explore the classical side than I currently have been.

sounds to me like youre ready to reinvent prog rock. i don't feel like writing an essay this morning ( sat morning for fucks sakes) so i'll let wikipedia do the talking (this is a good article and will point you to some bands that did i think what you want)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_rock

[Massassinated]

Originally Posted by fugazifan

you might like indonesian gamelan music.

THIS.

I particularly recommend Golden rain (on Nonesuch) and Gamelan Ensemble of the STSI Denpasar - Music of the gamelan gong kebyar, vol.1

[DeadDiscoDildo]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

sgt pepper's?



you know dick dale was from a diddle eastern family, right? in fact his first surf rock "hit" or whatever was simply an arrangement of a famous middle eastern song...

a look into wikipedia sez greek with turkish influences (greek refugees)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misirlou



every unusual thing you could want and more is here. i'll save the enumeration & post you this link:
http://www.sublimefrequencies.com/

Yeah sgt. peppers is great, when it comes to Baroque in the pop sense tho I am more prone to Pet Sounds I think.

Yeah Misirlou is an old Greek song I believe, that's what I meant. Like how I realized that surf rock was basically a guitar infused version of greek/turkish music. Then I found out Dick was Greek or from somewhere over there haha.

Oh shit I would love to work with Van Dyke Parks, he needs to break away from Daniel Johns and stop making that overproduced shit tho....

[DeadDiscoDildo]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

sounds to me like youre ready to reinvent prog rock. i don't feel like writing an essay this morning ( sat morning for fucks sakes) so i'll let wikipedia do the talking (this is a good article and will point you to some bands that did i think what you want)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_rock

Ah no no no no haha. The opposite way.

I like simpler music that focuses on the melody. I just wanted to broaden my horizens when it comes to world music and classical, to bring it in subtley, but not to re-work the song structures really. I try not to mess with odd time signatures really, they've never spoken to me like combining a solid melody and odd chord progression have.

King Crimson is rad and Pink Floyd duh but besides that I'm not in to any other prog bands really, especially the newer ones.

[DeadDiscoDildo]

Originally Posted by Radioactive Poltergeist

You don't really need to mix classical music and pop. I mean, if you listen to some of Mozart’s sonatas or operas you have the mix already and most people who go further end up producing awful music. I think the whole point of prog rock was to try and reproduce classical techniques in rock music, and the majority of talent less hacks who tried ended up producing pedantic and joyless music.

African music makes for some interesting mixes with Western music. Ali Farka Toure is a Mali musician who plays traditional folk music from Mali with strong influences from American Blues, which is pretty cool.

Most attempts to synthesize different styles of music don't really work. You end up with complete failures like Gogol Bordello. Although, Bela Bartok wrote some very good pieces based on Hungarian, Romanian and Gypsy folk music which is definitely worth listening to.

Hala Strana also comes to mind. They are part of the Jeweled Antler Collective and they play Eastern European music mixed with drone and such.

I don't know, I'm not sure if this helps or not.

No this helps. What I'm getting is that no matter ambition if you try to mix too much of classical with rock you will fail. I pretty much write pop songs, and I'm not really looking for something to throw in a bridge like gogo bordello when all of a sudden we go into a "kick yr legs in the air and dance around fiddle solo". I'm just looking more for melodies I haven't heard before or ways to ascend from certain chords and etc. into other things. Basically just trying to hear new shit. for example I got into buddy holly alot when I was younger, experimenting with the songs that would start with the chorus and repeat that throughout the song and there would be a few verses thrown in between. The first song I tried to write with that structure became my bands first big crowd fav/hit.

I'm really not trying to do prog but more like what the beatles and brian wilson did and etc. but I don't want to do it exactly like them. so instead of studying their music, I'd rather study the music that inspired THEM. and other music that have inspired people on other sides of the world and not just the west.


EDIT: there's also been alot of other recommendations since I last checked so give me a bit to look thru those, but thanks for keeping them coming and not making fun of me too much :-)

[atsonicpark]

Originally Posted by fugazifan

maybe van dyke parks would be up your alley

"Song Cycle" is one of my all time favorite albums. Good call.