Music · listening notes · discovery

Music discovery by conversation

From Nine Inch Nails to Ghost Dubs, Earth, and the search for slower music with more low end.

The useful part is refinement

Streaming algorithms know what I played. They are less useful when the request is: Earth, but with more low end.

An LLM lets the search move by correction. Mine started with the bass line in Nine Inch Nails’ “Sanctified”, passed through Trent Reznor collaborations and Ghost Dubs, then narrowed towards Earth’s slow, spacious guitar music.

The listening path became useful through successive corrections, not a single similarity match.

“Similar” is too broad. Conversation makes the musical target narrower:

  • less metal,
  • more empty space,
  • keep the bass physical,
  • avoid post-rock crescendos,
  • continue from the second recommendation.

The model does not need to guess my permanent taste. It only needs to follow what I am trying to hear now.

A low-end listening map

  1. Earth: The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull

    The reference point: slow guitar, open space, and a dry, desert-like atmosphere.

    Open Spotify search

  2. Om: “State of Non-Return”

    Earth’s patience, but with bass acting as the main architecture.

    Open Spotify search

  3. Bell Witch: Mirror Reaper

    Bass and drums stretched into a single, funereal movement.

    Open Spotify search

  4. Sunn O))): “Alice”

    Amplifier mass used as composition rather than simple heaviness.

    Open Spotify search

  5. Bongripper: Satan Worshipping Doom

    Instrumental doom with more pressure, movement, and physical impact.

    Open Spotify search

  6. Grails: “Future Primitive”

    Dusty and cinematic, with more rhythm beneath the long guitar lines.

    Open Spotify search

  7. Barn Owl: “Void Redux”

    Desert-drone guitar dissolved into haze and sustained low-frequency weight.

    Open Spotify search

  8. Ghost Dubs: Damaged

    Dub pressure and negative space: the bridge from Earth into electronic low end.

    Open Spotify search

  9. Senking: “Closing Eyes”

    Sub-bass moving in slow motion, with very little competing for the room.

    Open Spotify search

A prompt worth reusing

Give me five albums close to Earth’s Hex and The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s Skull, but with stronger low end. Keep them slow and spacious, avoid prominent vocals and post-rock crescendos, and give me one track from each.

The catalogue knows what exists. Listening history knows what I played. Conversation is the part that can understand what I mean by lower, not heavier.