I know that's a very wide net, but I'm looking to get outside my usual wheelhouse. I'd love to hear anybody's nonvocal loves of any kind

A few words or one vocal track on the album or whatever is fine

I don't want to ask without sharing so I'll say I personally love

The Ulex - Old Giant

Tycho - Epoch

I think I've posted some of these before, so sorry if you've already seen them, but if not, might be up your alley?

• Rigel Theatre - e.g: https://rigeltheatre.bandcamp.com/album/lengsel-ghosts-of-memories
• Mittsies - e.g: https://mittsies.bandcamp.com/album/helltaker-soundtrack-complete
• Paradise Killer OST: https://kaizengameworks.bandcamp.com/album/paradise-killer-original-soundtrack
• Elliot Hsu - e.g: https://elliothsu.bandcamp.com/album/lost-aria
• Mitsukiyo - e.g: https://mitsukiyo.bandcamp.com/album/--3

A few tracks have vocals, but these ones should be mostly instrumental IIRC.

https://thepro-teens.bandcamp.com/album/mf-teen-your-concurrence-in-the-above-is-assumed

If you like heavy guitars: https://stelliferous.bandcamp.com/album/north

Look at the post-rock genre.

A few favorites off the top of my head:

• This Will Destroy You
• Hammock
• Do Make Say Think

For more out there music, I've been falling in love with Angine de Poitrine.

A few years ago, I discovered Carbon Based Lifeforms and they've become one of my favorites.

Some of their songs have vocal tracks or samples, but most do not.

https://carbonbasedlifeforms.bandcamp.com/music

Dance with the dead

Carpenter brut

Classical!

Earth is almost entirely instrumental and difficult to describe, though I’ve heard them called doom metal and that doesn’t fit at all. Ultra slow ultra sparse, mostly just tone, feedback, and basic rhythm. But oh what tone. Start with The Bees Made Honey in the Lion’s skull

Mogwai is mostly instrumental post-rock, absolutely fantastic. Start with Mr Beast.

Brian Eno and his various collaborations, mostly atmospheric and always beautiful. Start with Apollo.

The album Home Alone by Totorro is one of my most played. The intro track and Tonton Alain Michel go hard.

Genesis - The Brazilian

I like ambient music without vocals for when I'm working, since I find hearing words distracting. You might like these if you like Tycho.

• 2 Mello has a range of albums that are chill hip-hop, like Sunsound Collisions and midnight broadcasts vol. 1
• QUADRATA by Oyster is Boards of Canada-inspired downtempo
• Interstitial Geometry by Insectoid Intelligence is some ambient electronic roughly in the dark and drone corners of the genre
• Kitten Burst by Jam2go is the soundtrack for the game Kitten Burst, also by Jam2go. It's split into five albums. The set as a whole is a wide-ranging tour of Y2K-era electronic music, from liquid drum & bass to eurodance to house.
• From nobonoko, there's Music For Animal Cafés, which has a warm and cheery sound to match its name, and Television, which is more minimal electronic
• Floating Points makes chill house music that's kind of hypnotic, like Someone Close and Nuits Sonores

If you like Old Giant, check out MASTER BOOT RECORD's albums, like INTERRUPT REQUEST. It's prog metal that incorporates old PC sound chips.

And for some totally weird stuff:

• Oscilloscope Music by Jerobeam Fenderson is music designed to produce animations when shown on an oscilloscope. Here's a video of one of the tracks! The album feels like it's poking your brain when you listen with headphones.
• van by clown core is… something. Grindcore with sudden switches to jazz and screaming.

I found Mittsies through Voidreckon showing up on YouTube like 20 minutes after it went up!

The description of this video contains some good references about ambient music :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc6LdH6_oPU&t=0

I cannot copy paste them somehow... Also pardon the French.

That said, Metallica's Orion is a good instrumental track IMO.

Khruangbin - The Universe Smiles Upon You
Chill Psychedelic Funk

Elephant Gym on Audiotree Live
Jazz Math Post-Rock

Mr. Bill - Mr. Melanzana
Downtempo Glitch Electronic

Tipper - Cloaked
Downtempo Glitch Electronic

OMA
Instrumental Hip Hop Band
They cover a lot of famous beats, but check out their original albums Bread 'n' Butter and burnt. as well.

Amynedd - 16-Bit Adventure
Chiptunes Electronic
Amynedd is known as GeoWizard on YouTube

trentemøller - The Last Resort
Indie Ambient Dub Electronic

HOME - Odyssey
and
HOME - Before The Night
Chiptunes Synthwave

Chillhop Essentials - Spring 2016
Chillhop

I've been on the search for good instrumental music for years. I could list a bunch i like but I'll keep it short and to the point.

One of my all-time favorites, Pullman - Turnstyles and Junkpiles. All acoustic guitars, no vocals. Some of the tracks are unbelievably chill. https://pullman.bandcamp.com/album/turnstyles-junkpiles

This might be my favorite album of all time. This one opened my eyes to a whole world of music: Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die https://tortoise.bandcamp.com/album/millions-now-living-will-never-die

One more i found recently. Super chill album, the most meditative/relaxing of the 3 I'm posting. Rhucle - The Water https://rhucle.bandcamp.com/album/the-water

https://3six.bandcamp.com/music ambient electronica. I listen to Dreamloops Suite and Stasis Sounds For Long-Distance Space Travel to fall asleep.

https://dreamcatalogue.bandcamp.com/album/rain-temple dreamy atmospheric electronica.

https://amontobin.bandcamp.com/album/bricolage jazzy downtempo IDM.

https://jega.bandcamp.com/album/geometry awesome IDM

https://realworldrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-sky-is-the-same-colour-everywhere The Sky Is the Same Colour Everywhere is a spiritual meditation - best listened to in one sitting - by two master musicians and culture bearers of centuries-old musical traditions sharing modes based on Persian and Malian repertoires on kamancheh (spike fiddle) and kora (harp/lute).

Try streaming SomaFM's Groove Salad.

Costero by Slow Meadow, like exploring the attic of your dead grandfather
https://slowmeadow.bandcamp.com/album/costero

One by C418, the soundtrack of my daily life, favorite album of all time
https://c418.bandcamp.com/album/one

InMomentum by Gareth Coker, soaring through the air the album
https://garethcoker.bandcamp.com/album/inmomentum

Somewhere Not In This World by Taishii/Compllege, a dimemsional rift opens and strands you in a paradox space, listening through the album is the only way to return https://compllege.bandcamp.com/album/somewhere-not-in-this-world

Snarky Puppy

I love that shit. Same with the cliqhop station.

Lots of good suggestions here!

I just mentioned the label Sub Rosa in another post. They have a lot of varied options from across the sonic spectrum, including Univers Zero.

Someone else mentioned Mogwai, they are releasing anew album soon so that is exciting. The lead single has vocals.

I really like Birdsongs of the Mesozoic; they are on Cuneiform Records.

There are also younger groups getting on the stage! Plutato is pretty great free-form action without much in vocals.

I love post-rock. Too bad it's been overwhelmed by AI slop lately and it's getting harder finding genuine new production.

Give OWERVERK a try. Huge library, not a single word.

I recommend Canon, my absolute favorite.

@Gumus @plateee since I’ve given up on Spotify and moved to a self hosted thing, most of my music recommendations come via word of mouth/word of keyboard. It helps keep out the AI stuff a bit, but I usually google the artist and make sure they’re actually real just in case. I hate that this even has to be a concern -_-

Solar Fields has some nice chill beats.

Angine de Poitrine has some crazy music, just a crazy good drummer and a genius on a franken-guitar and foot operated gadgets, no discernible words.

Yeah, I feel like I'm gonna just go back to just having 200GB music library on my phone.

I tried self hosting, but I don't have a public IP and I couldn't properly set up tailscale. There's just so much to manage and I don't like the idea of opening my stuff to the internet...

My hope for recommendations is ListenBrainz. I've been scrobbling for several years already in the hopes that it will start showing me relevant stuff. I've not used it in any meaningful capacity yet... I relied on algorithms, but it's so bad recently I usually just end up listening what I already know. Maybe it's time.