I really like jazz piano inspired by or directly arranged from Baroque music, e.g.
Symphonic Post-Apocalyptic Reindeer-Grinding Christ-Abusing Extreme War Pagan Fennoscandic metal
I dunno what is and isn't niche any more.
However, there's only one group I know of doing hip-hop bluegrass; that's Gangstagrass, and I fucking love them.
I'm also a long time fan of Miami bass, a kind of old school bass driven edm style from the 80s. Of which, The bass that ate miami is a perfect example of the genre by one of its best. Basically, all of it is stuff to bump in your car, at a club, or just to piss off your entire neighborhood if you have big enough speakers. But it's also surprisingly good to dance to, unlike a lot of the electrobass and technobass variants (you try dancing to dj bass boy or nemesis lol).
Drumstep is probably pretty niche. It's like oldschool dubstep but slightly faster and with busier drums/cymbals/percussion. I think I actually need an even more specific descriptor to differentiate it, because if you search "drumstep" on youtube etc. you mostly get stuff with those brostep-style midrange noises that is super popular in more modern dubstep, drumstep and drum'n'bass, which I mostly don't like at all.
I'm listening to a ton of niche genres, but TBH I don't really have a good idea which of them would be the least known or least popular.
It's easier to understand drumstep as a subgenre of drum and bass. It has the same tempo as drum and bass but employs a halftime 2-step drum pattern like dubstep, using synth sounds that are also reminiscent of dubstep.
Drumstep was popular in the early 2010s but it's mostly out of fashion today. Some classic examples are Rob Swire's drumstep remix of Witchcraft or Knife Party's Bonfire.
People still produce halftime drum and bass tracks today but they use much deeper basses and sounds reminiscent of breaks/garage/techno, not 2010s dubstep sounds. That style is more known as simply "halftime". Ivy Lab are classic, reputable halftime producers.
At least the stuff I like (if it would actually be called 'drumstep', which I'm not certain about) is generally quite a bit slower than drum'n'bass.
halftime 2-step drum pattern like dubstep
Is that not what drum'n'bass is doing, too? I don't think I've ever heard a drum'n'bass track that wasn't halftime with some kind of two-step-pattern.
At least the stuff I like (if it would actually be called ‘drumstep’, which I’m not certain about) is generally quite a bit slower than drum’n’bass.
Depends on what you mean slower. Drum and bass is in the 160-180 BPM range. Halftime is in the same range, but the drums are slower -- typically the snare hits less frequently.
Is that not what drum’n’bass is doing, too? I don’t think I’ve ever heard a drum’n’bass track that wasn’t halftime with some kind of two step pattern.
Drum and bass is typically 2-step, but not halftime. For example: Lost Friends by Halogenix is classic 2-step drum and bass, but Orange by Halogenix & Two Fingers is halftime. Both tracks are in the 170-175 range, yet they sound quite different. Both are considered drum and bass and easily mixable with each other.
The two tracks you mentioned in your other comment are both halftime. One is 160 BPM, the other is 172 (I checked in Mixxx). That is drum and bass territory. If they were slower, around 140-150, they would probably be classified as dubstep. To be honest, genre labeling doesn't really matter because producers tend to experiment a lot. But you'll have much more success searching for "halftime" than "drumstep" for the style you like.
Do you have a definitive drumstep album rec?
It's not really an album kind of genre, but here's two EPs:
I figured. That always make it more difficult for me. I'll check those out. I like EPs. Thanks.
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