Dark, atmospheric music with groovy bass

[pklima]

What influences can a stereotypical Jamerson or Bootsy wannabe bassist draw from when he somehow finds himself playing in a band that's, say, goth or some kind of atmospheric metal? The Slavic-style postpunk of the last few years frequently has very prominent and melodic bass, but it's a lot of straight 8th note melodies and not groovy.

I can think of a few examples, but maybe let's see if anyone else has anything first.

 

[bholder]

Hmmm, that sounds interesting, not sure I can think of anything, but subbed to listen to posts, sounds like fun!

 

[bholder]

"Bringeth Thee the Dark Groove" hehe hehe

 

[DirtDog]

Russian Circles?

 

[DirtDog]

I'm also into these guys:

 

[FourStringFunk]

I'm also into these guys:

Best bass for dunce metal?

 

[Discount Bassy]

Best bass for dunce metal?

Gnomes. Dunces misidentify gnomes. Keep it straight.

 

[Flatwound]

Not sure about dark and atmospheric, but I definitely like the groove of this one:




Dark and hypnotic?

 

[Discount Bassy]

Check out Junior Kimbrough for the roots of this quest. Unrelated, you might dig Bell Witch...sort of like Sunn with incidental percussion...bass and drums.

 

[FRoss6788]

Check out Martin Mendez- Opeth.

Some very groovy playing, especially on Heritage.

 

[Pyrrho Epoche]

Dark and groovy, maybe Morphine or Afghan Whigs, Infectious Grooves?

Tracks below are not really groovy, in a Greg Brady, or P Funk way, but dark and synthy with a post disco punk vibe and fun to play.

 

[Hypocrite]

Check out Martin Mendez- Opeth.

Some very groovy playing, especially on Heritage.

Quoted for truth.
Also Amos from Tesseract (King has one of my favourite basslines ever)
Pretty much anything by Steve DiGiorgio and Geezer Butler

 

[LowendG]

Maybe check out some PiL w Jah Wobble. I may be totally off the mark, but I think it would be interesting to draw from dub bass and apply that sensibility to the music you describe.

 

[Ian774]

Russian Circles?

Love RC but I am not sure I'd call Cook's bass "groovy".

 

[FilterFunk]

I'm also into these guys:

I totally dig the first 2:05 of that song!

 

[Dincrest]

I like the syncopated bassline in this song: Like at :38 the way the syncopated rapid-fire nature of the bassline contrasts with the ethereal legato vocals in a tasteful way.

Here's a live thing The Eden House did. It's not metal but it has its heavy rock moments and is atmospheric in a gothy way and the bass has some nice groove:

There is also that 1994 album that Diamanda Galas (avant-garde goth singer) did with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones that has some incredible bass work:

 

[KeepItMoving]

Dark and groovy, maybe Morphine or Afghan Whigs, Infectious Grooves?

I was going to mention Morphine! Mark Sandman pops instantly to mind when I hear the words "Dark, atmospheric music with groovy bass."

 

[Phaidrus]

Probably stating (part of) the obvious.

 

[pklima]

I got plenty of stuff to check out, and some I was reminded off. I was kinda expecting this thread to get zero to two replies, heh. FWIW the main name I would have thought of before starting this thread was Dean Garcia of Curve, where the drums were also quite dancey.



Cop Shoot Cop were often groovy and sometimes atmospheric... here's perhaps the first time they got moody and not just angry.



Dub and reggae is also an excellent suggestion that I wouldn't have thought of. But once I did, here's the second reggae song that popped into my head ("I Am A Psychiatrist" being the first but feels less atmospheric to me... though of course that's subjective).



And on the border of reggae and old Polish punk... very insistent syncopated line.



And this is something I literally discovered yesterday, and which motivated me to make this thread, because I figured there's probably a lot more out there that I missed... this song's a lot like Delerium's "Silence" (which I'm guessing had a synth bass, and if we start including stuff with synth basses that's a whole lot more, though possibly more challenging to borrow from...)



Bonus. What if Bauhaus were funky?

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[Spectrum]