Ask HN: Underrated music, books, movies? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Underrated music, books, movies?

51 pointsgalfarragem87 comments

Underrated music, books, and movies that you'd like to share? This thread may be highly biased, but I'm confident that we'll find some great discoveries for a lazy Sunday.

I keep two eclectic lists of "interesting" stuff:

https://www.slowernews.com/s/underrated

https://www.slowernews.com/s/timeless

View on HN

On the movie side, I'd suggest "Dark City", the 1998 neo-noir sci-fi film directed by Alex Proyas (more famous for The Crow). Not sure why it isn't more widely known - I think in some ways it got overshadowed by The Matrix which was released not long afterwards but I like it a lot.

Yes for dark City!

The nineties brought forth some great cyberpunk. I can also recommend "Strange Days" (1995).

I feel like the nineties managed to combine the great optimism and worry about the future the internet (and our technological advancement in general) would bring.

I really do miss the optimism (the internet will bring the world's peoples together!), and feel like the cyber noire could help with a lot of the naivete about our surveillance state and the enormous amounts of power wielded by a few companies.

I'm a fan of Proyas first film, the uneven and weirdly chaotic Spirits of the Air, Gremlins of the Clouds - the soundtrack (soundscape?) for which is sublime.

(OST: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWYGHqum5xE&list=OLAK5uy_lsQ... )

Speaking of music, Tabaran is a lesser known gem from that era (it's both an album and an eponymous track): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdvNFKL8h2U

Instrument wise I don't mind banjo+didgeridoo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr3iI8gg2fo

the Kora: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSD_amb-l9Q

and the occassional bit of upside down back to front guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyppTLuJm14

Likewise "Equilibrium" which also got heavily overshadowed by "The Matrix"

I do not wish to recommend Virtuosity (1995), unless your are a hardcore Matrix fan or ravenous cinephile. It does contain some influences on plot and handling of action sequences.

The fight scene in the Japanese restaurant seems directly Matrixesque. The second half of the film is unwatchable. It's often overlooked as an influence, but not underrated as a movie.

I just got through watching Johnny Mnemonic with my wife (she likes Keanu Reeves movies as far back as "A Walk in the Clouds").

It plays much better today, as retro-futuristic nostalgia, than it did during its run in theaters in 1995.

It triggered a discussion my wife about William Gibson and how his visions play out a lot better on the page than on the screen.

Then she mentioned, without any input from me, that it seems like all the current Metaverse hype comes from people who must have watched and read all this stuff in the 90's and wanted it to be real, but never figured out how to actually make it work.

From the same year, another sci-fi film from Cronenberg himself: eXistenZ one of my favourite films ever

Curated list of favorite underrated movies:

#1 pick for HN Crowd: The Man From Earth // must see, especially if you like philosophical movies (don't recommend the sequel by the way)

Runner's Up:

Being There // absolute classic and must see for every person, at least once

Peaceful Warrior

The Lion In Winter // one of the best dramas ever made, and unbeatable cast with young Anthony Hopkins

Predestination // incredible drama about time travel paradoxes

The Interview // Hugo Weaving

Vitus // amazing story about a piano prodigy who fakes losing his talents to have a normal life

The Perverts Guide to Cinema // documentary, Slavoj Zizek's tour de force psychoanalysis of cinema as an art form; addressing the philosophical and psychological question of whether cinema (and other art forms) fulfil your desires, or rather teach/train you both to desire (and what you should desire), thus the sensationalistic and polemical invocation of it as "perverted"

Le Professionnel (French film, not to be confused with the one with Natalie Portman)

Revolver // Guy Ritchie's quote "It took me three years to write this film whereas Snatch took me three months". It is a masterwork metaphor about the ego, ego death, consciousness, meditation, spirituality, and the nature of reality. Recommend reading an interpretation of the film either before or after viewing to better appreciate what is happening in the story as it is most metaphorical.

Rest of the List: The Big Kahuna, Tao of Steve, Crazy Stupid Love, Megamind, Eyes Wide Shut, Dead Poet's Society, Before Sunset, Gambit, Five Minutes of Heaven, Temple Grandin, Croupier, The Good Guy, 3 Idiots, Limitless, Drive, Whiplash

Jon Hopkins: https://youtu.be/sVefn-AXoZw?si=_AJMSb-vh0bMiyax

I don’t know anything about the author or his target audience, but the music he creates is the most serene and captivating thing I've ever heard.

Put on headphones, lay down, close your eyes and just dive into it.

He's phenomenal.

You might also like Nils Frahm.

There is only one other artist I know doing something of a similar calibre and style to Jon Hopkins and that's Max Cooper. A bit more on the pure electronic side than Hopkins.

I would say you could put Ólafur Arnalds in there as well, but he's more eclectic.

Yeah, Max Cooper is really nice. I just checked - I have 25 liked tracks from him on my Spotify; saw him live a couple of times too.

In terms of replay value, I seem to get more out of Hopkins than Cooper. I guess it's a bit hard with the glitchy stuff of Cooper? E.g. his track "Symmetry", despite glitches has high replay value for me due to the melodic parts. But "Molten Landscapes" - excellent as it is - I'm tired of it. Maybe I overplayed it :-)

And yes, Ólafur is excellent! Also he's fantastic live, just like Nils Frahm.

Also check out Christian Löffler. He mixes melancholy and danceability.

Without clicking, I guessed it would be the track "Immunity"! :-) It's an outstanding melody.

Related: if you liked it, you might like the track "Briefly" by Nils Fram. It is 27 minutes[1]. It's like a hike in the mountains. I listened to it recently when I was on a 3-hour boat ride on the fjords of Norway. It was glorious.

If you can get to see Nils live, don't miss it. He's simply superb and creates utter magic on stage.

[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uhiwpPRxVMw

I actually actively avoid acquiring context around this music, do you think I’m missing out on something?

I don't know what kind of context you mean here. The main thing that matters is: does the music resonate with you or not? The rest of the "context" is a nice-to-have.

(Also, by "this music", I'm assuming you mean this kind of electronic music and not the specific tracks I was referring to.)

One of the best live performances I've experienced. Up there with Daft Punk's Pyramid tour.

Listening to Moderat's cinematic remix of his track with a good sound environment also gets me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUf67lFrazY

Define "underrated". But I'll throw something into the pot.

Riffing off the first item on the list (Roger Miller/Waterhole #3), The Ballad of Cat Ballou (film released after Nat King Cole's death): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ghnpUNTR1I and Idle On Parade (Anthony Newley was a strong influence on David Bowie, and you can really hear it here) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qbkKICmO_Q

Dunno if it's underrated (2.7m views), but while Donna Summer's I Feel Love is numinous, Venus Hum's cover with Blue Man Group is just suffused with joy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iFBXjRbVl0

Bonus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkRDvwsSLKY (album it's on didn't nearly get the attention it deserved, possibly because they were thought of as a novelty act)

Oh, and I did a deep dive into British cinema in the past two years, and the best little-known thing I came back with was Angels One Five (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_One_Five). There's a whole genre of British films that are obviously working out the trauma of WWII (much like America's run of Vietnam War films a couple of decades later), many forgettable, all of their time, but this one's small, quiet, and has an upper lip so stiff you could use it as a ruler. It's Brief Encounter with Spitfires. Standout performance by Jack Hawkins.

I have a YouTube video I always consider underated for helping the engineering minded understand being correct is only on variable in an argument with your company.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Unzc731iCUY&pp=ygUXbWl0IHByZXN...

As for an actual movie for fun I would say Pumaman riffing by the MST3K crew, but that is for a specific crowd. I'm not culture enough for this discussion.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GnRxbH5Ay4I&pp=ygUHcHVtYW1hbg%...

I have never heard of the MST3K crew before. Just watched the first 13 minutes and it's hilarious! I will come back to this to finish it.

What is the specific crowd this is for?

Those that would watch old people riffing on even older films. IDK. Me and my dad used to watch them which always holds a special pla e in my heart. The creator is local to my state, Minnesota and it started as public TV which I find interesting.

Another golden one of these is space mutiny and "Why study industrial arts?"

https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=industrial+educat...

Hah, right, I see what you mean. It is oddly well done for what is really just a bit of riffing on an old movie. And to be fair that Pumaman episode is as old as I am. I watched the whole thing in the past couple of days though and quite enjoyed it. Will have a look for the other ones you mention as well. And then maybe just start from the beginning.

Good stuff, thanks for mentioning it!

Just watched the youtube video. Absolutely magical. I was sad to hear that the lecturer died recently. Already shared with lots of friends and colleagues.

Music: Lemon Jelly

I don't really know a lot about the labels and nuances of different music genres, but they are somewhat similar to Ratatat if that helps.

Start with tracks: "Weather for Ducks", "The Staunton Lick", "Spacewalk", "Ramblin' Man".

Their catalog is virtually always my background music when working, reading, etc.

These tracks are burned into my brain, and I don't think I've ever met a single person who has known the band before I introduced them to them. They were short-lived as a band, and broke up many years ago. Not for everyone, but give 'em a try!

"Ramblin' Man" is so good

A fellow Lemonhead! Yay!

I'd also recommend Lemon Jelly.

The music station Smooth Chill (UK) plays a fair few Lemon Jelly tracks most days, Ramblin' Man being a highlight.

One of my favorite songs is called Art of Life, by X Japan. It's a ~30 minute masterpiece. It features a long chaotic piano solo in the middle, representing the author's descent into madness.

Every album by Ayreon is amazing, but The Human Equation has always stood out as one of their best works. It's about a man that falls into a coma for 20 days and is forced to confront his personalized memories and emotions.

TV: I’m loving the series Reservation Dogs right now (not to be confused with Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs). It’s about some kids living on a Reservation in Oklahoma. It feels like a mix of the vibes of Freaks and Geeks and Northern Exposure, with lots of magical realism. Seems to be critically acclaimed but I don’t see a lot of buzz about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservoir_Dogs

Similarly, Atlanta was fantastic, challenging, and seemed to throw something completely different at you in every episode. I think Hiro Murai is going to be one of the great filmmakers of his generation.

I guess it’s a stretch to call it underrated because it was overwhelmingly critically acclaimed, but I feel it belongs to be talked about alongside the all-time greats when anecdotally I don’t hear much about it. For example, I’ve heard several casual references to Mad Men in the past few months, whereas I have never heard anyone mention Atlanta except when I have brought it up. Could just be my perception that’s off, though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_(TV_series)

I would second this. Res dogs is such an incredible show, I just want of share it with everyone. It paints such a vivid and empathetic view of native culture and does a good job connecting its modern struggles to historical oppression. It’s also a platform for native actors, and much of the outstanding soundtrack is by native artists as well.

Really I have been pleasantly surprised with much of the FX/Hulu series I’ve seen lately. Atlanta, Res Dogs, Woke, Ramy, etc… these series have some similar vibe in some ways, but they’re not at all derivative. They do such a good job being high quality on their own, while also being a platform to showcase often misunderstood cultures in a gentle and empathetic light.

Dave is also stylistically in the same vein, and an enjoyable show.

Oh, I haven’t heard of Woke or Ramy, I’ll check them out, thanks!

SNAP I just realized I linked to reservoir dogs instead of reservation dogs like an absolute dummy. Here’s Reservation Dogs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservation_Dogs

The films of Don Hertzfeldt, some of the shorter of which are on youtube:

https://imdb.com/name/nm0381116/

In literature, the genre of nonsense poetry, example given:

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Faber_Book_of_Non...

"Rejected" by Don Hertzfeldt is one of my all-time favorite shorts. I've probably watched it over 50 times over the past couple decades.

Some music:

Big Star - “#1 Record” Classic rock you could swear you’ve heard before but probably haven’t cause it had no radio play in its day.

Os Mutantes - “Os Mutantes” What if The Beatles were Brazilian?

Chico Hamilton - “El Chico” Just really good jazz that isn’t a household name but people into jazz know pretty well.

Porter Ricks - “Biokinetics” Ambient electronic waterworks from the late 90’s

micronism - “inside a quiet mind” excellent late 90’s electronic that was released without much fanfare

John Cale - “Paris 1919” and “Fear” Just great rock/alt music from the early 70s. Especially check out the title track on Paris and Barracuda and You Know More Than I Know on Fear

Ben Johnston - “The Crossings: Ascent, String Quartet No. 4” Accessible avant garde classical. Microtonal string quartet with a big, heart-filling and beautiful payoff.

Saint Heron An awesome alt RnB/Soul compilation album from the naughties, I think curated by Beyoncé’s sister Solage, who also makes excellent music. Must be so hard having that kinda talent and be overshadowed by your sister so much.

Madvillain - “Madvillainy” Not underrated, but unless you listen to boom bap indie rap, maybe hasn’t hit your radar.

Lil’ B - “I’m Gay” The inventor of the term “based” drew major flack for this album title because he is not homosexual and meant “happy” but while confusing I don’t think that’s insulting at all. It’s the most accessible album I think he’s made and he is so prolific… man needs a greatest hits album because sifting through his work is normally a damn chore, so this album is a well compiled blessing

I could go on but this is my best I-can’t-sleep-tonight-here-is-a-top-of-mind list.

The various John Cale | Brian Eno collaborations are worth a listen also, eg; from Wrong Way Up - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cJji6Queys Spinning Away

Primer - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/

Seconded (no pun intended)

It's not necessarily philosophical but Kontroll is a great movie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kontroll

Books - The Lumberjacks by Donald Mackay contains a lot of phenomenal stories about and from lumberjacks in the late 19th century.

I found it while studying at the Cal Poly library and taking a break to randomly stroll through the stacks. I ended up reading the whole thing and not studying nearly enough :-).

https://books.google.nl/books/about/The_Lumberjacks.html?id=...

Oh, and music! James blackshaw. Fantastic twelve string guitar. Underrated, he had to give up music to earn a living :-(

On Portuguese guitar (12 strings) I believe you can't find better than Carlos Paredes. It's timeless. He upheld a full-time job as a hospital archivist throughout his life.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50AA_Aln6P8

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_iaItjC72M

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Paredes

Carré blanc, a terrifying dystopia, barely got a theatrical release in France, and not at all elsewhere I think. There's a DVD. One of my all-time favourites ...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1239429/

The book I have most enjoyed reading is A Short Walk In the Hindu Kush - Eric Newby (1958). It is an autobiographical account of how he went from being a fashion salesman to climbing (without previous experience) a mountain in what is present day Afghanistan. Made me cry laughing.

I love this thread.

TV: On My Block, which has a lot in common with Reservation Dogs https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_My_Block

Book: America Is Not The Heart, just a fantastic novel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Castillo

Movie: Hearts Beat Loud, but maybe just on my mind because my daughter is getting ready to leave for college https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearts_Beat_Loud

Music: Destroy Boys, maybe less underrated and more promising https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroy_Boys

I was listening to Gang of Youths the other day and was surprised to see they only had 6k fans on Deezer.

I'd maybe compare them to Kings of Leon (2.2M fans) or Mumford & Sons (0.9M fans).

The animated movie Megamind.

Many reviews state something like 'Why even bother, The Incredibles, Despicable Me, etc did it already, and are way better, etc, etc', but I think they're completely wrong. The other movies are rather blunt in that Hollywood way, whereas Megamind is full of subtle humour.

Interesting, I’d never seen comparisons between Megamind and The Incredibles, but it definitely did suffer from being released so soon after Despicable Me.

My favorite overlooked animated film is Iron Giant. People didn’t yet generally appreciate that an animated film could be as much for adults as kids, and WB seemed to have no idea how to market it.

Yes Iron Giant is definitely another good one. And there's also Treasure Planet.

Coherence (2013) is a great low-budget indie film of people in a room talking to each other.

Seconding Coherence. One of the greatest movies I've ever watched. Primer(2004) and Triangle(2009) are often recommended with it, and rightfully so.

Was coming to mention it. It fascinated me, can't recommend enough. And indeed, it's the definition or underated.

Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti by Genevieve Valentine was an interesting read. I was looking for a fantasy book which resembled the story of an HBO TV series I liked called Carnivale. It’s about a circus similar to Cirque du Soleil, but imbued with dark magic, which leads to some rather creepy incidents. I don’t want to spoil it too much. Here’s a link to it: https://www.amazon.com/Mechanique-Circus-Tresaulti-Genevieve...

Some amazing music that never seemed to go mainstream:

The Cinematic Orchestra, great modern jazz with a beat. Try the album Everyday. If you're into film there's a version of the 1929 Dziga Vertov film "Man With a Motion Picture Camera" that has a score performed by them, also excellent.

Patrick Watson - Close to Paradise. An ecclectic concept album, one of my all time favorites.

Jaga Jazzist - Starfire. Their early albums are great also. Hectic, energetic ensemble jazz with lots of overlapping time scales and patterns. Sounds a bit chaotic at first but once you recognise the patterns it just clicks and is super fun!

Movie: Circle of Iron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_Iron

Book: The one straw revolution https://www.nyrb.com/collections/all/products/the-one-straw-...

Music: Red Fang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnySn-ept5s

Music: Shearwater, and probably Okkervil River too. I don't know if they are underrated, I've seen both live and there was hardly anyone there + I enjoy them a lot.

Book: The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gun_Seller not that it's a brilliant book, it's just underrated because it's funny and pretty well written for a first novel.

The short stories and journalism of Ernest Hemingway.

Of course, The Old Man and the Sea is not underrated, because it is explicitly mentioned in the Nobel citation.

Anything longer (all the novels) were overrated and now out of favour. Anything shorter will reward your time.

For example...

Fiction: A Clean Well-Lighted Place and The Capital of the World.

Non-fiction: coverage of the Greco-Turkish war (1919-22), especially Refugees From Thrace and On the Quai at Smyrna.

DhakaBrakha, a world music band from Ukraine. They describe their style as ethnic-chaos. I love it and have followed them from afar for years.

https://open.spotify.com/track/1goTiiRtaNdwiGOsSIgBA4?si=_Ac...

Book - The Terminal Man, Flatland

Music - Squarepusher, Autechre

Movie - Tetsuo The Ironman, Zatoichi series, Macgruber (def the first movie, not the show)

Tetsuo is the nastiest film I've ever had the misfortune of watching. Pure gore shock horror which seemed rather pointless to me. I don't think it's underrated. I think it's massively overrated.

I still love the great beauty (film). Hits on themes I don’t see taken on very often.

For books, Austerlitz by WG Sebald.

Celtic Music by Adrian von Ziegler:

Prophecy: https://youtube.com/watch?v=INaM813ohL8

Ancient Storm: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rmRBZB_o8MM

Due to the recent surge of AI, now even more relevant than ever:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29270320

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_S._Hartman

https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Robert+S.+Hart...

https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Hartman%2C+Rob...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23626968

Ask HN: Recommend me some undervalued music band

3 points by artembugara on June 24, 2020 | 3 comments

The SCP Foundation wiki, which is a collaborative horror / sci-fi project telling sort of Men in Black types of stories, features one series of contributions mostly by an author going by qntm which is called "There Is No Antimemetics Division," which is probably the best science fiction story for my tastes that I've ever read.

https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub

On the SCP beat, 3001 is excellent (read the full logs)

https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3001

Hard sci-fi books by Daniel Suarez. Former IT consultant, so tech details in books are pretty realistic. And since these are relatively recent books, tech and humanity challenges are up to date. Currently reading Daemon, a book about all-powerful A.I., nowadays seem more plausible (hopefully we're not there yet!) then in 2009 when it came out. I can also recommend two books about space travel - Delta-V and Critical Mass.

He's great, like a modern Michael Crichton

Great author. Checkout AG Riddle when you're done with Suarez. I've read Quantum Radio and the Long Winter series, which are pretty good reads as well.

There are more obvious underrated movies, but one that rarely gets mentioned is Brotherhood of the Wolf with Mark Dacascos and Vincent Cassel.

A mix of opinions at the time, a few comments about genre confusion, but personally I'd say forget about all that and just watch it on loud in a dark room. Atmosphere by the ton, and massively entertaining.

Underrated by whom? :)

Movie: Baraka. It's connected to the much better-known Koyaanisqatsi and is a similar concept but IME this one was more compelling in subject matter and videography.

Music: The Last Five Years by Jason Robert Brown. It's a small-scale musical exploring a strained relationship through one character going forwards in time and the other backwards and I just think it's lovely.

Mentioned in another comment, but if you like Baraka, seek out the film Man With a Motion Picture Camera (or Man With a Movie Camera), it's the progenitor of both Baraka and the qatsi trilogy. There's a version with a score performed by Cinematic Orchestra that is just amazing!

Music:

Underrated German artist Imperceptum creates unique space black metal with programmed drums and makes an incredible atmosphere (I know it's a niche, but a great one!).

His first album has a bonus track that still has under 500 views after 7 years: https://youtu.be/Xs412t0_ORU

https://www.amazon.in/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-Frankl/dp/1...

The author was a Holocaust survivor, narrates his experiences in concentration camps and explores how human beings can find meaning in life despite severe suffering.

Music: anything this man has ever created, https://open.spotify.com/artist/5bUj39bg0zEbRzjUEISMG9?si=LQ...

Two of the buried Black Sabbath albums: Headless Cross and Tyr. Tony Martin and Cozy Powell really bring their A game on Tyr; Jerusalem and Valhalla are some of the best works in the Sabbath discography IMO. HC also has its stand-outs, of particular note is When Death Calls which features a guitar solo by Brian May of Queen.

- Movies: Four Lions, The Other Guys

- Music: I know these are considered classic, but not many people I know actually listen to these- Jazz from 50s/60s- especially Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

- Books: Mind Illuminated by Culadasa for learning how to meditate. Five Elements of Effective Thinking by Burger, Starbird for learning anything.

I was just a quite hour with a cup of tea and Brian McClellan's Sins of Empire. https://www.brianmcclellan.com/powder-mage-universe

Music wise, i find "Neobliviscaris : And Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope" to have interesting composition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNuVdsx7qJY

La moustache (2005)

A thriller about whether or not a man had a mustache. Some say yes, others no.

The film is based on the novel with the same name by Emmanuel Carrère and it's one of my most favorite ones ever (with one of the most chilling ends). All of his other books are also worth reading. In a way for me the evil twin of La Moustache is L'Adversaire (The Adversary), which you can put in the true crime category, but on the other it would be too short-sighted and does no justice to the book.

Allan Holdsworth. I wouldn't say underrated, but well, not very approachable as a first time listener. 'Secrets' is a good album to start with.

Movie:

The Stoker.

I remember watching that film in an Irish cinema. We all loved it... To later discover it was completely underrated by critic and by most people.

There is a band named From Indian Lakes and their 2nd and 3rd albums (Able Bodies and Absent Sounds) are masterpieces of indie rock.

Martin Newell is an English singer and poet who probably doesn’t get the credit he deserves.

Re Music:

Psytrance for programming - (almost) no voice, energising

The Idea Factory by Pepper White.

Brazil (1985)

Ich bin dein Mensch (2021)

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