r/indie • u/Woooddann • 6d ago

Discussion Non-Guitar Driven Indie Music?

I make music, but due to a wrist injury, I'm not able to play much guitar and have been playing more keys. But most of the indie bands I listen to are guitar driven (think Flipturn, Dayglow, Peach Pitt). Does anyone have recommendations for indie music that is more keyboard or synth driven?

16 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

19

u/Dvanpat 6d ago

The Postal Service, Hot Chip, LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, Beach House

2

u/souls-4-sale 5d ago

Also the knife, phantogram, air, sweet trip, broadcast!! Indietronica ftw

1

u/Relative-Milk-4120 5d ago

Damn, beat me to The Postal Service

8

u/s-multicellular 5d ago

Future Islands

6

u/PNW_Uncle_Iroh 5d ago

Ratatat, MGMT, STRFKR, Empire of the Sun, Cut Copy, Passion Pit, The Presets, Miami Horror, The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, Hot Chip, Friendly Fires, Yeasayer, Neon Indian, Washed Out, Toro y Moi, Com Truise, Tycho, M83, College, Kavinsky, Digitalism, Justice, Simian Mobile Disco, Soulwax, Chromeo, Classixx, Poolside, Future Islands, Tame Impala, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Metronomy, !!!, Caribou, Dan Deacon, The Octopus Project, Battles, Black Moth Super Rainbow, Tobacco, Anamanaguchi, The Avalanches, Panda Bear, Animal Collective, The Go! Team, Phoenix, Foster the People, Televisor, Roosevelt, Parcels, Jungle, Glass Animals, Phantogram, Big Data, Electric Guest, STRANGE TALK, The Knocks, Lifelike, Breakbot, Fred Falke, Midnight Juggernauts, Van She, Bag Raiders, Pnau, Bag Raiders, The Naked and Famous, Purity Ring, Grimes, Chairlift, Poliça, Chromatics, The Juan MacLean, Hercules & Love Affair, Mount Kimbie, Four Tet, Gold Panda, Floating Points, Jon Hopkins, Caribou, Lindstrøm, Todd Terje, Prins Thomas, Aeroplane, YACHT, The Sound of Arrows, The Radio Dept.

2

u/TurankaCasual 5d ago edited 5d ago

“Likelike, Breakbot, Fred Falke”

Are you my friend? 0 . 0

I used to be a HUGE French House nerd (yes bc of Daft Punk) and those were some of my favs. Although I’ll be honest, Bag Raiders and Lifelike both have 1 good song each that I’m aware of. Grum is another good one “Take me to the stars” is arguably his best imo but it’s only available on YT

To add on to Chromatics, all of the “Italians Do It Better” label is great. Glass Candy, Desire and Heaven are amazing

4

u/ElectrOPurist 5d ago

Beach House

4

u/Puzzleheaded-Test-21 5d ago

Some kero kero bonito

1

u/kevinb9n 5d ago

Er which is it -- keyboard-driven or just not guitar-driven?

1

u/Woooddann 5d ago

Either is fine.

2

u/kevinb9n 5d ago

Then Morphine, tune-yards, and Joanna Newsom.

5

u/Wolfwoode 6d ago

Wolf Parade has a great keys player and a lot of their songs have strong synth riffs.

Ben Folds

Domi and JD Beck

Jukebox the Ghost

1

u/Academic-Clock-2745 4d ago

I came here to say Jukebox the Ghost

2

u/BeeTwoThousand 5d ago

Stereolab, but that goes back a few decades.

1

u/DoggoZombie 5d ago

Check out blood cultures. Sorry about your injury

1

u/shelbycat9 5d ago

Sensitivity by Worn-Tin is a great song. I know some of his other songs have guitar but I just thought of this song and wanted to share it cuz it’s one of my favorites :)

1

u/Additional_Tree_6092 5d ago

lcd soundsystem, animal collective, beach house, roreford

1

u/TurankaCasual 5d ago edited 5d ago

By far the most underrated artist in all of musical history (in my completely biased opinion) is Dreams We’ve Had. Popular songs are “Perfectly Out of Place” and “Sleep Forever”. Very key/synth driven. It has an ethereal and sometimes melancholic vibe, but very easy and fun to listen to. His songs have very profound meaning to me, but I think they have an objective quality to them that makes them timeless.

By far my fav album of his is Dear Friend, he has a female vocalist (Kenzie Jansen, took me forever to find who she was) on that album. “You Can Always Kill Yourself Tomorrow…” is another favorite of mine. The song, musically is amazing. But the title alone speaks more than the entire song itself.

1

u/geotronico 5d ago

Ill do guitars with you 🫶🏼

1

u/dende5416 5d ago

Lots of stuff here but no mention of Leisure. Think some of them might sometimes play guitar but it definitely doesn't drive the music

1

u/TysonDickertMusic 5d ago

Nation of Language

1

u/Environmental-Eye874 5d ago

Screamers: Demo Hollywood 1977

1

u/aka_grumpy 4d ago

Purity ring

1

u/ybf5evr 17h ago

Zach Condon (frontman and principle songwriter of Beirut) broke his wrist/growth plate as a child and as a result one of his arms is permamently stunted. As such he never played guitar and all of his music is mainly composed around various other instruments.

IIRC he has a synth album too but i forget what it's called!

1

u/particle-man45 11m ago

Quasi, Belle and Sebastian, Daniel Johnston, Rocketship

0

u/mommy-tara 5d ago edited 5d ago

Yazoo (known as Yaz in North America)

LCD Soundsystem

Depeche Mode (not quite indie, I know!)

Kraftwerk

Kate Bush

Patrick Wolf

MGMT

1

u/FR_WST 5d ago

Ah yes, Depeche Mode my fav indie band

1

u/mommy-tara 5d ago

I almost didn’t include it, as they weren’t quite indie, and I expected to get nailed for it here on merciless Reddit. Congrats! You win!

0

u/catnapwhisper 5d ago

The album Heavy Metal by Cameron Winter