Holy Tongue Records

Dark wave is a moody, melancholic offshoot of post-punk and new wave that emphasizes minor-key harmonies, somber timbres, and introspective or romantic lyrical themes. It blends the icy textures of early synthesizers and drum machines with reverb-laden guitars and melodic, driving basslines. The style typically features baritone or ethereal vocals, atmospheric production with heavy use of chorus, delay, and reverb, and tempos that range from slow and brooding to mid-tempo and danceable. Dark wave spans both guitar-oriented and synth-forward approaches, and often overlaps with related movements such as coldwave, minimal wave, and ethereal wave.

Ethereal wave is a branch of post-punk/gothic-adjacent alternative music defined by shimmering, reverb-saturated textures, airborne vocal delivery, and a strong emphasis on atmosphere over aggression. It often features chorus- or delay-drenched guitars that blur into pad-like harmonies, minimal or programmed percussion, and bass lines that drift rather than drive. Vocals—frequently female-led—tend toward breathy, angelic timbres, melismatic phrasing, non-lexical vocalise, and poetic or impressionistic lyrics. Harmonies favor modal or diatonic palettes with suspensions and added tones (sus2, sus4, add9), producing a weightless, bittersweet feel. The overall production aesthetic, popularized by 4AD acts, evokes a dreamlike, otherworldly space that can lean medieval, ambient, or neoclassical depending on the artist.

Folk is a song-centered acoustic tradition rooted in community storytelling, everyday life, and social history. It emphasizes clear melodies, simple harmonies, and lyrics that foreground narrative, protest, and personal testimony. As a modern recorded genre, folk coalesced in the early-to-mid 20th century in the United States out of older ballad, work song, and rural dance traditions. It typically features acoustic instruments (guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, harmonica), strophic song forms, and participatory singing (choruses, call-and-response).

Rebetiko is an urban Greek popular song tradition that crystallized in the port cities of Piraeus, Thessaloniki, and the broader Aegean world after the Asia Minor Catastrophe of 1922. It emerged among refugees and working-class communities, drawing on Ottoman/Turkish makam-based modal practice, Byzantine-liturgical melos, and Greek rural folk song (dimotika), then transforming these into a distinctly urban sound. Typical rebetiko pieces are strophic songs led by bouzouki or baglamas, often prefaced by an improvised modal solo (taximi). Rhythms center on social dances such as zeibekiko (9/8, usually grouped 2+2+2+3), hasapiko (2/4 or 4/4), hasaposerviko (fast 2/4), karsilamas (9/8), and tsifteteli (4/4). Lyrical themes can be raw and direct—love, exile, poverty, prison life, hashish dens (teké), pride, and the ethos of the underworld (mánges)—frequently expressed with argot and melismatic vocal style. Over time, rebetiko evolved from the Smyrna-style ensembles of oud, violin, and santouri to the Piraeus style centered on trichordo bouzouki, baglamas, and guitar, and later fed directly into the development of laïko and modern Greek popular music.

Modern classical is a contemporary strand of instrumental music that applies classical composition techniques to intimate, cinematic settings. It typically foregrounds piano and strings, is sparsely orchestrated, and embraces ambience, repetition, and timbral detail. Rather than the academic modernism of the early 20th century, modern classical as used today refers to accessible, mood-driven works that sit between classical, ambient, and film music. Felt pianos, close‑miked string quartets, tape hiss, drones, soft electronics, and minimal harmonic movement are common, producing a contemplative, emotionally direct sound that translates well to headphones, streaming playlists, and screen media.

Greek folk (dimotika) refers to the traditional song, dance, and instrumental music of Greece, shaped during the late Ottoman era and crystallized in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It embraces diverse regional styles—Epirote clarinet-led laments and slow dances; Peloponnesian and Central Greek kalamatianos and tsamiko; Thracian wedding tunes; the island (nisiotika) syrto and ballads; Cretan lyra-and-laouto suites; and Asia Minor–tinged songs brought by refugees after 1922. Typical instruments include clarinet, violin, laouto (long-neck lute), santouri (hammered dulcimer), kanun, Cretan lyra, tsabouna (island bagpipe), daouli and toumbeleki (drums), and, in urban/para-folk contexts, bouzouki. Melodies draw on modal pitch systems (dromoi) related to the maqam tradition (e.g., Ousak, Hijaz, Rast, Hitzazkar) and, in Epirus, often on pentatonic scales. Rhythms are dance-centered and asymmetrical: 7/8 (3+2+2) for kalamatianos, 9/8 for zeibekiko and karsilamas, 2/4 for syrtos and hasapiko, 3/4 for tsamiko. Lyrics are strophic and commonly use the 15-syllable political verse (dekapentasyllabos), covering love, exile, heroism (klephtic songs), work, ritual, and community life.