anyone like math rock?

[brownmetalman420]

i have really been getting into math rock latley. the music is so tech and complex and i love it. the drumming is usually especially sick. what are your favorite math rock groups? mine are:

don cabalero
tera melos
by the end of tonight
lite
sleeping people
hella
planets
toe(kind of more post rock but very math influinced-GREAT shit though)
giraffes?giraffes!

give it up for this sick genre that is underappreciated

 

[Satanstoenail]

I know not of this Math Rock of which you speak, and I haven't heard any of those bands. Sounds interesting though.

 

[Dem0n0id]

Lightning bolt are quite cool...if they count.
'Mirrored' by battles is quite good as well. I just love that album!
Haven't heard much of the thread starter's list though.(except don cabalero who are awesome!)
Anything in particular i should listen to first?

 

[Krilons Resa]

'Mirrored' by Battles is quite good as well. I just love that album!

That album fucking RULES!!!

As for the other bands, I have never even heard of them in passing, besides Don Caballero, whom I have never actually heard.

Color me intrigued.

 

[brownmetalman420]

wow if you guys havent heard these bands then start right now....they are all great bands with sick drumming. every release they have is good. if you want to listin to hella though you should get hold your horse or the devil isint red. i have all these releases so if you want to hear some of them holler at me. planets is probably the most technically proficient band next to don cab.toe is from japan and they rule hard too. by the end of tonight have some weird not math rock releases so get the gunslinger ep or tribute to tigers.....just get all of these bands shit and let me know what you think

 

[Unfaithfully Metalhead]

I'm an old man but WTF is Math Rock?

 

[ShredHeadJHJ]

A great e-buddy of mine is really into all the bands you mentioned. Tera Melos is like his favorite band evar. I never knew that stuff was Math Rock. I thought it was all avant-garde rock & punk influenced indie stuff, or something like that. I never heard much of it.

 

[brownmetalman420]

Math rock is a rhythmically complex, guitar-based style of experimental rock music[1] that emerged in the late 1980s. It is characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (including irregular stopping and starting), angular melodies, and dissonant chords.Whereas most rock music uses a basic 4/4 meter (however accented or syncopated), math rock frequently uses asymmetrical time signatures such as 7/8, 11/8, or 13/8, or features constantly changing meters based on various groupings of 2 and 3. This rhythmic complexity, seen as "mathematical" in character by many listeners and critics, is what gives the genre its name. Musically, math rock derives from other rock genres, including rock, heavy metal, progressive rock, and punk rock.

hope that helped....now check some of these bands out and be amazed

 

[ramses]

Yeah, it's been done before... It was called "Prog metal" in the mid 80's. Watchtower was doing this type of stuff before. Yes did a bit of this stuff in '74, on the album Relayer, on a song called Sound Chaser. Spastik Ink have been doing it awhile, along with Spiral Architect. To me, it can get a little annoying if listened to for more than an hour at a time. You definitely have to be in the right frame of mind. 70's prog rock were doing all the above time signatures on their albums, it's done better by them, I think.

 

[razoredge]

I had been under the impression that "math rock" was formulated by equasion not by feel or human expression. ??? So if thats not what we are talking about its just progressive music and origionated in jazz, possibly classical then fused over into a heavier or electric realm during the fusion era to a intence syncropated state by none other than Steve Morse and the boys from Dixie Dregs. As well as beginning to appear in progressive rock bands as Ramses said such as Kansas and Crack the Sky. Im not sure about ELP's, Yes and Rushs time sigs. Im sure they all bounced around according to what they felt came next. Watchtower I only recently found a few songs but that is some wild stuff. Fates Warning also visited areas away from 4/4 early on but Dream Theater took the cake when it came to taking all progressive music prior and raising the bar to a insane level and still being digestable.

If this is the stuff people are talking about I personally REFUSE to call it "math rock", these bands I mentioned feel it and math has about as much feel as a corpse.

 

[brownmetalman420]

i understand what your talking about origins and influiences and think the bands you mentioned may darw from math rock but progressive rock is an unbrella term covering a lot of different genres. "math rock" has a certain sound and feel and you can put your finger on it immediatley. when i think progressive rock i think of a certain sound.there is definetly jazz influences in math rock but the concentration should be the complexity and the technicallity of the music... earlier styles were definetley the blue print but the modern day genre of "math rock" is incredible

 

[Unfaithfully Metalhead]

ahh ok it is Prog music of sorts and some genius just decided to call it "Math" rock... Anyways give us a clip from Youtube example... but not a long one please...

 

[ramses]

i understand what your talking about origins and influiences and think the bands you mentioned may darw from math rock but progressive rock is an unbrella term covering a lot of different genres. "math rock" has a certain sound and feel and you can put your finger on it immediatley. when i think progressive rock i think of a certain sound.there is definetly jazz influences in math rock but the concentration should be the complexity and the technicallity of the music... earlier styles were definetley the blue print but the modern day genre of "math rock" is incredible

Bands we mentioned draw from math rock? Yes, Watchtower, and the like have been around for many years.....well before "math" rock. Odd time signatures are nothing new to those bands. I don't think Crack the Sky, and Spiral Architect were sitting around listening to "math" rock, being influenced, or drawing from something they were doing; some bands- up to 35 years before "math" rock. Spastic Ink is another group (ex-Watchtower members) that does this well, and did it awhile back as well. When I went to Gigantour, (first one) there was this supposed "math" rock band called Dillenger Escape Plan playing, and some kiddies were talking about how complex they were. They then witnessed Dream Theater later on, and fell silent. But, on a good note (no pun intended) at least these "math" bands are trying something challenging,(even if it falls well short of awe-inspiring) instead of thinking 2 chords, and wearing masks and jumpsuits, and having 7 of the nine members just jump up and down, spelling errors, and backward k's is talent.

 

[brownmetalman420]

here is don cab live...best example of math rock band.

 

[razoredge]

Thats a bad recording but I hear nothing going on there that sets it apart, in fact by comparison its relatively primitive and elementary. Compared to Billy Cobhams Spectrum album released in '73 it could be considered pop-ish

 

[brownmetalman420]

nah i think you need to listin to a better recording....just listin to some mp3's from the bands and get a better grasp on the sound and the genre....that spectrum album is very good but these bands drumming hold their own

 

[brownmetalman420]

heres another example...hella.....what do you think?

 

[razoredge]

As a guitar player, there is nothing going on there for me, not that its very legible but I can still tell its not much. As for the drumming all one needs to do is find a Hendrix live album if they want to listen to Noel Redding doing a non-stop drum solo during the song. Cobham was way advanced from this 3.5 decades ago, bring Mike Portnoy into the picture and forget about it. Now Im not downing it, Im personally glad to see someone interested in progressive forms of music. I just object to placing a new term on old hat as a way to try to step apart from something when in reality its nothing new. Also being a hater of "math", it brings flashback nightmares of highschool when the teacher stood up before class and droned aimlessly while scribbling on the chalk board, and I shutter. I dont like to hear it used in music terminology, to me music comes from the soul and creative expression of the mind. Two things math is opposite of.

Now your first video is primarily in 4/4 and not complex. You want complex, technical, you check out Dream Theater, Symphony X and Watchtower. My drummer and I have some amaturely complex time sigs and if he was making all that noise behind me... well... we would be having a long talk. Noel Redding drove me nuts, as talented a drummer as he was he just did'nt know when to lift. This thing Redding was doing was an extension of free form jazz which was popular during the 60's.

Keep trying with more examples if you want but please find something thats better recorded and complete. I've been appauled at the crap cell phone recording people put up on youtube, it makes me question if they have ears or a musical bone in their body. The place is loaded with the stuff and in reality it makes good bands sound like elementary school bands.

Currently listening to Cobhams Spectrum... 35 years and counting, still awesome... Red Baren... YEAH!

 

[IWP]

TWO PLUS TWO IS FOOOOUUUUUR!!!!!!!111 *guitar solo*

 

[brownmetalman420]

math rock is deffentlry progressive rock but like i said before the term encompases too much because it is an unmbrella term. you can have everything from complex tech rock/metal, to jazz influienced rock, to symphonic classical rock. i think just for classification purposes the term math rock is used and it does help because if i wanted to find more artists with this type of sound it would be endless looking under progressive rock.

same thing has happened with the post metal genre. only a handful of artists are playing this style but its nothing more than atmospheric sludge/doom. but again it would be endless looking for more music like this under the sludge/doom genres.