Math rock

T

tdawe1

Bluelighter
Joined
Sep 24, 2009
Messages
51
Any other fans?

Bands such as:

Maps & Atlases
Tera Melos
By The End of Tonight
Piglet
Don Caballero
Battles
Giraffes?Giraffes!
Ghosts and Vodka
Hella
Them, roaring twenties

on the post-rock side: Russian Circles, 65daysofstatic, etc
post-hardcore side: Blakfish, Meet Me in St. Louis, Faraquet, Colour
 
you know...they sing about factorials and hyperbolic curves!

math rock is usually used to describe music played in a wide variation of time signatures, as opposed to the standard 4/4 of western music. i dont think 3/4 waltzes would qualify as math rock though.

I'll throw in:

Damiera (math pop?)
Discordance Axis (math-grind)
The Number Twelve Looks Like You (see above)

I'm surprised to see someone mention faraquet. i havent thought about that band in forever.
 
I love the Number Twelve, I didn't think about including mathcore, the best known example would be The Dillinger Escape Plan.

Math rock (and its other subgenres such as mathcore, math metal, math folk, et cetera) are all relatively new sub-genres of rock music. As pallidamors said, it is characterised by irregular time signatures, is usually technically proficient and dissonant rather than melodic with a lot of irregular stopping and starting. It could be well described as a type of modern jazz.

Damiera and Battles are more accessible math rock bands, but I wouldn't call them math pop. Tubelord, Colour, This Town Needs Guns, Venice Ahoy are more suitable.
 
from back in the day Don Cab or Rocket From the Crypt.

the drummer for Maps & Atlases might be one of the most talented drummers ever.

re: definition of math rock. I hate the term math rock, but it essentially is describing post-rock or indie music with some weird time signatures and a slight jazz influence (but can be influenced from anything from punk, metal, shoegaze).
 
How about Slint? I'm not really a fan of the whole Math-rock genre, sounds so pretentious calling it that.

Huge Shellac fan though :) (I'd just say they were punks who explore odd time signaturs occasionally...)
 
AmorRoark said:
For realsies? I'm mad ignorant. I didn't know there was a term for bands who use non-standard time signatures. :( Surely Tool would apply?
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yeah, it's really just a name. and maybe a stupid one. it seems like for every band that tries to sound different, they come up with some absurd sub-genre.

whoremoaning said:
How about Slint? I'm not really a fan of the whole Math-rock genre, sounds so pretentious calling it that.

Huge Shellac fan though :) (I'd just say they were punks who explore odd time signaturs occasionally...)
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Shellac is cool. the genre is pretentious, you can tell everyone who plays in a math rock band tries really hard. for some reason math rock is pretty popular out here in the Mid-western edge of the East Coast where I live.

still, you have to give the musicians props for their chops. seeing Maps & Atlases drummer keep the beat with his left hand then play the xylophone (sp?) with his right was awesome.
 
Yeah, I love math rock but it is hard to deny that it is quite a pretentious genre and I feel a lot of bands just try too hard. I think Maps & Atlases, Tera Melos, Don Cab etc just get it right, seems to flow so lovely and doesn't feel forced at at all.

@AmorRoark, the boundary between progressive and math is subtle but different, I'm not sure how to define the difference properly but I don't think I would call Tool math rock/metal, but progressive, similar case in bands like the fall of Troy.

edit:

I think these are some shining examples:

Tera Melos, "A Spoonful of Slurry" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCD3U_MMdPU
Maps & Atlases, "Songs For Ghosts to Haunt To" : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqCvyuwQSo8&feature=related
 
I like Foals, Battles and Minus the Bear.

Don't know how many of you would label them math rock or not.

Oh and from my limited understanding, math rock is like the doppelganger of dubstep (irregular time signatures, angular sound, bleeps.)
 
Minus the Bear are definitely not math, but I can see where you are coming from. I love The Sound of Animals Fighting! My favourites are Act 2, Cellophane and The Heraldic Beak.
 
tdawe1 said:
Minus the Bear are definitely not math, but I can see where you are coming from.
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I've heard of math rock, just didn't know exactly what it was. Thought it only had to do with time changes.
 
Max Power said:
I've heard of math rock, just didn't know exactly what it was. Thought it only had to do with time changes.
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Yeah sorry for coming across abrupt - it's very hard to define, but MtB are just too melodic and use pretty standard time signatures, I do dislike the imprecision of the genre though. Minus the Bear are still a great band :)
 
Autoclave

Autoclave.jpg


wiki said:
Autoclave was a short-lived all-female indie rock band based in Washington, D.C.. Formed in the summer of 1990, the group consisted of Christina Billotte (vocals and electric bass guitar), Mary Timony (electric guitar and vocals), Nikki Chapman (electric guitar and vocals), and Melissa Berkoff (drums).

The group became known for their intelligent, slightly off-kilter brand of rock, which featured the use of compound and changing meters, thus affiliating them to some extent with the "math rock" movement.

The group broke up in May 1991, with Timony forming Helium and Billotte forming Slant 6.
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Autoclave - Go Far
 
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Tons of math music 4 u!

If you guys wanna hear the most mathmatical bands ever, and believe me, this is my area of expertise, listen to:

Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape Plan, Blotted Science, Psyopus, Spastic Ink, Veil Of Maya, PERIPHERY(my fav), Bulb, After The Burial, Dysrythmia, Behold The Arctopus, The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, FellSilent, Coprofago, Tesseract, Born Of Osiris, A Life Once Lost, Vildhjarta, Sybreed, Frederik Thorendal, Ion Dissonance, Dog Fashion Disco(my other fav), Bring Me The Horizon, Aeons Collapse, Eat The Crow, Beyond Years, UnOther(some math there), Enemy Within, Between The Buried And Me (alaska), BOTCH (minus the bear guitarist dave's old band-wow another fav big time), Vaeremia, also, Allan Holdsworth is a great mathmatical jazz musician who heavily influences all my favorite bands listed above.

- then.....check out my personal stuff on myspace.com/thefallingdream. I like to mix mathrock and mathmetal with accessable choruses so everyone can listen to it. Hoping to bring math to the masses and unite us all so we all can listen together, and cure simple minded media sheep with math and music slowly

Well, that being said, that should keep all of you busy for awhile. Hahahaha! Hope u guys enjoy.

Love- The Falling Dream
 
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