Math rock

Math rock is a style of progressive and indie rock[2] with roots in bands such as King Crimson and Rush[3] as well as 20th-century minimal music composers such as Steve Reich.[4] It is characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (including irregular stopping and starting), counterpoint, odd time signatures, angular melodies, and extended, often dissonant, chords. It bears similarities to post-rock.[2]

Math rock
Stylistic origins
Cultural originsLate 1980s, United States and Japan
Typical instruments
Derivative forms
Other topics
Steve Albini was an influence in the math rock genre

Characteristics

Math rock is typified by its rhythmic complexity, seen as mathematical in character by listeners and critics. While most rock music uses a 4/4 meter (however accented or syncopated), math rock makes use of more non-standard, frequently changing time signatures such as 7/8, 11/8, or 13/8.

As in traditional rock, the sound is most often dominated by guitars and drums. But drums play a greater role in math rock in providing driving complex rhythms. Math rock guitarists make use of tapping techniques and loop pedals to build on these rhythms, as by the band Battles. Guitars are also often played in clean tones more than in other upbeat rock songs, but some groups also use distortion.

Lyrics are generally not the focus of math rock; the voice is treated as just another sound in the mix. Often, vocals are not overdubbed, and are positioned less prominently, as in the recording style of Steve Albini, or Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller. Many of math rock's most well known groups are entirely instrumental such as Don Caballero or Hella.

The term began as a joke but has developed into the accepted name for the musical style. One advocate of this is Matt Sweeney, singer with Chavez, a group often linked to the math rock scene.[5] Another influence is Canadian indy rocker Dan Snaith, who earned a PhD in mathematics from Imperial College London.[6] Despite this, not all critics see math rock as a serious sub-genre of rock.[7]

A significant intersection exists between math rock and emo, exemplified by bands such as Tiny Moving Parts[8] or American Football, whose sound has been described as "twinkly, mathy rock, a sound that became one of the defining traits of the emo scene throughout the 2000s."[9]

Bands
See also: List of math rock groups

Early

The albums Red[10] by King Crimson and Spiderland[11] by Slint are generally considered seminal influences on the development of math rock. The Canadian punk rock group Nomeansno (founded in 1979 and inactive as of 2016) have been cited by music critics as a "secret influence" on math rock,[12] predating much of the genre's development by more than a decade. An even more avant-garde group of the same era, Massacre, featured the guitarist Fred Frith and the bassist Bill Laswell. With some influence from the rapid-fire energy of punk, Massacre's influential music used complex rhythmic characteristics. Black Flag's 1984 album, My War, also included unusual polyrhythms.[13]

Asian

The most significant Japanese groups include Ruins, Zeni Geva, Boredoms, Aburadako, Tricot, and Doom. Yona-Kit is a collaboration between Japanese and U.S. musicians. Other Japanese groups which incorporate math rock in their music include Ling tosite Sigure, Toe, Zazen Boys, Lite and Mouse on the Keys. Skin Graft Records and Tzadik Records have released Japanese math rock albums in the United States.

Elephant Gym is a math rock band from Taiwan.

Australian

Bands such as Because of Ghosts, The Sinking Citizenship, and My Disco emerged in the early 2000s in Melbourne.

European

The European math rock scene started in the late 90s to early 2000, including bands such as Adebisi Shank (Ireland), Kobong (Poland), The Redneck Manifesto (Ireland), Three Trapped Tigers and TTNG (United Kingdom) and Uzeda (Italy). Foals (England) was formed in 2005.

North American

Bands from Washington, D.C. include The Dismemberment Plan, Shudder to Think, Hoover, Faraquet, 1.6 Band, Autoclave, later Jawbox, and Circus Lupus. Polvo of Chapel Hill, North Carolina is often considered math rock, although the band has disavowed that categorization.[14]

In California, math rock groups from San Diego include Upsilon Acrux, Drive Like Jehu, Antioch Arrow, Tristeza, No Knife, Heavy Vegetable, Sleeping People and Tera Melos. Northern California was the base of Game Theory and The Loud Family, both led by Scott Miller, who was said to "tinker with pop the way a born mathematician tinkers with numbers".[15] The origin of Game Theory's name is mathematical, suggesting a "nearly mathy" sound cited as "IQ rock."[16]

21st-century

By the turn of the 21st century, most of the later generation bands such as Sweep the Leg Johnny had disbanded and the genre had been roundly disavowed by most bands labeled with the "math rock" moniker. Bands in the late 1990s and 2000s, such as TTNG and American Football, began combining math rock and emo, creating a much more vocally oriented sound.

In the mid-2000s, many math rock bands enjoyed renewed popularity. Slint and Chavez embarked on reunion tours, while Shellac toured and released their first album in seven years. Don Caballero reunited with a new lineup and released an album in 2006, while several of its original members joined new projects, such as the band Knot Feeder.

See also

Notes and references
  1. "Post-Rock Music Genre Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved December 24, 2016.
  2. "Math Rock Music Genre Overview". AllMusic. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  3. Body, Alex E. (June 20, 2019). Rush : song by song. [Stroud, Gloucestershire, England]. ISBN 978-1-78155-729-7. OCLC 1088907970.
  4. Progressive rock reconsidered. Holm-Hudson, Kevin. New York: Routledge. 2002. ISBN 0-8153-3714-0. OCLC 45890399.CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. "Interview: Chavez". Pitchfork Media. August 12, 2006. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
  6. Harris, Michael, 1954- (January 18, 2015). Mathematics without apologies : portrait of a problematic vocation. Princeton. ISBN 978-1-4008-5202-4. OCLC 900080550.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. Kamp, David. (2005). The rock snob*s dictionary : an essential lexicon of rockological knowledge. Daly, Steven, 1960- (1st ed.). New York: Broadway Books. pp. 69. ISBN 0-7679-1873-8. OCLC 55990376.
  8. https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/rmzmn6/a-tiny-interview-with-tiny-moving-parts
  9. "Never Meant: The Complete Oral History of American Football | NOISEY". NOISEY. Retrieved February 2, 2016.
  10. Sodomsky, Sam. "King Crimson Red". Condé Nast. Pitchfork. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
  11. Stablein, Lee. "Under The Influence #24: Lapsarian on "Spiderland" by Slint!". Metal Noise. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  12. "Live and Cuddly". Allmusic. Retrieved August 1, 2007.
  13. Blush, Steven (2010). "Black Flag & SST: Thirsty and miserable". American Hardcore: A Tribal History. Los Angeles: Feral House. p. 72. ISBN 978-1-932595-98-7. ... its seven-minute Metal dirges and Fusion-style time signatures confused many fans.
  14. Redford, Chad. "You can call Polvo math rock, but the numbers just don't add up". creativeloafing.com. Archived from the original on August 12, 2011. Retrieved October 3, 2016.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  15. Schoemer, Karen (April 2, 1993). "Sounds Around Town: Miller Writ Loud". New York Times. Archived from the original on November 13, 2013.
  16. Amar, Erin (July 2011). "Music: What Happened? Scott Miller on 50 Years of Singles in 258 Pages". Rocker Magazine. Archived from the original on November 1, 2013.

Further reading
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