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Best Ever Math Rock Album


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13 hours ago, whoa said:

So much good stuff I need to check out in this thread. 

 

Also, sadly defunct, but in a similar kind of happy vibe math rock https://youslut.bandcamp.com/album/critical-meat (there's an LP of this floating about that has this and another slamming album on it - cost effective!)

 

Edit: also this one particular Enemies album https://enemiesmusic.bandcamp.com/album/embark-embrace-2

Had to search the archives but saw You Slut! with Maybeshewill a few years ago and now I’m thinking of another band from that era - dananananaykroyd not that they’re math rock but you just jogged my memory. 

Anyone mentioned 65dos yet (are they math rock?)? I’m away to listen to Retreat! Retreat! 

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8 hours ago, Skacel said:

Had to search the archives but saw You Slut! with Maybeshewill a few years ago and now I’m thinking of another band from that era - dananananaykroyd not that they’re math rock but you just jogged my memory. 

Anyone mentioned 65dos yet (are they math rock?)? I’m away to listen to Retreat! Retreat! 

Aw, I remember seeing maybeshewill when their bassist couldn't make it to a gig because she had to work in a toy factory (it was before Four Part Harmony came out I think)! But this reminds me, I never checked out the Fair Youth so will fix that. 

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To keep this thread alive and well, I would suggest that anyone makes sure to post their thoughts or impressions on artists they've checked out through the recommendations provided here.  I wasn't able to listen to anything today – most of my "new listening" is done during weekdays – but there are a few I've already queued up in Spotify, in preparation for Monday.

 

32 minutes ago, whoa said:

Aw, I remember seeing maybeshewill when their bassist couldn't make it to a gig because she had to work in a toy factory (it was before Four Part Harmony came out I think)! But this reminds me, I never checked out the Fair Youth so will fix that. 

Taper your expectations, haha.  Don't want to sully your first listen by any means, but it seems like most of us MSW fans at VC were pretty underwhelmed with that album.  I was enamored with everything prior, and will contest that they wrote some of the best piano-fueled post-rock for that era, hands down.  FY was just so forgettable for me, and I wanted to love it.  It's pretty.  It's fine.  It does not offend the senses.  It just complete lacks the magic and charm that their prior discography did.  For this guy, anyway.

 

19 hours ago, mrewest said:

I knew the agreement phase would pass haha.  As far as mathy licks go I definitely agree this album qualifies but as far as compared to the rest of their catalogue I just can’t click with this one.  It doesn’t help I’ve only been listening to Foals since last year & got into them because of ‘What Went Down’, but I just don’t like Yannis’ vocals at all on ‘Antidotes’.  Gave the whole album a listen again yesterday & I prefer everything else ahead of it.  

It was good while it lasted.

I think your complaint about Antidotes' vocals are valid.  They're not great.  Sort of whiny or yelpy at times, maybe?  Like a lot of other bands I enjoy, I definitely treat them as more of an additional instrument than anything else, and I will admit that I haven't given the lyrics all to much thought over the years.  From a songwriting standpoint, and guitars / rhythm especially, Antidotes just feels so much more punchy and memorable than anything else they've done... and I guess that's what takes the cake for me.  I still listen to any new Foals record and revisit the ones I've found myself "eh" on.  And they're certainly not bad, they're just a far cry from the sound I listen to Antidotes for.  They feel a lot less instrumentally focused and more pop structured, maybe?  That's the best description I can come up with off the top of my head.

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6 hours ago, Derek™ said:

To keep this thread alive and well, I would suggest that anyone makes sure to post their thoughts or impressions on artists they've checked out through the recommendations provided here.  

yo. I know you showed interest in that band Lynx. and for whatever reason they are kind of hard to come by. but i did find this to make it easier for you/anyone else interested. 

https://lynx4.bandcamp.com/releases

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Also (not related to anything posted previously) but Paul Slack was probably the best math rock bassist, maybe ever. He played in SWIMS and Planets. Both bands are 2 piece instrumental drum & bass format, and yet his playing is much different in each project. 

https://swims.bandcamp.com/album/swims-ep

 

I can't find the Planets full length in full online anywhere. But here is a track from it

https://youtu.be/E89pBjj_sgc

 

Dude quit music and opened a math rock themed sandwich shop. I shit you not. Look at the menu. Some of the item names are amazing.

https://www.meltednapavalley.com

 

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I definitely came here to see Lynx brought up.  

 

One of my best friends' bands opened for Lynx in late 1999 at a tiny place in Kalamazoo, MI (Harvey's on the Mall, if anyone knows the area), and there were about three people at the show in addition to the opening bands.  He struck up a conversation with the drummer about Slint, bought their 3 song EP, and discussed that they (Lynx) finally found the studio they were going to record their album at (which was Soma, owned by John McEntire of Tortoise/Bastro/The Sea & Cake/etc) and that Bob Weston was going to record it.  

 

I think the album is so hard to come by because it came out on a really small arm of the old Southern group of labels, Box Factory.  I don't think Box Factory Records put out more than 10 releases overall, leaving this album to get lost in the mix.   

 

Both the album and the EP (which has different recordings of two songs that are also on the album, Prynx [then called Nighthush] and Mrs Lynx, and one exclusive to the EP) are some of my most listened to CDs of the last 20 years, easily.

 

 

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This thread is awesome, tons of great music in here that I hadn't heard before. Here's my contribution.

 

I heard these guys on a college radio station in the early 2000's, still one of my favorite math rock-y bands and I'm surprised they never took off at all. I feel like nobody has ever heard of them so maybe some of you will get to enjoy something new.

 

Bad Dudes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rlN80roXd0

Full album at bandcamp (highly recommend the song "dawn of the dudes"):

https://sonude.bandcamp.com/album/bad-dudes-s-t

 

Edited by NorthwayNative
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2 hours ago, buddha4281 said:

I hope everyone into T/T/T is also all about Lifted Bells. Their drummer is sick. And the 2 guitar interplay is top notch.  Some very good lineage in that band.

Plus Matthew Frank is a rad member of the boards here and Bob Nanna is in that band.

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21 hours ago, buddha4281 said:

yo. I know you showed interest in that band Lynx. and for whatever reason they are kind of hard to come by. but i did find this to make it easier for you/anyone else interested. 

https://lynx4.bandcamp.com/releases

This is such a fun release, I am ALL about this kind of stuff. Has a bit of a Japandi vibe to it https://japandi.bandcamp.com/ 

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Really surprised to see T/T/T listed as Math Rock. Would think that's more in a twinkle daddy category

 

edit: the more research I do I'm seeing a distinct intersection of these bands with what is considered math rock. My first introduction to 'math rock' is with Mercury Program so I never associated the more emo acts with math rock, I just assumed it was more technical post rock with time changes

Edited by Tommy
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I associate Math with time signature changes and technical prowess -- with any melody that is catchy -- as an added bonus. Even Tool has some quite mathy elements, like try to count out Vicarious, and even the hit Schism.  They are most 5/4, but do change up a lot.

Old school: Kansas and King Crimson could really have some great mathy stuff with and without melodic elements - and so could SO many other Prog bands. Those that dabbled in Jazz or Fusion, could be very mathy. I always think of Bill Bruford.

 

Most of the others have already been mentioned like Don Cab, Giraffes, Tera Melos, etc.

 

TMP are not math imho. I love them, own their stuff and saw them live, but their jazziness rarely gets "mathy."

 

Surprised, no one mentioned Meshuggah - Tomas Haake is the epitome of math drumming. Each hand and foot in 4 different time signatures!!!!

 

Surprised no one mention Lite, Toe or Te' // they are not always mathy, but do get quite mathy at times. 

 

There is a whole world of math, which for lack of a better word, is "spastic" to my ears. They are geniuses and prodigies, Savants, and most of us lesser mortals will never appreciate what they are doing.

There were folks who existed long before before it was called math, that seemed like in another universe, but if you stayed with them them long enough, you could hear the cycle start to come around again. Thelonius Monk had a track and I can't recall it, but my former band director asked me to check him out in the 80's to see if I could decipher the code. It was more of a challenge than actual enjoyment of the music, but I knew he was a genius.

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5 hours ago, Tommy said:

edit: the more research I do I'm seeing a distinct intersection of these bands with what is considered math rock. My first introduction to 'math rock' is with Mercury Program so I never associated the more emo acts with math rock, I just assumed it was more technical post rock with time changes

total no offense meant with this, but I would argue "emo" acts like Braid, Moneen, early Mock Orange, Damiera, and more recent stuff like T/T/T and Lifted Bells have MUCH MORE in common with Math Rock (especially modern math rock) than The Mercury Program. But, sadly, it seems like the definition of the genre ALMOST comes down to a person to person interpretation. And even then HOW people hear about different bands can also effect what genre they view them as. Like, no one will argue Don Cab, Hella or Tera Melos arent math rock (except maybe the members of those bands hahaha) but when you start getting into bands that share elements with post rock or post hardcore (for example) , it becomes more difficult. 

 

Probably goes back to like, Slint releasing "Spiderland" and some songs on there sound like the seeds of post rock, and some are more in line with early, aggressive math rock. ex. I found out about Shellac because they were often mentioned in reference to Math Rock and those earlier bands. As time went on and i listened to them though, they are just a post hardcore band that incorporates some off kilter rhythms from time to time.  But that is my opinion. And I think that opinion also comes from how the genre changed. Maybe at a time where their contemporaries were Rodan and Chavez, Shellac was a math rock band. But the genre grew away from the beginning elements. And modern stuff shares very little with the early stuff. 

 

Btw, I mentioned the above emo bands because all of them have off kilter times & noodley shit (to different degrees obvs) that are in line with with math rock. I wouldn't call Braid, Mock Orange or Moneen math rock. Damiera? T/T/T? Lifted Bells? I might honestly.  Like i said, how someone finds a band clearly highly effects how they view that band. The Mercury Program is too similar to Tortoise for me to ever consider them math rock. More concise, more straight forward, more rock influenced jazzy post rock. BUT ONCE again, thats just my opinion.  And I believe I found The Mercury Program through Tortoise. And I know someone else could argue "well, TMP have these elements that are in line with math rock. So they are math rock" and that would be their opinion. I just, dont hear it personally. 

 

My other unpopular opinions: Toe is Post Rock. Unwound was never math rock.  Mouse On The Keys is mostly Nu Jazz. And Progressive Rock and Jazz are influences on the genre and therefore, are not applicable to being called "math rock." haha,

 

All  genre bs things aside, I will say every band mentioned in this thread is pretty great. And I have compiled a short list of the stuff I havent heard to check out. later. So its pretty exciting tbh. 

 

 

Edited by buddha4281
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