The albums Red and Discipline by King Crimson,[7][8] as well as Spiderland by Slint,[9] 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,[10] 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.[11]
Math rock is typified by its rhythmic complexity, seen as mathematical in character by listeners and critics. While most rock music uses a 4 4meter (however accented or syncopated), math rock makes use of more non-standard, frequently changing time signatures such as 5 4, 7 8, 11 8, or 13 8.[18]
As in traditional rock, the sound is most often dominated by guitars and drums. However, 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 illustrated by songs like those of math rock supergroup Battles.[19][20]
Lyrics are generally not the focus of math rock; the voice is treated as just another instrument in the mix. Often, vocals are not overdubbed, and are positioned less prominently, as in the recording style of Steve Albini.[citation needed] Many of math rock's best-known groups are entirely instrumental such as Don Caballero or Hella.[21][22]
A significant intersection exists between math rock and emo, exemplified by bands such as Tiny Moving Parts[23] 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".[24]
Etymology
The term began as a joke, but has since 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.[25] Despite this, not all critics see math rock as a serious sub-genre of rock, and some of the genre's most notable acts have disavowed the term.[26][27]
Taiwan has a very small indie music scene, of which math rock is an emergent genre that is quickly gaining in popularity, with well-known math rock bands including Elephant Gym.[31]
North American
Polvo of Chapel Hill, North Carolina is often considered one of the household names in math rock, although the band members themselves have disavowed the categorization.[32]
In California, power pop groups Game Theory and the Loud Family were both led by Scott Miller, who was said to "tinker with pop the way a born mathematician tinkers with numbers".[33] The origin of Game Theory's name is mathematical, suggesting a "nearly mathy" sound cited as "IQ rock."[34]
Although the Seattle grunge scene was not widely associated with math rock, some consider Soundgarden to be one of few exceptions, due to the odd time signatures found in many of their songs.[35][relevant?]
↑ "Battles: Math rock made with room for improvisation". Washington Post. Retrieved December 5, 2024. Battles is rooted in the irregular time signatures and guitar tapping of math rock, but the experimental trio is constantly pushing sonic boundaries.
↑ LeMay, Matt (August 12, 2006). "Interview: Chavez". Pitchfork. Archived from the original on January 9, 2014. Retrieved July 17, 2015. [Math rock] was invented by a friend of ours as a derogatory term for a band me and James played in called Wider. But his whole joke is that he'd watch the song and not react at all, and then take out his calculator to figure out how good the song was. So he'd call it math rock, and it was a total diss, as it should be.
Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock characterized by the exploration of textures and timbres as well as non-rock styles, often with minimal or no vocals, placing less emphasis on conventional song structures or riffs than on atmosphere for musically evocative purposes. Post-rock artists can often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings with electronics and digital production as a means of enabling the exploration of textures, timbres and different styles. The genre emerged within the indie and underground music scenes of the 1980s and 1990s, but as it abandoned rock conventions, it began to show less musical resemblance to conventional indie rock at the time. The first wave of post-rock derives inspiration from diverse sources including ambient, electronica, jazz, krautrock, psychedelia, dub, and minimalist classical, with these influences also being pivotal for the substyle of ambient pop.
Tortoise is an American post-rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois in 1990. The band incorporates krautrock, dub, minimal music, electronica and jazz into their music, and their eclectic style has left a great influence on the post-rock genre. Tortoise have been consistently credited for the rise of the post-rock movement in the 1990s.
Slint was an American rock band from Louisville, Kentucky, formed in 1986, after the dissolution of two local bands, Squirrel Bait and Maurice. The band consisted of Brian McMahan, David Pajo (guitar), Britt Walford, Todd Brashear, and Ethan Buckler. Though little known during their original run, they have retrospectively gained a cult following and critical acclaim as one of the pioneers of post-rock and math rock.
Polvo is an American indie rock band from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The band formed in 1990 and is fronted by guitarists/vocalists Ash Bowie and Dave Brylawski, with Steve Popson playing bass guitar and Brian Quast playing drums. Eddie Watkins was the band's original drummer, but did not rejoin the band upon its reunion in 2008, after breaking up in 1998.
Spiderland is the second and final studio album by the American rock band Slint. It was released by Touch and Go Records on March 27, 1991. Slint's lineup at the time of recording comprised Brian McMahan on vocals and guitar, David Pajo on guitar, Todd Brashear on bass guitar and Britt Walford on drums. Spiderland was engineered by Brian Paulson and recorded over four days in August 1990. The music and vocal melodies were composed throughout the summer of 1990, while lyrics were written in-studio.
Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. Like the term "post-punk", the term "post-hardcore" has been applied to a broad constellation of groups. Initially taking inspiration from post-punk and noise rock, post-hardcore began in the 1980s with bands like Hüsker Dü and Minutemen. The genre expanded in the 1980s and 1990s with releases by bands from cities that had established hardcore scenes, such as Fugazi from Washington, D.C. as well as groups such as Big Black, Jawbox, Quicksand, and Shellac that stuck closer to post-hardcore's noise rock roots. Dischord Records became a major nexus of post-hardcore during this period.
Touch and Go Records is an American independent record label based in Chicago, Illinois. After its genesis as a handmade fanzine in 1979, it grew into one of the key record labels in the American 1980s underground and alternative rock scenes. Touch & Go carved out a reputation for releasing adventurous noise rock by the likes of Big Black, the Butthole Surfers, and The Jesus Lizard. Touch & Go helped to spearhead the nationwide network of underground bands that formed the pre-Nirvana indie rock scene, and helped preside over the shift from the hardcore punk that then dominated the American underground scene to the more diverse styles of alternative rock emerging at the time.
Hella is an American math rock band from Sacramento, California. The primary members of the band are Spencer Seim on electric guitar and Zach Hill on drums. The band expanded their live band by adding Dan Elkan on vocals, rhythm guitar, sampler and synthesizer and Jonathan Hischke on synth bass guitar for their 2005 tour. In 2006 they reformed as a five-piece line-up including Seim, Hill, Carson McWhirter, Aaron Ross & Josh Hill. In 2009, the band was reduced back to core members Hill and Seim.
Mathcore is a subgenre of hardcore punk and metalcore influenced by post-hardcore, extreme metal and math rock that developed during the 1990s. Bands in the genre emphasize complex and fluctuant rhythms through the use of irregular time signatures, polymeters, syncopations and tempo changes. Early mathcore lyrics were addressed from a realistic worldview and with a pessimistic, defiant, resentful or sarcastic point of view.
Don Caballero was an American math rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
David Pajo is an American musician. He has played a wide variety of music, loosely fitting into several other genres such as hardcore punk, math rock, post-rock, electronica, folk rock and indie pop. Though a multi-instrumentalist, he is best known for his guitar work, most notably with Slint. He is currently a member of Gang of Four and musician at large.
Tweez is the debut studio album by American rock band Slint and the only studio recording released before their disbandment. It was released on the label Jennifer Hartman Records in 1989 as the only record put out by the label, which was run by their friend, Jennifer Hartman. It is the only Slint album to feature bassist Ethan Buckler.
American Football is an American indie rock band from Urbana, Illinois, originally active from 1997 to 2000. They reformed in 2014.
Mogwai are a Scottish post-rock band, formed in 1995 in Glasgow. The band consists of Stuart Braithwaite, Barry Burns, Dominic Aitchison, and Martin Bulloch (drums). Mogwai typically compose lengthy guitar-based instrumental pieces that feature dynamic contrast, melodic bass guitar lines, and heavy use of distortion and effects.
The White Birch is the second album by the New York City band Codeine. Released in April 1994, the album is considered by many to be the band's best album and a clear influence on Low, among other bands. It was the band's last album released during their original run; the band disbanded for the first time after the tour for the album.
Brian Paulson is an American record producer and audio engineer from Minnesota, best known for recording albums by Slint, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Superchunk and Wilco.
Nintendocore is a broadly defined style of music that most commonly fuses chiptune and video game music with hardcore punk and/or heavy metal. The genre is sometimes considered a direct subgenre of post-hardcore and a fusion genre between metalcore and chiptune. The genre originated in the early 2000s and peaked around the late 2000s with bands like Horse the Band, The Advantage, Math the Band, An Albatross, The NESkimos and Minibosses pioneering the genre.
Frigid Stars LP is the debut album by American indie rock band Codeine. It was released in February 1991 on Glitterhouse in Europe and in May 1991 on Sub Pop in the United States. The album was released to generally positive reviews and is regarded as being one of the pioneering albums in the slowcore genre.
Tricot is a Japanese rock band from Kyoto. The band was formed in 2010 by vocalist and guitarist Ikumi "Ikkyu" Nakajima, guitarist Motoko "Motifour" Kida, and bassist Hiromi "Hirohiro" Sagane. Known for their intricate rhythms and visual identity, they have released seven studio albums. Their musical style has been described by Rolling Stone as "adrenalized math rock sped up and given pop's candy coating".
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