Math rock

Template:RockBox Math rock is a style of rock music that emerged in the late 1980s. It is characterised by complex, atypical rhythmic structures, stop/start dynamics and angular, dissonant riffs.

Characteristics

The aforementioned characteristics are seen by some to give mathematical character in their complexity. Musically, math rock derives from other rock genres, including rock, heavy metal, or punk rock. Math rock often sounds familiar but somehow "off," it fits into those genres but is never a classic example.

Musicians who turn purposely to mathematics to find new creativity in their music are math rockers. They manipulate, twist and syncopate to confuse, to delay, to create something that is a twist on rock, punk, or pop, something familiar but "wrong," something new. Like anything there are exceptions, but one universal natural side effect is that math rock is often favoured by those who are analytical in nature.

Lyrics are generally not the focus of math rock; the voice is just another sound in the mix. Often, lyrics are not overdubbed, and are positioned low in the mix, much in the style of Steve Albini.

Development

While a few bands of the 1970s and 1980s such as Genesis, Gentle Giant, Rush and Pink Floyd had experimented with unusual meters, such groups were generally grouped under the heading progressive rock.

In the 1990s a heavier, rhythmically complex style grew out of the broader noise rock scenes active in Chicago and other Midwestern cities, with influential groups also coming out of Japan and Southern California. These groups shared influences ranging from the music of 20th century composers such as Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, and Steve Reich, as well as the chaotic free-jazz approach of John Zorn's Naked City, and critics soon dubbed the style "math rock."

Midwestern groups

Many math rock bands have enlisted Chicago-based engineer Steve Albini to record their albums, giving a likeness in raw sound within the genre, as well as lumping his bands past and present, Shellac, Rapeman, and Big Black into the pigeonhole as well. Also, many math-rock bands happen to release their records on Chicago-based Touch and Go Records, or one of its sister labels, Quarterstick, Skin Graft, etc.

Some key bands of this period include Bastro, Lynx, Table, Polvo, Cheer-Accident, Shellac, and Breadwinner. Also out of the Chicago area, in nearby De Kalb, Illinois, U.S. Maple, which formed out of the ashes of the Jesus Lizard-esque Shorty, U.S. Maple took a more deconstructive approach to their brand of rock music, similar to that of Captain Beefheart. Their music takes a free-form approach to rhythm, with songs only occasionally coalescing into conventional rock beats. Thus, aesthetically, the group is not as "mathy" as other bands in the genre, but the same thought process of dismantling rock music still applies.

Several other math rock groups of the 1990s, all characterized by extreme rhythmic complexity and sonic brutality, were based in Midwestern cities: Cleveland's Craw and Keelhaul, St. Louis's Dazzling Killmen, and Minneapolis' Colossamite.

Don Caballero and Pittsburgh groups

The city of Pittsburgh, PA was infamous for the genre of "math-rock" due to perhaps the most defining example of the sound, and the one most deserving of the mathematical designation, was the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania four-piece Don Caballero, who successfully blended heavy noise rock sounds with avant-garde jazz influences and the fierce non-stop drumming of Damon Che. Obviously, the band despised the label that critics dubbed them. Even so, it should come as no surprise that a member of another Pittsburgh band, Hurl, did time in Don Caballero's revolving door of bass players. Guitarist Mike Banfield has noted Breadwinner to be an important early influence on the band's sound. Their other guitarist, Ian Williams, drew quite heavily from the minimalist works of Steve Reich, shown especially in the group's final release, American Don. Williams has taken this approach further with his newest outfit, Battles. Don Caballero disbanded in 2001 after a van accident that abruptly ended their support tour of American Don. However, drummer, Damon Che, reformed the band with members of Pittsburgh-based math-rockers, Creta Bourzia in 2004.

San Diego groups

Formed in 1990, San Diego's Drive Like Jehu, which featured the off-kilter guitar of John Reis from Rocket from the Crypt was a blistering, shining example of technical rock music, highly demonstrated on the band's swan song, Yank Crime. The group disbanded in 1994. Other bands likened to Jehu out of San Diego at the time were Antioch Arrow, Clikitat Ikatowi, and Heavy Vegetable, the latter having a more melodic approach than the previous two, which features the songwriting genius of Rob Crow who was able to fuse melody and harmony as well as complex rhythms seamlessly.

Japanese groups

Several math rock groups from Japan developed close relationships with Chicago's Skin Graft label, leading to a cross-fertilization between the math rock scenes in the two nations. The most important Japanese groups include Zeni Geva and Ruins, with Yona-Kit being a collaboration between Japanese and U.S. musicians.

DC groups

Washington, D.C. also somewhat contributed to the sound of math rock with the bands Frodus, 1.6 Band, and Circus Lupus among some others. The latter is said to have influenced the sound of early Q and Not U. However, since D.C.-oriented bands tended to throw in odd-meters into their already eclectic mix of influences, some were branded with the genre name.

The Louisville sound

Slint, a young band out of Louisville, released Spiderland in 1991, which is considered an extremely influential landmark album to not only math rock but across the underground music network and beyond. The short-lived group's sound, based on the interlocking of multiple "clean" (non-distorted) guitars playing in generally compound meters, was more sedate and not as metal-influenced as most other math rock groups, and thus its style (and those of its imitators) represents a separate branch of the category. Several groups which followed Slint's lead also used unusual meters; such bands include Bitch Magnet Rodan, The For Carnation, June of 44, Sonora Pine, and The Shipping News.

Contemporary math rock

By the turn of the 21st century, the genre had, like most musical movements identified in the ever-shifting and elusive underground rock scene, been roundly disavowed by any band labeled with the 'math rock' moniker. However, the influences of the movement can clearly be heard in the abiding avant-garde and indie rock scenes. Present-day bands have still managed to be tagged with the "math-rock" label today include Oxes out of Baltimore, Midiron Blast Shaft out of Philadelphia, Yowie hailing from St. Louis, and Big Bear from Boston.

A closely-related genre is post-rock, into which some of these same bands are classified; post-rock, though, tends to be defined by a softer-edged, more jazzy and melodic sound.

Math rock artists and groups

Many bands have albums that as a whole are not math rock, but contain good examples in single songs.

External links