On Young Mountain

So I have been listening to this post-rock band band, This Will Destroy You, from San Marcos again recently and thought I would share a thought or two about this 2006 EP. Yes it lacks the quirky track names and rediculous time-changes found in math-rock, but there is something sweet about this release. It is epic from the first second and never seems to rise above 100bpm. The guitars range from echoey clean sounds to massive distorted sound and everything has a brave amount of reverb on it. There isn't so much to distinguish this band from any other post-rock group that sound like Explosions in the Sky, but there is some strong material here. The melodies are catchy, it is depressing and reflective but still uplifting in many ways the only thing it lacks is pretension, and I have to concede I find this alot with post-rock. There is no sense of progression for the sake of it, which may be a good thing for some listeners, but I must admit I admire conceit and elitism within music. There is something beautifuly smug about a compoer or group which give the impression of thinking they know they are original or better than most. I really am a bit of a cunt aren't I?
Nevertheless, check this EP out:

http://www.last.fm/music/This+Will+Destroy+You/Young+Mountain

Rating?

2:1

Ma as-salaamah

On the Other Hand

On The Orange EP

I stumbled upon this band about half a year ago and thought they deserve a mention. Suffer Like G Did are an instrumental quartet playing jazzy-math-rock in very much the same vein as The Littlest Viking. First things first, the name. For those familiar with the Sega Dreamcast game House of the Dead 2, the name is a quote from a character involved. Yeah nice. Although a lot of the melodic lines sound 'simple' the harmony and texture involved is very bebop. There are plenty of start-stop section interchanges and, as on the second track, we essentially find just two different sections which build completely individually of each other (true binary form). In terms of technical ability, there is nothing exciting on this EP. Some of the bass lines are more interesting than what is generally found in math-bands and there are lots of sus chords, but nothing to write home about. The first track, Big Golden Capital A is certainly the most exciting and varied on the three track EP and is certainly worth listening to. In summary, what this band may lack in speed and ideas they make up for in space and warm chordal sections. You can listen here: http://www.myspace.com/sufferlikegdid.
In conclusion, I think this EP has earned:

2:2

 

Enjoy.

On Eating Happens

...and in August this year, Loose Lips Sink Ships released a split with Victor Villarreal called Eating Happens. Wow, that's odd. It's not that the two songs don't quite flow together (they don't), but more that after hearing what loose lips have to offer, I stop listening. I actually changed the track. I have no idea why whoever put this split together thought it was a good idea, but it wasn't. That said, and I will ignore the Villarreal track, the Loose Lips track is nothing short of incredible. It is complex, challenging and, above all, LLSS have stuck to what they do best: stop/start epic math-rock. The guitar lines are a mixture of long clean and fast melodies (I definately sense some right hand here) and distorted pauses. The drum track is as pleasing as ever, enough break beats and jazzy ride cymbals to satisfy Squarepusher. There is a sever lack of section repetition, to the tracks credit and an outro so atmospheric and layered Steve Reich would be proud (not to mention the mallets). Furthermore, it has the ludicrous name: Sarah Palin's Parasailing. I really rate this track (although not the split) so please have a listen and I award a grade of (for the track):

1st

You can hear Sarah Palin's Parasailing here:

http://looselipssinkships.bandcamp.com/album/eating-happens-7

On The Augmented Sixth

 Probably my second favourite secondary dominant and it’s an old one. There are four variations, three of which (Italian, German and French) are functional as secondary dominant chords (the fourth is known as the Swiss and is used more rarely). To describe the chord in its simplest form, it is an incomplete V7 of V with a lowered fifth. The Italian structure of the chord is, in four part harmony, lowered sixth; tonic (tenor); tonic (alto); raised fourth. It should now be obvious why it is called an augmented sixth now, because of the interval between the lowest and highest pitched notes. Yeah nice.

 Using it’s traditional functionality as a secondary dominant in C, we have the notes AbCCF# in the Italian chord. These resolve as follows: Ab down to G, lower C down to B, upper C rises to D and the F# resolves to G. Wow! We have now reached the dominant chord. The vibraphone setting on the Casiotone CT-370 works very well.

 Furthermore, we are not limited to this function. Take the French chord for example. Why not use it purely as a substitution (or rather re-enactment) of the dominant of the chosen key? Well the jazz world gave it a go. Radical.

 And it’s not just Jazz, Baroque and obscure romantic concertos we can explore the use of the A6. On you Yamaha YPT200-K, play an augmented sixth chord as I have described, but construct it on an arbitrary scale degree. A particularly obscure, not to mention quintessential, chord is that created by these means on the lowered second degree in a dominant seventh chord, but I need to leave some things to write about at later dates or I will clock too many hours on NBA Jam.

 So in summary, there are various ways to treat this chord and all add a colour and function to what may otherwise be dull superposition of sonic vibrations.

Patagonian Rats

So Tera Melos released Patagonian Rats on the 7th of September, and I feel utterly ambivalent. It's a far cry from Drugs to the Dear Youth, that's for sure. There are some inspirational melodies and interesting meters, but why did they decide to incorporate vocals? It is, of course, not the first time 'Melos have sung, their last couple of releases have contained vocals, but I had high hopes for another instrumental record. They can really play, and they have a great group dynamic, but the vocals are terrible. It is like a progressive Don Cab with a cross between Steve Sostak and Fat Mike up front(absolutely no offence to Sostak, I'm a big 'Johnny fan). It really detracts from the excellent instrumental work. I am not traying to sound like a purist, I am not entirely against the idea of vocalists in math-rock (I have to concede, I completely rate This Town Needs Guns), but please create Drugs.2!
This aside, the band have matured somewhat and created some really rather wonderful motifs. It is tight epic and has a brave amount of reverb. The harmonic nature of the record is reasonably simple, and less jazzy than previous releases. There is nothing groundbreaking here (despite what this review suggests: http://musicremedy.com/t/tera-melos/album/patagonian-rats-8835.html) and I'm unsure what the connection to the south of South America is, maybe they just wanted to share their knowledge of the Patagons, but it is worth a listen. It may prove to appeal to a non-math audience and I wish the band the best of luck. Unfortunately I cannot get over the vocals and as such award this a grade of:

2:2

You can listen to Patagonian Rats here: http://www.last.fm/music/Tera+Melos/Patagonian+Rats

Rise of the loop

Unfortunately, I am a misanthrope. This is unfortunate due to my love of polyphony; I want to hear, and indeed create, layered music. I am in luck, however, because someone, on a day long ago, decided to invent (or perhaps detect) the loop. We can trace looping back to Henry, Varese and Stockhausen. Steve Reich began his career in minimalism purely using tape loops. We find loops across all modern ‘genres’ of music, look at hip-hop and rap for example (a far cry from Reich sonically, but not so much when analysed on paper). Why then are so many of us unfamiliar with loops?
 Looping may sound simple. You create a melodic, harmonic or in fact any sequence which you want to be repeated for any length of time (perhaps you’d like to loop until the Big Crunch, if you had batteries which would sustain such a lengthy event) and add another layer, or maybe twenty two, on top. You have now essentially been welcomed to the wondrous world of looping. Yet, there is something missing. Is it really that interesting to loop a chord sequence and play a marimba solo over the top for a few hours? It may be polyphonic (well homophonic to be precise, but I am attempting some form of brevity) but it is simply boring. Even if the sequence in use is G# Major 9th for 3 and half beats followed by D minor/major 7th for 12 and a quarter beats and finished with a G augmented 13th, we will get tired of it after only a few loops. The repetition of basic harmonies then, should tire us after maybe three listens, yet we hear in almost all the electronic and dance genres endless repetition of these harmonic sequences. This is where polyphony comes into play, through the layer.
 We can, for example, have a chord sequence of three chords played in a loop. After hearing this twice, we need something to keep our interest, in comes a melody on a Korg Delta. After hearing this twice we need another new idea (we are very greedy as listeners) so a different melody is played on a Casiotone CT-202 over the top of the original, and so on. Using this structure we can create music which does not get boring too quickly and doesn’t lose any momentum. This is the key to interesting dance music; there is some musical pretension without the loss of the direction. You can dance in Area without the fear of the music stopping before you have finished your killer moonwalk and hence not looking wonderfully trendy.
 I am terribly sorry if this is sounding like a lengthy rehash, but I had to give some background. Now for the interesting stuff (I hope). Instead of pinning the harmony down and building melodies over the top, what the loop offers,  which we don’t get with constant change in music, is the chance to create the harmony through melodies. You can start with a lone melody, maybe just a single note repeated in a clave rhythm, I will choose B. Now, B is present in 6 out of 12 of the Ionian modes starting on the notes of the chromatic scale (we will keep it simple here, no whole tone, diminished or the variations of the minor scale etc.). What key are we in then? Remember, we are oblivious to what the next theme will be, even the next note! Next comes a theme consisting of the tones B, A and D. This has taken away a couple of options for the key, but there are still four possibilities. Another melody enters with the same notes and an additional E. We still have four possibilities. Granted, the harmonies we are creating are bland, but here is the interesting part. The loop is two bars long, and in comes a bass line played on a Yamaha PSR-E403. The bass line however is four bars long. The first half consists of the notes we have mentioned and an additional F# and G#. We now have a key: A Major or F# Minor. The second two bars, however, drop the G sharp to a G natural and suddenly we are in G Major or E Minor. What is fantastic is the dual tonality we have produced but without any awkward modulations, only one changed note in one line.
 Looping also allows us to phase shift without the threat of the natural tendency to fall out of sync with the other parts. If you are using a Boss RC-50 and have melody from a Moog Opus 3, you can repeat and loop the melody 2 and a ½ beats later, and only have to play it once! Keep adding layers starting at different times, but the same melody mind, and the texture is incredible. If you are unfamiliar with phase shifting, it is a technique very similar to fugue and round, where the same melody is played on top of itself, but starting at a different place in time.
 Yes, looping is a lonely sport, but the texture is incomparable to anything in music. On the downside you will lose out on the input and ideas of others and become, like me, infinitely conceited and narcissistic. However, you only have to cook vegetable goulash for one, and if nothing else at least you can look forward to meals on your  own.