Math rock: Encyclopedia II - Math rock - Development

Math rock - Development

While a few bands of the 1970s and 1980s such as Genesis, Gentle Giant, Rush, King Crimson, and Pink Floyd had experimented with unusual meters, such groups were generally grouped under the heading progressive rock. Canadian punk rock group No Means No (founded in 1979) have been cited as a "secret influence" on some math rock.[1]

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."

Math rock - Midwestern groups

During the 1990s, the greatest concentration of math rock bands was in the urban centers of the U.S.'s Midwestern "Rust Belt," ranging from Minneapolis to Buffalo, with Chicago being a central hub. The Chicago-based engineer Steve Albini is a key figure in the scene, and many math rock bands from around the country have enlisted him to record their albums, giving the genre's recorded catalog a certain uniformity of sound, and lumping his bands past and present, Shellac, Rapeman, and Big Black into the pigeonhole as well. Also, many math-rock bands 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, from nearby DeKalb, Illinois, is 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 has 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.

Math rock - Pittsburgh groups

The city of Pittsburgh is home to one of the most defining examples of the math rock genre: the four-piece Don Caballero. Formed in 1991, "Don Cab," as the group is affectionately known, successfully blends heavy noise rock sounds with avant-garde jazz influences and the fierce non-stop drumming of Damon Che. Like many other bands in the style, the band despises the "math rock" label applied to them by critics. Even so, it should come as no surprise that a temporary bass player Matt Jencik, a member of another former Pittsburgh math rock band, Hurl, also spent time in Don Caballero. The group's former guitarist Mike Banfield has noted Breadwinner to be an important early influence on the band's sound. Their other former 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, Che reformed the band in 2004 with an entirely different lineup consisting of members of the Pittsburgh-based math rock band Creta Bourzia.

Math rock - 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 San Diego bands of the time that have been likened to Jehu include Antioch Arrow, Clikitat Ikatowi, and Heavy Vegetable. The latter band took a more melodic approach than the previous two, and featured the songwriting genius of Rob Crow who was able to fuse melody and harmony as well as complex rhythms seamlessly.

Math rock - 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. It is very likely that Japanese math rock exerted an early influence on some (if not many) of the earliest U.S. math rock groups, as both Zeni Geva and Ruins were formed several years before their North American counterparts became active in the genre.

Math rock - Washington D.C. groups

Washington, D.C. also somewhat contributed to the sound of math rock with the bands Frodus, 1.6 Band, Autoclave, later Jawbox, 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.

Math rock - 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, Crain, The For Carnation, June of 44, Sonora Pine, and The Shipping News.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Development", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki