Alright, so I've totally lagged behind on my posting but that's ok, we've still got a bit of time left in the month. This post will be the first to focus on a single band, in this case Slint, and I hope to knock out a couple more before November hits us (I've already decided on the next genre and I think you'll all just love it. Or hate it. You'll have a disposition towards it, which will fall upon some sort of continuum). Also, I botched one of the links in the "assorted songs" post but I've gone back to edit it and it should be correct now, so if you were totally confused for one of the We Insist! paragraphs that might be why.
Mmkay, so Slint. Slint is... amazing. And that's a scientific fact. But, more than that Slint is a great study in early math rock, being one of the bands focused more on organic composition than worrying about making sure everything is using the right wrong numbers. In a previous post we already listened to their song "Nosferatu Man" so if you missed that, go back and un-miss it, and we'll continue by just repeating that process with a few other songs by them.
First we've got "Breadcrumb Trail," the opening track off of their ground breaking album Spiderland (Which "Nosferatu Man" is also on, as well as most songs we're about to go over):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29MBGwzEhMc
Right off the bat we're given a gently phrased 7/4 guitar riff to set the stage. You can also think of it as 4/4 + 6/8, with the 6/8 phrased as 3+3, which is important as the bulk of the center of the song shifts to mostly straight 6/8 meter. More specifically, the change occurs at ~1:24 in the video. Notice also that while the section is in mostly groups four 3s (Two bars of 6/8, each 3+3 with the second group accented) there are also some five group phrases mingled in, which we could take to be a shift to 15/8 meter, a 6/8 bar followed by a 9/8 bar, two 6/8s followed by a 3/8, or perhaps most simply we could just write out the entire section in a 3/8 time signature (Although the compound lilt of the rhythm suggests otherwise, but since we haven't gotten into compound time yet let's just ignore that point of theory for the moment). All of that probably sounds a bit complex, or at least more complex than you're used to thinking in terms of musical rhythm, but instead of worrying about that just listen to it and you'll likely find that even if you have no idea what the musical theory behind the section is it still sounds quite natural and easy.
Later down the line they start to mix in brief sections of 4/4 time, where we also get another glimpse of the stop-start compositional style of math rock in play. Note how some of the "open" measures aren't the same duration of the others, without prior experience with the song it's easy to become misled about when the next downbeat is coming (Which is par for the course in this genre, something to keep in mind).
Eventually they get to a point where they are alternating the 4/4 rock measures with 3/4 "open" measures before making a return to the original 7/4 motif of 4+3. I think one of the greatest qualities of this particular song are how it manages to make a moderately intricate rhythmic structure sound perfectly "even" and I believe a lot of that has to do with how well they stay within the two basic metric ideas of 4s and 3s, rounding everything out so that it flows with the surrounding bars. The most turbulent sections of the piece are where they seem to deliberately separate the two feels, which is an interesting point to start a discussion that we may get to later on down the line (I say that a lot, I know).
Alright, moving on. Now, I'm covering Slint here as a math rock band, but that's not strictly their classification within music history. Many have made the argument that Slint is more accurately described as a post-rock band, a genre that was in formation around the same time Spiderland hit and whose modern incarnations bear a rather obvious resemblance to many of its sonic themes. Post-rock is another somewhat nebulous genre label, which boils down to "rock musicians using rock instruments to play something other than rock music, but that is still related to rock music." Now, that's a horrible definition for a label for a number of reasons but we aren't going to weigh in on that debate here. Instead we're going to listen to a few of the more ambient tracks from the album, in which the role rhythmic experimentation is diminished (And they're in 4/4 time... gasp!). So, listen to these and begin to form a vague opinion about your stance on Slint's genre classification.
"For Dinner..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bJwJaRdsDE
"Don, Aman"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-T63_DK8hc
"Washer"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCaf82ZFtss
Well, what did you think? Pretty amazing stuff, eh? Certainly seems a far cry from what comes to mind when you think "math rock" (Ok, when I think math rock, at least), and it's definitely close in style to modern post-rock. We'll revisit this topic later on with examples from a different band, math rock actually has a number of bridges into other genres and the borders can be very, very fuzzy sometimes. Math rock bands are also notoriously known for not really liking or adhering to the label, so it gets even more muddied when band A makes a rhythmically spastic and deconstructive album one day and a suite of 20 minute ambient tracks the next. We're often left with partial classification at best, and the point I guess I'm making is that Slint is one of those bands that we need to accept falls both within and outside the realm of math rock depending on which song you're listening to.
Now let's take a trip back in time to Slint's first album Tweez. Here we see the band aiming for a more chaotic and loose sound than their later, acoustically focused works. To start off let's look at "Pat":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9zHVlY0tmo
That was just awesome, wasn't it? It seems to be primarily (Entirely, perhaps) in 4/4 but there is so much syncopation and loose interpretation of the meter that it's almost like the time signature is removed from the equation completely. We've also got rapid shifts between riffing themes, a strange vocal loop and later on some bluesy jazz fusion noodling. This is almost a totally different beast from what Slint would later become.
"Darlene":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9srFCiqbFRk
Another great example of loose rhythmic interpretation in play, with an eerie guitar lead that seems to dance awkwardly over the steady drum and bass groove and a lot a couple instances of stop-start phrasing and shifting tempo.
"Carol":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft12x0Ggzfs
This is wonderful because it sets us up for a later exploration of this musical line of thought in with math rock and noise rock intersect (And they do it oh so frequently). Aside from the plodding rhythms and thick distortion, notice how they play with the feel of the tempo in their transition between the two main sections. Also around 2 minutes in they switch to 3/4 time, a sign that even early on their sense of rhythm was more involved than just "play loose."
And that, in a nutshell, is a fairly decent overview of some key points in Slint's musical career. On a closing note, listen to the last track on Spiderland, "Good Morning, Captain." It's another 4/4 romp but this one emulates the insistent groove of tracks like "Carol" more than the early post-rock of something like "Washer." I hope you enjoyed the post, but let me know if you have any further inquiries. I didn't want to bury you in technical information that wasn't really needed but at the same time I'm afraid it might be a bit "light." Anyways, just listen to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoH5MPIgM7c
No comments:
Post a Comment