metaghostin' Vol. XV - All the Engineers are Dead

All the Engineers are Dead - 40'56"

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1. You Set the Scene / Love / Forever Changes (1967)
2. time machine / LITE / Past, Present, Future (2012)
3. Vanity Fair / Mr. Bungle / California (1999)
4. This Must be Love / Phil Collins / Face Value (1981)
5. T-800 prefer Tech Noir / Riding the Diplodoc / Crystal Fuxx (2012)
6. This Will Be Our Year / The Zombies / Odessey & Oracle (1968)
7. What if / Boyfrndz / Boyfrndz (2011)
8. Ocean and Sky (And Questions Why?) / Julie Tippets / Sunset Glow (1975)
9. Sick Chatter / The Soft Greens / Ceiling (2011)

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Monaural drums in a stereo recording
Fade outs because the song never ends
Fade outs because the song needs to end
Fade outs just because
Gated reverb as a myth
Gated reverb as applied today
Vocal harmonies by a group
Vocal harmonies by an individual to create the illusion of a group
Vocal performance by an individual to create the illusion of an instrument
Non-linear editing to create the illusion of a vocal performance
Digital artifacts because you mastered your record like an asshole
Digital artifacts because your song is made out of digital artifacts

One Leg Mary - Yes Exactly, Maybe Not

These cats emailed a spell ago and I must say very worthy of some listening ears. Kind of a early 90's indie math feel going.  Guitars chug and cut across one another in fine fashion. Sparse vox help the whole proceedings run smoothly. Check it out. 


Bandcamp

Fight Cloud - In Augment

Creepy Cloud man guys. I suppose I would not want to fight him though.

Suuuuupah tight Math Rocks right here ladies and gents. These Virginia-born cloud-fighters just released their first album and its incredibly solid. The music itself is a very indie rock style of math and they do an incredible job of playing both sides of the fence. By this I mean the chill parts and the amped up portions are just as great as the other. Nice twists jump out as well to keep you on your toes but the true magic is something a lot of other bands seem to miss the mark with:

Vocals

Just some damn gorgeous melodies and harmonies here and it just makes everything all the sweeter. Even without the singing this band would be flowing aces.  Songs follow a pretty traditional rock form but this just gets strengthened by the vocals all the more.

God
So
Good

bandcamp

The Soft Greens - Ceiling (EP)

There's been some talk of Loose Lips Sink Ships on the fantasmagorical facebook arm of this fine musical blog....cough..cough.. Plenty of Swords (facebook edition)

Anyway's I promised to post an off shoot of LLSS from guitarist Conor Mackey called The Soft Greens. This is very much NOT math rock as if you couldn't latch onto that fact within the first .5 seconds. This is electronic dance pop albeit very Frankensteined.  Rhythmically at times this stuff gets super complex and wild with some deep breaks thrown in. Maybe if Aphex Twin had a 15 year old second cousin that was into max tundra? In any case it needs to be checked into. mark it.

bandcamp

Former Animals - Former Animals (2012)

Lets face it gang Math Rock is really all about those clean toned guitars cutting through each other.  This is less a rule of the genre and more of an issue of..shall we say...listen-ability.  Hear me out for a second.  With lazy production or the introduction of pedals to muddy your tone, your bracing new tribute spencer seim is going to sound confusing.

Why even bring this up? Well because Former Animals bring some interesting ideas to the table by way of atmospherics and guitar tone changes. At times shifts to the general "established" ideas of the "math rocking" just doesn't turn out so well. Tag on that fact that at many points it sounds like the train is about to derail and this sounds like it may not be very good.

SO FAR FROM THE TRUTH.

Because this train is filled with dancing bears and the tracks are constructed of marshmallows. When this train does go off track it somehow manages to still be fracking amazing...nay better. This is a pretty flawless release in my book. Dont see many of those around these days.

Occasionally jazzy and a bit punky maybe? interesting song structures, really inventive riffs and pretty proggy in spots. Wrap it up with a bow because this is some of the most interesting math rock I've run into so far this year.
 
Former Animals

The Season Standard - Squeeze Me Ahead of Line

German born Progressive monster right here.  The Season Standard issue forth heavy jazz, funk and electronic elements. Rhythms bring it in a math rock sort of bent but that shouldn't be of concern. Reason being that this is some excellently thoughtful musics that while technical retains its sense of fun.

production? clutch brah.

Trey Gunn also shows up on a track to play touch guitar. unfamiliar? he's just from some up and coming group called King Crimson.

bandcamp