Phantom Tollbooth - Power Toy (1988)

I understand December is typically for yearly lists but you won't catch one on this site from me. Possibly a few albums that have had staying power but nope sorry take your pitchfork elsewhere for a list. So I'll do you one better and reflect back  into the early years. Truly not enough people these days want to speak about formative bands in math rock these days. One of many such groups is the interestingly named Phantom Tollbooth (after a famous childrens book...if your not familiar its a good read for anyone). Extremely active and prolific in their relatively short life span (1984-1988)  these guys threw down some fairly left field music for the time. A generous mix of post-punk, noise, art rock and the ever important jazz element made Tollbooth a crazy fast ever shifting group to nail down. If that description sounds a bit like your used to thats because at times it certainly smacks of math rock.

Take a listen to the song "Crash Mode" and you'll begin to see what I mean. They were contemporaries of all the hallowed groups from the 80's (Sonic Youth, Mission of Burma, Minutemen ect) and were on the excellent Homestead label (Big Black, Bastro, Seam, Dinosaur Jr. among many other wonderful groups) "Power Toy" was their last album in 1988 and is arguably their best which would be a great starting point if your just coming into them. Robert Pollard (of Guided by Voices) famously commissioned the nixing of all vocals from Power Toy and recorded his own with new lyrics with it being called "Beard of Lightning" in 2003...strange.

Radiant Republic - Three Against Four (2013)

Miss me? well shoot I missed yall.

Things have been kinda crazy over at casa d'acerola so without further rambling I have to say I have been enchanted for a bit with the fine groups on Sick Room Records. Why should all you fine people of discerning taste care? Well let'ss just say that it's run by former Sweep the Leg Johnny members; that should be enough to get you to listen to anything and everything going on there.

One such group, Radiant Republic, is doing a hell of a job revamping some old discord-era sounds and spinning them into a much noisier and mathier arrangement. Singing is a little plain jane but you ain't riding this pony for soaring power ballad vox, just sweet sweet twists and turns. It's great to hear a self-assured group playing their own way and making sure that pants get rocked in the process. Huge win on this one.

RR

Indurain - Indurain

Got very little info on this here band.. What I do know is they make some pretty cool tunes. Mostly instrumental bar the odd murmurs and a few shouty moments. Mathy? yep and with that comes a nice dose of noise and a healthy splash of post-hardcore moments. The whole thing has a kind of post-rock to post-metal kinda vibe, though no real build ups with the twists coming in at the right times. They managed to slip this one under the radar too, released all the way back in January '12.. Indurain

True Aristocrats - Mary Amygdala (2013)

(From Submission)

For the hours I put in combing the interwebs for interesting maths sometimes the best is delivered right to me. True Aristocrats is one such that right off the bat impresses with its inability to be pegged. Is it Mathy? very much so. Most importantly though are the many other complimentary sounds. Electronic elements, bits of noise and a general sense of experimentation rule roost here. Very much wish I ran into more groups that push themselves like this. 

Its also worth saying that those drums are all of the map of awesome town.

Its in everyones best interest to at least give it a look.

TA

STNNNG

Aggressively angular guitars mixed with spoken word vocals and shouting are always a recipe for success in my book. Clearly there is a deep love with Fugazi going on as well but I'd say its harder to find bands that aren't influenced by them so no points will be deducted.  There is also a liberal sprinkling of mathy structures but certainly not enough to be overbearing. At times I'd say they remind me if Slint was angrier and played faster, all in all a high compliment.  Not for everyone but a great redux of some classic 90's alternative indie rock with an edge

 Dignified Sissy
Fake Fake
The Smoke of My Will

PS. The cover art for Dignified Sissy is awesomely representative of how they sound

Zu - Carboniferous

This is an amazing amalgamation of so many genres. Hailing from Rome, Italy there is no doubt in my mind that whatever you could call this....Zu is the greatest at it. To effectively compile every style that is twisted by this trio you would have to include.

Jazz
Free-Jazz
Rock
Metal
No-Wave
Math
Punk
Noise
Experimental

phew...

It should be noted that this is the groups 14th release and shows with its laser focus. Fans of any of the above mentioned flim-flam please check it. 

Carboniferous

Natsumen

First off would like to thank Metaghost for getting me into these guys years ago. There are really only a couple things you need to realize about Natsumen. They describe themselves as a "Japanese Progressive HardCore JAZZ Aggressive Improvisation ROCK band" and really I'd be hard pressed to argue with such a tagging.  This stuff is gold with noisy abrasive guitars, intricate drumming and soaring horns. Maybe think Broken Social Scene with some balls minus vocals. Awesome Sauce

Natsumen

Laddio Bolocko - The Life and Times of Laddio Bolocko

    Close in sound to groups such as "This Heat" Laddio Bolocko have a more rock forward approach to song structure...at times while in the same instant owing much to past free-jazz heroes. Its truly hard to say from song to song what face these guys put on but they do it all well. This is experimental noise rock if you had to peg it to one area in particular but they do shine in slower outings and drone as well. Math elements poke their head from time to time but mostly in the drumming. It makes sense seeing as Blake Flemming was from Dazzling Killmen (an early math-rock band) he even spent time in Mars Volta.
    This group in my opinion has had a large impact on the experimental rock of our current day. With members from influential bands and also went on from this to form other amazing groups.  Members went on to play in Psychic Paramount and Electric Turn to Me.
     Highly recommended to anyone that claims to enjoy left field rock music.While they are gone I would say after enjoying their collected works here you turn to Psychic Paramount as they remain close to the same style and are an excellent band in their own right. Enjoy.


The Life and Times of Laddio Bolocko