Our Daily Fix - Tour Singles (2013)

Last Time on Swords o Plenty....

Once you have stood in a crowded room full of your peers in various stages of undress pouring sweat and genuinely being hypnotized by the shear brilliance in front of you....there is no way you can be "on the fence"  I am a soldier ready to do battle for them. Our Daily Fix is my perfect example of this. These guys play like the factory is about to blow at any second....seriously. It's a very organic and honest look at modern math rock today. Sure they salt and pepper with various other genre's but its the tight corners they take and the memorable structures that grant character and heart to their music.  Also to quell any doubting Thomas's that saxophone rips hard.  Sometimes its like a friendly battle between the sax and guitar for awesome riff supremacy. Need an example? Listen to "Two Cats" and check out that dueling riff work at 1:24 straight to the heavens.  You can be sure ill be seeing these gents again in about a week so expect more overly excited screaming from me. 

Halcyon - Pastures (2011)

I dont like posting a lot of hit or miss type stuff but when this australian group hits its like a Little Mac upper cut. The misses aren't all that bad I will say they are some typical run of the mill djent. HOWEVER when these guys fold in the layers of jazz fusion and math rock elements with what is a very pastoral type feel your in for a ride. The song "Nesting" is a great example. So yea not the greatest but there should be something here for fans of instrumental musics.

PostMadonna Interview

PostMadonna is a very understanding group of musicians. Why might I choose to point that out in the introduction of this interview, you ask? Because after about a half-hour of conversation, the very moment they finished answering the last question I lost everything I had recorded.

Yup.


Needless to say, I whipped up a fresh batch of inquiries, hit them up a second time, and got to know these dudes pretty well. I am stoked to have caught them on the cusp of some recent successes, with their album coming out on vinyl June 30th and an even-more-recent-than-this-interview signing to Tetra Records. Here we find out about their musical backgrounds, thoughts on songwriting, and Cathy, who’s just trying to make sense of it all.

Guruh Gipsy Is The Anti-Jethro Tull

I know that this is a Math Rock blog, but I'm writing my first post about a Progressive Rock album because fuck the cops. Guruh Gipsy is a collaborative album between the Indonesian composer Guruh Sukarnoputra (the son of Indonesia's first president) and the Indonesian progressive rock band Gipsy. This album is unique because it blends western progressive rock idioms with traditional Indonesian ones in a way that doesn't feel forced or out of place. The parts of this record that sound like cheesy Close To The Edge era Yes transition so seamlessly into, and blend so absurdly well with the traditional central-Javanese vocal delivery, western-Javanese modes and Balinese Gamelan riffs that you almost forget about the gratuitous 3 minute long synthesizer and guitar solos that litter the more prog-rock oriented sections. 

I'm generally not crazy about Progressive Rock of this era, but I give a lot of fucks about the interaction between Western and Non-Western musics and this album uses that interaction to keep itself sounding fresh even when it falls into classic prog wankery.

Sukarnoputra, who is currently a member of Indonesia's People's Representative Council wrote most of the music, and plays piano and Gendér, with Chrisye, the bassist from Gipsy providing most of the vocals. The album was recorded and produced independently, with an original release in 1976 of only 5000 copies, but received widespread critical acclaim at the time. Since then, the record has come to be regarded as a classic of Indonesian rock, and in 2007 Rolling Stone Indonesia named Guruh Gipsy the second best Indonesian record of all time. I highly recommend this record to anyone who likes lush instrumentation, or is interested in learning more about Indonesian traditional music but doesn't know where to start. 

Typical Gamelan Instrumentation

Gamelan of Four

FUCK THE COPS (download)

Cousin - Alternate Tunings for Regular People (2013)

Apparently it took one more release from this UK trio to really sink into my dome. It has a bit of a 90's throw back feel with chord progression's (reminds me a bit of polvo...slightly) but structurally it follows a more math rock / post hardcore (minor) bent and I just cant argue with that. There's no boring interludes or builds its straight to the excellent riffage, no time wasted. This is something that I can imagine many people diving right into because its that immediate. Solidly crafted stuff.

Goddamn Jets - All we ever wrote (2001​-​2002)

Some lovely lost maths for yall's from the early 2000's was just uploaded. This is some pretty straight forward three piece instrumental math rock but there are certainly some great moments to be had. Its important to remember also for the time that a majority of math from the early aughts bares the strong influence of the great Don Cab. Absolutely not a bad thing in my opinion. Enjoy!

Calcius Repton - Futari (2010)

Breath in the majestic sounds of two piece bass and drums. Think you know what it sounds like already? consider that you are very possibly wrong and dive in. What we have on display is some incredibly deft bass guitar playing that seems to take much joy in blurring the lines between prog, math and funk. Great twists and turns to be had here as well some pretty melodically memorable moments. What about the drums? no worries because they are totally on par ripping up the landscape. A must have for any fan of highly technical music.  Stellar.

If I Look Strong; You Look Strong - if i look strong; you look strong (2012)

Been holding this gem pretty close to my belt. Coming from Canada and largely a solo project of one Noah Michael this beast is restless. In some ways this project is like some kind of alternate dimension version of AM Overcast. I say this because both groups have a preoccupation with math-pop and pop-punk.  Not only that but each group has solid grasp on song length (ie short) So why exactly are we here then? to re-hash? not here at the swords. The divergent qualities are what truly make IILS:YLS shine in my opinion. Experimental, noisey, break neck turns and occasionally throw in some heavy break downs.  Mixing these elements in with math-pop shouldn't work but like I said short song lengths and incredible execution keeps the flags flying high. Wonderful stuff.

Apocalipsis - Expansion (2012)

In the mood for some post-metal via math from Mexico? :)

Kawri's Whisper - EP (2012)

Hailing from St. Petersburg Russia, Kawri's Whisper demonstrates an incredible understanding of balance. That is to say between completely indulging in prog excess and time shifting math rock. It's a pretty fair cut down the middle and done with the right amount of heart that shines through. Instrumental in nature as well there is atmosphere built from song to song. It looks as though via there facebook page that they have some newer stuff on the horizon because this EP is just the first few bites of a meal I need to finish. Really enjoying this.

kawriswhisper

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

Sajjanu - Californication II (2012)

Previously on PoS (yes we are all aware of that usually stands for )

So a reader has informed me that thanks to a successful bout of badgering the group Sajjanu posted their follow up record on bandcamp from 2012. Why is this amazing? well if you are familiar the question has already been answered (they are math rock demons). But for those not in the know certainly click the link above to DL some real meaty math. I have to say this is more compositionally rich than their first effort and less chaotic but a hell of a lot more focused. Sajjanu still stand as one of the busiest and most technical of the Japanese math rock groups. That is along with the amazing Nuito. So if anyone wants to get on those guys for a new album thatd be great as well.

Sajjanu

Beach Parade - Tour Loko EP (2011)

Eli one of our fine members of the PoS had gotten me wise to these guys a little while back. I can safely say I am embarrassed to have missed such excellently crafted and instrumentally complex punk music from Ithaca NY. It's got that insane energy with great powerful vocals and some extremely inspired dual guitars. If your in the mood from some high flying rock then let this be your first stop of the night.

Beach Parade

Math Rock Mystery (SOLVED!)

So this is kind of an interesting post as we had a reader with a very specific question for us the other day.
You see our interested party had an album that had been given to him by his girlfriend....math rock in nature...that had become one his favorite math albums.  Unfortunately...there were no track titles, nor album title and only the supposed name of the band, PIZZA.

The PoS team and myself feverishly began searching the interwebs for any and all information concerning to no avail. However it wasn't until a reader from the wonderful math rock reddit page suggested that it may in fact be a group briefly mentioned in Don Caballero's final tour diary.

As it turns out upon checking in deeper it was indeed that same group. Pizza hailed from Boston in the early 2000's and is said to have played in Tuxedo's and utilized a wireless guitar system to be able to play outside the venue. This is unconfirmed as the information on this group is scarce at best. One thing is for sure though is that they are best known as the group forbidden to play during Don Cab's show in Boston. (if you want the full story read the diary above..its worth it) As during Don Cab's set members of the audience actually threw real pizza at Damon Che and company.

It should also be noted that Scott Buoncristiano of Pizza would go on with a former member of Lynx and others to create the group Challenger. Also another incredible math rock group very much worth your time.

I feel like its incredibly important to keep people informed as much about the new music coming out as well about the older groups that have paved the way. Pizza is a pretty excellent group especially for the time and certainly have that classic math rock sound.

History lesson over :)
Below is a direct link to Pizza's self-titled as well two live albums
PIZZA

Tommy Boys - Demo

Look familiar?

Well it should. I briefly covered these cats back in January when they only had one song to speak of. I do think that they deserve a much deeper look as it is painfully obvious that these guys once something official gets dropped.....its going to be good times for all. The chops are there as well as the killer song writing. In need of a well placed and tight math rock turn? theres about 70 in every song. Forced? no not at all everything sounds fluid like a river and the riffs are pretty catchy as well. If your going to reach into the comparison's basket then you could say a more energetic and twisty Ghosts and Vodka with more of a punky vibe running through. For those that don't know Ghosts and Vodka, I suggest going to drink some vodka. Sound's like a damn fine combo if I've ever heard. They do now have a song with vocals and its just as excellent as the instrumental stuff. I need a bat signal or a beeper specifically for when new stuff by these guys comes out. I need it that badly.

The Water Safety - Happiness is a Warm Wookie (2013)

Aside from the god awful album name this is some thoughtful and intelligent dance rock from Germany. Dance rock typically invokes some dangerous thoughts...yes I know this...(The Rapture *cough*) Thankfully these guys keep their cards close and have some love for many genres. Post rock? yea. Math? mhm Alternative Rock? sure throw it in there to. Truthfully I have posted these guys on our facebook group but it just occured that an official post had not been created. There is a little somethin somethin here for one and all so certainly its one to check out.

Salvador - Fera Vischer (ep) (2013)

Rio De Janeiro based post rockers Salvador lay down some pretty interesting instrumental math rock I have to say. I wasn't completely sold until I noticed the introduction of some interesting effects and welcome twists to the formula. These slight departures add some well needed personality to the proceedings. I do have to say as well that as the EP progresses the songs seem to only get better and better while ramping up the complexity. Like I said it took a minute to sink into this lovely group but you'll be thankful for doing so. Listen.

Astrochasm - EP

If you've ever listened to or been to see a Math Rock band in Sacramento then you probably have heard about Astrochasm. This small California trio only has three tracks currently released in there discography, one which is an intro into another song. And although it is true if you search hard enough you can find more of their songs in the archives of Youtube,  they're nothing that is official or as well mixed as whats on their Bandcamp.

What I love about Astrochasm is how refreshing it is to hear a girl singer in a Math Rock band, and a good one at that. Their songs are chock-full of catchy riffs, this really shines through in "...Just Dreams." Although the guitar work is nothing really innovative and has a kind I've heard this before sound. They seemed to be a lot more laid back then what I'm use to listening to so I find it hard to get into.Not to mention due the fact that they don't have a bassist a lot of their songs end up sounding empty. This isn't remedied by the fact that Yvette Young, (the lead singer) doesn't have a deep underlying tone to her voice that makes up for the lack of bass.

My advice to Astrochasm would be to either find a bassist or use that second guitar to make their songs sound a bit fuller. All in all I'm very interested into seeing how Astrochasm will develop their sound further and will be keeping a very close eye on them.

Stockades - MONOLITH (2013)

Previously on X-Me....er Plenty of Swords

Australians based post-hardcore mathsters Stockades are almost ready to drop their first official release this June. Should prove to be a banger if this newly released song is any indicator. Great vocals and fantastically noodly guitars are in high order with these peeps so if thats your thing (and it should be) then you gotta peek it up.

How to Count One to Ten - Blue Building Blocks (2012)

Better late than never right?
2012 seems like a distant memory but I have plenty of hold over groups I just have not gotten to covering yet. Case in point is this fantastic Japanese group "How to Count One to Ten". Crisp and clean instrumental post-rock with some great interlocking rhythms. Some math rock love is yes implied within that last statement so no fretting yall.

If you're looking for twinkly slow plodding build up's you unfortunately are at the wrong blog and band for that matter. The melodies can get a little pastoral and nostalgic but we are all about that. A lot of the Japanese groups seem to have some kind of lock down on that kind of thing anyway. Yet again no skipping out on this guys and galls. must.