Jamie Lidell - Multiply

Furthering ideas that Lidell threw down in his previous group Super_Collider, Lidell is a talented man. Where Super_Collider was largely an electronic album with very masked soul influenced vocals, Multiply see's Lidell striking out on his own and embracing his Soul flirtations to a new and exciting level. . Lidell's voice itself is just perfect for this kind of thing. Its construction in places is very much an electronic album, but the meat of it  is a soul funk record and it works well. Albums that followed this first effort just come out sounding too forced and contrived. Listen up :)

Multiply

Pinback

As I posted Other Men a couple days ago I really didn't think it was fair to not have Rob Crow's most well known project Pinback. Along with Crow we also have Zach Smith of Three Mile Pilot fame. There is some amazingly catchy indie pop rock going on here. But this isn't your Belle and Sebastion hug a sad unicorn  type indie pop.  There's drum machines and awesome guitars which share there own unique quality that I just cant put my finger on. Not to mention that the vocals between Smith and Crow have that perfect trade off value that compliments the other oh so well. 

Blue Screen Life   

Summer in Abaddon
Autumn of the Seraphs

Either Summer in Abaddon or Autumn of the Seraphs are great places to start.

Ps Ninko, this business is almost scarily up your alley.

Ed Harrison - Neotokyo (OST)

 

A soundtrack for a first person shooter called Neotokyo based on the Unreal Tournament Engine.....wait....are you still awake? well you should be because this is some fancy flipping IDM with a Post-Rock sensibility. Incredibly well developed song structures. There is nothing that would lead you to believe this was anything else besides some sick nasty electronica. As far as I know this is Mr. Harrison's first and only release (I hope not though) This kind of jam isn't my normal tea and biscuits but its done so damn well you'd be a fool if you didn't take a dive.

Neotokyo CD1

Neotokyo CD2

mediafire

or 

Neotokyo  file factory

Wallpaper.

Acerola posted some Facing New York a while back, an awesome band that metaghost showed me as well. They write really cool rock/pop stuff with catchy choruses you only hear once after they grow out of the evolving melodies of their songs.

In 2009, the evil twin/ arch nemesis/ parallel universe persona of the singer of Facing New York, the hard drinking clubber Ricky Reed, released his first solo album. With drummer Arjun Singh, they called themselves Wallpaper and made DooDoo Face, the autotuned narration to a night of partying from a sentimental dance freak. The lyrics are silly as hell; too many to chose from, but "I gotta say I'm looking good/ I'd hit on myself if I could" from I Got Soul (I'm so wasted) came to mind first.

I was having a very hard time trying to decide which video of his to share on here; it was a toss up between T-Rex, or Getting Drip. One about going buckwild on the weekend after working 9-5 all week, and the other about prepartying in your kitchen. Metaghost put a vote in for T-Rex, and i cant disagree. Anyone getting down in an Ed-Sinclair-from-Dinosaurs mask deserves the screentime.



doo doo face

I also wanted to post this newer track, hopefully from an upcoming album. He has done away with the autotune and decided to just write one of the most fucking catchy-as-shit choruses of all time. Dude knows his fucking synths.

Ghosts and Vodka

If you want to talk about what the hell these current instrumental math bands are listening to you can more often than not draw a direct line to these gentlemen. Ghosts and Vodka is a mix mixture of two well known groups Joan of Arc and Cap'n Jazz. To say that this album is influential for the genre would be an understatement. Japanese band Toe in an interview once said they initially formed to play music like Ghosts and Vodka. Lets not even start on Victor Villareal's guitar style, we could be here all day. The music itself is incredibly dynamic and rhythmically complex but with a great sense of melody to back it up. Both Guitarists, Villareal and  Sam Zurick would go on to rejoin there Cap'n Jazz band mates for a new group called Owls. If you haven't your missing out.

Addicts and Drunks

Other Men - Wake Up Swimming

A post of a Rob Crow project thats not the usual Thingy, Pinback, Ladies, Goblin Cock or Heavy Vegetable? YEP (among a few). Crow is what some might call an underground indie superstar while also having a very low record of a failure. Speaking of Heavy Vegetable, Crow's first project, Other Men is a reforming of the original members 11 years after their last album release.  This adds another layer of expectation to the mix coming from such an excellent group. Other Men does differ as it shows more of a math rock group than one focused on quirky math pop. Grab this up and check it. This doesn't break the mold but its incredibly solid and a great addition to anyone's growing time shifting collection.


Other Men - Wake Up Swimming

Heavy Vegetable - The Amazing Undersea Adventures of Aqua Kitty and Friends  (BONUS!)

Toe

Since acerola posted Mouse on the Keys, which I have been digging immensely the last few days, I have wanted to put up some Toe, another instrumental band that Mouse reminded me of. Toe are just as technically tight as Mouse, and their drummer is outrageous. He comes up with such intricate, effortless beats; when you watch him it makes you feel like anyone could play drums.

This is a track off The Book About My Idle Plot On A Vague Anxiety

Ebu Gogo

When a band that you love so well and dear comes to a close, it can be a very traumatic experience, for both the audience and the band themselves. The relationships formed in a band are strong, and though people may come and go, some musical relationships are so tight that the bond will never end. When Gruvis Malt broke up, parts of the group moved far and wide, but initially, some of the main members were close together, and loved making music with each other. They had been a band for more than a decade, and grew up with the same influences that made them so unique. Three of the members of Gruvis decided to form a band, Ebu Gogo, and just use it to make the music that inspired them: mostly, the soundtracks to 80s videogames and movies.

It is instrumental mayhem; the new classical music. Bass, keys and drums, all tightly knit and bouncing off each other in great harmony. The musicians are at the top of their game, and the creativity in freedom is inspiring.

Its a bit hard to find good videos of theirs, but this should suffice:
It is a drum video someone made, playing along to their song H.U.G.S., off worlds



He does a pretty good job, too. And then theres this lego stop motion video that a kid made, set to The Sun of the Rancher of Neverland. He also does a great job.

Extra Life

I am having my balls absolutely busted re-listening to this Extra Life LP, Secular Works. It had been a while, but goddamn if "I don't see it that way" isn't absolutely devastating to the heart and soul.

Secular Works

Chon

Lets get something straight this isn't going to make you a better person, do your dishes or even push the boundaries of the the already crowded tech-metal genre. I can say though that this Ep by the extremely young band called Chon is very fun with some memorable breakdowns and melodies.  If not for that then do it because the drummer of this group is 12 years old. Yes like 6 plus 6 equals 12. According to the group he is not with them anymore because he wanted to do other activities like kids his age. It really is astonishing but deff. have a go.


Chon EP

Hot Chip

A year or two ago, a friend turned me on to Hot Chip. He touted them as a sick club band, and the conversation leading up to him recommending the band to me had me quite interested. Their album Made in the Dark was the first, and most recent of theirs, that I picked up and I loved half of it. They were a serious band disguising themselves in the world of club music. Songs like Ready For a Fall are so catchy and sweet; a lonely love song pretending to be about checking a girl, or in this case a guy, at a dance.

Instead of carving up the wall
Why don't you open up, we talk?
I am ready for a fall



The rest of the album was mostly forgettable party fare, just silly catchy electronica that doesn't hold up. But in between songs of no substance, they put in other tracks like We Are Looking for a Lot of Love. Just gorgeous stuff here, lush and melodic. This is a film someone threw together with it as the soundtrack.


Thankfully, their last release, One Life Stand, followed in the steps I was hoping it would. They really distinguished their strengths and built into a dance friendly outfit with nice full electronic sound. The production is wonderful, and channeled into songs about relationships and love, instead of talking about trivial ideas that did not fit their arrangement and composition capabilities.

I will be brief on my descriptions here:

Hand Me Down Your Love is track two, and has some really great vocals.
Alley Cats, a song in the 2/3 of the album, is probably my favorite. Great warm synths and strings, and again very strong vocals. They are much less forgettable than most of Made in the Dark.
One Life Stand is a single much like Ready For the Floor. It has strong, dark pop elements with some interesting synth work.

Concentric - Immeasurable

What happens when a bunch of metal heads become bored with metal? Naturally they form an acoustic progressive math rock band right? Yes and it is some well thought out musics at that. The proper conventions such as builds and blast beats remain intact through most of the songs but obviously they have transitioned to an acoustic rock frame work. Portions later on in the album become electric and then you really see that maybe they dont stray too far from metal in the end.  In any event dont miss out.


Immeasurable

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

James Blake

Dudeman James Blake from the UK has been gaining all kinds of recognition as of late. Apparently he put out a few EPs in late 2010, and has just now released his debut solo album. A songwriter/ engineer/ producer with a nice voice and some slick synths, I just stumbled onto him the other day and have been listening to The Wilhelm Scream over and over. Here's a great live version:



And one more, a music video for Limit To Your Love, a cover of Feists song from his debut album.

Damiera - M(us)ic

There is a glut of post-hardcore groups (that's an understatement). It makes it hard to know what can be worth your time.  Damiera has gone through many line-ups in its life span, but M(us)ic era Damiera was really something special. I had the pleasure of seeing them twice during this time and its a shame they have all split to other ventures. M(us)ic is a great slap of very mathy post-hardcore with High pitched vocals. All of the songs on this album are their own beasts. As it stood they took their obvious influences and compounded them into this excellent release. please enjoy as it still is a high point of the genre.


M(us)ic

The King of Limbs

Last sunday night, after the grammys, Radiohead announced that they would be releasing a new album on saturday, and then decided to release it a day early. You can pick it up here for some cashola depending on how you like it. Thom Yorke decided to do some strange dancing to entice you.

The King of Limbs (2011)   

The Kilimanjaro Darkjazz Ensemble

Born out of the group composing for old silent movies, The name truly says it all if your looking for a reference. Moody and complex without being too overbearing in the best way possible, please check this out. 


Here Be Dragons

Who's Your Favorite Son, God?

This is what happens when Math Rock tells itself to go "fuck off". It's a highly coordinated ramshackle attack on the cohesion of what you would come to expect from gentlemen such as this.The music does tend to break the hazy clouds and pound out some honest to god crystal clear licks. However this is not the point at all. Promise there isn't really anything like it out there.

Out of Body Diva (2008)

One Song To Rule Them All: Matthew Ryan and Hammock - Like New Years Day (Edit)

Amazing Post-Rock band Hammock

 +

Amazing Singer-Songwriter Matthew Ryan

Fucking Tight

 Like New Years Day (Edit)

Hey! Tonal

Comprised of members from a handful of current and past math rock groups (maps and atlases, zzzz's, storm and stress, sweep the leg johnny)  Hey! tonal marks a less organic take on the genre, employing carefully programmed drums and samples. It is a bit free-jazzy using horns and structure wise as well. Really strong for members whose groups sound nothing like this.

Hey! Tonal