Rock nach Math

Last year my music vocabulary got enriched by two new styles. One is Baile Funk about which I will talk a bit more in an upcoming post (try some samples here). The other is Math Rock.

Now let me preface the next few paragraphs by telling you that I have a hard time writing (or even reading) about music and especially about styles. I prefer the german word “Musikrichtung” (“music direction”) because I use genres and labels for exactly this. Knowing where to head to get tracks and mixes that sound similar to something I previously heard and enjoyed.

Thanks to the CTEBCM (Can this even be called Music) subreddit and my willingness to open random YouTube- and Bandcamp-links the first conscious contact was made via Goodhost’s “Attacks” album. A visit to Wikipedia and a deep dive into Bandcamp’s catalogue later and suddenly I had a nice collection of new music.

It’s quite melodic, heavy on the softly-played guitar (there is even a certain guitar-style I associate with the genre) and comes with or without vocals. The latter has often jazz-like qualities.

I wanted to end on a videogame/math core (math core is math rock’s angrier brother) mash up EP I once enjoyed way too much, but of course it’s nowhere to be found. Fecking Bahamas, a blog dedicated to all things Math Rock, has the next best thing, though, 16 records that could have been video game soundtracks.