Enjoyable little towers of math.

http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F171005Fang Island by Fang Island

I stumbled across Fang Island’s album yesterday and have been listening to it non-stop ever since. The band describes their music as “everyone high-fiving everyone”, which I think is a pretty fun description, but is a bit decieving. It is party music, but not of the empty-headed-kegger-crashing-late-Weezer-junk variety. There is a lot behind this music. It sounds to me to be carefully put together by band members who definitely know what they are doing, but are also having a ball.

This style of guitar playing would normally turn me off - it sounds like they have read a few too many Ultimate Guitar magazines. But it’s just so much fun that it didn’t really bother me.

It reminded me of a slightly more polished & tame version of an album that I fell in love with earlier this year - Noumenon’s Party Mathematics.

http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F168877Noumenon - Party Mathematics EP by bsmrocks

There seems to be this odd strain of math-rock that you can trace back to suburban America in the 90s, with a very specific and homogenous style. Ghosts & Vodka, Giraffes? Giraffes!, Pele, Hella. Lots of odd time signatures, skittering jazz-like drumming, and this angular style guitar playing that either involves loads of hammer-on/pull-off action to open strings and often plenty of right-hand tapping.

It’s spread out somewhat over time - This Town Needs Guns from the UK and toe in Japan do similar stuff. It’s also started to morph and change; Noumenon (above) is a good example of the heavier end of the game. It’s started to creep into the mainstream as well, with Maps and Atlases employing some similar techniques.

I feel like I’m coming in quite late on this particular movement, but I really enjoy it. I’m yet to see whether it’s already dying or just gathering steam. I hope the latter, because the influence has shown pretty heavily in Mr. Maps’ compositions lately!