my new math rock instrumental w/ some doom project

SMASH · #1 09-20-2007, 01:33 PM

Thought some folks would get a kick out of this new thing I'm doing.

Drummer and I string together odd-time riffs from a collection of parts we've come up with, then have friends come in cold (the guitarists, and reader in 2nd clip) to see how it turns out live.

The idea is that every time we perform these "songs" we'll twist them around with different arrangements and riffs being put in or taken out ... sometimes on just a nod as we play them.

So far so good, I think. Fairly simple, but we plan to ramp it up as we develop the material. I'll add some samples and keys parts with my feet at some point as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S1HT...e=user&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Nyw...e=user&search=

Enjoy (?)

**SoComSurfing** · #2 09-20-2007, 04:33 PM

Interesting stuff, Smash. I'll be keeping an eye out for more.

jenderfazz · #3 09-20-2007, 05:21 PM

Good stuff Smash. Cool guitar work near the end of the first clip, really dug some of the riffs and your bass tone throughout. I think keyboard parts would help gel everything together, since for math rock sort of instrumental music it helps to have thick layers and more stuff going on (IMO). Still, the basic idea is there and I'd like to hear some more.

SMASH · #4 09-21-2007, 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jenderfazz

Good stuff Smash. Cool guitar work near the end of the first clip, really dug some of the riffs and your bass tone throughout. I think keyboard parts would help gel everything together, since for math rock sort of instrumental music it helps to have thick layers and more stuff going on (IMO). Still, the basic idea is there and I'd like to hear some more.

Thanks. Those are good suggestions I agree with.

The stuff is a challenge to play as-is, so working up keys parts with my feet and clicking effects on/off on-the-fly is not something easy or familiar to me.

One thing I liked about having guys sit in cold on such odd material is that there are a lot of happy accidents I can put to deliberate use in future iterations of those riffs. In the future we might try it with good freestyle wordsmiths and perhaps horns. Always shaking it up. Not much rapping over odd-time stuff that I know of. Repeating certain riffs longer for purposes of soloing over a steady groove would be smart too, I think.

We'd have done that on this performance, but the signals for "keep on trucking" wouldn't have been distinguishable from the signals for "back to the head" or "go to key shift part here".

All in good fun. It just gives me a workout that playing 4/4 pop doesn't provide.

Matt Till · #5 09-21-2007, 11:03 PM

I like it, but with such odd timed stuff, I don't know if I like the idea of the drummer and the bassist being the only ones who have any solid structure. It would be nice, IMO to have one more melodic source that matched the vibe. Perhaps keys would be all it takes, but I kept waiting for the guitarists to lock into their parts.

I don't know who I am to speak out against improv since it's all I do at this point, but I think with just a little more structure, it would be bad ass. As it stands, I really like what you and the drummer are doing.

Trouble as well... always a good choice.

SMASH · #6 09-22-2007, 10:49 AM

Thanks Matt. I'm glad you've checked this out, as I've enjoyed your experiments over the years.

I agree totally with what you're saying. For now, it'd have required more arranging & rehearsing than we were keen for. As-is, as long as we (drummer and I) know the parts and roughly which ones go well together, we can string them along ad-hoc without worrying about tripping anyone up since they already have no idea what's coming.

I would like some kind of melodic element to stay constant and tie all the parts together though. We'll probably move in that direction, but for now I thought the experiment was a great success & you gotta start someplace.