It can’t be… after 5 years an audio file, not quite a podcast but a peek at things to come…
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Hook– a catchy musical phrase which forms the basis of a popular song.
Most often when discussing the term “hook” in music it is to a catchy melodic part you remember. It might be a favorite song or those tapeworm-like parasites that won’t leave you under threat of death. As I continue to explore the genre of progressive metal/dent/ambidjent, the concept of a rhythmic hook is forefront.
Two reasons for this; as a drummer, rhythmic hooks have been how I identify my favorite parts and players. The other is that the technical, detuned, heavy style of the genre depends on drones and simple octave patterns that lock rhythmically with the drums. Why is it so simple? Mainly because it sounds so heavy; but the style depends on a locked groove that communicates to the listener on a primitive level.
Groove– a pronounced, enjoyable rhythm.
Drums have been used for communication,worship,celebration, meditation and warfare. The open groove will cause a group to move in unison, clap, cheer. It’s a heartbeat, a dance step , a call to arms. Even in these times of touchscreens and Twitter, the drum beat effects even the most stoic among us. What does this have to do with this rather small segment of the music making and listening public?
Almost all music is based on repetition. In rhythm, melody, lyric and form, you can recognize a part after it repeats a few times. Those catchy summer sing-a-longs would not be without it. A groove is extremely important in certain kinds of music, like funk and dance. Heavier music like metal, over its history, not so much. Yet a player like John Bonham of Led Zeppelin or John Stanier of Helmet groove like crazy. How can a genre both have or have not a groove? To me it is a matter of intent and syncopation on behalf of the drummer and the rest of the band. Head banging is a kind of groove but a real groove is deeper, pelvic, snake necking, sexual. For a form of music based on riffs, a groove should be a no brainier.
Scientifically: pulse (signal processing), a rapid and transient change from a baseline
In physiology, a pulse is the throbbing of arteries as an effect of heartbeat
In physics, a pulse (physics) is a single and abrupt emission of particles or radiation
In music. a pulse (music) is a rhythmic succession of sounds
Jazz and progressive music can lack pulse and groove but also include it, if that’s the intent. These are words musicians love to argue about, like “swing” and “groove”. In interviews Matt Halpern of Periphery discusses groove and pulse almost preliminarily , as he appears to have studied those who have come before very thoroughly. He also has another project called Bandhappy, an online education site that has student musicians able to study with their musical heroes. In this day of diversifying income for musicians, heres a way to augment their living even while on the road. I would have eaten this up as a youngster and in fact might pursue it as an old fart, as these guys came to play…
Ok, wandered off into a PSA…
This kind of music is busy and heavy, with necessary ebbs and flows along the way. The rhythmic busyness almost demands harmonic simplicity, as there has to be some form of space as relief and release for the rhythmic intensity. The drums and guitars lock into a pattern, propelling the sound forward, octaves leaps synced with the kick drums, the movement in the feet, the pulse in the chest, the complexity not in harmonic movement but rhythmic. Being a progressive form, this is the starting point. It comes in many favors from the gloss of Periphery to the grit of the more growly bands.
The influence of Meshuggah is pretty strong in many bands, which can be a good thing. The focus on rhythmic complexity does not eliminate harmonic risk, as the 7 and 8 string guitars detuned offer this palette of notes that certainly exist now, menacing, microtonal bending and the wonderful tendency of the low strings to strike sharp before they settle into pitch. This is a different complexity, driven by the instruments nature, the delight for the player as intense for the listener. Chugging against the low open string, the one key center strangely reminding me of African vocal groups who only perform in one key.
As polyrhythmic and odd time as this music can be, some of these drummers really make the effort for the pulse to play through. There are those that no matter how complex the pattern is approach it as 4/4, making the pulse job one with the accents a close second. As much as I am describing this music in traditional terms there is a different kind of composition here, born of the nature of the instrument. As David Byrne stated in an amazing TED talk, the change in venues changed the music written. I suggest that for some, the 7 & 8 string guitar and computer recording & amp modeling technology has effected the way the music has evolved. Now as these acts move from the bedroom to practice rooms to clubs to arenas, it’s going to change even more.
There are moments of traditional song form and counterpoint but this style draws the writer back to that open string again and again, leaping and poking between the drums, a linear attack that pushes forward. As with most heavy music, the need for release brings quieter pulse free sections and this is one of the places where the ambient properties shine through. Projects like Cloudkicker and Chimp Spanner create atmospheres that are rather cinematic. In fact much of the visual elements for these bands are futuristic, off world graphics and the melding of computer filters and clearly non-acoustic percussive elements make me feel that part of the Blade Runner future is already here. With due respect, I have to point to David Torn and his deconstructive computer mayhem of his guitar years ago with Splattercell.
There is a vocal blast and release nature in this as well, the screams giving way to “clean” vocals. The problem with some of these bands is they end up sounding like Linkin Park. As I have stated in earlier posts, I am content with the instrumental tracks when a band is doing something interesting musically. Thanks to recording technology and Internet distribution, a band can offer a vocal free version of their album much easier than ever before. The genesis of these bands from instrumental demos on forums to finished album tracks is often followed by fans, a relatively new phenomenon for the end user. As these bands get signed/ distributed for the first time, the listener has already heard the raw riffs and now gets to see the final product, for better or worse,
I lean toward the more ambient offerings, either instrumental or the ones who howl less.
Last week I was truly fortunate to see Tesseract and Animals as Leaders, who are in heavy rotation on my iPod. They clearly can play their instruments and the intricate parts of their albums were clear and concise, maybe too much so. These are performances, the effort put into execution. I look forward to seeing one of these bands improvise a bit, as AAL hinted at.
Recently I began to really appreciate Uneven Structure, a French band who isn’t afraid to slow tempos and sing in a normal register. Yeah, I know, I’m behind the curve. They are seen as being part of a Djent “Big 4” by some. I feel that, along with Tesseract, they stand apart vocally with better range and dynamics. The groove is there and melodically the ideas are more fleshed out than other bands. Another band, Monuments, (who are also from Milton Keynes like Tesseract) released an instrumental version of a song from their not yet released album Gnosis which shows the layering of groove, harmony and advancing composition quite clearly.
Add to that the release this week of Vildhjarta’s first… This is a strong scene.
I have been fortunate to work with some pretty serious people over the years who are groove-by-trade types and the idea of heavy music that swings or grooves first has found its time. The rule rather than the exception; I can deal with that. Heres to another generation of players, not poseurs.
I was born the son of artists
And raised by them to see
That light is magic, depends on shadows
That perspective improves your depth
The sensitive platelets found in my blood
The rage and sadness too
The strength of heart defies my tests
As they gave me more than most
Tears from trees and music
Laughing at the acts of man
Some things are taught and others bequeathed
Or its breathed among the fog
The hallowed halls hold paint
Represent their minds eye view of how
The sun brings life to the dead
The hollow holes in the living
Perfect misses the point
Let your humanity flow, adding artist to art
Subject to object
Point and line to plane
Better yet, obscure it with emotion
Reduce it to a draft
And see it hit the target harder on a cellular level
Get out of the way of the electricity
Can you talk like this to your mother, your father?
I have this gift
Even when I’ve hidden the face of the statue
They know what the words are describing
Let a storyteller tell his version
The dancer paints, the drummer sings
The painter writes a poem, the poet sculpts
It’s all interpretation of a life lived, the death that awaits
Defy dimension, defy the mundane
Share the truth you see, only you
Don’t bother copying the others
We want your version.
10/29/11
Gurgaon
Arrived in a fever dream
Where every village in the country
Appeared to be shooting fireworks
Or attempting to bring our aircraft down
This festival, all light, explosive and tranquil
Dripping strings of color below, flower bursts above
A place where the air is already rich with scents and atmosphere
Now a country in a pyro haze perfumed with incense and gunpowder
The night hides most of the squalor as does the neighborhood
Western logos and guarded gates that keep the poor out
Unless they enter from the back in uniform to serve
Tourist bindi punctuation a rubber stamp for out of towners
There is always the work
This attempt to build a city for the day
With a consistency of detail that verges on mania
Adapting space and time to fit us
Where we have been, what we have driven through
With both acceptance and denial
Is who we are, what we do
It’s part of the reason why we do it like we do
We take the challenge and walk through
We boil with frustration and sigh with apathetic resignation sometimes
Because there are those who depend on us
To allow them to create and perform
Like a broken play on a marked field
You can see the defense fall apart before it does
Slow motion car crash sickness in the pit of your belly
We near miss drivers have steered clear so many times
Impact
Some see the the game unfolding and pull the cord
Disbelief replaced by some deeper program
Fight or flight
Some shitty field becomes the Alamo
Survivors we are, broken in ways you’ll never see
The show must go on, onward, outbound, endless
The sun rises twice and we squint
Gallows humor at it’s best
We wanted more, to make it work, again
And we will
But you can’t fist fight an ocean
And running away never hurt so much
Because it might have been the right thing to do
And that always hurts more than what we know.
10/24/11 Abu Dhabi
Arab fall
The turns outside my window smell of money
How the work finds the the holders of the purse
Wherever it’s held
Covered features and firewalls
The moral fibers cover her sad smile
And her swollen middle
Just a different cloth a world away
Irrigation
The gardens in the desert
Sprouting concrete and glass, fertilized by gold
And the need to leave a lasting mark
In the swirling sand
Gold vested concierge
Cuts the line
The lesson of money talks but has no queue or signage
The words foreign for those in line with me
Far across the sky
Distance and the alien pry words from my jaw, my diminished chest
The silence leads to talking with the poet and his supernatural heart
He threatens to speak the incantations, the sputtered, the hard heard word
Heart heard, unfiltered, unafraid
We go where the work is, money is, love is, peace is
Those who don’t turn from the broken tap live empty
Drying fuel for engines who still can run
Farther, new money, new roads, old ways
Poets mutter and few listen, understanding just an option
For both, writer and listener
The act of striking out for answers reaps return,
The attempt to listen brings quiet, where true clues lie.
