I missed it during the reaction because I was looking away and concentrating on the music, but the bassist tossing her headphones to the ground at 2:43 is such a mood.
I am really a fan boy when it comes to this kind of mathrock, post-rock asian bands like elephant gym, toe, how to count on to ten, etc. And never really gave it a critical thought. It's nice to get a different and competent view on this music. Thank you for this reaction, you just got a new subscriber.
Yay, my favorite math rock band made it! If they hadn't I was going to make this a special selection in the future anyway. Their entire Audiotree performance is great and it's easily one of the best sounding live performances I've ever heard, so major shout-out to the Audiotree engineers (As one comment on the full performance said: "the snare hits harder than my dad" ). For me this band addresses the issues I often have with the genre. Their melodic lines are catchy enough to get stuck in my head, and they have great dynamics with some really moving climaxes (the "post" influences), and they do this without sacrificing any of the virtuosity or chill fluidity the genre is known for. Absolutely adore the tones of all the instruments on this too. That Tele tone is really my ideal for that guitar and is a tempting reminder that I really should own a Telecaster myself. I guess we can agree to disagree on how well the combination of math and post rock work here. I heard this before I knew about math rock and before I had really gotten into post-rock. Back then I didn't hear it as a combination of two different genres, I just though the "post-rock" section served as a natural climax to the "math rock" section that comes before. I am with you on the jazz thing though. The jazziest things here are the tasty drum syncopations and some of the more exotic chord choices, but those elements aren't even unique to jazz and most prog bands are doing that these days.
You might be on to something there. A lot of what my brain does while listening to stuff, especially the more complex songs, is assign tags or labels to things and getting more familiar with these genres has given me new tags for sections or musical ideas and that might be limiting my ability to recall details about each section that I might have been able to earlier in this project.
@@CriticalReactions It's a double-edge sword learning about genres, because on the one hand it helps you appreciate influences, innovations, and follow how genres evolve and get mixed with others... but on the other hand we can get locked into a more rigid categorization mode and it can be a roadblock to hearing things with fresh ears without preconceptions of what you can/can't do with any genres. Not that there's an easy solution to this because it's not like we can unlearn what we've learned!
Some extended "jazz chords" mostly extended major, minor and suspended chords are pretty staple in mathrock with a bit less crunchy stuff like dominant chords which really stick out as jazz. A dismissive way you may often hear people refer to mathrock is as emo jazz rather than really a subgenre of rock and that really shows in the harmony especially for more modern stuff which is less explicitly punk influenced.
I don't really have an ear for naming chords or modes from listening but I certainly know the "math rock" sound and I bet if I play around with some extended majors and sus chords then I'll hear the sounds that I attribute to the genre. Really cool info, thanks for that.
@@CriticalReactions This song in particular is playing around with a lot of 6th and 7th chords I think. Been a while since I learned it but I recall the basic progression just walks down from the 6th degree of the D major scale (vi, V, IV, iii), but with a lot of those 6th, 7th and a few sus embellishments.
All I can say is hell. yes. Such a underappreciated band, surprised to see them here. I do like this song but understand why you wouldn't enjoy it. Think you'd maybe enjoy the song "Half" by them more. I saw Elephant Gym open for Lite a couple years back. Have to suggest Lite's song "Double"
Another great mathrock band that I never truly loved but they're a really good entry point to Japanese mathrock bands much like toe and this performance is sick.
I think I’m here as well - the whole song I was craving vocals but when they came it kind of threw me out of the track entirely. Some really great stuff but didn’t quite land.
I missed it during the reaction because I was looking away and concentrating on the music, but the bassist tossing her headphones to the ground at 2:43 is such a mood.
She is SUCH A MONSTER. When I saw them I was slack jawed watching her destroy.
I am really a fan boy when it comes to this kind of mathrock, post-rock asian bands like elephant gym, toe, how to count on to ten, etc. And never really gave it a critical thought. It's nice to get a different and competent view on this music. Thank you for this reaction, you just got a new subscriber.
Yay, my favorite math rock band made it! If they hadn't I was going to make this a special selection in the future anyway. Their entire Audiotree performance is great and it's easily one of the best sounding live performances I've ever heard, so major shout-out to the Audiotree engineers (As one comment on the full performance said: "the snare hits harder than my dad" ). For me this band addresses the issues I often have with the genre. Their melodic lines are catchy enough to get stuck in my head, and they have great dynamics with some really moving climaxes (the "post" influences), and they do this without sacrificing any of the virtuosity or chill fluidity the genre is known for. Absolutely adore the tones of all the instruments on this too. That Tele tone is really my ideal for that guitar and is a tempting reminder that I really should own a Telecaster myself.
I guess we can agree to disagree on how well the combination of math and post rock work here. I heard this before I knew about math rock and before I had really gotten into post-rock. Back then I didn't hear it as a combination of two different genres, I just though the "post-rock" section served as a natural climax to the "math rock" section that comes before. I am with you on the jazz thing though. The jazziest things here are the tasty drum syncopations and some of the more exotic chord choices, but those elements aren't even unique to jazz and most prog bands are doing that these days.
You might be on to something there. A lot of what my brain does while listening to stuff, especially the more complex songs, is assign tags or labels to things and getting more familiar with these genres has given me new tags for sections or musical ideas and that might be limiting my ability to recall details about each section that I might have been able to earlier in this project.
@@CriticalReactions It's a double-edge sword learning about genres, because on the one hand it helps you appreciate influences, innovations, and follow how genres evolve and get mixed with others... but on the other hand we can get locked into a more rigid categorization mode and it can be a roadblock to hearing things with fresh ears without preconceptions of what you can/can't do with any genres. Not that there's an easy solution to this because it's not like we can unlearn what we've learned!
Yes. Thank you to whoever suggested this band, this is one of the tracks that made me want to play bass. They're so good...
Some extended "jazz chords" mostly extended major, minor and suspended chords are pretty staple in mathrock with a bit less crunchy stuff like dominant chords which really stick out as jazz. A dismissive way you may often hear people refer to mathrock is as emo jazz rather than really a subgenre of rock and that really shows in the harmony especially for more modern stuff which is less explicitly punk influenced.
I don't really have an ear for naming chords or modes from listening but I certainly know the "math rock" sound and I bet if I play around with some extended majors and sus chords then I'll hear the sounds that I attribute to the genre. Really cool info, thanks for that.
@@CriticalReactions This song in particular is playing around with a lot of 6th and 7th chords I think. Been a while since I learned it but I recall the basic progression just walks down from the 6th degree of the D major scale (vi, V, IV, iii), but with a lot of those 6th, 7th and a few sus embellishments.
Love this band! Awesome analysis
Yes Elephant Gym! So good! Please check out Midway, they have a music video with it as well. It’s such a good one!
All I can say is hell. yes. Such a underappreciated band, surprised to see them here. I do like this song but understand why you wouldn't enjoy it. Think you'd maybe enjoy the song "Half" by them more.
I saw Elephant Gym open for Lite a couple years back. Have to suggest Lite's song "Double"
Another great mathrock band that I never truly loved but they're a really good entry point to Japanese mathrock bands much like toe and this performance is sick.
Elephant Gym is a Taiwanese band.
Audiotree mixes are pretty good.
Leprous - Nighttime Disguise please
I can’t really get past that out of tune singing at the end.
Hmmm, she doesn't sound out of tune to my ears...
I think I’m here as well - the whole song I was craving vocals but when they came it kind of threw me out of the track entirely. Some really great stuff but didn’t quite land.
@@StoneAndMortar FWIW the studio version doesn't feature vocals. For whatever reason she seems to always add these vocals live.