The Fecking Bahamas Manifesto

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Fecking Bahamas is an online math rock music magazine, promoting new music from a global perspective. Our magazine attempts to connect global math rock communities and provide equal exposure to international math rock bands. In contrast to reporting on established scenes (e.g. standard, drawn out album and gig reviews that are just rehashes of old press releases), Fecking Bahamas endeavours to promote a continually growing global math rock scene by spotlighting new bands, analysing the genre in a deeper context, and recognising notable bands in math rock history. We offer our readers two types of music journalism: (i) in-depth analytical features, ranging from math rock musicians’ endeavours and motifs to sub-genre canons; (ii) concise, encyclopaedic-style information on bands, including new release mini-reviews, and our interactive math rock map.

WHAT IZZA ‘MATH’?

The true meaning of the term ‘math’ is rather contentious. To many it is even considered pejorative. Here in the Fecking Bahamas, we work by our own definition. To us, ‘math’ is a wholesale term describing music that breaks some kind of conventional rule in regards to song structure, rhythmic structure, arrangement, chord progression/harmonization, and so on, in order to ‘defamiliarize’ the music, thereby making it more unusual and poetic in its own way. This rule-breaking is typically characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures, counterpoint, odd meters, angular melodies, and dissonant, non-diatonic chords.

Music that is considered ‘math’ involves an intentional break from conventional music structure and composition, resulting in complex, irregular or multi-dimensional music. Although this may seem overly rule-some or elitist at first, it really belies the way we perceive and appreciate music, and thereby, our reasons for starting Fecking Bahamas. In addition, we aim to present ‘mathematical’ music across a range of genres, including jazz, world, punk, grunge, and even hip-hop; we are never shoehorning bands into a new canon or ‘scene’. We are enthusiastic about promoting any music that breaks rules or pushes boundaries. In the way that a small piece of red in a sea of blue draws our eyes, we believe that these well-executed, singular, exceptional and special pieces of music, which somehow deviate from the norm, are the ones that are truly poetic and deserving of our attention. We see the term ‘math rock’ as less of an organising principle, and more of an enthusiastic salute to a special type of music-making.

We at Fecking Bahamas embrace the ‘de-conventionalising’ ideologies of ‘math’ musicians, and we intend to bring these rule-breakers into the spotlight.