Somehow, we’re already writing the last Tuesday Music Dump of the year. It’s been quite a busy quarter, and it’s actually been a couple of months since we had the wherewithal to seek out and cover a bunch of new material – we’ve been too distracted with the comps!
That doesn’t mean you slowed down, of course. If anything, y’all have ramped it up big time and we’re just trying to keep up. As you should, though. Looking back at the last quarter of the year, we did our best to scan the horizons in the rearview for math rock and prog releases we should have found the time to cover, and pass ’em along here.
Every time we do a dump, we know we’re not going to get everybody, but in the end, we’re just really excited and proud that anyone, anywhere, trusts us with helping them find new music. It’s a big responsibility, and we hope that today’s dump provides you with at least one unexpected treasure. Enjoy it!
Gabba Ghoul – Gabba be they Ghoul
You might have noticed a funny new name on the recent tour posters for Fake Pollocks – Gabba Ghoul. The New Jersey based band’s debut just dropped this month, and it’s charming take on emotional indie and the occasional odd-tapping phrase is sure to captivate people looking for some fresh, inspired math rock.
A Flawed Design – Reactor Number Four
New Jersey strikes again with this octane filled, post-hardcore thrill ride. A Flawed Design is constantly tilting over the edge of emotional, 2004-core irony, which might be exhausting for some, but there are some fun surprises in wait for those who can hang, like the A Wilhelm Scream-style ripper “Quickspurt.”
Brian! – The Cataclysmic Engine
Somewhere between classic East Coast jazz and progressive fusion, this New York power trio blasts its way through your speakers with their sprawling, overwhelming new record. If you’re looking something really out there, you’ve found it, just do your best to prepare yourself.
Short Shorts – The Storage Unit Sessions
This sweet little ripper may or may not have been recorded in a storage unit, but fidelity be damned, it’s a lot of fun. Fans of Piglet and Floral will definitely dig the bouncy, caffeinated drums and tap-heavy guitar lines.
Velvet Gumdrops – H
Though heavily inspired and infused with cloud rap beats and glistening synth pop pads, there’s a lot of trippy glitching going on to keep Velvet Gumdrops relatively captivating to anyone interested in the math rock spectrum, particularly if you’re into noisier stuff like Charger Port or Freak Establishment.
Mood Exhibit – Focal
This one is similarly electronic to Velvet Gumdrops, but with a distinctly more melodic feel. There’s a low-key dance element too, but in a polyrhythmic, post-production way that reminds us of a cyberpunk-flavored Legos or a mellowed out Angel Marcloid.
botsch – heironymus
This was one of our favorites to randomly come across. This goofy, groovy, and hypnotically fuzzed out drone marvel was not what we expected based on the grim, minimalist artwork and death metal-styled logo. Highly recommended if you’re looking for something between math rock, fuzz pedal worship, and Queens of the Stone Age. It’s a sweet spot we didn’t know existed.
YUH – Self Titled
This thing is wild. Like a gargantuan creature, YUH slithers and slimes through grind core, mathcore, glitch, math rock, and more. The band’s explosively aggressive energy brings to mind something between Gatecreeper and Plebeian Grandstand.
Blame Kadinsky – Electric Ruiner
This Grecian hardcore screed is one of the most energetic releases of the month, combining elements of mathcore, noise, dissonant post-rock, and more. The larynx-shredding vocals alone are worth hearing, bringing to mind the unhinged lunacy of early Genghis Tron without the electronics.
Canyon Observer – Figura
The French collective VOX PROJECT, whose mission statement loosely translates to ‘going as far as the good music goes,’ certainly deliver on this project. It blows by fast, but it’s whirlwind of free jazz, mathcore, and grind shows promise to be more than a blast of visceral heaviness.
Lew Pojeschkin – Sommernacht
Lovers of the classic math rock stylings, dive in. Germany’s Lew Pojeschkin throws together a buzzing, tapping, frenetically punctuated EP with a flair for melodramatic nostalgia, but it takes us back to the early 2000’s in the most enjoyable kind of way.
Aiming for Enrike – Empty Airports
Empty airports is a pretty freaky concept to wrap an album around, but Norway’s Aiming for Enrike are well suited for the task. With the three of the record’s songs being released at this point, it seems the band is tackling cinematic new territory with more of an electronic emphasis, and that’s got us really excited.
VIN – Something Fuzzy
This Minneapolis four-piece walks the tightrope between math rock and experimental post-hardcore with grifting structure and morbid croonage. It’s good stuff no matter how you slice it, but it’s also somewhat of an emo time-travel situation, like if Thursday and Sparta finally had a baby.
ARH – .un
This one was certainly a curveball. It’s a bit nu-metal and/or modern rock, with a strong emphasis on Tool-like obsession with progressive, Rush inspired time signatures. For some it might be kind of a weird flavor, but for others it might be the perfect intersection.
Aluches – Entropía
Mexico’s Aluches deliver a truly epic adventure with Entropía, building a post-rock flavored world with math rock inhabitants a la early And So I Watch You From Afar and LITE. The record’s rich, rewarding atmosphere comes as an aurally healing experience for those of us who have been missing well executed music in this vein the last couple of years.
Bala de Eucalipto – QUEBRAPASSOS
Get some Brazilian goodness in you with this lush, textural offering from Bala de Eucalipto. Like a slightly more discordant Minus the Bear, the band goes back and forth between atmospheric interludes and driving indie math rock.
Odradek – Liminal
Also from Brazil, we have Odradek on deck today, who dropped a magical djent / math rock hybrid with Liminal. There’s heavily dissonant moments, beautifully melodic ones, and warped, futuristic tones at every turn – but the record remains incredibly organic throughout, reminding us of something between Pavlov’s Bell, The Fall of Troy, and Misha Mansoor’s earliest project, Bulb.
Amnesia Disociativa – I
This Chilean noise rock saga truly runs the gamut with it’s powerful conceptual flow. The record evolves from an acoustic ballad into a series of mechanical monstrosities, stoner rock destruction domes, and emotional introspection. Overall, this one was legitimately a sleeper hit, and we hope people dig into it, because there’s a lot going on here.
Dodous – On the Origin of Extinction
We almost missed this EP from South Korea’s DoDous, and that would have been a crying shame. The band’s unique blend of progressive rock, math rock, and post-punk is a joy to behold, and filled with unexpected textures.
Infinite Chariots – The Key to a Secret Day In Between Saturday and Sunday
Nick Stanifer, an up and coming Los Angeles producer, dropped six records this month under the moniker Infinite Chariots, and all of it is extremely interesting. Let’s just say between the bizarre soundbites, loopy soundscapes, and frenetic drums, we think a lot of you will enjoy this one in particular. Even if it’s just for the novelty. We’d say we hope we hear more of this soon, but we don’t know if it’s possible to get more of the speech that narrates the record, which gave us a lot to think about.
Cave Full of Spiders (Are You Still Here?) – Demos
If you’re looking for something raw, look no further. This Portland band hybridizes bits of math rock, emo, and garage rock, and recorded their first batch of demos in a basement – you can tell. Strangely, the studio versions included are even less stable, but still listenable, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the future.
Dora the Destroyer – Trinity
On the other end of the Portland spectrum, which is truly teeming with talent, we’ve got Dora the Destroyer. This one bops closer to progressive rock or metal technically, but it’s emphasis on intricate, spitfire-fast guitar and drum parts will keep damn near anybody entertained.
Oracle Porpoise – Endling
First of all, what a band name. Oracle Porpoise is an interesting case: they’ve got a lot of post-rock going on, they’ve definitely got some weird, math rock inspired loop stuff going on, and a crushing, metallic edge. The band defies categorization, but keeps listeners focused with its emotional core and unpredictable movements.
Sea Beau – Sea Beau (Is Dead)
Toronto’s indie-electro darlings are officially done it seems, but they’ve left us with a bittersweet EP to seal the deal. Sea Beau’s rhythmic experimentation keeps them engaging no matter what kind of structure they’re dabbling with, so it’s a shame to see them go, but hey, we’ll always have this.
If I Look Strong; You Look Strong – Noah’s Fiftieth Album
This one’s kind of a reach because it came out late August, but that’s pretty much when all hell broke loose on a local, personal level. But regardless, if you haven’t heard Noah’s newest batch yet, get to it, because it’s literally “The Epic New Math Rock Song That Will Usher in A Splendiferous Heretofore Unseen Epoch of Social Harmony and Cohesion with it’s Majesty, Grace, Beauty, and Intricacy.”
5 PM Morning – Regressing to Old Defaults
This is another one of those fun ones if you’re into hard rock and nu-metal. It’s kind of a guitar album, but it’s definitely got enough wonkiness to claim something adjacent to math rock, or at the very least prog with it’s occasionally challenging time signatures and harmonic experimentation.
Soceanic – Here’s the Album
This one was a lot of fun to go through, as we constantly thought we were hearing it wrong. Turns out, it’s just really creative voicing. If you’re looking for something that scratches the same itch as standards or Waxamillion but from an unexpected angle, we highly recommend checking out Maryland’s Soceanic.
Seppukku Survivor – Animated Apparitions
This blustering Chicago power combo slams some really interesting chords progressions and lead work against a never-ending onslaught of drums with their debut EP. We get the feeling that this would be a really fun one to catch live.
Elder Jack – Elder Jack Short Work
Speaking of Chicago, there’s also Elder Jack, who take a slightly more jazz/emo approach to things, but still have energy to spare. Both band’s seem to take a vaguely classical approach to composition though – maybe there are some mutual friends involved? Either way, this quarter Chicago’s got you covered when it comes to songwriting.
JohnJonJohn – Resort Town
Oh, wait. You know what, we’re not done with Chicago yet. If you’re looking for some strutting, yet emotionally calculated math rock, you can’t go wrong with this new EP from JohnJonJohn. There are some cool switch-ups and turnarounds throughout it’s runtime, and the record’s overall sound will appeal to just about anyone looking for some classic math rock.
Feathered Friends – EP
This pleasurably mixed EP from Feathered Friends makes for a great introduction to the band, with snazzy guitars and crystal clear drum hits abounding. These Floridians concentrate a little more on atmosphere and sense of scale that’s big, but never quite venture into bloated post-rock territory, so let’s hope they keep it this tasty moving forward.
Goings – Red/Colorblind/Blue
This new EP from Philadelphia’s Going is sure to please a lot of you with it’s math rock informed progressive pop and smart instrumentation. There’s enough tension here to keep it interesting, and it occasionally sounds like what we used to think Foals would have transitioned out of math rock more methodically.
Airships on the Water – Approach the Canopy
We love the premise for Airships on the Water, which you can see on the bio portion of their Bandcamp page – “instrumental post rock written by a math rock drummer.” That sums it up pretty nicely, with the single taking on Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky like hues throughout.
Which one was your favorite? We’re not allowed to pick – at least, not yet! We’re still working on our year end list! That being said, we hope you are surviving the holidays and getting the most out of the hellish bustle of late stage colonialism that you possibly can. Buy us a coffee here if you want, but either way coming up we’ve got an interview with our mom, a couple of video game sidebars, and more! Thanks for reading!