Please Rock My Boat

May 2, 2008 5:00 AM

Trying to find similar songs like these: electronic-ish with math-like beats.

I love electronic or other genre songs with beats that seem almost mathematical. They often have numerous sequences and parts weaving in and out.

I put songs that exhibit this stuff like Dntel's Rock My Boat and Erin Lang's Happy to See You on this muxtape. Listen for a few seconds and see if any similar songs come to mind. I'm looking for specific songs rather than artist recommendations or instrumental stuff.

Got any songs for me?

posted by cashman to media & arts (36 comments total)

Massive Attack's Teardrop comes to mind somewhat.
posted by dmd at 5:34 AM on May 2, 2008

Are you aware of the totally awesome and infinitely productive Aphex Twin? The man who mathematically inserted is OWN FACE into a tune? He's got a million albums, I recommend starting off with Druqks, the Richard D James album, and Come to Daddy.
posted by Mach5 at 5:36 AM on May 2, 2008

I'm not quite sure what a "mathematical" beat is, but based on your examples, I recommend:

Styrofoam featuring Ben Gibbard - Couches in Alleys

Bjork - Hunter
posted by Jaltcoh at 5:40 AM on May 2, 2008

Bjork - Hyperballad
posted by fire&wings at 5:52 AM on May 2, 2008

If you search for the genre "trip-hop" you may find more of what you're looking for.

Boards of Canada - Music is Math (album Geogaddi) -- or mostly anything else by them.

Lamb - Trans Fatty Acid

Transglobal Underground - Lexicona

Mighty Math - any track from Up Life Gone Star though it's instrumental instead of vocal
posted by 5MeoCMP at 5:58 AM on May 2, 2008

I highly recommend "Playing the Market" by Emerald Suspension.
posted by fvox13 at 6:10 AM on May 2, 2008

How about BT's Fibonacci Sequence?
posted by TheNewWazoo at 6:19 AM on May 2, 2008

Oh, also: have you tried putting the names of Your Favourite Artists into something like Gnoosic or Last.fm and seeing what they come up with? Last.fm at least will play snippets.

Also check out what Magnatune has on offer, they are a label that treats their independent artists very well.
posted by 5MeoCMP at 6:28 AM on May 2, 2008

I only heard it once.. but there is a song called 'Pi' on Kate Bush's last album (Aerial, 2005) that i recall had a similar feel to the type of music you describe. Check it out, it was kind of electronic.. a little bit different to her normal stuff. FWIW wikipedia says she

'sings the number to its 137th decimal place (though she omits, for an unknown reason, the 79th to 100th decimal places).
posted by TheOtherGuy at 6:44 AM on May 2, 2008

Please don't take this the wrong way, but could you get a little more specific? To my ears and, I suspect, the ears of many, the beats in those tracks aren't particularly notable as being "math-like". They sort of just sound like standard drum-machine fare, which I don't say negatively.

Is it the slowish tempo? Is it the way the electronics interplay with the more acoustic-sounding elements? Is it the female singer?

I mostly ask because I was going to make some suggestions but then wasn't at all sure they'd be appropriate to your question.
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 7:24 AM on May 2, 2008

I'm sorry - I just didn't want to put up a huge description that nobody would read anyway, and have people miss the vital parts.

Is it the way the electronics interplay with the more acoustic-sounding elements?

Yes, for the most part. If you listen to the songs, the beat and the various elements play in and out of each other, in an almost systematic way. The sounds and the noises are more like math, than like say the jerky riffs of some Led Zeppelin or some Metallica. A lot of noises and sounds swirling around the beat, like the connections in a dna helix. Math-like, in the way that it seems confined and is proceeding step-by-step. Remember doing math equations? One step at a time - subtract 3 from both sides. Multiply both sides by 7x. It's a little out there, I know, but I hope somebody feels me.

There's a clean feel to them too, isn't there? Forgive me not being able to get a precise handle on the style. Teardrop was a good recommendation, though I already have that.

Make any suggestion you feel is close - just please suggest a song or two, and not general artists, collections or albums.
posted by cashman at 7:54 AM on May 2, 2008

My boyfriend wants me to suggest to you this Venetian Snares song. You have to click on the arrow next to listen to hear it. He says he thinks you would find it to be directly what you want, though perhaps not accoustic enough.
posted by spec80 at 8:25 AM on May 2, 2008

He also says : Venetian Snares isn't as underground as he used to be, but that song is an incredible example of algorithmic composition and sound design IMHO :-)

I say: uuuuugh... maaaaath.
posted by spec80 at 8:29 AM on May 2, 2008

I like it, spec80. It's instrumental only though, and I'm looking for songs with a vocalist. Thanks to your boyfriend, he's right - that is along the lines of it (if only there was a singer). If they'd put a singer on that track, they would have had to lope the instrumentation in and out more, I think, and then it would have been exactly what I'm looking for. Thank you and your boyfriend.
posted by cashman at 9:06 AM on May 2, 2008

Battles
posted by alikins at 9:28 AM on May 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

Matmos' new album called Supreme Baloon seems to fit your category. It is composed completely from synths and weaves melodies and riffs in and out of the songs. Here is a song called Rainbow Flag that opens the album.
posted by rabbitsnake at 9:30 AM on May 2, 2008

Múm - Now There's that Fear Again

Khonnor - A little secret
posted by spec80 at 9:35 AM on May 2, 2008

LCD Soundsystem, particularly Someone Great, Postal Service Clark Cable; Marlene Dietrich's Favourite Poem by Peter Murphy also reminds me of what you are looking for in a different way because of the beat of the poem on top of the beat of the music, but the youtube versions are all acoustic and don't sound as mathy as I remember it sounding (on my mixtape from 1990). Seconding Battles. Oh, and the Beta Band Squares (and others).
posted by Eringatang at 9:47 AM on May 2, 2008

You might like Dahlia or Herbert (not all his tracks have vocals). Psapp is also worth checking out.
posted by aubilenon at 9:51 AM on May 2, 2008

One particular herbert song to try: The audience. That whole album is great.
posted by Eringatang at 10:13 AM on May 2, 2008

Múm - we have a map of the piano fits the bill, I think. Also see this kid's version.
posted by umbú at 10:48 AM on May 2, 2008

Seconding Mum & Boards of Canada. They're pretty cool.

Have you checked out +/- ? You might also like some stuff by M83. Or even maybe Brian Eno?
posted by ThomThomThomThom at 10:49 AM on May 2, 2008

Not at all electronic, nor beats, but somewhat math. Lateralus.
posted by anthill at 11:57 AM on May 2, 2008

You might try some Apparat, or his collaboration with Ellen Allien, Orchestra of Bubbles.
posted by lekvar at 12:11 PM on May 2, 2008

Section 25 - Looking from a Hilltop.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 12:38 PM on May 2, 2008

Get the soundtrack to the movie Pi.
posted by Area Control at 12:53 PM on May 2, 2008

Don Caballero, Drive Like Jehu.

Search for "Math Rock".
posted by zengargoyle at 1:05 PM on May 2, 2008

Also: What about Philip Glass? No female singers, no electonics, but lots of permutations.
posted by anthill at 1:09 PM on May 2, 2008

Tujiko Noriko - Rocket Hanabi
posted by naju at 1:11 PM on May 2, 2008

isolée - beau mot plage
posted by citron at 3:21 PM on May 2, 2008

also, all of Tricky Maxinquaye. Fila Brazilia, maybe?
posted by citron at 3:23 PM on May 2, 2008

Thanks all! That Psapp is great, and a lot of the other suggestions were nice to listen to, even though some of them are instrumentals. "This place is a prison" is my favorite Postal Service song, and another example of this type of music. Thanks for making my Friday.
posted by cashman at 5:34 PM on May 2, 2008

Holy Fuck (That's their name.)
posted by spatula at 1:16 AM on May 3, 2008

F-R-E²-Z-E-P-O-P, Freezepop forever.

Yes, Freezepop. Totally cute, bouncy-sounding electronic stuff; nice tricky beats.
posted by eponymouse at 10:44 AM on May 3, 2008 [1 favorite]

Oops, also Yellow Magic Orchestra - Computer Games (it gets great about 2 minutes in).

Not sure if that's totally what you're looking for, but hope it's somewhat helpful.
posted by eponymouse at 10:50 AM on May 3, 2008

I recommend the underrated song "Television" by the group Baxter. The whole album is decent but that single is really terrific.
posted by Overzealous at 5:11 PM on May 4, 2008