5/4 Respect: A Tribute to Math Rock

Possibly the most original of all the bands I will be covering, and by far the most influential, Slint first formed in their native Louisville, Kentucky in 1986. In addition to reuniting for some live shows in 2005 and 2007, they existed for 5 years, breaking up in 1991 after the completion of their opus, Spiderland. Like many math bands, they are not seen as purely math rock, and their importance to other rock subgenres such as post rock, which arguably would’ve never existed in its current form without Spiderland, labels them as more than just a math rock band, but I feel makes a point about the genre itself. Math rock is perhaps not a genre in the strictest sense of the word. I would propose that it is a sound that involves the use, primarily, of unusual time signatures, and often occupies the more ‘thinking man’s‘ end of the rock spectrum, also including influences from prog rock, metal and even minimalism à la Steve Reich. Therefore, many of the greats of Math rock aren’t even labelled as such by many, for example Slint, who are widely considered post-rock.

What is for sure is that Slint were both awesome and experimental, and not a little bit bizarre. Their debut album, the Steve Albini produced Tweez, features 9 tracks, each named after one of their members’ parents (except ‘Rhoda’, named after drummer Britt Walford’s dog). This sort of humour is another characteristic feature of Math rock, with the instrumental bands giving their songs frivolous titles, and bands with vocals, such as Slint, carrying it right through into their lyrics. Guitarist/vocalist Brian McMahan, sings, talks, samples and shouts his way through both albums, completely obliterating any monotony as well as deepening the ambience of the album, particularly the spoken word, which reminds me of slowcore (another genre people have tried to label Slint) titans Codeine.

MacMahon’s spoken word is often coupled with repetition of riffs played on clean guitar, giving a hypnotic tone to the music with a sense of unease created by dischords and lyrics about alienation. This builds until, often unexpectedly, distortion takes over with the frequent use of harmonics somewhat jarring to the listener. This shows their supreme ability in storytelling and setting an atmosphere, but this mastery of dynamics also goes some way to explaining Slint’s importance to the post-rock genre. This is a common format for Slint, especially on Spiderland, but it must be noted that one of the things that makes Slint so great is the variety of approaches in music and lyrics, sometimes clean guitar, sometimes in your face distorted riffing, sometimes depressing lyrics, sometimes light and frivolous spoken word.