Math Rock

Genre: A 33⅓ Series #7

by Jeff Gomez

Math rock sounds like blueprints exact, precise, architectural. This trance-like progressive metal music with indie rock and jazz influences has been captivating and challenging listeners for decades. Bands associated with the genre include King Crimson, Black Flag, Don Caballero, Slint, American Football, Toe, Elephant Gym, Covet, and thousands more. In an online age of bedroom producers and sampled beats and loops, math rock is music that is absolutely and resolutely men and woman in rooms with instruments creating chaos, beauty, and beautiful chaos.

This is the first book-length look at the global phenomenon. Containing interviews with prominent musicians, producers, and critics spanning the globe, Math Rock will delight longtime fans while also serving as a primer for those who want to delve deeper. It shows why and how an intellectually complex, largely faceless, and almost entirely instrumental form of music has been capturing the attention of listeners for 50 years-and counting.

Genres: Music

153 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 4, 2024

Reviews

[Rich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angular and disharmonious and nerdy and patterned, yes, but reading about Math Rock brought back memories of emo-core and Slint and Rodan, and introduced so many bands i didn’t even know about. Learning about American Football and Clever Girl (yes, named for that Jurassic Park raptor) was worth the entire book.

[Will Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reads like a friend imparting their thoughts and knowledge of Math Rock history, there isn't a whole lot to this that isn't documented on Wikipedia and other websites. But it is a nice, easy, and enjoyable read with some fun facts sprinkled in. I think I am definitely the target audience for this, hence the high rating ...

[Raj · Rating 4 out of 5]

Purists need not apply. This is for a casual music enjoyer who wants to learn about a slice of sonic history, regardless of the imperfection or incompleteness the delivery might imply to the purists. At the very least, you’ll come away with a couple of “lemme check that out!” albums, which is probably the whole point.

[Dennis Seese · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing.
Not sure it held together well. A few easily correctable mistakes made me lose faith. Don Cab, major figures in the book, released two albums when they got back together in 2004, not one.
I did like how the author showed that Math Rock descended from free jazz, prog and thrash

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

zeroes in on a specific genre within math rock which is maybe the right call but it's not really the math rock that I listen to. kinda repetitive because it focuses so closely on just a few bands like Don cab. but it's well written and fun so I think it's worth picking up if you like the genre

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very niche music appreciation pamphlet.

[Vincent Perillo · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very short, easy-to-understand, look into a genre that is near and dear to my heart. The author's personal relationship with certain artists and bands detracted from the book. It is presented as a short read about the genre...not the genre through the eyes of Jeff Gomez and what it entails to him. He glances over some major contributions and records to spend more time giving his own takes.

I was hoping to learn a lot more about a genre I love; and found it very underwhelming.

[kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable. Wish some bands got deep dives like Don Cab did in this… so many untold histories of bands in this genre that this seems like the perfect place to publish them…………