IDM Mailing Archive

how rare is a non-4/4 time signature in IDM/techno? if anyone knows of any songs with odd time signatures, please tell! i would think autechre would experiment in this area but i can't recall if any of their songs do deviate from 4/4. tomas

On Sun, 28 Feb 1999, Tomas Jirku wrote: | how rare is a non-4/4 time signature in IDM/techno? if anyone knows of | any songs with odd time signatures, please tell! | i would think autechre would experiment in this area but i can't recall | if any of their songs do deviate from 4/4. Aside from the odd waltz or shuffle beat, I think the main strayings I've heard are by Bedouin Ascent. Most of the stuff I've heard by him is not in 4. The only straying from 4 I've heard by Ae is '777' off the self-titled album. Lo, it appears to be in 7. I think their remix of Lamb's 'Gold' might be considered 6/4 as well, depending on how you want to count it. There's bound to be more, even ignoring skittery time-signature-irrelevant stuff like Oval. Michael ____________________________________________ "His eyes are TV cameras" http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~michael/jj.html

On Mon, 1 Mar 1999, Michael Upton wrote:

quoted 2 lines There's bound to be more, even ignoring skittery

> There's bound to be more, even ignoring skittery > time-signature-irrelevant stuff like Oval.

let's see... the black dog, in both of its incarnations, wrote a number of non-4/4 tracks, main offenders being 7/8, 5/4, 3/8, etc. and hasn't squarepusher written a bunch of super-odd ones, like 9/16, 17/8, etc? * #### a disturbance in a system. #### laerm. @voicenet.com ##:# Denn die einen sind im Dunkeln/Und die andern sind im Licht Und man sieht nur die im Lichte/Die im Dunkeln sieht man nicht icq: 5562209

Excerpts from mail: 28-Feb-99 (idm) odd time signatures by Tomas Jirku@yirku.com

quoted 1 line how rare is a non-4/4 time signature in IDM/techno?

> how rare is a non-4/4 time signature in IDM/techno?

Gerd - Vulcan Princess (Universal Language) That's quite mucked up.... :) Aaron

On Sun, 28 Feb 1999, lazlo wrote: | As for Autechre, they experimented with "no repetitive beats" on "Flutter" | in 1994 as a means of protest against the CJB. Weird fun shit that | actually mixed well into Warp's "Blech" comp. To be fiddly, I'd say that 'Flutter' is in 4. At least that's how I count it, based on the vocal loop thingy. I definitely hear the bars starting every 4, or at least 8 beats. Michael ____________________________________________ "His eyes are TV cameras" http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~michael/jj.html

(pulls out trumpet) My own Solenoid track "Pillow Speaker" on the Emanated compilation (www.syncopated.net/emanate) is in straight 6/4 throughout, not even an underlying 4/4 there, actually, and not waltzy or 3/4 in disguise. It is liberating to work in time sigs like that as I've found my tracks feel free of genre-clinging ...except maybe jazz, but the instrumentation is so much more alien (puts trumpet away) There is a lot of non 4/4 out there (some that works well, too!) and I've noticed that a lot of them seem to end up on full-length releases moreso than 12"s Solenoid On Sun, 28 Feb 1999, lazlo wrote:

quoted 22 lines Amon Tobin did a rabid 5/4 cut on Permutation, "Sordid." Blame's "360

> Amon Tobin did a rabid 5/4 cut on Permutation, "Sordid." Blame's "360 > Click" is in 7/8, and then there's Laika (who don't really fall into this > group of musicians)--they're infamous for going against 4/4. > > As for Autechre, they experimented with "no repetitive beats" on "Flutter" > in 1994 as a means of protest against the CJB. Weird fun shit that > actually mixed well into Warp's "Blech" comp. > > They're rare, but not impossible to find. The further people dig into jazz > roots, the more you'll begin to see it on the scene. > > laz > > Tomas Jirku wrote: > > > how rare is a non-4/4 time signature in IDM/techno? if anyone knows of > > any songs with odd time signatures, please tell! > > i would think autechre would experiment in this area but i can't recall > > if any of their songs do deviate from 4/4. > > > > tomas >

I suppose this has nothing to do with IDM at all, except that I can *definitely* see people liking this that like IDM type stuff, but the most recent Ativin ("German Water", on Polyvinyl) and Don Caballero ("What Burns Never Returns", on Touch&Go) releases do some insane stuff with hardly any, if any, 4/4 signatures. They do it all with bass guitars, guitars, and standards drums, so that's why it is not IDM. However, some of the songs could definitely fit in to a IDM set, both these albums are as complex and evocative as anything an artist on this list done...(and thankfully, they have both zilch vocals) At 11:03 PM 2/28/99 -0600, lazlo wrote:

quoted 24 lines Amon Tobin did a rabid 5/4 cut on Permutation, "Sordid." Blame's "360

>Amon Tobin did a rabid 5/4 cut on Permutation, "Sordid." Blame's "360 >Click" is in 7/8, and then there's Laika (who don't really fall into this >group of musicians)--they're infamous for going against 4/4. > >As for Autechre, they experimented with "no repetitive beats" on "Flutter" >in 1994 as a means of protest against the CJB. Weird fun shit that >actually mixed well into Warp's "Blech" comp. > >They're rare, but not impossible to find. The further people dig into jazz >roots, the more you'll begin to see it on the scene. > >laz > >Tomas Jirku wrote: > >> how rare is a non-4/4 time signature in IDM/techno? if anyone knows of >> any songs with odd time signatures, please tell! >> i would think autechre would experiment in this area but i can't recall >> if any of their songs do deviate from 4/4. >> >> tomas > >Attachment Converted: "c:\windows\desktop\eudora\eudora\attach\muziq14.vcf" >

bill wright wwright@clemson.edu <http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~wwright>

Michael Upton wrote:

quoted 6 lines The only straying from 4 I've heard by Ae is '777'

> > The only straying from 4 I've heard by Ae is '777' > off the self-titled album. Lo, it appears to be in > 7. I think their remix of Lamb's 'Gold' might be > considered 6/4 as well, depending on how you want > to count it.

cichli is in 10/4, one of the tracks on cichli suite is in 9/4... black dog do stuff in 3/4 every once in a while...

quoted 4 lines how rare is a non-4/4 time signature in IDM/techno? if anyone knows of

> how rare is a non-4/4 time signature in IDM/techno? if anyone knows of > any songs with odd time signatures, please tell! > i would think autechre would experiment in this area but i can't recall > if any of their songs do deviate from 4/4.

That's not right - loads of them do; stud is 3/4 five is 5/4 drane and cichli are 10/4 characi is 9/4 and those are just the ones of the top of my head Actually, can anyone help me out on slip, pule or 777 - still haven't worked those ones out, and when you do sometimes the track makes a lot more sense. Other wierd time signitures you might want to check out; squarepusher - my sound 6/4 bola - forcasa3 3/4 amon tobin - bridge 5/4 loads of black dog almost all the tracks on the stereolab dots & loops lp Dan Shoebridge. np: music is rotted one note - I have no idea of the time signatures in lots of this. Loads of complex jazz structures no doubt.

you're not going to mention my track 'floating point' on the emanated comp that in 7/4? i've also got another one that's in 7/4 coming out on my new cd 'realizations' that should be out beginning of april. if.then.else

quoted 1 line (pulls out trumpet)

>(pulls out trumpet)

quoted 2 lines My own Solenoid track "Pillow Speaker" on the Emanated compilation

>My own Solenoid track "Pillow Speaker" on the Emanated compilation >(www.syncopated.net/emanate) is in straight 6/4 throughout, not even an

quoted 1 line underlying 4/4 there, actually, and not waltzy or 3/4 in disguise. It

>underlying 4/4 there, actually, and not waltzy or 3/4 in disguise. It

is

quoted 2 lines liberating to work in time sigs like that as I've found my tracks feel

>liberating to work in time sigs like that as I've found my tracks feel >free of genre-clinging ...except maybe jazz, but the instrumentation is

quoted 1 line so much more alien

>so much more alien

quoted 1 line Solenoid

> Solenoid

On Sun, 28 Feb 1999, lazlo wrote:

quoted 1 line Amon Tobin did a rabid 5/4 cut on Permutation, "Sordid." Blame's "360

> Amon Tobin did a rabid 5/4 cut on Permutation, "Sordid." Blame's "360

quoted 1 line Click" is in 7/8, and then there's Laika (who don't really fall into

> Click" is in 7/8, and then there's Laika (who don't really fall into

this

quoted 3 lines group of musicians)--they're infamous for going against 4/4.

> group of musicians)--they're infamous for going against 4/4. > > As for Autechre, they experimented with "no repetitive beats" on

"Flutter"

quoted 4 lines in 1994 as a means of protest against the CJB. Weird fun shit that

> in 1994 as a means of protest against the CJB. Weird fun shit that > actually mixed well into Warp's "Blech" comp. > > They're rare, but not impossible to find. The further people dig into

jazz

quoted 7 lines roots, the more you'll begin to see it on the scene.

> roots, the more you'll begin to see it on the scene. > > laz > > Tomas Jirku wrote: > > > how rare is a non-4/4 time signature in IDM/techno? if anyone knows

of

quoted 2 lines any songs with odd time signatures, please tell!

> > any songs with odd time signatures, please tell! > > i would think autechre would experiment in this area but i can't

recall

quoted 4 lines if any of their songs do deviate from 4/4.

> > if any of their songs do deviate from 4/4. > > > > tomas >

-- /-:::- http://www.syncopated.net/ -=: home of :=- | if.then.else || emanate records || headroom radio |

Right then, as people are mentioning their own stuff... There's a Jet Jaguar track in 11/8 on a compilation probably still available via http://www.obscure.co.nz A downbeat echo-laden thing amidst lots of other folks' techno efforts. Michael ____________________________________________ "His eyes are TV cameras" http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~michael/jj.html

Date: Mon, 01 Mar 1999 10:53:06 -0500 From: "....." <thatcat@ix.netcom.com> Subject: Re: (idm) odd time signatures Michael Upton wrote:

quoted 8 lines The only straying from 4 I've heard by Ae is '777'

>> >> The only straying from 4 I've heard by Ae is '777' > >off the self-titled album. Lo, it appears to be in >> 7. I think their remix of Lamb's 'Gold' might be >> considered 6/4 as well, depending on how you want >> to count it. >cichli is in 10/4, one of the tracks on cichli suite is in 9/4... >black dog do stuff in 3/4 every once in a while...

One of the remixes on Ae's Basscadet 12" is in 12/4. A pretty good 12" at that, different than some other Ae stuff but I still like to pull it out every now and then and blast those gorgeous grainy bass sweeps. nick