![]() The opportunity to twist rock music into something longform, complex and near-unrecognizable from its roots was grasped by many turn-of-the-century Japanese math rock artists. Post rock, the vague genre that refers to the use of what would normally be considered rock instrumentation in music that isn’t clearly rock music, instinctively aligns with a lot of the jazz – and orchestrally oriented way markers that inspire so many math rock bands. Since the early 2000s, math rock has been closely associated – and often conflated – with three key subgenres of rock, sometimes all at once: progressive rock in the vein of Ruins (including avant prog, brutal prog etc), post-hardcore and post rock. See Also: Altered States’ Mosaic (1995), a grander, more dramatic and more free-jazz inspired full-band record shrouded in mystery and Nuito’s Unutella (2009), a more modern reincarnation of Ruins’ opaque complexity and unrelenting harshness. the work of Boredoms, Zeni Geva) into a genre fully unto itself. ![]() However, for an appropriate introduction to Ruins and early math rock, 1986-1992 dates the turbulent progression of an iconic band who saw math rock’s development from a style within other genres (e.g. Later Ruins works would play with Yoshida’s influences, exploring melody as he looked away from harsh noise and free jazz, though Yoshida’s long-running and still-active outfit Koenji Hyakkei continues to push the boundaries of modern progressive rock (see: Dhorimviskha, 2018). Its brashness and Yoshida’s yelping make for a discomforting listen and yet, by its end, the album sees Ruins gradually transforming towards the kind of melodic math rock that the genre is known for. Revealed under the haze of early Ruins is a grim, mischievous fondness for off-time repetition, rawer and more unpredictable than their American math rock-founding peers Slint and Shellac. Luckily for us, the compilation record Ruins 1986-1992 (2001) captured and remastered Ruins’ early achievements with remarkable clarity. Yet, listening to those records in their original form can feel akin to listening to music recorded in tin cans. Revisiting those first Ruins records, Ruins I (1986), II (1987) and III (1988) offers a fascinating insight into the birth of Japanese math rock. Drummer and vocalist Yoshida has been the sole staple figure in what has commonly been only a bassist-drummer duo. Led by Tatsuya Yoshida, now a legendary figure in Japanese rock (also known for his work with Acid Mothers Temple, Koenji Hyakkei and more), every outfit of Ruins has explored a different path of texture and dissonance. Here I’ll touch on five math rock albums that mark the genre’s extensive developments and Japanese musicians’ crucial role in its growth.Īs predictable as it may seem, there are few better places from which to date the historic ingenuity of Japanese math rock than with Ruins, a band that defined numerous features of the genre and even predated the naming of the style. From Ruins’ blistering early works to the genre-leading stylistic innovations of acts like Toe and Tricot, the Japanese math rock scene inhabits a special place in the history and modern landscape of the genre. Not only have Japanese bands long been embedded in the very foundations of the genre but they have been evident of the genre’s broad influence on other styles and deep resonance with musicians in local music scenes.įor every big name or contemporary icon is a small scene band or lone stylistic outcast acting under the influence of uncommon time signatures or jolting melodies. Since the genre’s inception, Japanese musicians have been at the crux of so much that is exciting and forward-looking about math rock. ![]() ![]() That link to progressive rock never truly left certain strands of math rock (especially in Japan), even as angular, post-punk-influenced guitar melodies made their way over from the new wave and set in motion the development of a more melodic style. The use of increasingly ambitious time signatures, like those found in krautrock titans Can and NEU, were combined with the grandiose, intricate guitar work of acts like King Crimson and Bi Ryo Kan. Rooted in the classical influences of Igor Stravinsky and Steve Reich and keenly aware of the free and avant-garde revolutions in jazz in the 1960s, math rock took the developments of Seventies progressive rock acts and pushed them further. And that’s because, on some level, it was all of those things. Named by critics for its outwardly snobby complexity and calculated aesthetics, math rock’s approach to rhythm and melody was seen as intently technical, manically detailed, introverted and computed. For a genre heard of by so few, math rock (or at least the ideas behind it) has been one of the most prominent pillars of progressive and experimental rock music for the best part of three decades.
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