toe - Book About My Idle Plot On Vague Anxiety

 

Math Rock came to be in the late eighties as an offshoot of Post-Rock that concentrated on tapping and angular melodies as opposed to the concentration on atmosphere and texture that Post-Rock is known for.  The early bands in both genres shared many characteristics however.  See Slint as an example.

Like it's early brother in the Math Rock scene, Slint, toe borders on the edge of both genres.  They have no shortage of interesting time signatures and start stop rhythms, but they also take special care to create an interesting atmosphere.  This coupled with the technical drumming of Takashi makes this a Japanese export to check out.

 

toe - Book About My Idle Plot On Vague Anxiety

Other Animals

Other Animals is an awesome math rock band out of Illinois.  This quartet, comprised of three brothers and a close friend,  released their first album last year and  they've been heavy in my rotation ever since.

Using an excavation office in the Chicago suburbs as a practice space, Other Animals spent two years writing and perfecting their album.  They played their material so much over those two years that when it came time to record the album the whole process was completed in four days.  That's tracking and mixing included people.  Most of the album is actually live and it sounds great.

So collect some hipster points(example) and check out this relatively unheard of band. The best part is they are giving a digital copy of their album away for free on their website.  So head on over there and snag the album.  While you're there check out their (unfortunately slim) tour dates.   Hopefully there will be more to come.

Myspace

Download their self titled album for free here:
Official Website