Math Rock Guide: A Brief History of Math Rock

Math rock is a subgenre of indie rock and post-hardcore that emphasizes progressive rock-inspired guitar riffs and unconventional harmonies and time signatures. While most math rock bands have lead vocalists, some math rock songs feature extended instrumental passages. In many ways, the math rock scene recalls elements of 1970s progressive rock, but without progressive rock’s high concept lyrics and with less regard for catchy hooks.

Math rock arose in the late 1980s and early 1990s in several indie rock scenes. Many math rock bands hail from the Midwest, particularly Chicago, Louisville, and Minneapolis. On the East Coast, Washington, D.C., and Chapel Hill, North Carolina, have played host to notable math rockers. In the West, Seattle, Los Angeles, and San Diego have fostered their forms of math rock music.

• Chicago: Chicago's math rock scene links closely to the Electrical Audio recording studio, overseen by Steve Albini. As a producer and co-founder of the bands Big Black and Shellac, Albini has shaped much of the math rock aesthetic with his stark, acetic production methods. Shellac’s 1994 debut LP, At Action Park, exemplifies the Chicago math rock sound.
• Louisville: The Louisville post-hardcore scene, similar to Chicago's, produced math rock bands like Slint, whose iconic Spiderland (1991) is exemplary of the genre. Other Louisville math rock highlights include Rodan’s Rusty (1994) and Gastr del Sol’s Camoufleur (1998). Some Louisville math rock bands show the influence of avant-garde orchestral musicians, including Steve Reich and Pierre Boulez.
• East Coast: North Carolina's Merge Records has fostered notable math rockers Polvo (which formed in 1990) and Breadwinner (whose only album was 1994’s Burner). Washington, D.C.'s Dischord Records has been home to groups like Shudder To Think, Jawbox, Lungfish, and Fugazi—all post-hardcore bands with math rock overlap. The New York math rock scene includes Dillinger Escape Plan, Chavez, and Battles.
• West Coast: West coast math rock groups include Seattle's Unwound—which spent the 1990s combining math rock with emotive indie rock—and Minus the Bear, which has continued the math rock tradition in the twenty-first century. San Diego's Drive Like Jehu recorded one of math rock’s defining records, 1994’s Yank Crime. Sacramento's Hella and Tera Melos, and Los Angeles's Covet also embody choice math rock aesthetics. In many ways, LA's 1980s punk mainstay Black Flag ranks among the core influences of the entire math rock genre, thanks to many albums of riff-based instrumental passages from guitarist Greg Ginn and bassist Kira Roessler.
• Abroad: Math rock is popular outside of America, particularly in Japan (home of the bands Tricot and Ling tosite Sigure), where it overlaps with the country's famous noise rock scene. The genre is also popular in United Kingdom post-punk and post-hardcore scenes, which have fostered math rock-adjacent groups like TTNG, Foals, and Tubelord. These groups have endured well into the twenty-first century, extending a stylistic form that began in the 1980s and 1990s.

Several key characteristics unify most math rock bands:

1. 1. Ambitious songwriting: Many math rock songs contain multiple parts and long instrumental passages. Such themes are reminiscent of 1970s progressive rock groups like King Crimson but with a more stark aural aesthetic.
2. 2. Minimalist production: Math rock rarely features large orchestrations or overdubs. The principal instruments are guitar, bass, and drums, with one of the instrumentalists often doubling as a lead vocalist. Records feature minimal reverb and compression.
3. 3. Extended instrumental passages: Math rock is known for its instrumental passages more than it is known for vocal melodies and lyrics. Slint's Spiderland, perhaps the most famous math rock album, is nearly entirely instrumental. Other math rock groups, like Don Caballero and Hella, do not have vocalists.
4. 4. Mixed meter: Math rock partly gets its name from the odd time signatures that populate many of the genre's songs. While plenty of math rock songs never stray from 4/4 time, math rock songs frequently feature syncopation to keep listeners on their toes at all times.

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