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Thread: BUBBLEMATH at PROGDAY 2017!

  1. #1

    BUBBLEMATH at PROGDAY 2017!

    BUBBLEMATH at PROGDAY 2017!

    "Progress is not possible without deviation.” - Frank Zappa

    If Zappa were alive to hear them, he’d almost certainly agree that Minnesota fivesome BUBBLEMATH exudes his philosophy (and daring spirit) with every unconventional rhythmic change, off-the-wall timbre, and multilayered melody. Their debut 2002 release, Such Fine Particles of The Universe, garnered the band 86,000 My Space followers and the Minnesota Music Academy’s "2002 Best Eclectic Recording” award.

    Fifteen years later, the Eclectic Prog / Avant-Pop / Technical Metal quintet has released their second album, Edit Peptide, which has proven to be a worthwhile wait with its Frankenstein’s monster-formula of lively textures, wacky and virtuosic musicianship, hypnotically robust vocals, and charmingly astute attitudes. Edit Peptide is a masterful medley of artful aural arithmetic, blending the in-your-face intricacy of Between The Buried And Me and The Mars Volta with the eccentric experimentation of Mr. Bungle, the dense and poppy harmonies of Umphrey’s McGee and Echolyn, the symphonic vibrancy and tongue-in-cheek foundation of Beardfish, and the forceful fluidity of Bent Knee, The Dear Hunter, and Emanuel And The Fear.

    By conducting so many divergent styles, refining their songwriting and compositional skills, and most of all, sticking to their guns when it comes to crafting highly challenging and adventurous, but also quite hypnotic and welcoming, tunes, the quintet proves just how perfectly a band can fuse the familiar and the fresh.

    Join BUBBLEMATH (US), SHYLOCK (France), FLOR DE LOTO (Peru), SONAR (Switzerland) with special guest DAVID TORN, and iNFiNiEN (US) for the twenty-third edition of ProgDay. ProgDay 2017 will take place on Saturday and Sunday, September 2nd and 3rd, at Storybook Farm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For more information, please visit us at www.progday.net.

    To hear music from all this year’s bands, please visit the ProgDay Music page (http://www.progday.net/ProgDay-Music.html).

    Three more bands to be announced.

    Thanks!

    Michael

  2. #2
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    Good to hear! I saw them at my first Progday, in 2003.

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    I can resist no more. Time to go to my second Progday!!

    neil

  4. #4
    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
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    Well......I don't make long-range decisions anymore and Progday will be a game-time decision for me, but I finally found time to check Bubblemath out & just ordered both Peptide and Particles.

    WOW!!

    That is all.
    "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"

    President Harry S. Truman

  5. #5
    If you're actually reading this then chances are you already have my last album but if NOT and you're curious:
    https://battema.bandcamp.com/

    Also, Ephemeral Sun: it's a thing and we like making things that might be your thing: https://ephemeralsun.bandcamp.com

  6. #6
    I'm here for the moosic NogbadTheBad's Avatar
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    Yay!!
    Ian

    Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
    https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/

    Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
    I blame Wynton, what was the question?
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  7. #7
    Outraged bystander markwoll's Avatar
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    Interesting. Chances increase for a meeting of Steve F. and Doppelganger Steve
    "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
    -- Aristotle
    Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
    “A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain

  8. #8
    Member mnprogger's Avatar
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    great news!

  9. #9
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    I can't think of any other band that can play like these guys.

    I bought Such Fine Particles of The Universe back in 2002 and loved it. It sat for years and recently when I saw The Sensual Con showed up on You Tube, I instantly re-fell in love with them. I pulled out Particles again and played it on the commute for 2 weeks. All one has to do is just focus on the drummer to hear how great this music is. I had to wait a couple of weeks to get EDIT PEPTIDE and it arrived last Monday and has been in the truck until today only because I have 2 days off so I needed to study this album in my room. I have been completely stunned by their talent. The nearest I could compare were,Gentle Giant,Echolyn,Yezda Urfa and the weird side of Zappa. Who else plays this complicated?
    Last edited by Rand Kelly; 07-07-2017 at 04:31 AM.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Rand Kelly View Post
    Who else plays this complicated?
    First, you would need to see beyond the "big 6/5/7" spectrum of progressive rock music as setting standards for "complexity", as artists moved beyond that level already some 40 years ago. The label which just released Edit Peptide - Cuneiform Records - have several pillars to their profile, but with their rock quota it's the so-called rehearsal-intensive bands which somehow endure and prevail. Thinking Plague, Upsilon Acrux, Blast, Time of Orchids, Ahleuchatistas, U Totem, Brown vs. Brown, Rich Woodson's Ellipsis, 5UU's - you name 'em. Steve F. has been championing such stuff since the 80s, rather untainted by any third or fourth or eleventh imaginary "wave" of "prog". For other drastically intricate bands, check Orthrelm, P.O.N., Yugen, Don Caballero, Cheer-Accident, The Locust, Yowie, Stinking Lizaveta, Hella, Capillary Action, O! The Joy, XhohX, Sleeping People, Friendly Bears, Thin Pillow, Extra Life, SGM, Simon Steensland, Grand Ulena, Zs, Tipographica, The Science Group, PoiL, Normal Love et al. Plus many, many others - from Japan, South America, France and so on.

    They all somehow have that one apparent trait in common; "big" 70s acts would not have been able to pull it off, and they are mostly not too influenced by those names. No matter the devastating conclusion either. And they are discussed in here on a quite regular basis.

    Play the whole of this, and catch the detail;

    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  11. #11
    Outraged bystander markwoll's Avatar
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    Horselords too
    "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."
    -- Aristotle
    Nostalgia, you know, ain't what it used to be. Furthermore, they tells me, it never was.
    “A Man Who Does Not Read Has No Appreciable Advantage Over the Man Who Cannot Read” - Mark Twain

  12. #12
    Member mnprogger's Avatar
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    <3 Time of Orchids.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Scrotum Scissor View Post
    First, you would need to see beyond the "big 6/5/7" spectrum of progressive rock music as setting standards for "complexity", as artists moved beyond that level already some 40 years ago. The label which just released Edit Peptide - Cuneiform Records - have several pillars to their profile, but with their rock quota it's the so-called rehearsal-intensive bands which somehow endure and prevail.......
    There's a difference, though. Most of those bands you cite draw as much from contemporary classical chamber music as from any kind of rock. Many of them have at least one member with formal academic training in composition - even if only the output of Zs and a few others hew to today's frequent avant-classical trend of exhaustively putting one tiny idea under the microscope. Quite a few of those bands, however, tend toward today's other frequent avant-classical trend: extreme simultaneous eclecticism, plus jump-cuts. But in general, they either avoid the pop-music tradition, or use it in a very controlled, artistic, and often ironic manner. And many avoid the whole traditional structural mechanism of consonance and dissonance as a medium of tension and release - their music lives out on the dissonant end, and rarely leaves. Or, to put it simply, their music usually gets called avant-prog, and it sounds like avant-prog.

    Bubblemath don't, though, and their music doesn't. It's more "inside", even if dense and sometimes quite involved. Their pop music roots are apparent, even if the result sometimes moves far away from conventional pop structures and textures; their advanced harmony sounds more like jazz than Stravinsky. They may sometimes seem to be playing several tunes at once, but those several tunes are all in the same key or closely related ones, and change at the same time; whereas that Time of Orchids track can almost come across as two or three Yes tunes, in different keys and with different structures, all played at once.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Baribrotzer View Post
    There's a difference, though. Most of those bands you cite draw as much from contemporary classical chamber music as from any kind of rock. Many of them have at least one member with formal academic training in composition [...] Quite a few of those bands, however, tend toward today's other frequent avant-classical trend: extreme simultaneous eclecticism, plus jump-cuts. But in general, they either avoid the pop-music tradition, or use it in a very controlled, artistic, and often ironic manner. And many avoid the whole traditional structural mechanism of consonance and dissonance as a medium of tension and release - their music lives out on the dissonant end, and rarely leaves. Or, to put it simply, their music usually gets called avant-prog, and it sounds like avant-prog.

    Bubblemath don't, though, and their music doesn't. It's more "inside"
    Yes indeed, all true - and obviously so. You know I know, and you know I agree. But John, it doesn't really matter; "Complicated rock" doesn't emannate from Gentle Giant and/or Yezda Urfa and consequently shouldn't be expected to sound much like those - this was the main point. God bless the Bubbles for showing 'em something way over Kings Spock heads, of course - but most anew still comes and goes elsewhere.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  15. #15
    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Baribrotzer View Post
    whereas that Time of Orchids track can almost come across as two or three Yes tunes, in different keys and with different structures, all played at once.
    Um, I really don't think so. I think they sound like somewhat Yes-inspired rock band, using modern sounds and post-punk aggression in their 'attack' and not trying to sound like classic (or even unclassic) Yes.

    They certainly aren't / weren't in any way drawing from contemporary classical music. They were always a rock band.
    Steve F.

    www.waysidemusic.com
    www.cuneiformrecords.com

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    “Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin

    Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]

    "Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"

    please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve F. View Post
    They were always a rock band.
    Time of Orchids? Oh, 100% so. Unlike their "cousin band" Kayo Dot, who've had several players with academic and prominent non-rock merits affecting the recorded outcome (as on Coyote), ToO came out as almost a 'rock and roll in futuro' kinda oddball act right from the start, with very obvious albeit seriously skewed pop hints on their second album (Much Too Much Fun) especially. It would also appear that they developed their own set of bizarre notation modes, as displayed on the inner CD sleeve of the Sarcast While release.
    "Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
    "[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM

  17. #17
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    They sound like Echolyn played at 78rpm


  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    They sound like Echolyn played at 78rpm

    And the problem is....

  19. #19
    Geriatric Anomaly progeezer's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by philsunset View Post
    And the problem is....
    "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician, and to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference"

    President Harry S. Truman

  20. #20
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by philsunset View Post
    And the problem is....
    No problem. I just thought that would be too simple a description for some. And since it's based on hearing just one song, it probably is.

  21. #21
    And this is a reason I don't look at PE much anyone. Compulsives. Boring. Humorless, meant or not.

  22. #22
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by philsunset View Post
    And this is a reason I don't look at PE much anyone. Compulsives. Boring. Humorless, meant or not.
    Not sure what your problem is. It wasn't a negative opinion, and while I've only heard one track from the new album I've had the first album since it came out.

    I meant what I said based on the track that's on the ProgDay site, so your only real complaint must be that my post wasn't entertaining enough for you? When you posted "And the problem is?" I thought you were agreeing with me!

  23. #23
    On my first listen through Edit Peptide as I type this. It just arrived in the mail today from Wayside. Over halfway through it, this is some seriously dense music and will definitely require many listens to unravel -- but I'm looking forward to it! This has been a really cool and enjoyable listen so far.

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    Quote Originally Posted by philsunset View Post
    And this is a reason I don't look at PE much anyone. Compulsives. Boring. Humorless, meant or not.
    Not all of us are light-hearted and effervescently witty, with dancing conversation as full of air as a souffle.

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    I will be attending my first ProgDay this year. My tastes are shifting and this festival will scratch that itch. Never heard of the band before but some YouTube clips later and I'm definitely in.
    "The woods would be very silent if the only birds that sang were those who sang best..." - Henry David Thoreau

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