100 great math rock albums you never heard

[Steve F.]

So it's basically punk except everybody's playing intricate Zappablackpages instead of three chords.

I would never have expressed it that way, but I can’t really argue with the above...

[Scrotum Scissor]

So it's basically punk except everybody's playing intricate Zappablackpages instead of three chords.

I wouldn't say that. But most of it certainly aims for attaining the energy and (imagined) spontaneity of punk as merged with a web of notes and metres more akin to the densest progressive rock music. I suppose the main reason for this being that many or most math-rock musicians themselves belong to a generation which naturally discovered their own "subversive" underground before that of the previous generation. So yeah, they prolly got cerebral punk (Circle Jerks, Butthole Surfers, Meat Puppets et al.) before realizing there'd once been something else (Beefheart, KCrim, Magma, HCow etc.).

But by 2018, the majority of ongoing math-rock moves beyond mere rough edges or quantifications of 'countability'. I love this professional footage of Yowie appearing at some local instruments' store and actually drawing; it illustrates just how established the concept itself is with some younger listening segments:

[Mascodagama]

...and Yowie, despite being the most obscure of the bands you mentioned did get a fair bit of press for their final album last year.

Are they done then? That's a shame.

[Morpheus]

Are they done then? That's a shame.

Doneish, kinda? They are on hiatus and they have said the band will be back in some new form, whether that means a new lineup or a different sound, time will tell. Perhaps premature to say “final”, but the band is on hold until further notice.

[Marco]

No Father Figure on the list? What a shame. Their two albums are some of the most exhilarating stuff from the past 5 or so years that one can put the math tag on.

https://fatherfigure.bandcamp.com/album/heavy-meddlers

[Scrotum Scissor]

Doneish, kinda? They are on hiatus and they have said the band will be back in some new form, whether that means a new lineup or a different sound, time will tell. Perhaps premature to say “final”, but the band is on hold until further notice.

But I kinda got the impression that they were an on/off endeavour to begin with, so not as much "breaking up" than making hiatus a rule after each release before eventually teaming up again. I guess that's what a lot of bands do nowadays, although in the case of music like Yowie's it's not exactly "like riding a bike".