You’re sitting in math class wondering, “What good will knowing the quadratic formula contribute to my life? How do these functions and graphs improve my wellbeing? In what way is math therapeutic to the human body and soul?”
Math is perhaps one of the most difficult subjects for Ateneans, and the fact that we find it popping up in pretty much every other course in one form or another doesn’t really help. Psychology majors deal with statistics. Computer science majors struggle with algorithms. It’s taken over our lives, and now, math is hitting the music scene.
“Math rock gives you layers of melodies in and seemingly out of sync,” explains Ateneo Musician’s Pool (AMP) alumnus Gab Palanca (AB Psy ‘13). “It’s melodic enough to be friendly…but at the same time, it surprises you with oddities in time, accents and note choices.”
It’s “mathematical” for its carefully calculated use of odd time signatures and strange rhythmic structures.Math Rock is mostly an instrumental genre. There are some math rock groups that make use of vocals, but most of the time, songs are tradeoffs between technical drumming and melodic guitar work.
“[The genre] makes you listen to music differently,” says Christer De Guia of Tom’s Story, a local math rock group. “It makes you pay more attention to [how] the music is being played.” The result is a dynamic and upbeat sound that’s both groovy and relaxing. Tom’s Story’s music shifts from ambient to vibrant and all-in-one track. “It's a new way to make something chaotic yet controlled,” he adds.
There’s a strange charm to having minimal vocals or a total lack thereof. Here, the instruments do the singing instead. Math rock turns instrumentals into lyrical narrative.
“When [a song] is stuck in your head, there are no lyrics to latch [onto],” Palanca says. “That turns out to be a plus, as you fervently search the Internet to find that tune, that band page or better yet, tirelessly await for gigs of the same genre.”
Over the Manila cityscape lingers a changing rhythm. Three decades after math rock broke out in the United States, the genre has swept over to the Eastern side of the world, finally making landfall on Philippine soil. Along with its sister genre, post-rock, it is slowly gaining prominence in the local independent music scene. Today, we see a handful of bands like tide/edit, Tom’s Story, Pulso, Earthmover, and Anton and the Salvadors, all helping the new genre gain traction.
Math rock in the Philippines plays home to a close-knit community of bands bonded both by their love for the genre and their shared mission to help it flourish in our local music scene. They draw inspiration to perform better and to compose songs of higher quality by listening to each other’s creations.
“[My band and I] highly regard our friends from Earthmover, Pulso, Tom’s Story, and Anton and the Salvadors,” said Clarence Garcia of tide/edit. “These guys always inspire and their passion for their music is just phenomenal. That’s why our local math rock/post-rock scene is something that we are very proud of.”
Given its complexity and the fact that it shares the name of an intimidating subject, one would think math rock to be anxiety inducing. On the contrary, its ever-changing rhythm makes for comforting music to play in the background. So why worry about hitting that 50% mark on that math exam? Just listen to an equally chaotic and complex form of mathematics. Close your eyes, and groove your worries away.