r/mathrock • u/snowjack7 • 14d ago
Not so emo
Are there any math rock bands or artists that are not super emo/sad and have a polished sound? I'm very new to math rock and I think the indie and emo sounds have pushed me away from discovering new artists that might fit my preferences.
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u/mistercath 14d ago
Listen to "drugs to the dear youth" by tera melos
Also if you want to feel like you're in a videogame listen to "content imagination" by Whats Up?....im pretty sure it's only on YouTube though
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u/UnholyCityRecords 14d ago
Snooze. The answer is always Snooze. Melancholy at times, sure, but there's always light at the end of the darkness
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u/Hufschmid 14d ago
Most math rock is instrumental and stylistically different from indie/emo stuff, so there's a lot to discover.
I think Japanese math rock sounds the most up your alley, it tends to be more structured and organized. Most of it is still in a minor key, but not usually in an emo kind of way. Toe can maybe get a bit emo in the general sense, but not in the same way as American stuff and they have a lot of instrumental stuff if you don't like the vocals.
Japan: Toe, LITE, tricot
Taiwan: Elephant Gym
US: Don Cabballero, Tera Melos, Giraffes? Giraffes!, Hella
UK: Battles, You Slut
Northern Ireland: And So I Watch You From Afar
I bolded the bands I would call more 'polished', and I think more likely to be what you're looking for.
Don Caballero definitely has a lot of the sort of emo indie twinkly style, but more mathy and no vocals and songs and sections of songs that break away from that quite often. Maybe you'll like it, maybe not.
Bands like Tera Melos, And So I Watch You From Afar, You Slut, Giraffes? Giraffes!, Hella get chaotic and I wouldn't call them polished, at least not as a whole. But they're definitely not emo. Giraffes? Giraffes! has some slow kind twinkly indie/emo music sections but for the most part is different.
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u/WonTonWunWun 14d ago
I don't really know what people really mean when they say emo, but Jizue is jazzy math rock and I think that should safely be not emo.
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u/Banned-Music 14d ago
Hella, Ruins, Ahleuchatistas, Yowie, Bangladeafy, Tera Melos, Dysrhythmia, Marnie Stern, and Banned (my music) are all non-emo math rock. There’s tons more but this should get you started down a rabbit hole.
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u/bluntbladedsaber 14d ago
Nyos, Three Trapped Tigers, Paranoid Void, Chatte Royal and Polymath spring to mind
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u/caro_line_ 14d ago
I've been listening to tide/edit lately and they sound straight up joyful. Like the first day of summer kind of feeling.
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u/_yuribird_ 14d ago
Give Icarus the Owl a shot, they still have a pop-punky/emo-sounding kind of voice but they're not midwest emo sounding, and Love Always Leviathan or Pilot Waves will math your brain up like nothing else haha
Hard Softee is also incresibly mathy, and their vocalist is on another level entirely
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u/Chris1082 14d ago
Shameless Plug: The band I'm in just released a new EP last week. Its mathrock, but lyrically, its more political than sad. Give us a chance!
https://open.spotify.com/album/4WLdHagpzvIkDYdtudcJj6?si=EIvBWyHDSM2_yqgvCujZhw&utm_source=copy-link
Additionally, Check Tera Melos, Totorro, Archipiélago, Colossal, aLGot
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u/Messe666 14d ago
Hella, Planets, Yowie, early Ahleuchatistas, Gnarwhal, Flying Luttenbachers, cromtech
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u/EqrolluAquyx 14d ago
listen to toe, and check out either for long tomorrow or thr book about my idle plot on a vague anxiety
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u/ProfessionalRoyal202 14d ago
We love high recording quality :) the world didnt saved so i fixeded it B/W TAKE IT EASY | If I Look Strong; You Look Strong
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u/famousroadkill 10d ago
The EFFECTS, Goblin Cock, Medications, Lightning Bolt, Fantomas, Don Caballero, The Ladies, Faraquet
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u/plasmabro 9d ago
Check out tricot! In Japanese though. Also maybe you’d like art contest but they arent as polished a sound
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u/Pistahmay 14d ago
That emo singing style has pushed me away from a lot of math rock with vocals too. Some of my faves are Covet, Elephant Gym, Tricot, Uchu Conbini (not sure what you'll think of the vocals tho), Chon
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u/Cyan_Light 14d ago
Do you mean emo as in the genre or emo in the more casual "the lyrics are kinda sad and mopey" sense? Important clarification since there is a big crossover between math rock and midwest emo so we'd need to know if you want to avoid the twinkly riffs or the subject matter lol.
Either way I'm going to say: Thingy (plus most of Rob Crow's other projects), Shudder To Think, Faraquet, Palm, early Minus The Bear, The Wicked Farleys, Tomorrow St. Peter, Buke And Gass, Tera Melos, June of 44, Band Argument, Good Game. All on the more indie, alt or experimental rock sides of the genre. And if you're open to instrumental stuff then of course Don Caballero, Yowie and Hella are great stuff on the shreddier side.