Instrumentally Intense Music

[jfrey]

It seems like there aren't many fans here of very instrumentally technical music.

Here are a few songs by some technical bands I really like to get us started.

Warning: Little to no fuzz was used in the making of this music.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvjGZUNcNHE[/youtube]
Gorguts - Subtle Body (The album Obscura by Gorguts has been called by many, the most complex modern piece of music of any genre)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmfzWpp0hMc[/youtube]
Animals as Leaders - CAFO (Typical song choice for Animals as Leader. It's straight to the point though; AaL is perhaps the most instrumentally talented band in existence right now)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kud-EpHhzcI[/youtube]
Scale the Summit - Dunes (Not as aggressive or fast as some bands, but still very technical. Lots of non-linear motion. Their songs are a hell of a lot of fun to play on guitar.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZBer-pSaLI[/youtube]
The Bad Plus - Prehensile Dream (Technical Progressive Jazz ftw!)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snujDM7mpyI[/youtube]
Between the Buried and Me - Alaska (Their later stuff is proggier. Colors is a must have album. Love playing the beginning of this song.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17y5Qtaix-w[/youtube]
Maneli Jamal - Lucid Drawl (One of the most technical acoustic players I have ever seen, and a really nice guy. I think he's better than McKee, and Ross.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9FWrS-po4o[/youtube]
Indricothere - III (Solo project of Colin Marston, notable player of Warr guitars.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4OrOdgt7nc[/youtube]
Behold... The Arctopus - Canada (Crazy instrumental. Marston, Mike Lerner, and Weasel Walter)

[andtheLiquidmen]

Great thread! Gorguts are a blast. I grow EXTREMELY tired of the Animals As Leaders type of Meshuggah-riffs-played-extremely-quickly-with-growling.

King Crimson - The ConstruKtion of Light
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H5ZsSjtawk&feature=related[/youtube]

Naked City - Thrash Jazz Assassin
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7yB4wcOoy4&feature=related[/youtube]

The Mars Volta - Aberinkula
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyrXy1TUDlw[/youtube]

Thinking Plague - Behold The Man
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugF8WZx5wM0[/youtube]

Fredrik Thordendal - Sol Niger Within
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEJTUzDOcsM[/youtube]

[jfrey]

Awesome post. I was pleasantly surprised by Thinking Plague. That was the only one I hadn't listened to before. They weren't what I expected.

Here's some more:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCz4WkyziBM[/youtube]
Tera Melos - Melody 2 (Off their self titled. Way better than their new stuff.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OA1E-Kbqfg[/youtube]
Time Columns - Spring (Math/Post Rock that sounds like Tera Melos X Scale the Summit. What makes them impressive is they are a duo that on the fly loop and overdub instrumental with varying and overlapping time signatures.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SynjS9Plys[/youtube]
Kevin Hufnagel - The Bridge (One of only a few acoustic players I know of that incorporate extensive use of dissonance into their playing. His solo acoustic album is amazing. He is also the guitarist of Dysrhythmia, and also the new guitarist of Gorguts.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38K4Uk0TwbU[/youtube]
Sikth - Way Beyond the Fond Old River (Very very talented band, although their sound was always a little immature - like Protest the Hero is. They broke up a while ago, although there have been rumours of new projects.)

[Ironbird13]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b5TOWKsjmg[/youtube]

[jrmy]

Nice. I wouldn't necessarily describe myself as being into instrumentally intense music as a genre, but there's definitely artists that I dig that fall in there. I love love love the Bad Plus, for sure. And Time Columns! I got turned on to them by Nychthemeron here on ILF. I really dug both of the acoustic players you posted, especially the Hufnagle. I love acoustic music with dissonance / intense harmonic content.

Others?

Don Caballero
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToWGcV50E-o[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o_C9n0mh_M[/youtube]

And, logically by extension, Battles
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LLAN29W-4w[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpGp-22t0lU[/youtube]
(I almost drove a coworker insane with this track once. Thankfully, I mostly work from home now)
(I don't know if this counts as instrumentally intense per se, but I get a huge kick out of it)

On the duo-who-loop-tip, there's El Ten Eleven - they're not necessarily trying to show crazy chops, but they do a great job of creating a full, layered atmosphere with just two guys:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTkPfjSXFpo[/youtube]
Check out the end, where Kristian is basically playing his loop pedals, just remixing the loops he'd just made over the course of the song. Fun stuff.

[jfrey]

And Time Columns! I got turned on to them by Nychthemeron here on ILF.

I'm actually doing Time Columns' website.

I'm starting up a company with a few other guys that is going to specialize in servicing musicians and artists with stuff like web, graphics, professional photography, etc. Our site should be up within a week or so. Time Columns is one of our first clients. We're also going to be doing some stuff for a small hardcore label here in MA.

[jrmy]

And Time Columns! I got turned on to them by Nychthemeron here on ILF.

I'm actually doing Time Columns' website.

I'm starting up a company with a few other guys that is going to specialize in servicing musicians and artists with stuff like web, graphics, professional photography, etc. Our site should be up within a week or so. Time Columns is one of our first clients. We're also going to be doing some stuff for a small hardcore label here in MA.

That's awesome news, man - congrats! PM me when your site is up. I'm a designer too, and am more than happy to chat it up with other music-centric design peeps.

[jfrey]

That's awesome news, man - congrats! PM me when your site is up. I'm a designer too, and am more than happy to chat it up with other music-centric design peeps.

Thanks. Will do. Check out my music site for now: justinfreyvogel.com

I haven't gotten to work on it recently. The banner and a few other things are in the process of being redesigned. Take a look though at the background. I coded it to create a tiled background of randomly selected album covers (from some of my favourite albums - and a few others that just looked too awesome to not put there )

[jfrey]

So this thread doesn't go off the tracks, here's another:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0uQCnWB2D8[/youtube]
Irepress - Diaspora (A mix of technical and mathy stuff and post rock. Great song, great album. Little known fact: it's pronounced Ear-Press, not Ire-Press.)

[Nychthemeron]

And Time Columns! I got turned on to them by Nychthemeron here on ILF.

I'm actually doing Time Columns' website.

I'm starting up a company with a few other guys that is going to specialize in servicing musicians and artists with stuff like web, graphics, professional photography, etc. Our site should be up within a week or so. Time Columns is one of our first clients. We're also going to be doing some stuff for a small hardcore label here in MA.

Oh really? I know the guitarist and he's a righteous dude. I should hit up his concert this Thursday, but I've got soooo much shit to do for Friday. Awesome to see an ILFer helpin' them out! That being said, Time Columns is an awesome instrumental group of awesome.

I also dig me some Maybeshewill. They're pretty rad.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1wmYQ-CWfw[/youtube]

And any chance I get to rep The Mercury Program, I take. They are just that good.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWids1N2u2g[/youtube]

[jfrey]

Oh really? I know the guitarist and he's a righteous dude. I should hit up his concert this Thursday, but I've got soooo much shit to do for Friday. Awesome to see an ILFer helpin' them out! That being said, Time Columns is an awesome instrumental group of awesome.

Yeah man. We're actually doing the site for them for nothing. They're sending us some merch but only because they wanted to. We decided that when we started the company we would pick one awesome band that didn't have an official website that we felt deserved more recognition, and offer to do it for free as like a promotional thing.

I just talked to Kenny a few minutes ago. We're going to be starting up the job really soon, waiting on some new photos and stuff that are getting done this weekend.

[Seedy]

That Hufnagel is something else. I saw Dysrhythmia open for Enon some years back in Philly and they KILLED. Thanks for sharing. Damn its been a good music week on this site, both reminiscing and new stuff.

[jfrey]

That Hufnagel is something else. I saw Dysrhythmia open for Enon some years back in Philly and they KILLED. Thanks for sharing. Damn its been a good music week on this site, both reminiscing and new stuff.

Cool man. I saw them with Intronaut opening for Cynic. It was an amazing show. I talked to Hufnagel for a while about his music and gear. You know he uses a stock strat? Not even upgraded pups or anything.

[ashdown]

i love this

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mORGAPrfs8[/youtube]

[sevenSHARPnine]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsxtKQW9ggg[/youtube]

[/thread]


But in all seriousness, Tera Melos and Don Cab are both awesome.