Benjamin Krock, Analytical Fallout #4 (Rhythm and Meter)

Metric Modulations as Expressive Signifiers in the Music of The Speed of Sound in

Seawater

While math rock as a genre is seldom discussed in scholarship, there are a few scholars,

such as Theo Cateforis and Brad Osborn, who have published on it. Theo Cateforis (2002: 244)

defines math rock as having characteristics such as “the extensive use of asymmetrical or “odd”

time signatures and shifting mixed meters.” placing an obvious emphasis on rhythmic features.

By narrowing his definition to only one element, Cateforis seems to have left the door to math

rock open for bands that have no place in its category. Using his definition, one could potentially

and erroneously place any number of artists into math rock. For instance, bands such as Tool,

The Mars Volta, and Radiohead are all drastically different stylistically, yet Osborn (2013) is

able to group them together under the math rock umbrella by citing Cateforis's one-dimensional

definition.

In defense of Cateforis, he was looking at the earlier wave of math rock, bands like Don

Caballero, Slint, etc., which does seem to place a heavy emphasis on metric games. But as I

discussed in my paper on form in two songs by American Football, there was a wedding between

emo and math rock toward the end of the 90's. This marriage did not completely alienate either

of the genres, but there are aspects of each that were foregrounded while other, more genre-

specific characteristics, faded into the background. Certain characteristics of math rock, such as

"twinkly" guitar lead lines, asymmetrical subdivision of the meter, and mixed/odd cardinality

time signatures still existed in American Football's music. However, the introspective

lyrics/vocals, calm aesthetic, and guitar effects of emo overruled the chaotic, jagged feel of early

math rock. Music fans and critics continued to use the term "math rock" to describe this new
wave of bands following American Football, but the term seems, to me, to have taken on the role

of a descriptor (as opposed to a genre in and of itself)1.

Math rock's marriage with emo makes the task of genre-defining nearly impossible, but I

do feel strongly that there are characteristics that, when heard, cause informed listeners to

describe a band as being math rock. A few of those are listed in the previous paragraph, and, in

fact, many of the original characteristics of math rock are still rampant in many bands such as:

This Town Needs Guns, And So I Watched You From Afar, etc. I agree with Osborn that formal

aspects are important for defining a genre, but I don't think that most non-theorist listeners would

take that into consideration when categorizing bands. With that said, here's the non sequitur to

my actual paper…

I'll begin with a brief description of what this project was when I conceived of it as well

as a rather boring narrative of my process: I was interested in whether math rock bands made

common use of metric modulation, and I listened to easily more than 150 songs spanning 10

bands. The results? A three-day headache, a sore neck/right arm, and a measly three examples. It

seemed to me that metric modulation was not a popular compositional trick for math rock bands,

but then I realized that I had overlooked my favourite group: The Speed of Sound in Seawater.

Starting with their first EP, Blue Version (2009), I listened through their entire discography in

one sitting. What I found was completely contrary to the corpus of 150 songs I had previously

investigated. Four out of five songs on Blue Version contained at least one metric modulation!

From there, the use of metric modulation dissipated: two out of six songs on Red Version (2010),

1
I don't have any sources to cite for this statement, but I know (from personal conversations and frequent perusal of
blogs/forums devoted to math rock) that the rhetoric is often skewed. For instance, fans/critics will describe a band
as being "math-y" or list "math rock" in a stream of genre tags that might also include any number of other genres.
Which brings me to a point I'd like to make: the experimental tendency of subcultural musicians to genre-hop/genre-
mix created a need to apply multiple genres to any given band. Websites such as last.fm and bandcamp.com
provided a means for fans to apply an infinite number of descriptive tags to a band to further nuance that bands
categorization.
none of the five songs on Underwater Tell Each Other Secrets (2011), one song out of five on

Acoustics (2013) (which is cheating, since that EP is entirely acoustic covers of songs from the

previous two EPS), and only one out of ten songs from their debut LP, First Contact (2013).

This is not to say that The Speed of Sound in Seawater (hereafter "SoSiS") is metrically

or rhythmically boring. This mistaken statement is clearly debunked by the clear lack of metric

modulation in other math rock bands. However, SoSiS's oeuvre displays a clear trajectory in

terms of frequent use of metric modulation toward its disappearance. Oddly, I've often

considered the early SoSiS EPs to be more in line with "traditional math rock" (whatever that

might be). For me and many of their fans/critics, SoSiS's stylistic evolution portrays a gradual

straying away from math rock. Paradoxically, their weeding out of metric modulation, which is

not a characteristic of math rock, goes hand-in-hand with their movement away from math rock.

So here I am…investigating a phenomenon that doesn't seem to happen all that much in math

rock (except for early SoSiS).

But first, one last note: SoSiS doesn't seem to have recorded their earlier releases with a

click track, so my metronome markings will be averaged. Because of this, some of the math

(actual math, not math rock) won't be exact. This definitely shouldn't matter, as recordings of the

songs make it apparent that the metric modulations are there. Plus, I don't think people can

distinguish the difference between eighth = 297 and eighth = 299

Of the seven songs from SoSiS's oeuvre, four of them feature the metric modulation of

"eighth-note subdivision in simple (qua)d(r)uple becomes eighth-note subdivision in compound

(qua)d(r)uple" or vice versa. From simple to compound, this results in a decrease of underlying

pulse tempo by 2/3 (two-thirds). The second track on Blue Version, "Blowhole of Sorrow…," is

a good example of this type of metric modulation. The song begins in simple quadruple with an
underlying pulse of quarter-note = 98; the eighth-note subdivision, then, is eighth-note = 196. At

2:31, the band suddenly switches to a compound duple meter where the dotted-quarter = 65. This

pulse-tempo decrease by 2/3 is accomplished by maintaining the eighth-note subdivision

between the first and second meters2.

Figure 1 – Metric Modulation in “Blowhole of Sorrow…”

Figure 1 shows a realization of the metric modulation in "Blowhole of Sorrow…" Figures

2 and 3 show the metric modulations in "Yay, Flowers" and "Amy Adams," respectively. Each

figure shows not only the tempo markings and the value that is maintained in order to create the

new pulse, but also the timestamps for the locations of the tempo/meter changes. Due to the

boring nature of descriptive prose, I'm letting these figures stand for themselves.

Figure 2 – Metric Modulations in “Yay, Flowers”

2 I apologize for how boring this prose is. There's not really an exciting way to describe metric modulation.
 Figure 3 – Metric Modulations in “Amy Adams”

"The Scariest Room in the House," from Blue Version, contains a different kind of metric

modulation from the previous examples. In this song, the quarter note in a mixed meter (3+4/4)

becomes the half note in a simple quadruple at 5:10. Figure 4 shows the relevant passage,

framing the overall tempo reduction by half in light of the metric modulation.

Figure 4 – Metric Modulation in “The Scariest Room in the House”

Yet another effect is achieved in "Soulmate 2.1" from the full-length album, First

Contact. In this song, SoSiS uses metric modulation as a formal indicator; the chorus-based intro

is in simple quadruple with a quarter-note pulse of 92 bpm. However, the verses are in a fast,

simple triple meter with a quarter-note pulse of 183 bpm. These two tempi alternate between

verses and choruses by means of a metric modulation: "quarter-note becomes eighth-note."

Figure 5 shows the first two instances of the metric modulation: first between the intro and verse

1, and between verse 1 and chorus 1. While the fast simple triple sections could be thought of as

compound duple/quadruple, I perceive of them as triple meter based on the snare accents on beat

3. This type of accenting seems more indicative of simple triple than compound.
 Figure 5 – Metric Modulations in “Soulmate 2.1”

Each of the five examples discussed so far have undergone an overall tempo decrease due

to a metric modulation. While some of them eventually modulate back to the original

meter/tempo, songs such as "Blowhole of Sorrow…" continue in their new tempo until the end

of the song. Regardless of these characteristics, the metric modulations of the first five examples

are all immediate; there are no strings of modulations that eventually transport the song to a new

tempo. Based on this observation, it seems that SoSiS's primary use of metric modulation is

based on a desire to segment a particular passage of the song. The ramifications of these

modulations seem to be minimal; either the song returns to its original tempo, or they segment

the final portion of the song as a sort of "terminal climax" (Osborn 2012). But there is one final

example in the SoSiS recordings that makes use of a string of metric modulations: "Dinner and a

Movie…" from their Red Version and from their acoustic EP, Acoustics. I'll be referring to the

acoustic version of this song for the following discussion because I like it more.

Figure 6 contains a form chart for "Dinner and a Movie…" and portrays a multi-part,

through-composed construction. Overall, there are four main sections to the song, none of which

contain material from a precious section. Within the sections, however, material is recapitulated

in order to form compound groupings (see, for instance, section II). There is one exception in

section II: what I have labelled as Interverse part 2 is intro-based. I'm not entirely sure what to

make of that…but it's there. I've also included timestamps, measure numbers, time signatures,
phrase groupings, beginning lyrics, instrumentation, and associated notes for each respective

portion of the form. Figure 7 contains the complete lyrics with the form annotated on the left-

hand in bold.

The song begins in simple quadruple, but there is a slight tempo increase at the second

verse (verse (B') in section II) to a quarter-note pulse of 111 bpm. After a brief, two-measure

transition, Interverse Part 1 (D) generates a meter change to 3/4 with the pulse remaining the

same. A hemiola in the frantic strumming of the guitar is superimposed onto the 3/4, however,

and halfway through it switches to single strummed guitar chords accenting the previous hemiola

pattern. A compound duple meter emerges here and the first metric modulation is achieved: the

eighth-note subdivision of the original simple quadruple is maintained in a gradual switch to

compound duple. However, the next formal unit, Interverse part 2 (A'), sees a return to simple

quadruple by means of yet another metric modulation. In this second modulation, the dotted-

quarter-note pulse of the compound duple becomes the quarter-note pulse of the forthcoming

simple quadruple. Figure 8 shows the complete string of metric modulations.

This new quarter-note pulse remains for the rest of the song, ostensibly partitioning the

song into two, roughly equal sections. Similar to the formal dissonance described by Pieslak

(2007) in his work on rhythm and meter in the music of Meshuggah, I'm reading a dissonance at

the formal level in "Dinner and a Movie…" The partitioning shown in figure 6 corresponds to

musical aspects and divides the form into four sections. The overall tempo, however, suggests a

bipartite structure and aligns more closely with the narrative trajectory/thematic unity of the text.
Figure 6 – Form chart for “Dinner and a Movie…”
Figure 7 – Lyrics and Form in “Dinner and a Movie…”
 Figure 8 – Metric Modulations in “Dinner and a Movie…”

Although its track listing on Acoustics is "Dinner and a Movie," the complete title of this

song is found on Red Version: "Dinner and a Movie on a Post-Apocalyptic Earth: 12 Bottle

Caps, Successfully Repopulating the Human Race: Priceless." When the lyrics are read with the

full title in mind, a narrative appears in which the last man on earth is attempting to woo the last

woman on earth. From the Intro up to halfway through Interverse part 1, he works his rhetorical

charm, promising chivalry, tandem bicycle rides, and confessing his thrill to be "one of two

alive." However, at his insistence to "carry the fire" with her, she promptly responds, "no!," and

urges him to "give up the fight." As discussed before, the string of metric modulations takes

place over the course of Verse (B') through Interverse part 1 and into Interverse part 2. The end

of Interverse part 1 is also the point at which the last girl on earth refuses him, leading to the

meter change to simple quadruple in a drastically decreased tempo. At this point, the last man on

earth calms down considerably and tries a more sweet approach: "Everyday it seems that I find

something new that I absolutely adore about you."

The rest of Interverse part 2 features a series of exchanges between the two, culminating

in the girl's confession that "if we could find a priest, I'd be happy to oblige you, sadly they are

all deceased." The Interpolation which follows obsessively repeats the line "God-fearing girls

have no place here," expressing the frustration felt by the man, but despite this the rest of the

song's lyrics are, in an odd way, hopeful for the future.

 SoSiS's string of metric modulations in "Dinner and a Movie…" carry an expressive

meaning, and perfectly parallel the narrative trajectory of the text. The gradual decrease in tempo

corresponds with the male character's attempts to woo the female character, but other aspects of

the music, such as harmony, melody, and texture, also contribute to the achieved effect. I would

posit that the level of care taken in this song is a feature of SoSiS's music that is not necessarily

present in other math rock bands. Tempo changes, metric modulations, and musical cues are

seldom as intertwined with the text (if there is text) as is found in SoSiS's output.

Select Bibliography

Cateforis, Theo. 2002. “How Alternative Turned Progressive: The Strange Case of Math Rock”
in Progressive Rock Reconsidered, ed. Kevin Holm-Hudson, pp. 243-60. Routledge: New
York, NY.

Osborn, Brad. 2013. “Subverting the Verse-Chorus Paradigm: Terminally Climactic Forms in
Recent Rock Music.” Music Theory Spectrum, 35/1, pp. 23-47.

Pieslak, Jonathan. 2007. “Re-casting Metal: Rhythm and Meter in the Music of Meshuggah.”
Music Theory Spectrum, 29/2.