Thread: TPG Radio

Originally Posted by deputyfestus

If you had a radio station what would it sound like? Post a submission or suggestion.

I DJ'd in college. I always wanted to do a show that was all songs in odd time signatures. I'd have examples from classical and jazz, but mostly the show would be rock and electronica.

At the time I was fascinated by the way odd signatures worked. Some songs seem to tack an extra beat or two onto the end of a phrase - or just stuff an extra "Umph" in there now and then. Other songs flow easily with their weird meter. Some times it feels odd, but other times it doesn't and you don't realize your toe-tapping only comes down on the '1' every 5th measure.

I guess I'm still fascinated by it.

Originally Posted by deputyfestus

Hears mine

I see what you did there.

Originally Posted by deputyfestus

so there's a sample wat yoou got?

I'd start with a waltz. 3/4 isn't really unusual but it has that shift. If you're tapping even beats you only get the 1 every other measure, so it's sort of like the measures come in pairs. The other side gets the 1s you don't. To me, that's what makes it a dance - you get the 1, then you give up the one, then it's yours, then it's theirs. You share them with your partner.

If you're dancing by yourself, your left foot gets the 1 and then your right foot gets the next 1.

The play list starts with a classic waltz (Strauss? something familiar but not too long), and the second song is Hendrix's "Manic Depression", which I hope sets the mood.

[as the request implied, I was going to embed youtube clips here. But the search only shows lame covers and bad live recordings. Sorry, Festus, you'll just have to imagine Hendrix.]

Next is 5/4. Nothing classical comes to mind (though I'm sure I could find one, maybe Stravinsky), but Brubeck's "Take Five" is about as classic as it gets. It's also (in my head) a dance song. It moves like a waltz where each partner gets two extra steps.



[this is a nice live performance - different sax solo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHdU5sHigYQ]

Then maybe cut in a few samples of familiar 5/4 beats. Mission Impossible theme, something from the Beatles, something from prog-rock. Just clips.

Then:



... which is really accessible (and also a bit badass). The drummer hits the crash on the 1 of every 4th measure. That groups the 5s into sets of 4, and makes it really easy to follow the 5.

Then Radiohead's "15 Step":



OK Go's "WTF?":



and maybe:



... which has a very different flow compared to the Soundgarden. The drummer is playing even time over the song's odd time.

Then we keep ascending in order of beats-per-measure. Each set needs at least one familiar/popular song, and at least one that explores the same rhythm. Maybe I'd also try some continuity by featuring both Brubeck's "Time Out" and Soundgarden (who did lots of odd-time songs).

6 - Soundgarden's "Fell on Black Days" and Queen's "I'm In Love With My Car"

7 - Pink Floyd's "Money" and Soundgarden's "Outshined" and/or "Spoonman".

9 - Brubeck's "Blue Rondo à la Turk"

10 - Grateful Dead's "Playing In The Band" (which feels to me like 8 beats and then a 2-beat-reset)

11- Allman Brother's "Whipping Post" (The two bars of 11/4 count easy as 3-3-3-2, giving each phrase an abrupt ending. I love that skipped-beat feel)

13 - Nine Inch Nails "The Becoming" and Genesis's "Turn It On Again" [whoa... too much contrast there. need a bridge. or maybe the contrast illustrates the rhythm. hmm.]

[videos not linked in - felt like it was too many for one post]

After 13 I dunno. When it gets much higher it stops feeling to me like a rhythm and starts to feel more like repeated phrases that happen to be the same length. Or even not. If a song is in 17/4 they could throw in a few 19/4 or 19/8 segments and I might not even notice.

One exception is Pat Metheny's "The First Circle":



... which sounds like you could just clap along. Except you can't. Rather, I couldn't the first time someone made me listen to it. If feels natural to listen to, but in order to actually follow it I had to learn it. Learning the 22/8 was kind of a revelation.

To really make the show I'd need to add in the supporting works. I might want more stuff from the prog era. Zappa has a ton of material that I think he did just because he wanted to play fucked up time and polyrhythms. I'd probably want some Talking Heads (fun rhythms played against each other) and maybe another NiN or some Primus. I'd have to think of more Jazz examples. It's easy to find songs in unusual time. It's harder to find ones that are accessible to a larger audience. Feel free to contribute.

[there are some metal bands that play songs with amazingly intricate times. though I have huge respect for the compositions and technical musicianship, I find a lot of it to be not very listenable]

I'd probably close with Bach, Goldberg Variation 26. It's like Speed Metal from the Baroque period. It plays 18/16 against 3/4 (and switches which hand has to do which). The phrases come in 3 sets of 6 (or 6 sets of 3) which I'm pretty sure we should refer to as Triple Sex.



... or maybe that's the second-to-last and to close we go back to waltz time with Amazing Grace.


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