Technical Music (that's not metal)

**Eastwinn**

*gets shot*

Many of us here value technicality in our music of choice. It's interesting to hear a lot of notes at once for a change (just as interesting as hearing only a few notes at once.. for a change). However, some of you despise the technicality card often played by fanboys of bands like Dream Theater and Between the Buried and Me. Also, many of us here listen to metal, a genre which typically employs a bit of technicality. Well we all understand that your favorite metal band is technical and it really doesn't say much out of the ordinary. How about some non metal bands that are reasonably technical? It seems this whole math rock/indie genre has been developing with twinkly complex melodies and odd or whiny vocalists and I must say it rules. Good examples are Maps & Atlases, Algernon Cadwallader, Minus the Bear, American Football, and This Town Needs Guns. Example!

So, technical bands that aren't metal anyone?
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**Twang** · Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2009 5:04 am Post subject:

Define technical, and define metal. I could rec some technical hardcore, and that would fit the criteria but it seems to me that that's not what you're looking for.

Try some electronic music, like Aphex Twin, Autechre, etc.

Composers. All types. From Wagner to Stockhausen, shit can get complex.

**HellAshes** · Joined: 06 Apr 2006 Posts: 8320 Location: Livingston, NY

I'm a big Minus the Bear fan myself. (Got a MtB T-Shirt for Christmas actually.)

I'm not sure what you're saying when you mean technical. I guess you mean just very difficult pieces of music that aren't in metal form?

I know Porcupine Tree has a lot of complex riffs in some of their songs.
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**Blehgopie** · Joined: 22 Dec 2006 Posts: 1218

Jazz. All of it.

Actually, I don't know anything about Jazz, and I actually don't like it very much...but god damn, what I do know is that Jazz drummers are batshit insane.
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**dabears116** · Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 1399 Location: Chicago, Illinois

A few prominent ones (not wankery):

65daysofstatic (post-rock/math rock)
Billy Cobham (fusion)
Brand X (fusion)
God Is An Astronaut (post-rock)
Gong (space rock)
Neurosis (hardcore/metalcore/progressive sludge, had a few quicker, non-metal pieces [whilst metalcore] in their early days)
Rodan (post-rock/post-hardcore)
Weather Report (fusion)

For anyone looking for some non-wankery technical death metal/avant-garde bands:
Anata
Augury
Demilich
Gorguts (derp)
Immolation
Lykathea Aflame
Martyr
Pan.Thy.Monium.
Phlebotomized
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**GIRLintheFIRE** · Joined: 26 Dec 2009 Posts: 139

Hey! First post here. I've lurked for a while and saw this section of the forums just got made when I got home from the Holiday. I'm pretty excited for it.

Yes, most free-form Jazz is pretty technical, and a good bit of it being improvisation.

Outside of metal, I like Drum 'n' Bass (might be my favorite genre). I understand if DnB is not for you, it might be more of an acquired taste than metal when you get into the extreme stuff. The genre is pretty much based around odd time signatures. Some, if not most. of it is 2-Step, which I am kind of down on because I like the waltz/groove feel that triplets bring.

Chase & Status- Glitch
Pendulum - Ransom
Switch Technique - Cursed Angel
Current Value - Dark Rain
Sub Focus - Timewarp

Not the most technical stuff, but a nice sample of what's to come.

Here is some more stuff of the same sort:
Dirtphonics - Quarks This one is my favorites because of the breakdowns. I can see some of the metalfaces bobbing their heads to this one.
Architeq - Birds of Prey This one isn't all that technical but the beat is pretty awesome because I think they are triplets. It is a good example of what I mean when I say "waltz/groove." I'm pretty sure this isn't DnB, but Electronica.
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**gamecubeRLZ** · Joined: 19 Jan 2008 Posts: 124 Location: akron, ohio

some other good technical math rock/indie bands to listen to: tera melos, so many dynamos, damiera. there is also newer prog, like the mars volta and closure in moscow, that's really technical.
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**toymachine** · Joined: 30 Oct 2006 Posts: 9629 Location: Toronto

How about something like Don Caballero
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**anonymous_97** · Joined: 01 Jan 1970 Posts: 0

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**OCEAT** · Joined: 13 Jul 2009 Posts: 357 Location: Boston, MA

I just put Fragile- Yes and their 35th Anniversary compilation on my laptop, and some songs are really pretty awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSsJqWyTc3s Heart of the Sunrise, the last song on the albm.
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**Vampyromaniac** · Joined: 08 Feb 2008 Posts: 1216

The band Three is great... they toured with BTBAM, Dream Theater, and opeth, but they're softer than any of those bands.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlHyIvkZoRk&feature=related

The song "The end is begun" is just as good... or probably better... than that one.
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