Radiohead hide a beautiful rhythm
August 7, 2017 2:50 PM   Subscribe

 
A syncopated dirge is still a dirge.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:12 PM on August 7, 2017 [2 favorites]


It's a dirge with swing!

I listened to this video and I don't really understand what they're saying at 03:00. If every single piano note is "shifted one quarter note ahead", isn't that equivalent to shifting nothing at all?
posted by Nelson at 3:20 PM on August 7, 2017


The shift is relative to the vocals.
posted by Sys Rq at 3:27 PM on August 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


(a) Nice post, thank you.

(b) OMFG you!!! won't believe that there!!! is some secret WOW amazing hidden one!!! amazing OMFG secret that is!!! so amazing I could just!!! tell you in the first 4!!! seconds of this video but wow OMFG isn't!!! Tom Yorke is WOW the most!!! musical NO BUT YEAH generation!!! of his genius WOW says a professor to teach OMFG you to think WOW like!!! Radiohead's brainwaves would you secretly??? can believe OMFG imagine OMFG counting LOL but what if WOW a secret WOW hidden amazing and OMFG not??? even knowing middle C can LOL you amaze OMFG WOWWEE brainwave count!!! what!!! about middle hidden OMFG brainwave OMFG !!! !!! !!! !! ! !!!! ! !! LOMFL !!! !!!!! !!!!!!!

(c) literally, a single sentence.
posted by the quidnunc kid at 3:34 PM on August 7, 2017 [6 favorites]


Radiohead live one quarter note in the future. It's not enough to really help anything, but's it's better than an eighth note slacker.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:36 PM on August 7, 2017 [2 favorites]


Previously/Related: this rhythm magic from Harry Connick Jr. ... he corrects an audience's clapping during a solo by omitting a beat (and drummer cheers).

One of my favorite internet things.

apart from What's your problem? of course
posted by pjenks at 3:49 PM on August 7, 2017 [6 favorites]


If every single piano note is "shifted one quarter note ahead", isn't that equivalent to shifting nothing at all?

Ska and Reggae would like a word with you.

Mild snark aside, phase (in sound and in beats/measures) means SO MUCH to the feel of music. It doesn't make much difference if you're just listening to the piano, but shifting the piano *relative to* the other instruments is where Videotape gets a very otherworldly feel as the other instruments join.

It's also not that the notes are shifted by 1.0 units of quarter notes, (perhaps part of the confusion), but actually by 0.0625, 0.125 units, or 0.25 units (of the measure).

Some unexpected fun in music is actually when you change the phase of something far from its original location while one part is still going on, and you bring the original melody back in, but offset (syncopated) from where it originally was. It can really add a funkiness and excitement to it.
posted by tclark at 4:03 PM on August 7, 2017 [4 favorites]


My favourite of this type of thing is the intro to At The Indie Disco by The Divine Comedy. The drums always surprise me, I can never anticipate when they'll kick in. It's like a musical illusion.
posted by Nossidge at 4:05 PM on August 7, 2017 [2 favorites]


I think it's a shift of 2 beats, but in iRobot, doesn't the synth trick you into thinking the downbeat is one place then the drums come in and actually (re)establish it a couple beats later? Is this the same thing-ish?
posted by klarck at 5:26 PM on August 7, 2017


So that's what a plate of beans sounds like.
posted by humboldt32 at 5:41 PM on August 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


Is this the same thing-ish?

Yep. That long, low note that you assume is the 1 turns out to be the 4&.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:46 PM on August 7, 2017 [2 favorites]


(or the 2e&a, depending how you're counting)
posted by Sys Rq at 5:52 PM on August 7, 2017 [1 favorite]


One 1/8th note, you guys
posted by es_de_bah at 10:35 PM on August 7, 2017


I think I get it. My brain expected an explanation on the second beat of the video, but got it on the eighth note before the 6,744th beat! YouTubers are really good at syncopation.
posted by condour75 at 4:24 AM on August 8, 2017


doesn't the synth trick you into thinking the downbeat is one place then the drums come in and actually (re)establish it a couple beats later?

not the oldest trick in the book, but old
posted by thelonius at 4:33 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]


older
posted by flabdablet at 4:43 AM on August 8, 2017 [2 favorites]


sure, it rolls over
posted by thelonius at 4:53 AM on August 8, 2017


I never click links that say "Don't click this."
posted by Obscure Reference at 5:11 AM on August 8, 2017 [2 favorites]


> not the oldest trick in the book, but old

When Radiohead do it it's special, so fucking special.
posted by farlukar at 6:32 AM on August 8, 2017 [3 favorites]


When Radiohead do it it's special, so fucking special.

Speaking of old songs....
posted by thelonius at 6:52 AM on August 8, 2017


If you're looking for that Where TF Is Beat 1 experience, try learning to play Black Dog. By the time you figure out that oh bugger it it's not lining up the way it's supposed to, it's far far far too late.

Then there's the other approach: when confounded by the subtlety of Black Betty you could just say fuck it, we're Spiderbait.
posted by flabdablet at 7:05 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]


"Spirits In The Material World" is also notable in this regard, especially the intro and going into the chorus......I hashed that out here with someone once, but I'm not satisfied we got it quite right....live versions were kind of simplified, iirc, definitely the bass part was simplified, and were weird sounding, with the synth chords played on guitar
posted by thelonius at 8:13 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]


> If you're looking for that Where TF Is Beat 1 experience

Speaking of (the) Black Dog (productions), my favourite "Where TF Is Beat 1 experience" is polymeter:
beat 1 of the rhythm or beat 1 of the melody?
posted by farlukar at 10:31 AM on August 8, 2017 [1 favorite]


If you're looking for that Where TF Is Beat 1 experience, try learning to play Black Dog.

I am told that Jimmy Page wanted to write something nobody could dance to.
I'm not sure why he was against dancing. Maybe he just thought it'd be funny watching the crowd go "shit I'm out of time again".
posted by solarion at 6:13 PM on August 8, 2017


So prog!

More fun things to do: follow Beat 1 all the way through this collaboration (so not a battle!) between Terry Bozzio and Joe Travers even when the hi-hat stops for a while. The underlying pulse never shifts from a rock solid four on the floor even through variations in tempo, but verifying that this is so requires some pretty extreme trust at times.
posted by flabdablet at 7:02 AM on August 9, 2017


« Older Everything's Coming Up Rosies   |   "In the end, the only person who got really... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments