wondering what people's thought are on this. you can take it any way you want - music with vocals, music without vocals - a genre flexible question. i guess the obvious would be to say that a lot of ambient or choral music sounds great without percussion, but what about other genres? i feel like a lot of people need a beat or some rhythm to get invested in a song. speaking in terms of music with vocals specifically, what are examples that work without percussion? open to all thoughts.
― Swen, Saturday, 9 March 2024 20:32 (one year ago)
Lots of folk music.
― man in suit and red tie raising his fist (Tom D.), Saturday, 9 March 2024 20:34 (one year ago)
... a lot of which is dance music, of course.
― man in suit and red tie raising his fist (Tom D.), Saturday, 9 March 2024 20:38 (one year ago)
Old time fiddling Steve lacy playing his soprano sax by himselfString quartets.Greek shepherds w clarinets Sardinian launeddas players
― ian, Saturday, 9 March 2024 20:57 (one year ago)
Shakuhachi playersMost John Fahey recordsGavin Bryars “the sinking of the titanic”“Tom Sherman’s Barroom” by dick devall William Harris “bill frog blues”
― ian, Saturday, 9 March 2024 21:00 (one year ago)
this is tricky because lots of instruments not classed as "percussion" (piano, guitar) can be hella percussive i once heard an amazing acapella rendition of "love is a battlefield" with part of the chorus doing quasi-beatboxingso like what are the parameters here?
― A street taco cart named Des'ree (Deflatormouse), Saturday, 9 March 2024 21:03 (one year ago)
My understanding was that the piano counted as percussion because of the mechanical hammers but I’m a drop out
― ian, Saturday, 9 March 2024 21:07 (one year ago)
Fiddling with foot clogging: OUT.Fiddling with banjo: IN
― ian, Saturday, 9 March 2024 21:08 (one year ago)
yeah i'm def trying to get at all this! i for sure consider piano and in ways also guitar percussive. so feel free to take it there. keen to unpack that.
― Swen, Saturday, 9 March 2024 21:09 (one year ago)
https://wordery.com/jackets/7ebf1c50/jigs-reels-hornpipes-complete-edward-huws-jones-9780851621210.jpg
― man in suit and red tie raising his fist (Tom D.), Saturday, 9 March 2024 21:11 (one year ago)
foot drum!
― Swen, Saturday, 9 March 2024 21:12 (one year ago)
what is the controversy level of reminding people that the piano is a percussion instrument?
― Swen, Saturday, 9 March 2024 13:08 (eight hours ago) link
i just saw this in the other thread ⚡⚡⚡lol
― A street taco cart named Des'ree (Deflatormouse), Saturday, 9 March 2024 21:26 (one year ago)
haha right?
― Swen, Saturday, 9 March 2024 21:31 (one year ago)
<3
― A street taco cart named Des'ree (Deflatormouse), Saturday, 9 March 2024 21:43 (one year ago)
just thinking of the "indie/alternative canon" there are certain songwriters whose melodies seem to have been written over a drone, and lend themselves to all kinds of arrangements (Bjork, Panda Bear)
so even though most of the familiar versions have some sort of percussion, you don't really need it,and i'm sure there are recordings and performances without it
lots of pop ballads that can be reduced to just voice and strings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yip0Wx8Ofj0
some of the songs on Automatic for the People (Sweetness follows which has a few percussive elements but no "percussion", * me kitten, and maybe others - it's been a while)
― A street taco cart named Des'ree (Deflatormouse), Saturday, 9 March 2024 22:06 (one year ago)
relatedly, world of echo
idk this is hard, i feel like there is still the strong implication of a "beat" in all these examples
i'm sure digging through my library would turn up songs that are really just drones and pads, but
― A street taco cart named Des'ree (Deflatormouse), Saturday, 9 March 2024 22:19 (one year ago)
string chamber music
― the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili), Saturday, 9 March 2024 22:31 (one year ago)
oh my bad, missed the vocal requirement in the post
a capella music, i guess, tho i don’t enjoy it
Yesterday
― alpaca lips now (Ye Mad Puffin), Saturday, 9 March 2024 22:38 (one year ago)
Yeah re folk music I listened to a bit of English/Scottish/Irish traditional solo vocal stuff during the pandemic… fishing songs, sweet romantic ballads, etc, great stuff, like being immersed in history in a way. It’s just like an extension of oral storytelling
― brimstead, Saturday, 9 March 2024 23:03 (one year ago)
definitely not limited to vocal music, voodoo! i love string chamber music.
― Swen, Saturday, 9 March 2024 23:06 (one year ago)
Beat yes, percussion no.
― man in suit and red tie raising his fist (Tom D.), Saturday, 9 March 2024 23:24 (one year ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8rumyup0Os
― I would prefer not to. (Chinaski), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 22:08 (one year ago)
Arthur Russell is a master of this.
this comes to mind too -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRKOZolW6L4
― stirmonster, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 22:21 (one year ago)
In terms of music one expects to have drums/percussion, I was shocked when Slowdive released Pygmalion but I came to love that album.
― giraffe, Wednesday, 13 March 2024 08:53 (one year ago)
David Sylvian's Blemish
― fetter, Wednesday, 13 March 2024 13:45 (one year ago)
Some rockabilly is drummerless, but standup bass and rhythm guitar are providing the beat.
― Requiem for a Dream: The Musical! (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 13:54 (one year ago)
Bluegrass music traditionally has no percussion, and it's even looked down upon to have it by purists, although there have been bands that incorporated it.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 14:41 (one year ago)
The "mandolin chop" is kind of the main percussion and the playing of the guitar and banjo is already fairly percussive, so I tend to think adding percussion is too much.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 14:42 (one year ago)
There's a subgenre of hip hop called Drumless btw.
― President Keyes, Wednesday, 13 March 2024 14:44 (one year ago)
heh yeah was gonna bring up Roc Marciano and Daringer
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 14:49 (one year ago)
I actually didn't know that, but Jay Electronica has some good drumless tracks
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 15:09 (one year ago)
(repercussions dad joke here)
― StanM, Wednesday, 13 March 2024 16:08 (one year ago)
lot of good Zap Mama tracks here
Brrlak!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxkbipVwZv4
Take Me Cocohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuWE8AGVNNM
Mupepehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2fqmJbUMsk
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 17:09 (one year ago)
haha can't believe i forgot to mention drumless hip-hop. my fav song of 2022 fits that bill
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yspLw1dZzhE
― the defenestration of prog (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 13 March 2024 17:14 (one year ago)
ka - "ascension"
lots of percussion-free music i love - i say writing as i'm listening to an old cut hands fact mix that would appear to be just percussion.
away from ambient/arthur russell most of my favourites will be folk. i must note two of my favourite albums ever made ever: show of hands' live at the royal albert hall and lunasa's the merry siters of fate. almost entirely without percussion, which admittedly is nothing unusual for the sort of records they are. but the usually counterpoint acoustic guitar sometimes takes on almost percussive qualities through dent of being played so rhythmically and quickly.
i do sometimes wonder how much heavy (electronic) dance music there is without a beat. jesus jones' spiral was an attempt to do hardcore/acid techno but without a beat (though there are occasional throbs of sine bass that are almost bass drum-like). being jesus jones your mileage my vary but it makes me want more of that suspended-in-mid-air menace.
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 13 March 2024 17:27 (one year ago)
Hugo Largo fit right in here. Line up of two bass players, violin, and vocals. Eno released their records and Michael Stipe produced their debut (called Drum, natch).
― Position Position, Wednesday, 13 March 2024 22:20 (one year ago)