Do you wanna get angular?

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A lot of bands I like are often described as "angular". Wire, for one. What does it mean with regard to music? Is it good? Does it require guitars? I don't hear it used as much with new bands. Are bands less angular now?

― Curt, Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

And another thing. Who was the first to be angular? Thelonius Monk?

― Curt, Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

By 'angular', I believe they might mean a certain awkward, jaggedness of sound and jittery rhythms. Other bands one might consider angular: Gang of Four, early XTC, the Pop Group (although they were a bit more dubby than sharp-edged.) "Angular" seems like a fitting adjective to describe the no-wave NYC bands like DNA as well. Or am I simply projecting here?

― Alex in NYC, Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

A power chord's a bozo nono.

― Arthur, Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I always took angular to refer to music with lots of steep "angles" in the melodic phrasing, i.e. drastic intervallic leaps/descents. For the kind of music I listen to, Ruins is probably the most extremely angular.

Not sure of the first. Maybe Bartok fits the bill for the definition I'm using.

― dleone, Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Here's one to add to the rock-crit "dictionary of received ideas". I've always assumed quick note changes with an overall emphasis on the treble. Angular has been thrown about in much of the Strokes press especially with regard to their assumed similarity to Television.

― Spencer Chow, Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i wouldn't consider the strokes angular at all. on the contrary, one of their qualities is a smoothness in forms of very headbobbing type rock riff/beats. hardcore/emo/mathrock whatever type bands have always been best angular bands. pitchblende. i think repetitiveness of unobvious phrases is important

bartok also fits my bill for first most angular act

― ddd, Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

hmm, i don't know. i take angular to mean a particular sound, rather than an aesthetic. i don't like thinking of it this way really. i need to relook at this. but when i say 'a sound' i suppose i mean "it sounds like Polvo". i need to broaden this definition

― gareth, Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Talking Heads = really angular. I consider them my guideline.

― matthew m., Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Throwing Muses, Come, Drive Like Jehu, Pere Ubu, Victims Family... that's angular... I don't know if it's good or not, I guess that depends on your feelings about angles.

― Andy, Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

All these bands look angular, too. DNA and Television look like a drawer crammed with drafting angles. Can calm, graceful looking people ever make angular music?

― Curt, Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

You mean folks like Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Trumans Water, US Maple, Transformer Lootbag, Dolomite, Sun City Girls, Ender, The Shadow Ring, The Dead C, and William Shatner? Or something else?

― Brian MacDonald, Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah. Talking Heads are überangular.

― JM, Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Andy, I feel ambivalent about angles. It's good that they exist. They can connect, but they can kill, too. What I meant when I asked whether angular is good.....do you like that kind of music?

― Curt, Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

secrets of music hacks revealed: 'angular', like post-anything, means "actually, this band's music's all harsh and out of tune/time/both and it kinda makes my head hurt and i don't get it, but the cool kids seem to be into it so i don't wanna make it seem like i'm not With It and Hip! i'll slap a random adjective on there and hope noone notices". FACT!

― petra jane, Wednesday, 6 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That's not "angular," that's "disaffected."

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 6 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I think when people use "angular", they are generally tapping into one of two things (or a combination of both): 1) use of counterpoint, played in an even-paced way (e.g. early Genesis' trancelike songs with a preponderance of layered 12-strings), 2) use of chromatic (i.e., harshly dissonant, as opposed to lighter dissonant) lines that are unusual in a rock/pop setting, like Robert Fripp's kind of guitar playing (e.g. opening to Larks' Tongues in Aspic III).

― Joe, Wednesday, 6 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, I think Ned's 'disaffected' and petrajane's 'angular' both apply. How about 'disaffectedly angular'? 'angularly disaffected'? umm..."affectedly disangular"?

Calling one's band 'angular art-rock' or 'avant-noise' or whatever always struck me as a bit more...self-conscious than need be. I mean, I guess it's hypocritical of me, but for some reason it's different in my mind if a critic calls a band 'angular art-punk' --that doesn't annoy me. But it annoys me when people give themselves these labels--or maybe it's just because any guy I've ever met who says something like "I consider myself to be an indie-art-post-noise-rocker" or whatever has always been a pretentious bastard.

― geeta, Wednesday, 6 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Doesn't disaffected imply the person is without emotion? If so, then I don't really see how angular music is necessarily emotionless? Or am I just seeing it the wrong way?

― , Wednesday, 6 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I should note I was half-kidding. ;-) Petra's call on a certain critical attitude just made me think of other words that can crop up -- and hey, I've used it myself.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 6 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If you're going to use music as a description of one's self, ie, 'I consider myself to be a post-rocker/extreme death/kiddie pop/avant blah blah etc' then you're a bit of a twat, aren't you? I'd rather trust people who say 'I love avant rock/japanese noise bands/daft glam rock/whatever'. I love rather odd, complex, angular music - Thinking Plague, Ruins and most of Skin Graft Record's back catalogue give me great personal pleasure. It's those posing chin strokers with holier-than-thou attitudes that give the music a name for pretention - you wouldnt catch them dead saying they actually 'liked' it.

'Angular' tends to refer to a harsher, choppier guitar sound, coupled with aggressive dynamics. There's a lot of it about at the moment, in the no-wave American bands and UK/Europe pronk ones. http://www.epitonic.com have an incredible selection of mp3s in their post-rock section (funny how the term 'post rock' is starting to mean droney almost ambient bands in the UK but still means Slint and the Dazzling Killmen in the US!)

― Marina organ, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"nut rocker" b bumble & the stingers

― bob snoom, Thursday, 7 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

To me, Zappa's Uncle Meat has always been the benchmark of angular-ity, so I guess I'm part of Dleone's 'steep changes in melodic phrasing' school..

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Wednesday, 17 December 2003 14:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Early Pavement was always being described as "angular." I always thought it was an evocative enough term for the sound, but basically meaningless as far as referring to any "real" musical elements.

― Sam J. (samjeff), Thursday, 18 December 2003 01:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Devo = angular
Feelies = angular

Let's make a list of angular bands. Sometimes it's best to define music by letting the music define itself. Is that zen?

― Debito (Debito), Thursday, 18 December 2003 01:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Some of the definitions on this thread are actually pretty good. (I guess there have to be specific reasons why even a vague term like that is "evocative.")

― Sam J. (samjeff), Thursday, 18 December 2003 02:03 (twenty-two years ago)

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