i mean honestly 6/4 dubstep could probably go hard on its own because its an even number and even numbers usually go well in a dance context… might give that a try, 6/4’s one of my favorites
while im here ima ask mention; iv also been wondering if things like quintuplets (aka dividing beats into groups of 5) or septuplets (groups of 7) would work, the beat would be in 4/4 so you could probably still turn your brain off and vibe to it but would the odd groupings interfere with that? and more importantly is there any dubstep tunes out there that use quintuplets or septuplets?
So yeah, I definitely think you could make tuplets (or even groups of nested tuplets) work in a dub / bass music setting, if structured in a way as to not confuse the listener too much.
This album by Granul, from March this year, is pretty close to what you’re talking about, kinda.
You also have this song by Gantz off the Pusher Acid EP, which has a riff going in a 5 over 4 polyrhythm.
I can say that this shit is incredibly hard to mix into a DJ set, I’ve tried.
There’s a lot of 2-step adjacent things having really skewed, off-kilter rhythms, but that’s more due to the extreme shuffle.
i actually have, and although i do like that track i actually prefer a different one by the same guy although as far as i can tell though its not dubstep but ill post it here as its relevant; still way too confusing for anyone who just wants to vibe, i just like really confusing stuff
I would not say Polyriddim is dubstep at all either, no.
For me it’s really funny that people think this guy is some kind of pioneer in the comments, like… have they ever listened to actual jazz? Bossanova? Japanese fusion? Not trying to sound elitistic, but people need to educate themselves a bit, haha. This sounds like most modern jazz fusion to me. Spicy neo-soul chords, generally a very progressive song structure, with interesting rhythm things.
i do agree with you on that, the only thing to me that he “pioneered” was the ABSOLUTE INSANITY that is the Emme decimal time signatures, which i picked up and started messing with because of course i did, but aside from that he’s more of a… “limit breaker” if thats a term… i will say though that regardless of all that i still find myself inspired by some of his sounds, rhythmic complexity has been my jam for a while
also happy to see sungazer being mentioned, some good stuff there!
I’m not sure what this means, but in a production context, it’s kinda hard for me to be impressed. I’m more impressed by people playing, say, nested septuplets on real instruments, live, with other musicians.
I don’t know how much harder music you listen to, but here are some examples.
This one is a certified classic electronic/programmed one from 2008. Most probably made in a tracker software.
In general, I think one of the reasons more stuff like this has not been done within the dubstep scene, is that it has been centered around half tempo 140 BPM, which might just be a bit too slow (?) for these things to be effective. Fast tuplets probably work better in higher BPMs.
Then you have folks like Igorrr, mixing all kinds of genres, instruments and programmed beats.
my personal guess for why weird rhythms havent happened in the dubstep scene is because its harder to vibe n dance to a track thats in an odd time signature/time signature people arent used to, and whats the point of weird rhythmic quirks if no one can vibe along?
also i wouldnt say decimal time signatures are impressive; they’re a fun quirk where you can say “this song includes a 5.2/4 time signature!”, there are very few times where these kinds of time signatures actually have a reason to exist other than “because its funny”, in fact if anything id say avoid decimals in time signatures altogether; they’re a pain in the ass to work with
I must have set it at 3/4 for some reason, maybe I was experimenting with beat. Then I’ve not touched the track in months and started trying to finish it recently but couldn’t figure out why it was weird
Ah, so it’s just a different way to write weird subdivisions? I bet that could be written in a normal X/Y way, but I’m not a math genius.
Yeah, as I said further up too, this is the most obvious reason. Dubstep is club music, meant for big sound systems at a club, for people to dance to. Bit different crowds going to metal or jazz concerts, where these kinds of things are more prevalent/expected.
technically yes, but for me it depends on how you’d feel such a nonsense time signature, the x/y form of 5.2/4 would beee… 26/20? because .2 is a leftover quintuplet which is technically a 20th note
this also is assuming that you’re using quintuplets, if you’re not using quintuplets good luck.
if you’re not using quintuplets it’d be 5/4 followed by a bar of- “1/20” which is- also nonsense
basically decimals in time signatures is just a party trick more than anything else except in very specific cases
With MIDI/software, you can just divide anything “equally” within a given time, so I see no troubles nesting whatever tuplets into whatever rhythms you choose, in theory.
A lot of mixed meter/polymeter music divide things up in groups of two or three, depending on where you want the accents.
Giving a shout out to Franz Liszt and Frank Zappa, haha.
Tosin Abasi from Animals As Leaders showing off some “selective picking”, here’s a completely bonkers quintuplet riff. This is what I see as impressive, in a technique context.
I might not have to say it, but yes, I play guitar too. Absolutely not at that level though, haha.
This is dope man, totally works. I wouldn’t call it a tuplet if it’s syncopated like that though. Tuplets are more clusters of fast notes, right? So if you can’t really distinguish that it’s a small cluster of fast notes, it’s not really a tuplet in my head.
all a tuplet is is just an odd subdivsion of a beat; how you use the subdivision isnt important to it being a tuplet, so im pretty sure it counts as septuplets
i like to imagine the tuplet being the grid that you put stuff on, you dont have to use the entire grid, you just have to follow it
this is why “quintuplet swing” works, its a swing rhythm but mapped to a quintuplet grid, only 2 of the 5 beats are being used but people still refer to it as quintuplet swing or just quintuplets, grids are awesome!
ya think this is a good time to use the feedback category?