Collected Animals

I thought it might be interesting to have a single place with song time signatures and/or some interesting music theory tidbits. I was trying to analyze Daily Routine today and I was having a tough time.

Here are some of the ones I have found:

What Would I Want Sky - 7/8 time
Lion in a Coma - 9/8 time
Floridada - 4/4 time
Water Curses - 3:2 Polyrhythm
New Town Burnout - 6/8 time
Moonjock- 7/8 time but switches to 4/4
Today's Supernatural - 3/4 (seems to switch to 4/4 in one section

Please correct me if i'm wrong on any of these!

leaf house is in 3/4

kids on holiday is actually in 128/4


but for real, daily routine is pretty weird. I believe the verses are in 10/4. The chorus could very well be in 6/4, with the vocals offset weirdly. I've never taken the time to really specifically count it out tho

this should be the in the third forum imo. good thread

dailyroutine chorus is back to 4/4 (or 8/8 or wh/e). 3+3+4 verse, 3+3+2 chorus. really nice syncopations in the drums though

daily routine's verse is in 5/4, not sure what the chorus is doing
NTB I would count as 3/4
lion in a coma I thought was in 10/8 but I haven't paid attention to that one in a while
sweet road is 12/8 (3+3+3+4) besides the chorus, which is 3/4
slippi feels like it swaps between 7/8 and 4/4 every bar in the verse but who the fuck knows. The '09 live version seems to be 6/8

nah lion is a really nice 2+2+2+3=9/8 even though the song is kinda garbage. again the drums kinda play different games but the bass is pretty steady

sweet road verses are 13/8 but you might have meant that since your subdivisions were right. and only the end of the "chorus" really switches to the steady threes.

slippi's weird parts are in 2+2+3+2+2=11 i think but the chord changes land at funny parts in the bar?

oh shit yeah 13 whooops

also I don't want to start something but lion in a coma ain't garbage

also I don't want to start something but lion in a coma ain't garbage

listen to Logon Rock Witch instead

e: this was a joke but the syncopation in afx tracks like "icct hedral" is actually a lot like the drum patterns in daily routine and other pb/ac songs where the time signature is steady but the rhythm seems to alternate between downbeats and upbeats. this page describes it as a technique common in african compound rhythms but sorta uncommon in western/pop/4/4 music

roopn wrote:

also I don't want to start something but lion in a coma ain't garbage

listen to Logon Rock Witch instead

aphex doesn't really do it for me.

lion, bluish, bleed, etc. are fine but i'll be damned if i ever acknowledge a MPP/FBK song they didn't play when i saw them in 2007

e: another problem with lion is that blue rondo a la turk already did weird 9/8s better

I believe people on past boards have said For Reverend Green is in 7/4 time

To add to the theory part, On "Painting With" Animal Collective used a technique called hocketing. Panda bear famously used it on "Boy's Latin" as well. You can read about it here. Also here is a video of the Dirty Projectors explaining how they incorporate hocketing.

I believe people on past boards have said For Reverend Green is in 7/4 time

that's correct, except for the the intro and the end section (when avey starts chanting "for reverend green") which are in 4/4

also, fireworks is in 3/4 and switches to 4/4 half way through
unsolved mysteries is 6/8 i think

That Fireworks switch still boggles my mind. Part of me wonders if they came out of the bridge and forgot to revert back to the original time signature or if it was a calculated move on their part.

nah that stretch out of the time sig makes that last verse v impactful in contrast

Wow I never even realised Fireworks changes. That's well cool.

Bat You'll Fly is a funny one. Is it in 7/4?

i would call it 7/8 but yeah. some 9s scattered around. then the slow section is an 8+4 that feels really weird for some reason. then just 4s at the end right?

All their songs are in 4/20

Water Curses is in 12/8.

Convention for writing 3:2 ostinatos is usually 6/4, 6/8, 12/8, or 3/4 (edit: or even just in 4/4 as poster below added). Writing in 3/2 usually isn't done because it is impractical to read and write in most contexts -- the only context I can remember seeing that is in choral music and maybe in some baroque music. Deciding the multiplicative value of a time signature is always about the specific piece of music and what most easily accommodates the voices that need to be written.

12/8 and not 3/4, 6/4, or 6/8 because the ostinato takes 12 8th notes to complete at its smallest subdivision. It's just easiest, you wouldn't have to write across the bar line. And in 3/4 or 6/4 you'd find yourself having to use eighth note triplets.

You could make a case for 6/4, too, actually. But most musicians just say "12" when they're describing a tune where there's a clear 12 beat ostinato going on.

Theory is relative to the musicians using it, too. I doubt AC wrote it out on manuscript. Though I guess maybe. I'd be interested to know how they communicated it to each other.

^I just think of Water Curses as 4/4 with triplets

Mountain Game is in 13/8 or 13/16

First section of Swallow at the Hollow is in 5/4. There's also a section around 15:10 that's really weird. I think the drums switch between 4/4 and 7/8 every bar, but the synths might stay in 4/4 the whole time or something

That's not wrong, but I don't know other musicians who don't just use 6/4 or 12/8 for 3:2 ostinatos. It's pretty common. Whatever though.

I like that gnip gnop and hounds of bairro are both 4/4 with certain parts that sound like (but aren't) 3/4 (maybe those sections are called triplets?? I forget all my music theory)

:10 in gnip gnop and :51 in hounds

All their songs are in 4/20

ya gnip gnop switches between triplet time and straight time during the verses. It's all 4/4 but very cool

u put the wrong emPHAsis on the wrong sigNAture

i bet theres a theory to mixing time signatures like there are with modes and keys. i like it when its almost impossible to keep track of which stuff is on what signature even if its due to mental dizziness. a lot of time i notice things on a different time signature but i have to consciously follow the note to notice what it does and what harmonies happen between other notes or what rhythms happen in relation to other stuff going on. kinda like in jazz when u can almost hear notes they arent playing cuz of the psychosomatic effect modes have on ur brain

i'm itching for a high quality recording of jimmy mack

the KCRW one is great but panda's hype yells get cut off for some reason. *crossing fingers for another bandcamp release

anyone have tips on how to figure out time signatures? i can do it with relatively easy stuff, but i get muddled on the complicated ones.

count twos and threes so you're only having to figure out 2+2+3 rather than counting all the way to 7 or wh/e

I thought it might be interesting to have a single place with song time signatures and/or some interesting music theory tidbits. I was trying to analyze Daily Routine today and I was having a tough time.

Here are some of the ones I have found:

What Would I Want Sky - 7/8 time
Lion in a Coma - 9/8 time
Floridada - 4/4 time
Water Curses - 3:2 Polyrhythm
New Town Burnout - 6/8 time
Moonjock- 7/8 time but switches to 4/4
Today's Supernatural - 3/4 (seems to switch to 4/4 in one section

Please correct me if i'm wrong on any of these!

Your right on all of these. Daily routine is 5/4. Then the 2nd half is free-form basically. Mountain Game is 7/8 I believe, but lots of people are saying 13/16.

isn't Water Curses a waltz?

isn't Water Curses a waltz?

Waltz means 3/4. But water Curses feels more like 3/8. Or 4/4 with triplets depending on how you look at it

nah lion is a really nice 2+2+2+3=9/8 even though the song is kinda garbage.

Forgot about this one. Not really sure about the time sig though. I feel like it could be 9/8 maybe?

Quick question: does "I Think I Can" use a compound in the last section? I know most of it is 3/4, but it sounds like there is a polyrhythm involving a 4/4 during the "I think I can" part.

Also, Magic is right about "Water Curses". In fact, I think the part of "I Think I Can" that I am talking about also uses a 12/8.

Interesting convo. Don't know much theory, but I'm learning, and it's interesting to see it applied to AC