Oslo, Norway's Long Revered Two Piece Instrumental Math Rock Band "Aiming for Enrike" Will Headline Day One Of The Math Rock Times' 2nd Annual Music Festival On March 20th of 2020. "Infinity Fest 2020"
Flashy disco themes swirled with bits of IDM, mashed with the rhythmic complexity that Math Rock demands is where Aiming For Enrike dwells. The band has seemingly morphed into a pure IDM band before our very ears. No longer employing the hard edged math rock tunes we have become accustomed to and solely relying on their electronica craft for the most part in recent years, AFE still has our attention as their music still seems to captivate audiences worldwide.
Electronic music has always been closely linked to math rock at least since Minus the Bear's highly refined pirates LP was released. Computer beep-boop electronic sounds is what guitarist Dave Knudson was striving to simulate in his songwriting as told in an old interview. It's not a surprise as that "computer-gone-haywire" sound is a recurring theme in math rock songs as far as the guitar is concerned. The scattering of random notes sprawling across multiple scales and octaves seems to satisfy everyone's needs for sporadically pleasing "non-structure" in songwriting.
Acts like Battles, Three Trapped Tigers and Pretend just to name a few are math rock bands who experiment with electronics in their compositions, so this is nothing new to the scene. Although I do hope and think Aiming for Enrike will bust out some old tunes for the super math heads I still am eager to hear the newer material preformed live as well.
"Music For Working Out" is the latest full length album by AFE.
Twinkly IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) is how I would classify these jams.
Electronica is a huge world in it's own right and so this could easily fit into many other categories as well of course. Retrowave could be another term used to describe these tunes as they all have a similar 80's vibe to them. Working out to this music is preferable to me as my gym either plays hip-hop or dad-rock over the house speakers. So while the newer stuff from AFE is a change of pace from my usual music choices it's still rooted in math rock and I hear it in every measure. If you're a fan of RATATAT, Dj Copy from Portland, J.U.S.T.I.C.E., or DAFT PUNK , I think you will like Aiming For Enrike's latest LP. -M Chan
If you're in the Austin, TX area during this years SXSW (South by Southwest) stop by Love Goat to see Aiming For Enrike perform alongside many other great acts.
Tickets here: INFINITY FEST 2020 TICKETS
Here's AFE at Audiotree:
