Friday, April 2, 2010

Lateralus



Lateralus by Tool is a song that truly expresses the art of sound using all aspects: artistic, theoretical and technical.

Technically speaking this song is quite different from that of popular western music. This song is known for its different time signatures as the time signatures of the chorus of the song change from 9/8 to 8/8 to 7/8; typically speaking in western music, songs do not change time signatures throughout but stick to the same one. However in other cultures the use of compound or irregular time signatures is quite common, for example Bulgarian dances use such meters extensively, including forms with 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 22, 25 and other numbers of beats per measure (Wikipedia). And it is more common to find the use of compound time signatures in progressive rock (Tools genre). As we see when we look at Pink Floyd, one of the first progressive Rock bands, who used 7/4, with the guitar solo in 4/4, in their song "Money."

A little fun fact: The earliest examples of irregular signatures are found in instrumental music by Giovanni Valentini (1582–1649), written in 5/4, 7/8, etc (Wikipedia).

Although time signatures in progressive rock usually change from verse to chorus and not so much in just the verse or the chorus. This is why Lateralus is such a defining song in the progressive rock genre. The use of these irregular time measures gives this song a unique sound. The soft plucking of guitar opens this song giving it a mellow vibe but as the drums begin to beat in the background it provides the listener with a sense of anticipation. Getting louder and louder it reminds one of war drum beats in ancient tribes. This may have been done on purpose seeing as how lead singer, Keenan said "I use the archetype stories of North American aboriginals and the themes or colors which appear over and over again in the oral stories handed down through generations. Black, white, red, and yellow play very heavily in aboriginal stories of creation” (Wikipedia).

At 1 minute 14 seconds the song breaks and the Heavy drum beats over deep bass clash nicely with the guitar giving it that progressive rock feel. It Combines an aggressive beat with Keenan’s soft yet gravely voice. This works well with the metal genre but also with the song as a whole. The overall feel that this songs sound gives is a sort of desperate yet insightful soul searching.

To come back to the Fibonacci numbers which play such a large part in this albums extreme popularity drummer Danny Carey says, "It was originally titled 9-8-7. For the time signatures. Then it turned out that 987 was the 16th number of the Fibonacci sequence. So that was cool.”

The reason why that was so cool is that this is a re-occurring concept in this album. In this song which is also the title track, the syllables of the lyrics follow the Fibonacci pattern, and the time signature of the chorus rotates between 9/8, 8/8, and 7/8 time, referring to the 17th Fibonacci number, 987. Keenan's halting vocal rhythms during the first verse of "Lateralus" correspond to Fibonacci numbers in their syllable counts as evidenced below.

1 (Black)
1 (then)
2 (white are)
3 (all I see)
5 (in my infancy)
8 (red and yellow then came to be)
5 (reaching out to me)
3 (lets me see)
(peteofthestreet.net).

Additionally, Keenan begins singing at 1:37 into the song. 1 minute 37 seconds, or 97 seconds, is approximately 1.618 of a full minute. This happens to be the golden ratio, which is closely related to the Fibonacci sequence. Moreover, the lyric "spiral out", which is sung over and over again throughout the song, refers to this desire and also to the Fibonacci spiral, which is formed by creating and arranging squares for each number in the sequence's 1,1,2,3,5,8,... pattern, and drawing a curve that connects to two corners of each square. This forms a never-ending and infinitely-expanding spiral (Wikepdia).

This shows how music and sound can be used to carry out conceptual art and can be used in connection with other important aspects of life such as math, philosophy etc. Just like sound gives a whole new meaning to images (such as in film) it does so too in other forms of art. The cover art for Lateralus done by Alex Grey who does most of the art work for tool is given a new meaning when looked at in combination with the song. At first the spirals in the background look like a regular design but after researching the song we know they are in connection with the fibonnaci numbers. Furthermore the concept is about living life open mindedly and thinking laterally instead of linearly. Therefore we can draw conclusions that the many eyes in this piece of art are for seeing things from different perspectives and points of view (ie. Being open minded). Also the arrangement of the eyes in an arc suggests not thinking linearly.

In conclusion, Tool is a great example of how intricate sound is and how sound is very much an art form on its own but can be used in combination with other art forms to create whole conceptual pieces. The playing around with math and sound is interesting. Sound is so mysterious and Tool evidently understands this and plays off of this aspect creating a piece which lit up chartrooms and music debates around the world. It is evident that Tool put a lot of thought into this song and fans of Tool have put even more thought into analyzing it coming up with interesting theories on the arrangement of the tracks and the fibonnaci numbers. Overall this progressive rock piece with its aggressive beat and compound time arrangements provides the listener with an intense rock experience that is not only good to the ears but good for the mind as well.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDlC7oG_2W4)

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