The Contortionist Megathread

[GunpointMetal]

oh right I forgot I was dealing with early Contortionist fans.. unmedicated ADHD kiddies who can't even sit through a vine compilation on Youtube. should have been more brief so

tl;dr - bad music really bad. good music really good

Lol, not everyone wants to hear what amounts to a 40 minute ambient elevator song, I do sometimes, but the whole "this is bad songwriting, this is good songwriting" in music that is no way pop music is....
It's a pretty subjective thing. Exoplanet was interesting to listen to, Clairvoyant is interesting to listen to, both in totally different ways. I would like to see them get some more of the actual RIFFS to the forefront again. Half of Language and most of Clairvoyant, the riffs feel like a tertiary element, and in a lot of cases are so undermixed they might as well not even be on the tracks. Most of Clairvoyant could have been keys/vocals/bass/drums and it wouldn't have much of an effect on how the songs came out. It's kinda like the newest Vola album, too. It's very "mature", but it all ends up rolling into one big blob of an album because its all so "measured and restrained". Starts to turn into elevator music after awhile.

 

[mikah912]

Kinda bummed that these guys are intent on becoming a less interesting A Perfect Circle....

 

[Kaura]

If early Contortionist is bad songwriting and only for kids with ADD, might as well just go listen to some AC/DC instead of new Contortionist. Now that shit requires a good attention span.

 

[Ikke]

My opinion, Exoplanet and Intrinsic sound like a guitarist writing music for a band. Language and Clairvoyant sound like a band writing music together.

I felt the same way about Periphery 1, Animals as Leader ST, Tesseracts One, etc. To a certain extent I think some of those bands still have that “sound” to me. And I understand those albums are what put those bands on the map to an extent. It’s just not my thing. In contrast, Periphery III, Joy of Motion, Altered State/Polaris all are amazing works to me. Those sound like bands enjoying their time together. All that being said, The Contortionist (Lanugauge and forward) lyrically crushes the other bands in my opinion. But, I care about lyrics more than guitar.

Obviously, this is SSO, so it’s understandable that many will gravitate towards the formers.

 

[MSUspartans777]

I like old Contortionist but I LOVE new Contortionist. Ever since Mike joined the band they've crafted their own unique sound that no one is replicating right now. Early Contortionist is great but it was as unique as Language and Clairvoyant. I love the new song and can't wait to her the rest of the EP.

I also saw them perform 1979 live and it was fantastic. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[MerlinTKD]

... I love all the Contortionists

I will admit, I didn’t really get it until I saw them live (that’s often a thing for me, was the same with Monuments and Meshuggah), but Mike is such a dramatic performer, and an amazing lyricist, and the rest of the band is just so. damn. good... I go see them every chance I get.

Of course, I like stuff like Bonobo and downtempo electronic music too, so they hit a lot of good buttons for me

 

[brutalwizard]

robby just bopped on one of my band's tracks he's in the contortionist. Also actually in the video as well.

P.s New TC slaps

 

[Cheap]

The tracklisting is up on their merch site for preordering. Looks like we're getting 3 new songs and the 1979 cover. Definitely not mad about it

In the new song it seems like Lessard is back to pushing a bit more. This sits kinda between the chillness of most of Clairvoyant and the songwriting on Language. Definitely still mostly chill, but I think there might be more moments for great live performances if this is an indicator of how the EP will go.

I love them and loved Clairvoyant, but live it's just a lil sleepy so it'd be nice to see them bring back some energy and hugeness.

 

[lurè]

I understand their more "mature" approach with songwriting but there's no spiking moment in this song just like Clairvoyant, nothing memorable, no energy, it just flows but doesn't leave anything.

 

[MikeH]

I love old (like first EP old) Contortionist, and I also love new Contortionist. This song is sick.

 

[Albake21]

Because I'm disappointed and was burned by this band, I might as well spoil a bit. I've known the track list since last summer but out of respect of the band I didn't say anything. There are two 6 string songs and one 7 string song. The 7 string is in b standard, one is in 6 string standard (which I'm guessing is this single), and the third one is 6 string tuned to BADGBE. So basically 7 string without the low E.

 

[MikeH]

I don’t even understand how that spoils anything at all. As if their tunings tell us what the songs sound like as a composition.

 

[Ralyks]

Wow, I totally forgot about these guys considering how much I loved Exoplanet and Oscillator is a near perfect song (dat ending tho). I like the stuff with Mike, but it always makes me go "Man, Level 2 was such a.kick ass record..."

 

[bulb]

Because I can spoil this but I shouldn’t spoil this but I definitely want to name drop the band cuz we are super tight, I’m gonna just spoil this. Sorry for spoilers also not sorry. All 4 tracks will feature English song names, and get this, all 4 track names will be different from one another.

 

[prlgmnr]

and get this, all 4 track names will be different from one another.

woah I'm not sure I can stand a Contortionist release if at least two of the tracks don't share a name

 

[Albake21]

Fuck me I guess.

 

[MAJ Meadows SF]

This thread is getting spicy. No Tabasco needed on my popcorn.

 

[lurè]

 

[Albake21]

Why am I getting shit? I love compositions and I'm a huge guitar nerd even down to the tunings. To me, that's a huge spoiler. Maybe not for everyone else I guess. If anyone here knew a thing about this band, them using these tunings is actually a big deal.

 

[mastapimp]

Why am I getting shit? I love compositions and I'm a huge guitar nerd even down to the tunings. To me, that's a huge spoiler. Maybe not for everyone else I guess. If anyone here knew a thing about this band, them using these tunings is actually a big deal.

It's because you started off your post like you had some juicy insider info that the band didn't want out there, or they "trusted you" to keep their "secret". Then you mention it's a tuning of a song or two and it's kind of underwhelming to most people. Also, as Misha pointed out, it came across as name dropping. It's just kinda funny, nothing to get upset about =)