Uncommon time signatures only

While I do love good old 4/4 and 6/8 and such, I feel there’s a whole other world of possibilities and feelings that exists outside of those time signatures. I’ve been craving more of that in my daily listening.

Here are a few examples of what I’ve been listening to…

Braxton cook - The Gospel (Take #5) || 7/4

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - The River || 5/4

Analogue Dear - Rivulets || 7 bars of 5/8 + 1 bar of 6/8, chorus is just 5/8

Levi Niha - Eleven Eight || 11/8

Sungazer Album Vol. 1 || chaos

Sungazer Album Vol. 2 || magic

walk. - seagull. || 5/4

Jacob Collier - Hideaway || yes

Shubh Saran - Slip || 4/20

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An old standby for bizarre time signatures. Probably one of the greatest jazz albums ever recorded. In my opinion anyway.

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The original works too but I just like this version better

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7/8 timing…they say. I’m not an expert on such things. The shtick is:

Once a Mr Beat I only missed a beat (song skips a beat)

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Also, to my mind an unexpected addition to the thread because I never really took the song seriously

Try to focus just on the drums. It’s almost schizophrenic the way it switches constantly

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Pretty cool song, love that band. The beginning is cool and you can really go with the 7/8 by listening to the drums

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 repeat

click(1), click(2),click(3), click(4), click(1), click(2), drum roll(3)

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Yeah, the Gizz is a great band. They are so incredibly versatile. They do mellow acoustic jazzy stuff, psychadelia, prog, stoner metal, thrash metal, blues and boogie, and do it all really well. And their experiementation with microtuned guitars has been really cool too.

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Yea lol, when shuffling i love when it stumbles on their heavy stuff haha

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100% Agree

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Nice submissions so far. Here are some:

Cleanup - Cruiser

Piglet - Bug Stomp

Gulfer - Doglife

Indian - Rhetoric of No

Palm - Egg in a Frame

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The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the thread was, Mathcore (metal subgenere). Honestly it seems like most mathcore bands are actively trying to not be musical. So I won’t spam the thread with them lol. Here’s one I like

I prefer Precipice / All We Love We Leave Behind but that’s not a good example of the genre

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My personal favorite song with odd time sigs. this song changes time sigs

Stole this off of ultimate-guitar.com
"Legendary for its odd timing and 47 time switches, Tool 's " Schism " takes the crown this week. Here’s a more detailed explanation from Wikipedia: "The song begins with two bars of 5/4, followed by one bar of 4/4, followed by bars of alternating 5/8 and 7/8, until the first interlude, which consists of alternating bars of 6/8 and 7/8.

"The following verse exhibits a similar pattern to the first, alternating bars of 5/8 and 7/8. The next section is bars of 6/4 followed by one bar of 11/8. This takes the song back into alternating 5/8 and 7/8. Another 6/8 and 7/8 section follows, and after this the song goes into repeating 7/8 bars.

"The middle section is subsequently introduced, consisting of three bars of 6/8, one bar of 3/8, and one bar of 3/4 repeating several times. At one point it interrupts with two bars of 6/8 followed by a bar of 4/8, twice. A bar of 5/8 is played before the meter switches back to 6/8 for two bars and 2/4 for one bar.

"This repeats, setting up another section: two bars of 9/8 followed by a bar of 10/8, that pattern again, and then a single bar of 9/8 followed by alternating bars of 6/8 and 7/8. The outro has alternating bars of 5/8 and 7/8, ending with alternating 6/8, 2/8 that one could interpret as pulsing with a 4/4 feel.

“The band has referred to the time signature as 6.5/8. Although many composers would use 13/16 instead, 6.5/8 is still a valid fractional time signature.”

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Classic:

Another 20 minute song (metal):

And why not another 20-minute classic:

Bonus: Subtle lil’ guitar riff:

Also, obviously, Opeth:

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Did anyone say uncommon time signature!

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This might not exactly fit the bill but, I’ve always appreciated songs that play around with tempo.

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