I feel blessed to have witnessed Matt's growth as a musician. I came across his two man trio videos after he appeared in his first gospel chops vid at berklee and knew he was one of the "greats" whatever that means.
Javier may be the most under appreciated musician in modern song writing. His timing and technical abilities are something to marvel at. I understand Tosin and Matt are incredible but dont sleep on my boy Javier
I take your point but I would say let's leave it at that these guys are an incredible band, as someone suggested. They appreciate what each brings to the table.
@@Distress_Signal Meshuggah is another incredible and consistently genius group of musicians, though on the more extreme side, if youre interested and havent heard them yet. i recommend Chaosphere to start but anything by them is mindblowing stuff
@@thestarshavefallen "Weed isn't a drug man, it's just a recreational substance that you consume that alters your consciousness, it's not even the same thing!"
genres are stupid honestly. Confines artists to one style because theyre too afraid their fans will dislike it. AAL just lets it flow naturally and produces pure art from it.
For those looking at that gorgeous 6-string nylon Tosin is playing, it's a Carvin / Kiesel NS-1!! 🎸😍 Didn't find anything about him playing this searching online and it took examining several videos of Brain Dance to be able to read the headstock. Time well spent! 😁
I think it’s in a rig rundown vid cuz I remember him saying he likes it cuz it kinda has a more muted sound compared to a regular hollow body acoustic.
The best part about playing drums for Matt Garstka is that you could fuck up terribly and nobody would know. They'd just think it was some weird, cool thing you did.
This is weird... I have very poor sense of rythm, hard time playing consistently for a musician, but listening to this, I feel everything seems so natural, so logical, feels like home, yet this is probably amongst the most complex things I could have listened to... This is literaly a "brain dance", thoughts flowing as the music goes.
100 percent. Like this is like listening to two rush songs at once, but at the same time you don't need to have gone to Julliard to hear the patterns and dig what they're doing. There are a lot of bands who attempt this but I have never in my life heard anyone pull it off like these cats. Really technical music but for people who don't usually like really technical music. As well as those who do.
What is likely is that they recorded the really audio from the best take, and used footage from every run through to provide the video editor with the most angles and possibilities.
David Fuller I think it’s fair to say that Tosin is a more technical player while Javier has better groove/rhythm. No offense to either one of them, AaL has probably had more influence on me than any other band out there.
I had the privilege of seeing this live recently and it was absolutely surreal. These guys have musicianship of such immense caliber I don't even know what to say.
Tave Garcia Him playing it doesn't necessarily mean he wrote it. Ik of many musicians writing a part, but letting another member of their band play it. Another example is Mikael Akerfedlt of Opeth
Tosin: I designed signature pick-ups, with 2 voices and 5 different options, so I can switch between any guitar tone known to man Also Tosin: Uses a second guitar with no pick ups
"Yeah well Abasi only sounds like that because of his heavily customized electric guitar" *Tosin grabs a regular 6 string and goes to town* "I guess I got rekt"
I've been an AAL fan since the first album. I wish they'd play more of this style of music which is more melodic and not as aggressive as most of their output. Tosin is the most innovative guitarist around today. I love how he uses bass techniques, along with guitar.
If you're a fan, you're going to wish Tosin does whatever he wants to do so they keep growing and getting more amazing. You didn't become their fan because they made music you wished for, you became a fan because of the music Tosin chose to make
I know this comment is 4 years old but listen to T.R.A.M. if you haven’t yet. It’s Tosin and Javier from this band, Adrian from Mars Volta, and Eric Moore from Suicidal Tendencies. Killer album with songs similar to what you described.
There is so much going on in AAL's music that I hear something new every time I listen to it, and with the way I listen to and process music, that sincerely excites me. There is also so much feeling and such a unique vibe that I can't help but choke up a little bit, because Tosin's playing reminds me more than a bit of the late, great, Allan Holdsworth--a high compliment, in my world. His playing is so fresh and so unique to him that I can't help but be boggled in the best way every time I listen to him.
I'm glad you wrote this because I sometimes stumble on people saying prog/djent is just music for musicians and doesn't really have emotion - I am not a musician, and AAL makes me heart explode with nostalgia and wonder, each note is like a breath of fresh air - to sound cliché. Pure amazing beauty on an emotional ride of perfection.
Doesn't have emotion!? *stares in plini* *stares in porcupine tree* *stares in rush, ffs* Anybody who says something like that doesn't listen to the genre enough to appreciate the variety of emotional expression in prog
WTF!!! I think that all the dislikes come from individuals who's brain has limited capacity to keep up with what is going on here! This is beautiful genius!!! I LOVE THIS BAND!!!!
Saw these guys last night at the Leader Pavilion in Boston. They were the opening act before Devon Townsend and Dream Theatre. For me, this song was the singular highlight of the night. Spectacular in conception and execution. Spellbinding. Can I have another adjective?? Just listen.
Freshmen music majors always fall into the trap of believing that overly complicated equals better, but following that path leads to “but the crowd kept looking at me like I was using too many augmented ninths.” and being in your 50s praying that the government will give you some student debt relief because you still can’t pay the bills with all those crazy time signatures.
@@christopherknowlesWhatever, if their overtly complicated music brings bucks to them, it's all OK. Not everybody aspires to be a massive popstar like Metallica or Justin Bieber.
@@christopherknowles2 things can be true at once you know... a music piece can be extremely complex but also beautiful (exhibit A. This song). In the same way that complicated does not necessarily mean good, complicated also doesn't necessarily mean bad.
@@dokenguy sure thing, bro! Complicated for complicated’s sake makes a shitty song (refer to defense’s exhibit A). If you have an idea that you can’t communicate without slathering the chart in black and farting out a bunch of odd numbers on the tops of all the time signatures that change every two bars you’re going to wind up with a song that people don’t talk about because it’s good, they talk about it because it’s complex. It’s like padding an essay with a bunch of extra adjectives and adverbs and digging into your thesaurus to hit the word count instead of simply and clearly communicating your idea. Thinking fucky chord voicings and silly key changes that are hard to play make something good is an easy trap to fall into. It’s like thinking fast = good.
The smile on Tosin’s face as he plays tells you how much he loves his craft. These guys are the forefront of music and a huge inspiration to many. Thank you guys so much!
🎶🦖 🐢 If you recently heard a loud thud and/or a crashing sound, it was due to my lower jaw, after having dislodged, falling and coming into contact with my room's dusty wooden floor. 🤭 Ferocious playing!
Man AAL is literally just a group of first draft picks. Javier, Matt, Tosin, all amazing individually. Their own tracks could stand alone, let alone all 3 layered. Unreal man
Finally Javier is in the front, he's a great musician and I always felt that he's in Tosin's shadow. Now I see that they really THE band, not just Tosin+2. Great!
They have to play with each other, not too many can keep that up. I cant follow it but i like listening to it. Very different type of sound. Rock songs must seem so basic to these dudes. AF
I appreciate the clinical cleanliness of the studio recording as much as I appreciate the live surgical precision of this. I'm grateful that we have both. ♥.♥
Yes and no. AAL uses tons of polyrhythmic patterns, metric modulation and odd meter displacements which makes it sound like polyrhythms, but a lot is actually written in 4/4. Arithmophobia is a perfect example of this, it's written in 4/4 but the patterns take 8 bars to resolve. This is quote from an interview in Modern Drummer: "I came up with those crazy patterns that fit into 4/4 over long periods of time. It doesn’t resolve for eight measures of 16th notes in 4/4. But it may be hard to count!"
Theres a lot of movement cause the guitar is playing 5/8 over a 6/8 groove so it sounds like its kicking behind its beat. They merge at the 6th bar and move off to a more complicated pattern i cannot fully understand it sounds like there is a 7/8 bar now and then followed by a 9/8 to keep the beat even.
wtf 5:41 guitar change? Did Tosin teleport between guitars? *edit* I guess there was a cut there, but first time through I was sure I needed to get in touch with Fermilab...
I should love this but I think it's just too complicated for my idiot brain... and I thought Spastic Ink was that band... these guys make Spastic Ink seem like the Rolling Stones
What I love from Tosin is his grin when he plays... Like if he is not making any effort. Many other musicians put that serious face making you know they are concentrated as fuck... But this guy just smiles as if he were playing some C-Am-C-G song in a campfire
I was about to share this video with my friend, and would've asked him "Have you seen a eight string bass before"? But then I recalled davie504 played with something like over 20 strings...
