Just to update from the earlier post… I installed DP 4.6, and all seems to be well. Maybe I’ll actually get some writing done next week.

I found some Tool albums online that I hadn’t heard before, and I’m listening to them now. It’s not the most tuneful stuff, and the lyrics are not my style, but I’m consistently intrigued by the music itself, and something about their meter choices make me wish I’d written almost every track. Right now I’m listening to “Forty Six & 2” and trying to figure out what meter these breaks are in.

Oh. My. God.

The end of this track is perfect. I’m blown away. I am SO going to rip this off. It’s largely in 7+7/8 — sounding like half of the band is in regular 7/4, but there’s a repeated ostinato in 7/8 on top of it. Then it does this sweet thing at the very very end that took me about 5 listenings to decipher. The guitars are in a syncopated 4/4 (sounding, over two bars, like 7+9: 2+2+3+2+3+4), and the drums and bass are doing hits in 4+3+3+3+3 against it, ending with the entire band playing hits (with the drummer hitting choked crashes) in that rhythm.

If I listen to enough of this stuff, I’m going to write one messed-up piece for the SEC. (I already blame Tool for the last movement of Juba.)