That Motorik Beat

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrK05cNYfdg

http://sickmouthy.com/2012/06/19/top-ten-songs-with-the-motorik-beat/

Cheers all for input.

the snare hit falling on the third beat in the bar, and then being followed by three consecutive kick-drum hits, gives the illusion that the snare is falling on the end of the bar when it’s actually running ahead of the beat,

no offense dude, but i have no idea what this means. the snare is on 2 & 4, just like in...everything.

Shit yeah, I'm counting half beats. Serves me right for composing that bit in bed.

Also just not having a clue what I'm talking about.

Think he got confused but that discussion we once had about how to count reggae, Jordan.

haha

I think the "motorik beat" is a red herring. A motorik feeling is just as much about what the bass is doing, the actual sound of the drums (dry and tight), limited harmonic movement, and how the guitar, synths, or vocals are floating on top, as it is about the basic drum pattern. You can play that same drum pattern in a way that doesn't sound motorik at all, or you could make a song with a different drum beat that still sounds very motorik.

yeah i think it is about the interaction of instruments more than it is the drums.

I wouldn't say it's a red herring, but the beat is certainly only part of the motorik 'feel', and it's flexible; I was v. close to including stuff like There There or These Are My Twisted Words by Radiohead, which 'feel' like motorik to me but which use much jazzier (to my non-musician ears) drum patterns.

A "fake krautrock" playlist would include much more stuff that strays well away from the pattern outlined above, but feel just as 'of a piece'.

Any "motorik top 10" that doesn't include Stereolab is already false motorik to me, TBH

Julian Cope - Necropolis

I just never really got Stereolab.

Did this in '04 in one of the (terrific) Rough Guide to... threads

The Rough Guide to Motorik

1. [10:07] Neu! - Hallogallo (1972)
2. [04:37] Velvet Underground - I’m waiting for the man (1967)
3. [03:33] The Stooges - Loose (1970)
4. [03:36] The Beach Boys - Heroes and Villains (1967)
5. [06:30] Kraftwerk - Autobahn (single edit) (1974)
6. [02:07] La Düsseldorf - White Overalls (1978)
7. [07:07] Harmonia - Monza (1975)
8. [03:50] Chrome - Chromosome Damage (1977)
9. [03:20] The Normal - Warm Leatherette (1978)
10. [07:27] Tall Dwarfs - Neusyland (1994)
11. [05:25] The Clean - Point That Thing Somewhere Else (1981)
12. [04:45] Talking Heads - Crosseyed and Painless (1980)
13. [04:27] Mense Reents - It Didn’t Matter (2003)
14. [03:02] Queens of the Stone Age - Go With the Flow (2002)
15. [04:16] Zoot Woman - Grey Day (2003)
16. [06:23] Tied & Tickled Trio - Motorik (2003)

Needs the Glitter Band/ Gary Glitter

... doesn't need Stereolab

Fuckin amazing willem.

Omitting Stereolab from a motorik best-of just seems like entry level challops TBH.

But maybe that's the point, trying to construct a playlist w/o the obvious names? But seems like when someone has done that, it ends up with a bunch of lumpen, dude-ish rock which makes me doubt and think "hey maybe I don't really like motorik after all, maybe it was just Stereolab I liked all along."

Which is crazy talk! Because when I listen to Jenny Ondioline and Be Sure To Loop and Opa Loka and even bands like Quickspace or Secret Machines/SVIIB doing a motorik, man, motorik is my favourite thing in the world! It is light and streamlined and joyful and propulsive! The moral of the story is, it's just lumpen dude-ishness I dislike in any genre. (this is not even a gender complaint before people take it as one - I always found Electralane to be lumpen and dude-ish, too which is in itself a minor motorik challop.)

W/e obv Stereolab is sorely missed but to look at that playlist and act like all the obv motorik bands were challoply left out is just daft (tho I just realized Boredoms is missing too)

That being said, I love Feather Float and want to listen to it now, bcz I never registered 'Loop' as motorik before, so that's cool...

I do agree that Stereolab deserves a place on any motorik list though

If you'd made these suggestions a week ago, Cheesecake, they'd have probably got in!

What about my favourite songs by Can and Yo La Tengo: Halleluhwah and Blue Line Swinger? Not sure if they have the motorik beat but they both have an extremely hypnotic beat for sure.

I should totally have gone through more YLT.

Halleluwah is great and hypnotic and I love it, but it's a very different ind of thing. it's a groove, a swing, rather than a bio-mechanical thing.

Anyone mention Quick Canal by Atlas Sound?

Been on holiday for a few week otherwise I'd have suggested a few. One of my favourite sounds.

Keep 'em coming.

Anyone mention Quick Canal by Atlas Sound?

Love this track. I also find it touching that Cox was able to persuade one of his idols (Laetitia Sadier) to sing on it.

Blue line Swinger is not motorik, at least until like minute 5.

The Fall's 'Before the Moon Falls' is p motorik: would 'Reformation' count too?

The loud version of Big Day Coming by YLT might qualify, can't think what else off the top of my head.

I think the "motorik beat" is a red herring. A motorik feeling is just as much about what the bass is doing, the actual sound of the drums (dry and tight), limited harmonic movement, and how the guitar, synths, or vocals are floating on top, as it is about the basic drum pattern. You can play that same drum pattern in a way that doesn't sound motorik at all, or you could make a song with a different drum beat that still sounds very motorik.

+1

i've always thought about it in terms of dancing and being able to play off of different instruments instead of being dependent on a changing beat or vocal changes for changing movements
not that it matters, but there you go

Jumpin jack Flash & Street Fighting Man are kind of motorik. I read a Fall review in the Wire that said the Johnny Burnette Trio's version of "Train kept a Rollin" was motorik too, but I couldn't confirm that.

No, that song is locomotorik

I see that Death in Vegas are already represented but for my money 'Hands Around Your Throat' is more representative of the motorik beat than that track that namechecks Rother.

Also, I think there's a place for Radiohead here; in particular Amnesiac b-side 'Cuttooth'.

A few people have mentioned the Gary Glitter beat, but that's a shuffle. Unless there was an actual motorik Gary Glitter song I don't know about, but I'm assuming people mean the R&Rpt2 beat.

yeah, too much stomping in that one.

locomotorik

irl lol.

Yeah that shd be excelisor'd (by someone other than me)

I guess I don't understand people's obsession with this term. It's a nice way to describe a few Krautrock bands and bands who were influenced by them, but I don't see why it has to be applied to any song with a driving beat. And I really don't get the connection to songs that predate krautrock like Heroes and Villains.

One of the tracks on Yoko Ono & The Plastic Ono Band has Ringo laying down a pretty motorik groove. I don't have the record to hand. Rhythm section on that album amazing across the board.

The last 45 seconds or so of Turtle Turtle Up by Four Tet.

It's kind of mental, you've got all these jazzy, glitchy drum rolls for about 90 seconds, and then it just falls into motorik loveliness.

Orchestral Manoeuvers in the dark - Electricity

was listening to B-52's "Aint it a Shame" and that almost makes the cut, surprisingly...

2. [04:37] Velvet Underground - I’m waiting for the man (1967)

Totally disagree with this one. It doesn't have a backbeat at all, just a steady, even pulse on every beat.

Yeah it's not Motorik, but I can see a case for it being proto-Motorik. The insistent evenness I think is the key.

^yeah I agree with this post. "Waiting for the Man" is too much of an important first step, even though it probably predicts "It's a Rainy Day, Sunshine Girl" more than anything Neu! did

contemporary motorik beat: beak, the band of portishead's geoff barrow (btw they have a new album out). somehow i have the impression they bring something new to the table. they are obviously heavily influenced by neu etc, but they have their sound and lots of interesting ideas. the motorik beat is also played by the bass here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoKWLo_f-rA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI2o-BuQ8eE

Can I nominate this as the post-speeding-down-the-autobahn version of the motorik, very definitely in an unexpected place (the very underrated Francisco's 'Cosmic Beam Experience')?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IouesruWdVI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LsPyuUHeNU