Songs which use 5-bar cycles to find transcendence

what day is it

Kosovan independence day iirc

I kind of want to say "Gouge Away"...? Not a perfect fit though

it was my fukkin birthday okay

Teleman - Melrose

radiohead - reckoner

At 5 minutes and 5 seconds into the 5th song on the band Elder's 5th album the song changes to a 5 bar cycle in 5/8.

Boards Of Canada - Sunshine Recorder

Although I wouldn't say this finds transcendence so much.

BoC are a group constantly in search of transcendence though!

also that's a great fact about Elder

I require all the transcendent 5-bar cycles

not that it's easy to beat the two examples in the OP

can confirm that Elder does exactly that and it's seamless, that is some monstrously great nerding from our psych lads there

I only realised most of that about the Elder song just now when I checked on YouTube to see if I'd remembered that bit correctly.

Sunshine Recorder is dense and earthy and the extended bar structure lumbers, which aren't qualities that necessarily first come to mind when thinking of the quest for transcendent but I suppose transcendence can be found by plunging into the earth as well. One of the best on Geoggaddi anyway.

you realised that yourself? omg! it also cycles 10 times lol obv

Ah.. I think it repeats 4 times and then changes to a 6 bar cycle!

it just gets louder haha, we'll call it 5 and 5 :D

and it's still a 5-bar cycle, just 6 sets of that cycle. WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS

The Strokes - Trying Your Luck

In an effort to avoid the tedious work I'm supposed to be doing irl I've spent the morning digging through non-standard pattern length music to try and find more 5 bar examples.

So far, the verse pattern on Eleanor Rigby is probably the most well known 5 bar pattern afaict? Radiohead - Idioteque is also based around a 5 bar loop with occasional flips to a 2 bar pattern.

Not sure how 'transcendant' these are, but there are a few examples of hiphop guys giving the 5 bar loop a shot:

Busta Rhymes & Q Tip - Don't Go
Jay-Z etc - Brooklyn's Finest
Jay-z - Hovi Baby
JonWayne - City Lights
Mobb Deep - Clap
Pete Rock / 9th Wonder - Am I Dreaming?

There are also a few cases of using 5 bar patterns as a trick for a suspenseful outro, eg:
Deerhunter - Desire Lines (outro)
Guns & Roses - November Rain (outro)

There is likely loads more obscure synth stuff that fits the 5 bar bill, eg; East India Youth - Glitter Recession. Whether this is intentional or a side effect of noodling around on a modular synth I don't know.;)

Other notable bits I came across:
Quasi - I Give Up (once it gets going)
The Fall - 'Smile' (kind of could work as 5 bars depending on how you count it ;))

yeah Desire Lines was what made me start this thread

Whoops, forgot it was mentioned already :)

but - good research haha, ty for contributing to the quest

Stereolab - Refractions In The Plastic Pulse

From around 4:30, also in 5/8

I'd say November Rain, great as the outro is, doesn't really pursue transcendence in quite the same tail-chasing way - the best thing about a 5-bar cycle is that it can give the impression of having no beginning point, it is constantly unresolving

whereas the November Rain cycle is a very standard 4-bar cycle with a very obvious start-point that adds an extra bar's widdling to really make the point

When I opened this thread I happened to be listening to Miles Davis' "Johnny Bratton (Insert 1)" from the Complete Jack Johnson Sessions, and it does exactly this. I feel like there are lots more songs I love that do this, but I'm blanking at the moment...

I kind of want to say "Gouge Away"...?

I think Gouge Away works. Frank Black's also got at least a few 5-bar cycles in his solo catalog:

Dog in the Sand
The Marsist
I Switched You
Parry the Wind High, Low (last section)

That reminded me of something similar at the end of "No. 13 Baby", but it turns out that is a 3 and a half bar repeated cycle.

it's 4/4 but has a 5-bar chord progression which is a bit awkward yeah but that's also one of the things that makes it interesting

― ufo, Thursday, 6 April 2023 23:00 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

re: Hey Ya lol