Listen to these three pieces. Like the examples above, all of them exhibit aspects of “participatory discrepancy”: moments negotiated in performance where musical elements come together but that agreement is loose. These are often really exciting elements, often not lining up metronomically or lining up with precise intonation. In 300 words maximum, describe the participatory discrepancies in these recordings below.

 

In the first piece ,“Polacca,” by OOIOO, there is a noticeable discrepancy between the vocals and the accompanying instrumentation. There is a stylistic disconnect that is occurring, a small space where the rhythms don’t want to line up perfectly. This discrepancy leads to a more free form feeling to the music. It is almost as if the vocals are treated separately and act only to accent the fast and dynamic instrumental. Later on in the music another departure from the norm seems to come forward as the rhythmic percussion takes center stage. The percussion draws attention as it strays further from the guitar and other instruments in terms of meter and rhythm.

The next piece titled, “Space Cowboy,” by Sly and The Family Stone, has an interesting discrepancy in its rhythm section. The chunky bass and simple eighth note drum groove work in unison to create a funky atmosphere for the song. But all throughout the song is a piercing clave rhythm being passed through a filter to brilliantly cut through the low end of the sound. This clave rhythm does just enough to make the listener question the meter of the song without directly getting in the way of the music. It also blurs the lines of genre by introducing some clearly Latin elements into what would normally be a very funk inspired tune.

Finally the last song called, “Agua Que Va a Caer”, by Patato and Totico,  is based in latin rhythms. What this latin base brings to the song is a rhythmic backbone that is heavily syncopated. Since the percussion in the song is so heavily syncopated it introduces a discrepancy of where the rhythms truly line up. Almost like a polyrhythm these percussive elements act independently creating a lopsided pulse for the song to find its groove in. The vocalists on this tune find a perfect pocket to perform their music within this pulse.