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I think Autechre pushed things forward Con/Draft/Untitled era, they're kinda stuck in a rut though now (that doesn't mean their music is bad though; they're just not innovating like they used to, but how many times can they be expected to do that?). I think they're one of the few electronic artists who you can identify within like 2 seconds of hearing one of their songs. That in itself seems like a pretty big innovation; electronic music is usually kinda faceless, and their music definitely isn't friendly, comforting, and welcoming. I think Untilted is definitely such a breakthrough record, the way things repeat endlessly but if you pay close attention they're actually never repeating. There's always some little microsound changing. Brilliant.
Scoff if you want, but I think Shellac ... well, they're not young, but I think they definitely have tried to push things forward a bit. When I listen to them, I hear some grumpy talented middle aged men who are very bored with rock music. Minimal power trio. But I mean, no one sounds like them. They get lumped with "math rock" but actually their music is really simple, when focusing on just riffs or whatever. The structures though, are pretty odd. Like on that last album, on the song with the drum solo... no, not a drum SOLO, just the drums playing the main beat solo for a good minute. Everything drops out except this beat going on and on. I find their approach to songwriting satisfyingly lazy, tight, ridiculous, obvious, intelligent, bizarre, and right-on. Obviously, they've been doing this band for 20 years now so they've repeated themselves quite a bit, but I think there's lots of cool little ideas in there. I'm sure most bands would just hear them and go, "Oh, Steve sounds like he's playing a paper shredder! I wanna do thaT!" But there's really a lot of neat little things in most of their songs, if you pay attention.
I thought Phantom Limbs were pretty radical there for a while, I liked the idea of circus goth noise punk, they had a really cool sound. Lots of those bands. Don Salsa, Idiot Flesh, Sleepy Time Guerilla Museum, they all strived to do something different with music. I think all that music is a bit too demanding, with little rewards. Most of those bands only have a few albums, they toured relentlessly and died quietly.
I think Kayo Dot are genuinely striving to do something different, but I dunno if it works all the time. I like their idea of trying to create meaningful climaxes without crescendos, rhythm/time changes, or obvious chord changes and such. They're making this floaty drifty music that still gets lumped in with metal. It seems like they're definitely going for something. I dunno if they'll get there, but it's commendable.
I dunno.
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