Chris Korda’s upcoming release “More Than Four” is flagrant rhythmic heresy: electronic dance music that’s not only in odd time, but also in complex polymeter. Each of the album’s tracks uses at least four time signatures at once, typically including 3, 4, 5, and 7. The title is a pun on the 1966 Miles Davis album “Four & More.” The gatefold double LP has ten tracks and features Korda’s artwork, and the digital version adds four bonus tracks.
Progressive rock bands commonly switched time signatures, but Korda takes it to the next level, by using multiple time signatures concurrently. For example in the title track, the synth part is in 7/4, whereas the piano part is in 6/4, hence the piano “slips” out of synchronization with the synth, and then converges with it again. This deliberate slippage is characteristic of phase music, historically associated with minimal composers such as Steve Reich and Terry Riley.
Korda sees the hegemony of the generic 4/4 disco beat as a “pleasure prison” and is determined to escape from it by any means necessary. To that end she developed an open-source music composition software–aptly named Polymeter–over many years, and uses it exclusively. According to Korda, “homogenization of culture is the epitome of industrialism, motivated by the need to standardize consumption.” Korda tirelessly agitates for all types of diversity, including cultural, biological, and gender diversity.
“More Than Four” features relatively few lyrics, but they’re true to form. The title track pokes fun at the monotony of disco, while “Moonchego” satirizes conspiracy theorists and their alternative facts. “Pleasant Mistake'' captures the selfishness and myopia that propel us towards an unlivable future, while “Planet Broke” is a furious anti-natalist anthem for the future generations we’re betraying. The album expresses realism, existentialism, and scientific pragmatism, and leads us to a surprising conclusion: The planet will be fine; it’s we who are in danger.
Chris Korda is an internationally renowned multimedia artist, whose work spans nearly thirty years and includes electronic music, digital and video art, performance and conceptual art, and culture jamming. She’s been slipping subversion into DJ mixes since the mid-1990s, when she was one of the founders of electroclash and pioneered the use of complex polymeter in techno.
Chris Korda - More Than Four
Chapelle XIV Records
Release Date September 19, 2022
Vinyl + digital download