Any fretless instrument (bass, gtr, violin, viola, cello) is microtonal. Trombones as well.
this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2026
38 points (97.5% liked)
Music
11753 readers
135 users here now
Per community feedback, low-effort GenAI posts are disallowed.
↳ Our family Communities:
➰#Music
Music.world - !music@lemmy.world
Jazz -!jazz@lemmy.world
Album Art Porn - !albumartporn@lemmy.world
Fake Album Covers - !fakealbumcovers@lemm.ee
Obscure Music - !ObscureMusic@lemm.ee
Vinyl and LP's - !vinyl@lemmy.world
Electronic Dance Music - !edm@reddthat.com
60's Music - !60smusic@lemmy.world
70's Music - !70smusic@lemmy.world
80's Music - !80smusic@lemmy.world
90's Music - !90smusic@lemmy.world
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
Also human voice.
Yep. Jacob Collier is all over those notes in his singing.
And yet they’re never used like that, so what’s your point?
Not true. Jacob Collier, David Fiuczynski, Matthew Garrison, and others use microtonal notes with their guitars.
Sam Nanton (Duke Ellington) also used a lot of microtones in his trombone solos.
It does happen...just not very often.
Yup, didn't even think about that when I was writing. Of course, we don't typically think of them as microtonal since we're heavily invested in 12TET in the west, and typically use those instruments in a way consistent with 12TET music.
Their show at the Jazz Fest was something. The crowd was absolutely insane. Someone linked this on my post a couple days ago
We got pretty close to the front, was a good time. Somehow we managed to find a little flow of people and made it up from the back without any pushing or otherwise being shitty.
They don’t talk, so it’s not the most interactive experiennce, but the crowd was having fun. Some people made a mosh circle a little beside us.
Glad I got to go for free, and can say I was there.
Yeah, I saw several clips from the show... Just amazing to see.
Funny to see this posted right now because I just found out about them last night. They are fantastic!!
Seeing them at Riot Fest this year and I can't wait!
ok...they are viral right now, but since when have instrumental bands been popular and lasting?
They are different, in an industry with now zero deviation from formula music. They have a solid niche, but they will not be Rush 30 years from now.
Why does that matter? Can they not be said to have made an impact if they don’t last 30 years?
A lot of popular EDM is instrumental.
Full instrumental bands aren't as popular as big bands like the holy trinity(Rush) but there are still a lot of instrumental acts out there with talent and staying power. For example:
Explosions In The Sky(personal fave)
Masayoshi Takanaka
Polyphia
Steve Vai
Russian Circles
This Will Destroy You
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Many more too. Most of those acts have been playing for 10-20+ years and I'm not even naming all the ones I listen to on the regular. Angine de Poitrine has a good chance to last as long as they keep making awesome and weird music. I sincerely hope they do cause they sound amazing.
Depends on what you mean by “popular and lasting”. Rush came up in a different period. The definition of success was quite different because there was no internet, there wasn't the concept of virality, there weren't as many opportunities to attract and build an audience.
Look at Phish today. They built their following on the internet, they rose to a reasonable level of popularity, but only have one real traditional radio airplay hit song. And yet here they are 30+ years on, able to play the Vegas Sphere, and MSG. The prototype for a self-built audience was The Grateful Dead. They built their audience, they sold records, and had only a few radio airplay songs like Casey Jones and Touch of Gray.
The definition of success can be very different depending on how you look at it. Today more than ever success isn't defined in the same manner that it used to be. Streaming plays, live performance, etc. have replaced the traditional measures that Rush and The Grateful Dead came up under. Today, Angine de Poitrine can be more like Phish with a dedicated audience that will follow them.
And, as for them being instrumental, I'll defer to the (excellent) list @tetrachromac@lemmy.world provided below.