'formbuilding.' This accumulation of parts may be considered in numerous ways; for Lochhead, in her consideration of pieces by Joan Tower, it has to do with the way in which material returns and is transformed within a score. For our purposes, we might consider the layering of the recording process in which a form is built 'vertically' and in terms of depth-of-field through the construction of a distinctive sound-mass. This is the case particularly with the immersive form of Animal Collective's 'People,' but also with the single-cell forms of Pink Floyd's 'Obscured By Clouds' and Smog's 'All Your Women Things'. We may also invoke the idea of formbuilding in the sense of the block-like addition of section after section in the labyrinth form of Scout Niblett's 'Drummer Boy.'
1. Labyrinth forms
I coined this term when analysing some recent independent 'new folk' music, identifying structures which combine numerous sections in such a way that the terms verse, chorus, and bridge are inadequate as descriptors.[1] As well as featuring a greater number of distinct sections than are commonly found in pop and rock songs, these forms often do not return to their starting points, and so are irreconcilable with the idea of quest narrative. While quest narrative forms in rock music are often episodic, they are homogenously so; labyrinth forms tend to juxtapose episodes in ways that create unfamiliar shapes.
Labyrinth forms share many characteristics with through-composed works. Each meanders through sections without the sorts of repetition or formal plan found in more traditionally structured works. The idea of labyrinth forms is particular to pop/rock/song-based forms in that there often is repetition of sections, but this repetition is handled in such a way that the usual patterns concerning verses, choruses and bridges are not found.
Scout Niblett - Drummer Boy'(2003)[2]
There are six distinct sections here: five sections proper, and a brief coda. As neither of the first two sections of the recording is returned to once left, there is no feeling of 'home territory'. Each successive section strikes the listener as a new place, resulting in
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PORTAL, vol. 8, no. 1, January
