irregularly metered music melts my brain... but in a good way

I don't know what it is about irregular meter in music. It just breaks my brain and turns my spine into goo. You can hear, on some level, that there's something not right with the music. But being with my untrained ears, I can't quite nail it down. I try to find the patterns in it but it just doesn't follow anything I'm familiar with. The cycles are longer than what my conscious mind can hold onto. So it sounds musical, but still off somehow. And I love it because I can't figure it out.

This was brought on by the Brainy Gamer who linked to (among others) this great post at Cruise Elroy on irregular meters in gaming music. He posts the scores and the audio clips of the pieces. Can you hear it too? If you don't pay attention, it's just musical. But if you try paying attention to it, letting your brain dive deeper into the sound waves, you start to drown. I just love that sensation of my brain running full tilt on something and just not quite making the necessary connection to make sense of why it makes sense.

When I think of irregular meter I just remember being back in Winnipeg during the late 90s and listening to Venetian Snares play. You can hear a beat, but you just can't make sense of what the heck it's doing. You can't predict where it's going! Crazy stuff:)