Artist	Song
They Might Be Giants	Hello Radio
from Miscellaneous T (1991) 0:56
Robert Wyatt	Sight Of The Wind
from Dondestan (Revisited) (1998) 4:58
Bill Bruford's Earthworks	The Emperor's New Clothes
from A Part, And Yet Apart (1999) 5:26
Caravan	Love To Love You (And Tonight Pigs Will Fly)
from In The Land Of Grey And Pink (1971) 3:05
Yes	Lightning Strikes
from The Ladder (1999) 4:36
Sting	I Was Brought To My Senses
from Mercury Falling (1996) 5:48
The Grateful Dead	Estimated Prophet
from Terrapin Station (1977) 5:36
Soft Machine	As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still
from Volume Two (1969) 2:35
Pink Floyd	Money
from The Dark Side Of The Moon (1973) 6:25
Jewels And Binoculars	Cold Irons Bound
from Ships With Tattooed Sails (2007) 5:59
Christy Moore	Biko Drum
from Unfinished Revolution (1987) 3:53
Peter Gabriel	Solsbury Hill
from Peter Gabriel 1: Car (1977) 4:25

Comment:

Seven: its reputation, numerologically, is that of a magical or mystical number, and while it’s possible that many numbers really do have personalities of their own, seven, i.e. septuple meter, has for a long time also been, for me, a fascinating musical foundation. Here I’m presenting a clutch of musical pieces (which I actually finished mixing this past April) that are primarily or entirely in 7/4 or 7/8 time, a criterion I don’t think I’ve ever seen the likes of before in either a mix or an official album, with Dave Brubeck’s album Time Out coming the closest. (Let me know if you know of any other examples!)

Most of these pieces are at least rockish, with a couple of jazz instrumentals (tracks 3 and 10) thrown in. Track 10 is actually a cover of a Bob Dylan song that wasn’t originally in septuple meter, but that was seamlessly converted to such by one of the most thrillingly unexpected bands I’ve seen live in concert (at the unfortunately now defunct Cornelia Street Café), the all-jazz, all-Dylan Jewels And Binoculars. Prog rock seems like the best genre to unite these pieces into a whole with, even though there are plenty of individual pieces I wouldn’t call prog.

The picture I chose for the cover is of a figure-eight knot created from seven metallic struts or “sticks” (it’s the Steel Figure-Eight Stick Knot from the mathgrrl designs page on Shapeways). As you may know, I have some background in mathematics, and the figure-eight knot is the only mathematical knot with a stick number of seven: that is, it can be formed from seven struts connected end-to-end in a loop, but no fewer number. I was contemplating the figure-eight stick knot a few years ago when I started to compose my own piece in septuple meter, an ostinato in honor of Ben Folds and (singer of tracks 2 and 8 here) Robert Wyatt, which I called “Just Like Quiet Wyatt Did”. Not included on this mix!

Total time: 53:42.

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