Katarsis - An Analysis of Song Structure
One of the primary reasons I love Katarsis is the unconventional structure of their songs. Of the 31 songs currently on their Spotify, only ONE has something that you could consider a chorus. And that one song is a cover of Balta Meilė, so it‘s technically not even written by them.
To visualize that, I tried turning the structures of all their songs (also the unreleased ones) into simplified graphs:
Looking at the green and violet graphs, one thing stands out: 65% of their songs have almost the same structure. They typically start off very slow, only progressing in the slightest for the first two minutes. But after that, there is a huge climax that lasts about half a minute, followed by a short, very calm section similar to the beginning of the song. Have a look at Niekas and Lapų šlamesiai išblaškė miegą; they are two songs with very different vibes and topics, but only looking at the structure, they are basically the same.
Now compare that to this very beautiful graph I found about the structure of a typical pop song:
(Source: https://musicmakingmatters.wordpress.com/2012/02/07/song-structure/)
I know Katarsis doesn‘t really classify as a regular pop music band, and just saying they play rock also doesn’t really fit. If i had to, I‘d personally call them a 50/50 mix of post-punk and shoegaze. The only problem: their songs aren‘t structured enough to be classified as post-punk and have too much structure to be called shoegaze. The perfect example for this is Ėda. A song that starts with the climax and only gets weaker shouldn‘t be called shoegaze nor post-punk, after all these are two genres that are known for building and progressing a lot. But it still feels like this heavenly mix of distorted guitars, post-Soviet atmosphere and pure destruction; things I‘ve always associated with these genres. For me, that is the essence of Katarsis. They have their very own sound and I don‘t see any genre descriptions completely fitting to their style of music.
Not having any choruses is such a refreshing thing. Listening to their songs feels like swimming in silk. Everything flows into each other, Lukas’ voice, the lead guitar, that one shoegazey guitar in the background always playing one distored, very long note. Imagine Pamiršau žiūrėt į paukščius without the climax. If there‘s a parallel universe in which that song would only contain the first and last minute. it‘d already be the perfect song, sending me into a trance-like state everytime I’d listen to it. But the climax is always the reason they are allowed to call themselves Katarsis.
If however, in a parallel universe, Pamiršau žiūrėt į paukščius would have a chrous that would repeat three times over the duration of the song, I could maybe listen to it 5 times and then forgetting about it forever. Choruses can be like speed bumps, sometimes they destroy all of the momentum you had with the song. I think Katarsis shows that you can also achieve catchiness by just being innovative.
But catchiness isn‘t what you should always strive for. Listen to Dingo or Paleisiu - I wouldn‘t necessarily call them catchy, after all their structure doesn‘t really change over time. The atmosphere of the song also mostly stays the same for the entire three minutes. But somehow, I often find myself humming the melodies of these two songs over and over again. Not because they are catchy, but because of how these songs make me feel. Listening to Paleisiu feels like a hug, mainly because of the consistent structure that you can always rely on.
I also noticed how the structure of their songs often represents exactly what the song is about. Surasiu for example, a song about finding yourself in your own thoughts. Similarly to Dingo or Paleisiu, the intensity of the song doesn‘t really change much for three minutes, but it is still very different compared to them because you can clearly divide the song into sections that all sound very different. The first minute isn‘t much more dramatic than the last minute, but they have very distinct sounds. Whoever Lukas sings about in Surasiu, maybe it‘s himself, that person is very confident in finding everything in their thoughts, hence the consistent intensity of the song.
If you look at the violet graph: some songs have a sort of pre-climax, not exactly as intense as the one in the end, but still very noticeable. These are the songs that tend have an angrier sound and more aggressive topics like DES, being about destruction and consisting of very aggressive melodies. In this case, the structure represents an uncontrollable, emotional outbreak. Songs that are represented by the green graph only have one climax though, conveying a sense of hopelessness. This is a better fit for songs like Spengia Galvoje in my opinion that feel very desperate and post-apocalyptic.
I want to end with shedding a light on Rasa, a song about rotting in a field of flowers, ending with a climax, almost like a last breath or heartbeat. Then you can hear the guitars slowly fading out. The last breath has been made, the song ends with the death of the lyrical self.
I hope you enjoyed my little yap :)
