Math rock and the bass guitar as the arrangement's anchor is something that gets less attention than the guitar work.

In a genre defined by odd meters and complex guitar interplay, the bass has a specific role that is harder to articulate than the guitar's role but equally important. The bass in math rock has to simultaneously provide the harmonic foundation that lets the listener track the tonal relationships, the rhythmic anchor that gives the odd meters their sense of ground, and often its own melodic voice that participates in the guitar conversations rather than just supporting them.

The math rock bassists who get this right make the complexity accessible by giving you something stable to hold onto. The arrangements that don't work at this level — where the bass is just following the guitar parts or providing undifferentiated low-frequency support — feel rootless in a way that works against the music.

Good math rock bass playing is one of the things that is very hard to notice when it's there and very hard to miss when it isn't.