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photosStylus Magazine (The Destruction of Small Ideas)
"sometimes something comes along and shakes your head, takes you by surprise, delights you unexpectedly and reminds you why you were doing… this… in the first place. I have never put a CD in the player hoping to be disappointed, although these days I’m often expecting to be.
65daysofstatic’s first album, The Fall of Math, was good, but flawed. Their second, One Time for All Time, was even more flawed; like someone shouting into the wilderness to protest the city, it had good intentions but the wrong direction. Their third album, The Destruction of Small Ideas, blows their previous recorded output clean away. I gather that, distraught with an industry beset by Meatloaf’s mantra that everything be louder than everything else, they deliberately set out to make a quieter record, a more dynamic record, a record that stands out from its peers, that actually moves itself and you and, despite the lack of words, means something.
The Destruction of Small Ideas takes the bar for postrock, where postrock genuinely means what comes after rock is done with, and raises it considerably from where it has settled in the last few years. See that Battles record? This is as good, albeit coming from the opposite direction. Initial radar observations of 65daysofstatic three or four years ago suggested IDM with guitars; and perhaps they were. Now… no. Pianos, genuine, delicate, almost inaudible pianos; drums, roiling and pounding and snapping and rolling across your head; guitars, lachrymose or tectonic or nasty; spectres of electricity, hexadecimal algorithms taking binary data packages and translating them via networks into something organic and anthropomorphic. Making the robotic human where Battles make the human robotic. I’m not sure which is the best trick. Strings (horsehair on catgut, adhesive and vibrating), a ticking hard-drive, sheets of corrugated steel (flexed and resonated), Formula One cars downshifting into chicanes and over-steering left-handers, thunder, clammy tarmac at the height of summer.
The first five tracks will take you by surprise, “These Things You Can’t Unlearn” climaxing in proximity alarms and carbon dust. “Lyonesse”, following, has a parlor piano slowly eaten away from the outside by radioactivity, but the real surprise is that it gets better. “The Distant & Mechanised Glow of Eastern European Dance Parties” is an actual infusion of electronica rather than borrowed and misunderstood signifiers; “Music Is Music as Devices Are Kisses Is Everything” is as good as, improbably, its title, more subtle piano patterns, inhumanly real drums, soporific falls from momentum and rises back again. The last three songs? Better still.
65daysofstatic have made their masterpiece, or something close to it; three albums in, in the most dirty, shallow decade of music we’ve known, who else can say that? A handful, not enough. The Destruction of Small Ideas is a weight, a tower of babel, a journey, learnings, understandings, communication, evolution. I’ve been waiting. I was promised this or something like it. The rise and fall. All so deep, so rich, so comically dynamic and detailed and powerful for it that it makes me want to cry. How to make a record. Play loud. Rating: A-"
Nick Southall
Insiderguides.net (The Destruction of Small Ideas)
"Where to start? Do I mention the impeccable musicianship, the soaring and near perfect soundscapes created by this band, or the fact that it fully immerses the listener? It can be hard to review album fairly, you need to strike a balance, no matter how much you love an album you must highlight it's flaws. Similarly, if you hate it, you must point out any good points it has.
Which brings me to this, the second full length album from Sheffield band 65daysofstatic. They aren't a band as such, more a collective of insanely talented musicians. They don't make music, they make aural soundscapes. You won't find a chorus here, nor a verse for that matter. Each song progresses towards a crushing climax, rather than follow a set formula. For this reason there isn't really a lot of point mentioning song titles, each track merges into the next, creating an ALBUM as a piece rather than a collection 12 separate tracks.
This album is stunning, absolutely beautiful. I've listened through it several times now and can genuinely find only one fault. If you aren't a hardened music fan, you may find it hard going. It's the closest thing you'll get to neo-classical music, so if classical isn't your thing, and rock isn't your thing, then stay away, or try it, and really work with it, the rewards are more than worth it.
Special mention must go to the drummer. Quite honestly the hardest working musician I have ever heard. His is the main instrument on most tracks. He doesn't just keep time, he almost plays a tune.
Sorry if this has been a long review, but quite simply, this is the greatest album released in the last two years. It has no faults. Not one. I urge every single person who has read this review to beg, borrow or steal a copy. Please. Give 65daysofstatic the recognition they so richly deserve. 10/10"
ORGAN (www.organart.demon.co.uk) (The Destructin Of Small Ideas)
"65DAYSOFSTATIC – The Destruction Of Small Ideas (Monotreme) – Primer is the track that really takes our ears, Primer is ten tracks in to this much anticipated third album, Primer is the first track that really does grab us and takes us to new highs that we now rightly demand from 65Daysofstatic. Primer is the finest moment of their musical adventure thus far (I almost said career then, this is not a career, how crass of me, there are many career bands out there. 65 are not one of them). You see before Primer we were wondering if 65Days had painted themselves in to a little bit of a corner, things were sounding just a little familiar and very much like... well like 65Daysofstatic, almost comfortably so. And then White Peak/Dark Peak followed Primer with delicate spellbinding glory and a glowing classical warmth that leads us in to the clever challenge of The Conspiracy of Seeds. Were those vocals and violins just then? Real prog, real progression and what a fine way to close an album. And then you go back and wonder how earth Primer was the one to grab, it could have been any one of the first nine tracks, it was really the first notes of When We Were Younger. Sure, the 65days trademarks and fingerprints are all there, how could they not be – this is a sound and a standard for others to aspire to now - but hey no. It may have looked like a corner that they had painted themselves in to but hey no – no, look, look in to that corner and there whole new rooms that you didn’t see first time, must have been a trick of the light. Opening track When We Were Younger is wonderful and the small ideas are really very big ideas and the only destruction was the destruction of the safe instant option that they could so easily have gone for. Sure now and again they hit some kind of 65Days auto pilot and just as you thinking ah they go and jerk and glitch you right out of it – no, not jerk, they never jerk, they ease you out of it with a gentle kick, a glitch and a friendly bite and never in need of a scream – well maybe a silent one, a quiet scream back there in the detail next to the birdsong and the electric crackle and the arc of percussion and the fragile piano and... I almost said sinister, but no, that would be wrong – curious. Curious like opening dusty boxes in an attic that’s leaking golden sun through the cracks and finding all kinds of forgotten treasure. I was wrong, Primer isn’t the stand out track, there’s just this moment somewhere in the middle of it that’s perfect - that moment just opens the door to such a euphoric rush and the silence at the end of it is for split second like the end of everything - you think there will be no more sound ever again until that reassuring piano note of White Peak and the unbelievable beauty of it all – that note took an eternity to arrive when really it was a second. You know for a while back there I had almost tricked myself in to thinking I was growing a little bored with 65Daysofstatic, I foolishly thought that this would just be another album, these things you can’t unlearn. No, I was wrong, the finest moment is really Lyonesse, oh look, all you need to know is that 65Daysofstatic have made another very very fine album, every bit as fine and rewarding and stimulating as the first two – they never stop grabbing you, sometimes gently, sometimes demanding, every listen brings out another set of details and warm textures and oh look I'm losing all objectivity now and I don’t want to write anymore about it, I just want to listen to it... www.65daysofstatic.com
ALBUM OF THE WEEK"
The Silent Ballet (The Destruction Of Small Ideas)
"65daysofstatic's third album sees the glitch kids further pushing the boundaries of their sound. Significantly longer than its predecessors, The Destruction of Small Ideas witnesses the Sheffield quartet returning to its experimental roots; many tracks lack the urgency of the initial recordings, instead reinventing compositional schemes to incorporate a larger thirst for variation. Coupled with a newfound appreciation for recording techniques, TDoSI sounds unlike anything the band has accomplished before. Some will herald this as the next evolution in the band's already complex sound, while others will be overwhelming disappointed to see them depart from safe waters. Either way, 65daysofstatic continues to deliver admirable and powerful performances. This is the stuff legends are made of."
Playlouder.com (The Destruction Of Small Ideas)
"65daysofstatic are nothing if not hopeful. They have prepared a message, not for you but for your great, great, great grandchildren who weather the coming storm. They're hopeful not for themselves and they're definitely not hopeful for you lot reading this on your computer screens. They do however reserve a little bit of positivity for the copies of this album bought on vinyl. On very post rock cardboard (think Constellation Records) in a very post rock font (think a first edition of Dr Faustus or a copy of Stool Pigeon magazine) they claim after some unspecified tragedy beyond the crash of the digital age: "There will always be wax… wax cylinders used to carry music. Heads heavy with the knowledge and humility, our grandchildren will reinvent the gramophone, the wax phonograph, rudimentary cutting technologies... This music WILL be passed..."
So does this post apocalyptic post rock, this ante- antediluvian racket deserve to be spared, unlike the millions upon millions of CDs that are going to be used mainly to clothe the emergent Eloi (like the happy, blonde but secretly troubled people who inhabit planets with caves on the original Star Trek) in shiny metal tunics and dresses? Well, yeah, I reckon it does actually. 65daysofstatic aren't redesigning the wheel, just attempting to make one sturdy enough to last a few years.
By jettisoning nearly every last trace of drum and bass they have created something more timeless (though the odd fill or lick still lingers here or there). The squalling guitars of iLiKETRAiNS and the lofty keys of Explosions In The Sky inform here. (It's the opposite of shoegazing music; it's star staring.) As with the sadly missed Hope Of The States, their ambition occasionally outstrips their ability but seeing as their ambition is to have people the other side of a global disaster hear their music; that's hardly much of a criticism. (4/5)"
John Doran
Boomkat (The Destruction Of Small Ideas)
"As the album title might suggest, 65daysofstaic are not afraid to aim high - with their previous two studio albums grandly realised journeys into the post-rock night sky that look to Mogwai, Autechre and Steve Reich for inspiration as electronic elements are incorporated into the mix for added texture. Harking from the seven hills of Sheffield, 65daysofstaic prove that there's more to the city of steel than Arctic Monkey wannabes, with 'The Destruction Of Small Things' further enhancing their claim to wall-of-guitar grandeur and scarred sky solipsism. Opening with 'When We Were Younger & Better', 65daysofstatic don't sound unlike Muse at their most unbridled - albeit washed clean of the faux-Yorke wailing and replaced with some truly thundering rhythms that propel the whole composition down the asphalt at break-neck speed. Able to do the whole 'quiet-loud-pretty-LOUD' thing whilst avoiding the numerous clichés that often blight such excursions, 65daysofstatic take their music very seriously and throughout 'The Destruction Of Small Ideas' you're well aware of the accomplished individuals who are raising sonic hell. Moving on, the next post-rock enema comes via 'Failsafe' and its clever use of rhythm and piano interludes - with the whole thing flailing around in a digital straight-jacket that finally breaks to unleash a tsunami of sound. Elsewhere, 'Wax Futures' matches a skittering electronic beat to broiling riffs, 'Music Is Music...' introduces the notion of classical elements through some baroque flourishes, whilst 'These Things You Can't Unlearn' will take your head off through sheer sonic might after its tender introduction. Closing with the 'The Conspiracy Of Seeds', 65daysofstatic hint at possible things to come - incorporating Strepsil vocals and a sweet female voice to balance the ruptured rock universe spewing forth behind. Statictastic!"
Echo Weekly - USA (One Time For All Time)
"If Mogwai was bi–polar, if Trent Reznor was permanently high on meth, if Squarepusher decided to dabble in post–hardcore, well, it still wouldn’t sound quite like 65daysofstatic’s sophomore album, but any of those is an excellent beginning point of reference. One Time For All Time has the remarkable ability to emote as the album’s lush mixture of guitar rock, ferocious drum n’ bass styled beats, live drums and spastic glitch fold together and give way to a spiraling tapestry that flies from tender melancholy (the first part of “Drove Through Ghosts To Get Here”) to wildly savage torment (the second half of the same song) to ultra–sensual and intimate grooves (“Welcome To The Times”) and all points in between. One Time’s nine tracks demand that the listener keep an open mind as melodies sit atop and in contrast to gale–force sheets of guitars and beats – a foreboding tempest (particularly on “Await Rescue”) – that is at once a beautiful and horrible thing to behold. That said, One Time For All Time isn’t for the faint of heart and is not a happy album in the slightest – but it’s still an uplifting experience."
Kerrang! ()
"65daysofstatic are stunning. Their dance-influenced, post-rock symphonies are epic statements of individuality, centering on tense build-ups and ecstatic releases…As far as burgeoning British bands go, right now it doesn’t get any better than this. (KKKK)"
live review - Truck Festival
Kerrang! (One Time For All Time)
"EXELLENT SOPHOMORE EFFORT FROM POST-ROCK ANTI-STARS.
There’s something about 65daysofstatic’s disregard for fitting in that makes this, their second album in as many years, required listening. Not only have they refined their formula for gift wrapping pulverising percussion with beats beaten out of a laptop both live and on record, there’s an extra resonance provided by them clearly not caring about anything other than capturing the dazzling, authentic release of emotion and energy only found in a band who play from the heart. The louder you turn this up, the more layers reveal themselves, inviting you to get swallowed up by an engulfing mix of youthful rebellion and imaginative invention. As far as burgeoning British bands go, right now it doesn’t get any better than this. (KKKK)"
Metro - London (One Time For All Time)
"an inventive, powerful, sonic experience... epic closer Radio Protector is unforgettable ****"
Terrorizer (One Time For All Time)
"Opening with infectious piano chords before building into an intelligent dance/drum ‘n’ bass/drag beat crescendo, mixed with metallic guitar, drums and the kitchen sink, the Static are back and doing what they do even better than before. Although it’s near impossible to follow-up their legendary debut, ‘The Fall Of Math’s rave reviews, ‘One Time For All Time’ is so full of emotion that it’s simultaneously sombre and uplifting. Take ‘Welcome To The Times’ with it’s synth-fuelled melodies and ‘Mean Low Water’ which begins as avant post-rock before unleashing itself into an apocalyptic samurai math-beat onslaught. Elsewhere, tracks like ‘Await Rescue’ and ‘Climbing On Roofs’ sounds as if they’ve come straight from Warp or Rephlex Record’s cannon-yet their diversity on tracks like ‘Radio Protector’ separates them even from these. So far, so good; two shots and two goals and providing they don’t get lazy, we could be in for a hat trick. 9/10"
Drowned In Sound (One Time For All Time)
"he most vital, enthralling and unrelenting record of 2005 (9/10)
Let's say that you're a mythical bird-like creature, a phoenix perhaps, crashing through mist and watching as the madness of natural disasters and man-made suffering plays out below. Compelled by this drama beneath, you begin to rubberneck and take a full interest in what's going on. Forgetting to flap your wings, you begin falling, out of control, relentlessly battered by the waves of your own fear. Then, just as it seems like your experience can't become anymore intense and your death seems certain, you're whisked off by a cloud to another echelon of bliss. You decide to that the best use of your time would be to document everything that has just happened. This is the result, your memoir, as interpreted by 65daysofstatic and this is the most vital, enthralling and unrelenting record of 2005. The band's seemingly endless crusade to invent their own genre continues on this second full-length effort One Time for All Time. Written in-between their health-defying touring schedules, 65dos have produced a dark, brooding attack on the senses, whilst reaching plains of beauty normally reserved for the likes of Explosions in the Sky and their counterparts. As the album writhes and gathers pace with opener 'Drive Through Ghosts to Get Here', the true colours of what lies ahead are gradually unveiled. Only when we reach second track 'Await Rescue' is 65days' progression accountable. The sheer intensity of the band's musical and technical prowess is projected for the world to revel in, cascading every part of their electronic orchestra around your ears and constructing immense soundscapes that defy standards or chart-humping ideals. It's impossible not to be buried under the crushing guitars and precise drumming that hold every part of your being and twist your insides until suffocation is imminent.
This is also however where the only minor criticism arises, whereas 65daysofstatic's previous LP The Fall of Math gave the listener time to absorb and reflect upon the majestic aural assault they'd just experienced via it's One Time for All Time refuses to afford such luxuries, save the the select piano-led introduction (closer 'Radio Protector' is a perfect example). The band entered the studio to record an EP and left with a nine-track full-length laced with life affirming noise-driven journies that for the first time truly opens up the soul of 65days and challenges all to dive inside. If you've ever been even slightly intrigued by things you've read, now is the time to take the plunge and listen. Penultimate track '65 Doesn't Understand You' is the most all-encompassing, joyous piece the band have ever produced and with the overall sound now so well-honed and directly pitched, seduction is inevitable. (9/10)"
Boomkat (One Time For All Time)
"By far the best band to have emerged from Sheffield in years (and yes we know about the Arctic Monkeys), 65daysofstatic are purveyors of stunning post-electronica that pays equal lip service to Autechre and Steve Reich as it does Mogwai and Slint. Criminally overlooked, their 2004 debut 'The Fall of Math' established a blue-print which they've stuck to then refined on their follow-up 'One Time For All'; bringing together bone-shaking riffs, Nyman-esque piano and crisp'n'dry electronica in a thrilling bout of aural infectiousness to rival Leishmaniasis. From the opening peaks of 'Drove Through Ghosts to Get Here' and the frantic beat arrangements of 'Await Rescue', through to the muted reticence of 'The Big Afraid' and the string fortified bluster of 'Welcome to the Times', 65daysofstatic have crafted an awesome album that could redefine the post-rock fraternity. Further bolstered in my affections by being the last ever band I heard John Peel mispronounce, 65daysofstatic's 'One Time For All' is brute pleasure personified."
Plan B (One Time For All Time)
"On paper, it’s a horrible mishmash, in realty, 65daysofstatic are transcendentally special. If the raw materials seem basic - one rock band multiplied by a copy of Cubase - then the results are anything but. Melding pretension-stripped beats and ruthless sequenced drums onto skeletal yet ever-swelling guitars, 65dos then gleefully nudge the volume knob whenever they choose. Warp Records, with whom they share Sheffield origins, and any of the instrumental jet-set are reference points, but few of those protagonists ever possessed actual tunes like this. And in senseless times, One Time For All Time is impeccably meaningful."
Playlouder (One Time For All Time)
"It's odd how old 65 Days Of Static sound. I mean, like really old. 'One Time For All Time' sounds like a radio broadcast from some long since forgotten about civilisation as it collapses and becomes all beauty, decay and violence. As most readers here will know, the band, roughly speaking, are a mix of post rock, electronica and beat trickery. Nothing being broken, nothing's been fixed but the band have started backing slowly away from the drum and bass (and given the militant dance genre's moribund nature, this is no bad thing) and this adds to a more timeless feel. But flashes of jungle remain here and there, clattering off beat fills, polyrhythmic snare blasts but they are just part of a much bigger tapestry. 'Drove Through Ghosts To Get Here' glides into view on a melancholy piano refrain but clicking away like a grass hopper underneath it is the electronic precursor to a percussive maelstrom and berserk stop start bursts of guitar.
This time out the band are also less in thrall to bands they obviously love, such as Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Mogwai, and sound much more like themselves as a consequence. 'Await Rescue' is not one-size-fits-all, starting-from-a-whisper, building-to-a-roar post rock so much as it is sublime and epic instrumental rock.
There are moments of soporific majesty, as on 'Welcome To The Times' as well as the grinding, click beat, organic Aphex acid of 'Mean Low Water' and the orchestral swell transforming into straight up hardcore techno of 'Climbing On Roofs'. I'm still of the opinion that watching 65 Days of Static live makes more sense than anything else but it is good to see that their recorded output is catching up with their live prowess."
The Stereo Effect (One Time For All Time)
"Sometimes a release falls into your lap, by chance, and pretty much changes your world to the degree where you have to admit you’re completely ashamed you’ve never heard of the artist before.
I’d never heard of 65 Days Of Static before, I was a numpty. As a lover of the sleep-inducing lull of Goodspeed You Black Emperor, and a long time fan of Alec Empire’s electronic riots and the Aphex Twin’s playful drumbeat illusions, 65 Days Of Static have combined many of my more stern musical fetishes into one rather staggering LP.
Opening with "Drove Through Ghosts To Get Here", the minimalist piano refrains and tragic strings pierce the senses, until an cascading barrage of electronics up the ante of the entire song, a pulsating interstellar world where beats are scattered like debris from a car crash, the monolithic guitars an approaching death-ship of distortion and melody.
Releases such as this can be taken very seriously, maybe too much so, for the juxtaposition of guitars and low-end electronics thrives on an neutral interplay, and as the ragged stop-starts abruptly collapse and rebuild like damaged machinery, the presence of echo, or a synth swoop, adds a playful humour that endears as much as it drills your head.
Each track on the album is a superb composition, rolling together endless drum and bass, glitch and grime beats, both electronic and live, with all the best traits post-rock has to offer; sumptuous crescendos, suicide inducing lulls, and brutal clashes of chords and time changes.
Album of the year, hands down."
Cyclic defrost (One Time For All Time)
"Sheffield’s 65daysofstatic have started a new genre, but it seems they’re so far ahead of the game that they’ll just have to keep rockin’ the dancefloors till the rest of the world catches up. Since their stumble.stop.repeat EP in 2003 they’ve been mashing up their influences like an instrumental Pop Will Eat Itself (quite literally, with some fucked-up mashups on half-official EP releases), and one time for all time could well be their best release yet.
First things first: this is instrumental music. They’ve got the riffs and the rhythms, but they don’t want the rhymes - and who needs some singer yammering over the top of noise like this? You’ve got jackhammer riffs (more often than not in 6/8 time), cyclical piano lines like it’s 1989, splattercore beats mixed in with live drums, tasty little glitches and judiciously placed samples. Since that first EP the production values have improved outta sight, and while it could be said that one time for all time just repeats the formula of their first album, if anything it’s even better produced, it looks beautiful, and it’s got a few killer tracks that make it indispensible. For a start, there’s “drove through ghosts to get here”: a vari-speed track that I can love. It’s drum’n'bass-meets-rock, as atmospheric as all get out, and every time the martial beats slow down the tension builds. Then you get “await rescue”, which starts out as almost pure drum’n'bass, with haunting dischords in the synths and a big rock middle section. This is what music ought to be like. That the rest of the album manages to live up to this beginning is good enough. It would be a brilliant introduction to 65dos, and we can only hope that there’s much more to come."
Rockbeatstone (One Time For All Time)
"Some of the hoodlums on my estate have come up with a new way of causing trouble. The new game is called Genre Pigeonhole Elitism. I don’t have any friends who play the Pigeonhole Elitism game. Mainly because as people they’re usually shits. But obviously they look good and they’re cool, so if you’re out for a drink you’ll see them surrounded by girls. The music they like is obscure and inaccessible. You have to really have to try to like it. Most of this post- or intelligent- music is pretentious, self-indulgent shit that relies on the fact that if you’re cool no one will notice that you’ve played the same directionless riff for fifteen minutes (twelve quiet: THREE VERY LOUD). 65daysofstatic are unquestionably cool, and their music is built from the twin (post-twin?) pillars of uncomfortable glitchy techno and quiet-quiet-quiet-quiet-LOUD-quiet rock. Get this though: they’ve got songs and attitude. Think Godspeed! remixed by Aphex Twin and you’re in a similar ballpark. 65daysofstatic are the post-intelligent band that you don’t need to worry if its OK to like.
Put simply: One Time for All Time sounds like the end of the world. A hundred little monkey drummers playing along to different but perfectly syncopated Ed Blackwell albums; feedback and glitches worthy of the greatest electronic terrorists; an orchestra pit full of fallen angels; Thelonious Monk making statements and cogitating with that deadly abstraction Jack Kerouac wrote about in ‘New York Scenes’, and riffs aplenty which could easily have found their ways onto both Mogwai’s Young Team and Faith No More’s The Real Thing. It’s the soundtrack to Apocalypse Now, if Darron Aronofsky was in charge of a re-make.
Surprisingly for an album entirely made of instrumentals, the music soars and sweeps, the beats stutter and strut, and the guitars swell and squeal as lyrically and expressively as any posing pop-star. ‘Drove all night through ghosts’ starts as a lonely lament filled with misty intrigue before the tension peaks and the horror is unleashed. ‘Await Rescue’ opens with a jaunty bounce before giving way to a sheet of rushing snare and chiming guitar. ‘Mean Low Water’ continues in the sinister vein, but the guitars more discordant, the drums less friendly and the bass more unnerving. ‘The Big Afraid’ does exactly what it says on the tin with the simple juxtaposition of a childish xylophone and disarming guitar strum. It sounds like Fourtet working with The Bad Seeds. Even working within the post-rock template, ‘Welcome to the Times’ and ’65 doesn’t understand you’ manage to combine glitch, quiet-quiet-LOUD and a level of experimentation as-yet-unused by the post-rock fraternity. There are even time changes and drum solos.
This is only their second album, and yet 65daysofstatic have created a record which manages to be simultaneously credible, accessible and groundbreaking. And it’s also available in your local HMV."
Decoy Music (One Time For All Time)
" Leading the UK scene, if not the world at large, in every way, shape and form imaginable, 65 Days of Static proves that lightening can strike twice with the release of their sophomore album, just a year after their critically acclaimed debut effort. One Time for All Time doesn't deviate from the signature 65 Days of Static sound--that blissful blending of electronic forces with aggressive instrumental structures, but a large maturity appears on the new release which was not readily apparent on The Fall of Math. 65 Days of Static has turned down the intensity a knob or two for One Time for All Time, and the result is that the looming sense of urgency and epic clashing of man and machine that radiated from The Fall of Math has been replaced with an album that is more consistent in its pacing and overall better balanced from start to finish. A revision of the band's coherency would be enough to throw this new album on the top of any "best of" list for the year, but One Time for All Time manages to pull a trick lacking in every other experimental release out there: it pulls at the heart strings. The glitch-kid craze was never able to fully mimic the human emotional response in the way that traditional instrumental bands are able to weave in and out of the emotional core so easily. There is just something about a guy at a computer that shuts off the emotional response--something about the flawless production sound that kills the capacity to care. 65 Days of Static reaches a frightening epiphany as they artificially recreate the emotion of the best of the instrumental world while trumping the work of the aforementioned tenfold in artistic vision.
While reviewing The Fall of Math I openly hoped that more bands would catch on to this craze. Things this good can not be ignored. Although London's Loss of a Child may have some common ground with this Sheffield quartet, there is still little evidence that anyone else can create music as endearing as 65 Days of Static. I kid you not when I say that this a band that will go down in the history books, what these four guys are doing is just that monumental. Even the best of the UK's brighest had their contemporaries. Even The Beatles had competition in the homeland, but 65 Days of Static stands alone for now, a single revolutionary in a battlefield of clones. "
Organ Magazine - Issue 136 - September 29th 2005 (One Time For All Time (album of the week))
" They have a sound all of their own now, an instantly recognisable sound, an unmistakable fingerprint, this could only be 65Daysofstatic - they're established already. Opening doors and setting standards with their glitching starlight and their flickering textures. Last year's debut The Fall Of Math was a revolutionary leap forward for everyone, this year we kind of know what to expect.This year we expected a lot, we've got it. Heavy touring has built on their towering reputation, they are the biggest genuine word of mouth band out there. There has been no hype, this is how it really works, people organically telling others - you have to hear this band (and you do, you really do have to hear this band!). If you haven't caught the glories of Sheffield's 65days yet then you need to think somewhere near the restrained moody musical adventure of Radiohead through a refined glitching post-rock drum 'n bass(ish) filter, uplifting heart-warming mood shifting beauty, towers of radiant musical hope and prog rock in the real real sense. Progression, a break down of rock's convention, street symphonies, instrumental inner city flickering - epic. They don't actually sound that difficult or complex, they're clever and oozing with warmth and imagination. It's simple, beautifully simple - “There are still no words. The band are still trying to articulate all that stuff that no-one's really invented words for yet”. They say this is not a happy album, they say it's a mixture of guilt, exhaustion and anger - if it is then it's beautifully uplifting positive anger (anger is an energy). Glorious glitch, white noise guitar walls, broken laptop clicks and soothing tranquil pools of reflection and bits amongst the furious noise that are as delicate as the first snowflakes. It's not dance or rock or post this or glitch that or drum 'n bass now, it's just 65Daysofstatic - a beautifully glorious uplifting thing that you really do need to share.The musical goal posts just shifted again."
Sean O
Kerrang! - September 18th 2004 (Fall Of Math)
"Normally it's preferable to crucify anyone found spitting the "we dont sound like anyone else" soundbite in interviews. 65 Days of Static, however, genuinely seem intent on gatecrashing a genre and redefining its boundaries.Their knack of infusing levitating, Mogwai- esque ambience with skittish, industrialised breakbeats is truly without precedent. "The Fall of Math" is a cold, compelling, carefully crafted nightmare of a record that has the potential to turn your blood to vodka if you listen to it on a bad day. They don't need vocals as this noise transcends what any words could possibly say."
(KKKK) - Alistair Lawrence
(Fall Of Math)
"Brain-Liquifying post rock from Sheffield."
Organ Magazine - issue 87 >> September 16th 2004 (Fall Of Math (album of the week))
"This is going to have to turn into a Monotreme love in, we've got to the point now where we can confidently say if the music is coming at you via the Monotreme label then just stop what you're doing, go without food, walk barefoot over glass and just move heaven and earth to get it. Last week it was Thee More Shallows, this week it's 65DaysOfStatic. Now we were expecting good things (we've told you about 65Days before) and it comes as no surprise that The Fall Of Math is thrillingly brilliant..... I'm not sure if we were expecting so much warmth and depth though and sheer emotion though....
65 Days of Static are from Sheffield and they run dangerously balanced on the rusty edge that slices somewhere between intelligently rewarding textured drum 'n bass and epic progressive rock . Progressive both in the sense of epic grandiose cathedralesque cloud-parting over-the-top-ness and in terms of pushing the whole musical art form forward. Something of a Tool/King Crimson/Mogwai meets Roni Size set of heartwarming post-rock epics - way past being that easy to pin down and box though.....
Fix The Sky A little is just breathtaking, it's The Orb meets Radiohead but taken a step further on up. Every breath an sound is vital, from the gentle radio static buzz at the start to the ten seconds of silence that you need when it's finished. So much restrained emotional all encompassing power here, and it isn't really until much later that you notice the lack of vocals...they are you own reward, they'll install a beak in your heart."
Sean O
Rock Sound - October 2004 (Fall Of Math)
"Some bands grant you the privilege of making your own mind up about them; others set you straight themselves. Sheffield's 65daysofstatic take the latter approach, opening third track 'Retreat! Retreat!' with the words "we will not retreat, this band is unstoppable!". Okay, so it's a Matt Dillon sample (from grunge flick Singles) and not their own words, but what do you expect from an instrumental band? The track is one of the best here, and acts as a great representative of the album: Mogwai-rivalling post-rock stargazing augmented by clicks and blips straight out of Squarepusher's laptop. The mix of electronic technology and conventional drums and guitars is a dizzying one, but 65dos do occasionally come unstuck - the stop-start title track looked great on paper, no doubt, but sounds messy and incoherent here. That aside, this is challenging, genuinely alternative stuff. (*******)
"
Mike Diver
Playlouder - 8 September 2004 (Fall Of Math)
"Most bands form and then make a conscious choice to imitate, plagiarise and become a pastiche of their idols. The music buying public love to be reminded of the good times; the old times; the familiar. It’s the reason we've had The Beatles, The Clash and The Stooges clones plague our minds, radio, newspapers, TV, and our souls for the past twenty-five years. It’s the reason guitar based music has driven itself into a rut; become stale, bland, tired and overblown. Time for an overhaul. But that’s most bands, and it’s clear that 65 Days of Static have no intention of being some retro-fuck entity. Nestling themselves in a scene loosely called math-rock or post-rock, they appear to have broken the golden alt-rock rule of not using computers, samplers, electronics etc (it’s not real music you know). Instead of sounding like some scrappy, mix-genre soundclash, 65 Days of Static take your pre-conceptions and smash them into a million pieces.
Retreat! Retreat!' swoops in with a glorious, spine tingling glockenspiel intro, which gives way to a riff that is so wide, so heavy, so burnt that it hurts; it's heart wrenching stuff. 'The Cat Is a Landmine' weaves in and out like Venetian Snares vs a monged Godspeed! You Black Emperor. 'Aren’t We All Running' uses a moribund prog-rock piano intro and calmly sits back and lets the guitars and drums (the drummer clearly having eight arms on this track) walk in and bludgeon you with reckless abandon. It is pure passion, and it’s clear that 'The Fall of Math' was created to worship the beauty of music. Radiohead took three albums to become this adventurous and IDM is still too afraid to include live instruments on this level; when the Mercury Music Prize comes around the judges won’t go anywhere near this.
Go home, take your play safe indie-punk records and burn them. 65 Days of Static have their heads in 2007 and everyone else is thirty years behind…… Magnificent. (4.5/5)"
Simon Smerdon
Drowned In Sound (Fall Of Math)
"How shall we leave this dead-dog town? With the volume up and the windows down."
We assume you're here because you like music, or are aware of exciting developments in a musical world existing beneath the mainstream. As part of a seemingly blossoming new form of complex but enjoyable guitar music, spearheaded by bands such as Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies, Mono, Mondo et al, the term 'post-rock' is often applied. But its use of the prefix 'post-', although presumably encompassing the weight of influence and how it has been developed, does little to suggest how the majority of these bands have and will be inspirational as well as inspired. Listening to The Fall Of Math, the first album from controlled-noise tykes 65*DAYSOFSTATIC, you can see why it may be problematic as a term, broad or not - for if this sort of indescribably wonderful clamour doesn't influence countless ensembles in its wake then we'll eat our own effects pedals.
Consider the evidence. Opening track another code against the gone throws up impressions of Kraftwerk's last album or Boards Of Canada's Geogaddi - or indeed the bulk of 'electronic' records released over the last decade - growing muscles and subsequently turning on their creators. It soon follows on to install a break in the heart that clucks time in arabic (nope, us neither), and when we say that a frantic utilisation of Explosions In The Sky's crescendo tactics with pretty computer noise leading to earth-trembling drums still doesn't do it full justice, we don't say it lightly. retreat! retreat! is much more direct, as it quickly switches from glockenspiel-style twinkling to a glorious, sparkling and utterly exhilarating piece of alt.rock force, sounding so intense and enormous that you could almost dive in. Meanwhile i swallowed hard, like i understood flickers with the sort of complex glitch rhythms that could make Aphex Twin scream with enlightenment, whilst pummelling out weighty post-rock-shaped guitar not unlike Mogwai beating their chests in abandonment - and same goes for the title track, but while flicking between comforting yet slightly unnerving electronic plinks and plonks. What's more, tracks like hole, with its string-laden rush and stop-start feedback-drenched wall-of-sound guitar shifting, have inventiveness practically glowing off of them yet retain an accessibility (or rather sensibility) to outshine most purely 'pop' songs. Initially it's beguiling, but soon it's understandable and more than a little pleasing. That The Fall Of Math as an album can retain the dynamics, fraught tension and climactic explosiveness of its peers and influences, whilst still sounding like one of the most urgent and direct long-player releases of the year, is worthy of our praise indeed.
Music's about escapism, right? About taking you somewhere otherworldly, somewhere else. This album is a dark, tempestuous but highly inviting place that you could quite easily lose yourself in, and there's a real chance that you won't want to return. Further artillery against the argument that music isn't exciting at the moment.
Like music? Go fetch."
Thomas Blatchford (4.5/5)
The Wire - September 2004 (Fall Of Math)
"The future, as Sheffield four piece 65daysofstatic are only too aware, is not transmitted, it's recieved, even when the signal is nothing but noise. While waiting for the block to clear, however, they trace pictures of apocalyptic grandeur out of dense audio scribble. A breakneck descent into electronically rendered sheet metal guitar, rattling drum n' bass and - you know you want them - Prog keyboards means that, like all moments of intense ending, there's never a dull moment. Cities are laid waste, warrior bands fall back on their swords and, when 65DOS tell you "this cat is a landmine", you'd better believe it's true."
Ken Hollings