For our gallery from the show, head over here.
It’s weird how fast 10 years flies. When The Fall Of Math came out in September 2004 I was merely 16 years old, a musical history heavy in NME indie, exploring new music and learning that there was a much more interesting world of music out there to be discovered. There’s a few albums I thank for moving me into the dark side and away from repetitive chords, predictable structures, unchallenging listens; Reuben‘s Racecar Is Racecar Backwards was a strong one, Biffy Clyro were another, both with Vertigo Of Bliss and Infinity Land (I got into them in the wrong order), but being given a copy of 65daysofstatic‘s The Fall Of Math, was an awakening in another direction. I’d never really listened to much instrumental rock but, by the time the album was really going, likely just after the Singles sample, “This negative energy just makes me stronger. We will not retreat, this band is unstoppable” had stopped and the guitars kicked in, making sounds that somehow felt like a full on assault yet kept a hauntingly beautiful quality, I was sold. Then the electronics came in, glitching drums and beeps and noise over the top – the feeling I felt on that first listen still remains each time I turn it on and turn it up. This album was to thank for me discovering the likes of Mogwai and then Godspeed You! Black Emperor, even Four Tet to an extent and then leading me onto discovering new styles of music I’d never even heard of before. It probably sounds like I’m overstating this, but it was a gateway drug, so to speak, one which I’ve held the band in high respect for since that day.
Times have changed and no one can complain that 65daysofstatic haven’t changed with time. Each album, in my eyes, appears to move one step further towards a more electronic sound and yet they still manage to keep a distinct quality about them. 2014 being the tenth anniversary of their incredible debut album, tonight is a good opportunity for the band to show both ends of the spectrum, with two sets, one consisting of The Fall Of Math in it’s entirety, and one consisting of most of Wild Light, their most recent album, released just last year.
Making sure the night gets going on the right foot, however, is a job left to Norfolk based electronic artist Nathan Fake. With just one man, a laptop and various musical toys on stage it’s amazing how much noise Nathan was making – the soundscapes created both intricate and detailed. The low end through Koko’s subwoofers had actually made a visible empty curve near the sides of the stage, within which the incredibly low bass made it fairly hard to breath at some parts during his set, something I’ve only experienced at loud rock shows from the likes of Mogwai or Swans. I will concede that Nathan Fake’s music wasn’t really to my taste, but I couldn’t help but respect the complexity of the music he was creating, with some great sounds – the guy is clearly brilliant at what he does, and he certainly got the night off to a good start.
With the distorted sound of a jack cable being plugged in, and muted piano chords ringing out, it was time for the moment that everyone in Koko was waiting for to commence. With the almost entirely electronic, noisy, assault that is ‘Another Code Against The Gone’ starting it all off, I couldn’t help but smile; it’s not a song that’s played very often, certainly not one I’ve seen before, and yet live it seems to take on new energy, it doesn’t sound dated. ‘Install a Beak in the Heart that Clucks Time in Arabic’ kicks in with it’s glitchy drum beat, piano chords and slow metronome beep sounding just like a hospital heart monitor. It doesn’t take long to get the headbangers going though, the distorted guitar parts doing a lot of the work with Rob Jones keeping the live drums going perfectly in time with the electronic ones.
The third track is the point where everything really picks up though. When ‘Retreat! Retreat!’ drops the crowd seem to get drawn into a frenzy, the pit opening up to a far great extent than any 65daysofstatic show I’ve been to before. They said it themselves, it’s a song they’ve played every night for the last ten years (“Even the nights when we’re not on tour, we play it ourselves” Joe joked when the song came to an end) and it’s certainly one of the stronger ones, with such an incredible climax. ‘Default This’ on the other hand is a track that the band have never really played live, mostly for the reason that, in their words, “It’s a bit weird”; more a short, glitchy, electronic interlude than a full track but, regardless, the band got threw it’s multi layered assault with ease.
The title track was one which, again, I’ve never had the joy of hearing live before, which is a shame because it’s certainly one of the bands most interesting songs, blending fast paced electronic noises with plenty of guitar parts, string sections and more. It has a bit of everything you could want in a 65 song. With more guitar sections, ‘This Cat Is A Landmine’ was one which definitely got the audience on their feet again, with another heavy middle before one of the most incredible climactic pieces on the album comes into play, the picked guitars suddenly clipping as the drums roll, before calming it all back down again leaving an audience with goose bumps.
‘Fix The Sky A Little’ was a euphoric moment performed live, the slow building nature of the song in a completely sold out Koko sweeping across the room. The samples firing off either side complement a delay heavy guitar section which sounds as good today as it did ten years ago. ‘Aren’t We All Running?’ is a track that I would love to see back in the band’s regular set rotation. It’s a track which was clearly made to be the finale to the album and still sounds incredible as a set ender – it builds up to such a high point and no one can argue that it doesn’t get people moving, a pit opening up which appeared to dwarf even The Dillinger Escape Plan at the same venue last year – that’s no walk in the park. The moment where everything drops out just leaving a lone glockenspiel and a tremolo soaked guitar in the background before returning in all it’s distortion soaked glory; phenomenal.
Not content with leaving us all with one of the musical highlights of the year so far, after a short interval the band returned to bring some contrast to the evening, moving from the early sound of a band who, unbelievably, hadn’t been around for long at the time (making the creation of an album so timeless even more impressive), onto the sound of their most recent efforts, from the album Wild Light. The sound of ‘Heat Death Infinity Splitter’ is incredibly cinematic performed live, the volume of the synths really taking my breath away. ‘Prisms’ is one of those tracks which contain a large electronic influence, the stuttering pads and the fairly repetitive drumming, yet have an element of the older 65; the delay heavy guitars bursting from the stage.
The highlight of the second set for me had to be ‘Taipei’ which, other than being absolutely beautiful as a piece of music, showed me for the first time that Koko knows when to be quiet, every harmonic audible from the ringing guitar chords in the quiet moments, before another fantastic build up starts up and the audience is soaked in piano and fuzzy guitar. Not content with two sets showing off the contrast between old and new, the band returned to the stage yet again, informing the audience “There’s a whole load of music between those two, but you’ll have to check that out in your own time, we have time for one more“. Launching into a fan favourite, ‘Radio Protector’, 65daysofstatic ended a phenomenal night on a high, the memorable piano hook, the constant tremolo guitar adding a wonderful sound to the whole thing before building up to the final peak of the night, satisfying every person in the room.
Anniversary shows seem to be pretty popular these days, a chance to reminisce about what once was, as though the present isn’t as valuable. What made ‘The Fall Of Math’ anniversary show different is that 65daysofstatic are a band who aren’t always looking back and made use of such an occasion to basically show everyone that yes, they have created some stunning music in the past and their debut album is one which obviously is fondly in the hearts of both band and fans, but they’re still creating material which pushes boundaries. I’d struggle to describe their performance of ‘The Fall Of Math’ as anything other than flawless but hearing ‘Wild Light’ in that format too was eye opening. I enjoyed it on record but live, and performed through with only a few missing tracks, these tracks come into their own. With the second set stuck in my memory, I remember thinking that 65daysofstatic were one of the best bands in the country when I was a teenager. The fact is, they still are, thanks to their constant evolution and their willingness to create music that doesn’t dwell on the past but makes use of what they can do now.
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