| 12 May 2010
After establishing themselves as an instrumental post-rock band – albeit one with an predilection for electronica – on their debut album, The Fall Of Math back in 2004, 65daysofstatic have evolved, with respect to both their music, and their musical style, on each subsequent album. On previous albums, this evolution has largely been due to the band's willingness to experiment with the instrumentation and tone of their music, whilst staying within the realms of their own unique style. On We Were Exploding Anyway however, the band have focused less on progressing their style, and have focused on redefining it instead.
On 65daysofstatic's earlier albums, the band's aim was simple; to combine fuzzy, punk-inspired post-rock music, with Aphex Twin-style beats, drum-loops and samples. With each consecutive album, the rock aspect was gradually toned down, while a greater range of instrumentation produced a more measured sound.
On We Were Exploding Anyway – 65daysofstatic's fourth studio album – the band have seemingly left their post-rock past behind them, and have instead produced an album that borders on electronica. In doing so, the band have removed – or at least toned down – the vast majority of the additional instrumentation which peppered their previous albums, as well as curbing much of the standard instrumentation too; conventional guitar and drums have been used sparingly on We Were Exploding Anyway, making way instead for keyboards and samples.
After repeat listens though, it becomes apparent that this paradigm shift isn't the result of the band reinventing their sound, but rather from taking the core idea of their music and turning it on its head; on previous albums, the band's focus has always been on emphasising the rock aspect of their sound whilst using electronic aspects to shape it. On We Were Exploding Anyway the band have taken the opposite strategy, and have used the electronic aspects as the base of their sound, and used rock elements to colour it.
Whilst We Were Exploding Anyway is certainly a departure from the band's previous albums, as well as being arguably a more challenging listen to traditional rock fans, it is nevertheless a fantastic, varied album, and one which commands just as much praise as their previous efforts.
Album opener “Mountainhead”, with its combination of keyboards and guitar, sounds like the soundtrack to a 16-bit era side-scrolling beat 'em up, and sets a suitably high-energy tone for the rest of the album. “Dance Dance Dance” starts slowly, and evolves into a throbbing, bass-heavy, dance music-inspired groove, before blowing up in a mushroom cloud of guitar; this is ironically juxtaposed next to the relative serenity of the layered, competing piano of track “Piano Fights”. Elsewhere, The Cure's Robert Smith provides vocals which accompany the hyperactive music box that is the loop-centric “Come To Me”.
In typical fashion though, the band have saved the best for last, and final track “Tiger Girl” is a suitably epic ten-minute excursion to close the album out in style. Whilst this is another heavily dance music-inspired track, it remains possibly the truest to the post-rock ideal, and the song doesn't so much build over the course of its ten minute duration, but rather evolves slowly until it is virtually unrecognisable from that which it started from.
Whilst it may seem that 65daysofstatic have taken their music off in somewhat of a tangent on We Were Exploding Anyway, on closer examination it's clear to see that the band are still making brilliant music, and still hold true to the post-rock ideal which they started from – they've just found a new way to convey it. In taking the emphasis away from the more traditional rock elements, these suddenly become much more dramatic; much more relevant. Whilst it may be different, We Were Exploding Anyway is a refreshing and vital album. So much so, in fact, that you can't help but wonder what the band will do next.
You can listen to almost all of the tracks from We Were Exploding Anyway right now on the band's Myspace page, and an MP3 of the track "Tiger Girl" can be downloaded free from the band's Website.
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