65daysofstatic - Weak4

65daysofstatic make music that could be described as Battles if they’d played more video games and read more sci fi. It’s got the math rock base, the musical talent and the post rock feel to it, but it’s always got more of a sense of looseness. It’s not as well produced as it could be, it’s louder and faster than it needs to be, and it’s always going to have breaks that make no sense. Which is precisely why so many people love them.

‘Weak4’ itself is a song that sounds like the soundtrack to the coolest Atari game ever. It runs to almost three minutes but rushes through the epic stratosphere and beyond. It’s as ridiculous as it sounds – it’s over the top, it’s grotesquely grandiose, it’s a soundtrack for Street Fighter. But most of all it’s fun and emotive; if you listen to the song, it means a lot and there is a lot of emotion packed into the short amount of time.

‘Come To Me’ is a bit different - for a start, it has vocals. The interesting thing about the vocals is that they sink back into the mix, not drawing attention any more than any other instrument. There are times with an auto-tuned voice and drums by themselves, but even then the voice seems to sink into the mix, they’re used in the same way as other instrument, adding to 65days’ sound without changing it, which is actually a good thing (despite sounding restrictive). The thing is, with 65days, the whole point is atmosphere. Their sound and everything about them is about using their instruments to create an atmosphere, a composition that’s close to classical in a way. Therefore, if you place vocals above that, you lose the atmosphere because you distract the mind, you compromise it.

These songs are not perfect, but they don’t pretend to be. They are compositions of passion, expressions of emotional hyperbole, but most of all, they’re great fun to listen to.