65daysofstatic
The Fall Of Math

Before discussing the actual album, I must at least try to give a vague explanation of the genre played by these 65 Days Of Static, a young band from Sheffield that gained attention in the USA with the EP "Stumble.Stop.Repeat" of 2003. It is a sonic collage that absorbs different sound particles not strictly related to each other: there are shards of the post-rock melancholy of Sigur Ròs, fragments of Aphex Twin's mutant electronica, splashes of grunge/noise never too hostile (more Nirvana than Sonic Youth) and a jazzy attitude that especially peeks through certain percussive intuitions. The ensemble is suggestive enough to make your mouth water, and although the four English boys (Paul Wolinski on guitar and sampling, Joe Fro on second guitar, Gareth Hughes on bass, and Robb Jonze on drums) haven't created a new masterpiece in front of which everyone, sooner or later, must bow, they have managed to create an album that, starting from an intriguing mixture, has built a pleasant album to listen to and almost never boring.

Electronic languors alternate with explosive guitar and percussive bursts of dramatic intensity, then calm into long trances where almost-silence reigns, broken only by intermittent keyboard "blips" and cinematic samples (even one from Cameron Crowe's "Singles" in "Retreat! Retreat!"). It seems superfluous to me to analyze the album track by track; much more useful, in my opinion, is to evaluate the high emotionality expressed in atmospheres that, along with the artwork, seem to want to render into music the painful period of adolescence: hence a certain schizophrenia in the album's atmosphere that sometimes offers moments of boredom, moments where the band seems uncertain about the direction to take and the tone to assume. However, these are sporadic passages; most of the time, anger, melancholy, apathy, and regret alternate in a sound picture of the most suffered and introverted "teenage angst" (in fact, I don't know why I mentally associate this album with Kurt Cobain) giving the album a poetic and sometimes surreal tone. The real merit of the band, in any case, lies in giving music, which in the hands of less talented musicians would have become background music, a psychological quality that makes it appreciable and noteworthy.

I repeat: the river doesn't always flow as it should. But it is really a great album, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who appreciates the expansive atmospheres of post-rock. And then, what a strange name, guys. I hope they are not remembered only for that; it would truly be a shame.