(03.03.07) “What if Squarepusher joined a post-hardcore incarnation of Tortoise?” This is the conceit we’re invited to indulge by those putting the spin on Sheffield outfit 65daysofstatic’s launch into the wider world beyond the UK, where this album has been causing a (would-be) commotion since late ’05. The response to this hypothetical question, after listening through One Time for All Time, would be to return to sender, for the post-everything hybrid status being claimed is, in the vernacular, all mouth and no trousers. Whatever merits 65dos may have are, on this evidence, not related to any kind of radical stylistic fusion. In short, if you have heard The Hype, then don’t believe it.
No, the majority of One Time for All Time will hold little crossover appeal for the IDM-electronica fraternity, that is unless they moonlight as weekend speed-indie freaks cum nu-metallites with a weakness for the rococo
cadences of post-rock and chamber piano arpeggios. It’s hard to resist joining in with one’s own entries to the parade of soundalike matchmakings already reeled off by reviewers reaching for the best genre-transgressing odd-bedfellow pairing: in addition to Tortoise, we’ve seen Mogwai also hitched to Squarepusher, as well as Slint cavorting with Aphex Twin, and GYBE! carousing with M83. Such referential impressionism does serve to point to a sonic zone within which a certain amount of reproductive soundclash occurs. However, neo-realism must assert itself at this point, and point out to the prospective consumer something that all this weird wedding talk fails to do: namely, the extent to which this hybrid is chronically skewed over to the ‘rock’ side of any projected rock-electronica alliance. It crucially fails to identify the sound of this recording as essentially still a form of hyper math-rock (ironically, in view of their 2004 debut album’s title, The Fall of Math), albeit with an occasional admixture of stylized electronic colourings and glitch-tics. And it is no more than occasional, be assured. Far from being riddled with bleeps and clicks and mekanik dancing, its contours are scrawled all over with scrunchy compressed guitars and staccato post-kerrangisms, and driven by a three-armed drummer who switches seamlessly from choppy time signatures to straight-ahead gonzo.
So, yes, 65dos are certainly pumped full of the sort of vitality that fuelled early drum’n’bass, or, more recently, hardcore mentalism. but here’s the thing: if you had this playing in your flat at a certain volume, your downstairs neighbour might conceivably just think it was something like System of a Down; however, it would never occur to him/her that it might be Ed Rush or Pendulum or Sileni (insert preferred drum’n’bass model), or Venetian Snares or Mothboy or Dither (insert hardcore mentalist version) for that matter. Yes, we point the finger: 65dos are hereby exposed as just another bunch of blokes hunkering down post-ly, only one thrashing out a righteous structured rock din rather than dwelling overly navel-gazingly on the Mogwai/GYBE! quiet-loud gospel on fretboard-fiddling. True, OtfAT is bookended by two tracks that deviate slightly from the prevailing overdrive. Opener “Drove through ghosts to get here” is reined in for short passages replete with a slightly nervous tension and Nymanesque Piano-plonk, only to bust out and vent its spleen for being so contained. Last track “Radio Protector” pushes more extended piano arpeggiation to the fore and puts the guitars on mute, but by this time it’s too late in the day to retrieve the impression left by half an hour of a moderately adventurous stylized thrash version of bombast. File under Prog Indie.
One Time For All Time is out now on Monotreme. Buy it at Amazon.com.
