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WRECKAGE SYSTEMS


Frequently Asked Questions



I'M PRETTY BUSY. CAN YOU GIVE ME THE REALLY SHORT VERSION OF WHAT'S GOING ON HERE PLEASE? Wreckage Systems is a live broadcast of new, endless 65daysofstatic music. It is generated live on a computer and broadcast to the internet. It takes as its source hours of new recordings we made during lockdown (and continue to make), it combines them using software that we wrote, and turns them into music.

Wreckage Systems is being run as a Patreon project. Although the stream itself is free for everybody who has access to the internet, patrons will get various extras, most notably new music from 65daysofstatic, released more or less every month.

WHY WOULD I PAY FOR SOMETHING THAT IS FREE?
Because you would like to support 65daysofstatic. And because you can afford to. And because you don’t feel like some people being able to afford to pay for something should mean that the people who can’t afford to have to miss out. And because it will directly help us expand both the technologies and community that exist around the band and the stream. And because you’ll get free downloads of all the Wreckage Systems-related releases, access to subscriber-only blogs/discord channel/behind-the-scenes updates. And most likely anything else that the ongoing Wreckage Systems development throws up.

WHY DON’T YOU JUST RELEASE A RECORD?
Yeah don’t worry we’ll do that too eventually. But ask yourself this - do you want the next 65daysofstatic record to be:

      1. Full of bangers
      2. Full of all their weird algorithmic generative drone noise experiments

If the answer is 2, then congratulations! You now have infinite 65daysofstatic albums. If your answer is 1. then be thankful we have somewhere else to put all the other stuff so that our next record is a pristine diamond of ultra-tight hyper-noise.

WHY HAVE YOU USED THE WORD 'WRECKAGE' IN THE TITLE OF ONE OF YOUR PROJECTS AGAIN? ARE YOU LACKING IN DYSTOPIAN-SOUNDING VOCABULARY?
Yes. Also, it's a deliberate effort to start engaging with a kind of historical materialism of the band. To think of 'the process of being 65daysofstatic' as our ongoing output, rather than it being a series of isolated projects. So we are carrying forward the wreckage as we also try to draw a thread backwards through everything we have previously done that led us to this point. Expect a Patron blog post/s on this kind of thing in the future.

THE WRECKAGE SYSTEMS STREAM ALWAYS SOUNDS THE SAME TO ME. IS IT ALWAYS GOING TO BE THIS AMBIENT/REPETITIVE?First of all: our sincerest apologies that you find a free infinite music stream so same-y. We'll try harder next infinity. Secondly - this project is very much in active development. At launch, the broadcast is made up of around 10 different Wreckage Systems in rotation. Each system is necessarily always gonna sound like itself, because we want the stream to be as musical an experience as possible, and value that over dumb, random-number-based variety for the sake of it always being technically new. That being said, each system is in itself generative, and even if it sounds familiar, you're never actually hearing the same thing twice.

Developing and adding to the roster of Wreckage Systems, (and documenting this process), will be a main feature of this Patreon going forward. For a start - it definitely needs more beats.

IS THE MUSIC IN THE WRECKAGE SYSTEMS REALLY BEING GENERATED LIVE?
The stream is sample-based, meaning that it is built from a lot of 'real' audio recording by 65daysofstatic at 65HQ rather than being digitally synthesised entirely inside of a computer. But the Wreckage Systems are really turning those raw recordings into music live, yes.

WILL WRECKAGE SYSTEMS BE CAPABLE OF DOING [INSERT COOL THING I’VE JUST THOUGHT OF] IN THE FUTURE?
Who knows. Why not join 65LABS on Patreon? The future direction of the project is gonna be hashed out there.

WHERE WILL WRECKAGE SYSTEMS BE STREAMING?
Links will be posted here when the stream goes live. The audio-only stream appears to be very stable and will be online 24/7. We also plan to stream on YouTube and Twitch, although we are braced for some teething troubles and so the video streams may be intermittent to begin with. Your best bet is to follow us at either of those places, or hang out in the Discord to be kept up to date with that.

WHY CHURN OUT SO MUCH MUSIC? ARE YOU NOT RISKING DEVALUING YOUR ART BY REDUCING IT TO ENDLESS CONTENT FOR THE INTERNET?
Unlike the Spotify CEO who think artists need to stop being so lazy and up their output and engagement, we feel that when making albums, a less-is-more approach is still incredibly valuable. Nobody wants a new 65daysofstatic album every two weeks. A good album is a precious thing. It is an anchor in time, locking in memories like a photograph, a snapshot of your life in those days and weeks you first met it. But unlike an anchor, it moves through time with you. You get to know it better. You become friends. It isn't only that albums take a long time to make (although this is true), but that albums also take a long time to soak in.

Wreckage Systems' output is not albums. Primarily, it's a broadcast. Fast, rough, and responsive to the world in which it's getting made. This isn't the same as it being disposable, but its utility and purpose is focussed in an entirely different way to how we would approach an album. Standalone releases will appear from time to time (we hope monthly for the foreseeable future, but we don't want to trap ourselves into such a rigid schedule for this). These releases will be made up of more 'song-like' material, but it will all be sculpted from from the 'Wreckage Systems extended universe'. So expect them to be more soundscape-y/soundtrack-y than the kind of 65daysofstatic songs you might expect to hear on our regular albums.

Also, this is a really good question. Exactly how far can musicians be expected to push themselves before their music loses all meaning? Maybe someone should start some kind of audacious Patreon-based music project to find out...

WILL ANY OF THIS MUSIC GET A PHYSICAL RELEASE/APPEAR ON SPOTIFY OR OTHER AUDIO STREAMING SERVICES?
Not in the near future. It is possible that, further down the line, if there is a demand, we'll look into limited physical release/s like we did for A Year of Wreckage. But there's nothing planned at the moment.

I CAN'T AFFORD TO SUBSCRIBE, HOW CAN I HEAR THIS MUSIC?
The Wreckage Systems stream is free to tune into whenever you want. (It goes public 29-03-21). The associated releases will be available to buy as individual releases on Bandcamp (where you can also stream them without having to buy).

DO I HAVE TO BUY THE RELEASES TWICE IF I WANNA LISTEN IN BANDCAMP?
Please do not buy this music twice. As a patron, you can download high quality audio from Patreon and add it to your local library of the music player of your choice (including Apple Music or Spotify).

Sadly there is no official integration between Patreon and Bandcamp, but if Bandcamp is the primary way you listen to your music and you are a Patron supporter, message us via the Patreon app/website and we will send you download codes for Bandcamp.

WHY CAN’T YOU BE MORE LIKE NORMAL BANDS?
It’s a question we ask ourselves daily.


Wreckage Systems is a project from 65LABS.
You can become a 65LABS patron HERE.