Under the Summs STREAMING NOW
Hi there friends. Welcome to November.
Another month, another lesser-heard 65daysofstatic release hits the streaming services. This time it is the Under the Summs EP, the first of four EPs that were part of the Wreckage Systems project. Out TODAY.
This was originally released on 5th April 2021. Written and recorded across various states of lockdown, Under the Summs is the distressed sounds of noise smuggled across borders via ftp servers. It is amplified distance, urgency coaxed from life on pause. The future without future. Under the Summs was the beginning of a new arc of music from 65days. If the Wreckage Systems stream was conceived as an infinite, endless soundtrack to Now, then these accompanying releases that we cut out of it are the disjunctions. The breaks in the transmission. Anchors in time, too heavy to be dragged away into the fog of digital ephemerality.
So in a way perhaps this release is a sort of haunting. Here we all are, living in the 'Oh well, never mind' era of a post-pandemic collective shrug. What will the history books say about our lungs? Will they be kind? Will they look at us aghast? Will there be anybody to write them? Who knows. Meanwhile, songs from the time sit quietly in the shadows, angular ghosts, daring us to remember those weird years, all of us trapped under the summs...
But don't despair, because if you start you will never stop. Instead stick on the title track and find some solace in that insistent 5/8 motorik beat, the bass guitar—reassurring like a strong, friendly hand on your shoulder—and then the gorgeous disintegraton of everything from around three minutes in.
Track two, Move Quickly, is an aesthetics-heavy juggernaut from a land of eternal dusk. The people there own synths instead of cars. Daring and chancy. Echoes of Hasselhof (?) Like we said: weird years.
Then it's NiteTimeUses. A music critic might call this a plaintive yell into the void. A fan of analog signal paths might call it a really nice pairing of synth patches. A phenomenologist with a penchant for romance might take note of the goosebumps prickling their arms and the silent tear rolling down their cheek, awash in hypersonic melancholy.
Finally Dawn of the Red brings things to a close. The unofficial anthem of Wreckage Systems. A piece of synth revisionism or a qualified embrace of nostalgia? Or just critical support for arpeggios? In the midst of a pandemic, who can be faulted for yearning for better times? But much like the entirety of the very Walter Benjamin-inspired Wreckage Systems project, while grasping for a retro past is seen as a trap to be avoided, so too is a desperate plunge into the unknown future. And if a pandemic teaches us anything, it is that atemporal indulgence is not an option. The tumult continues. Take the solace where you find it. And hold tight, this storm is far from over.
65LABS AND THE WRECKAGE SYSTEMS PROJECT
After some Patreon-based confusion and changes of heart, last month we committed to keeping the 65LABS patreon switched on, to help us with the ongoing costs of keeping the Wreckage Systems stream online, and also the general ticking over of 65daysofstatic as, y'know, a crucial and increasingly confused piece of performance art the four of us have been undertaking over the last couple of decades.
Because we anticipated a fairly low-traffic period in terms of Patreon-specific content (apart from the Wreckage Systems stream itself), we introduced a new, lower tier, giving existing members a chance to downgrade but still be able to support us, and giving potential new members a reason to join, because this tier still provides access to the vast 65LABS archive that is lurking inside the Patreon.
Happily, this has been well received. Thanks to each and every one of you who has stuck around - the vast majority of you even remaining on the original tier. And thanks to the new members! We weren't expecting a slight uptick in subscribers, but that is actually what happened.
If you're interested, click through. As you can see - we have sorted the archive into a bunch of collections for all your noise-spelunking enjoyment.
OTHER BUSINESS
- We still have Utopian Frequencies & Disquiet vinyl available, as well as the new Utopian Frequencies t-shirt. Stocks are dwindling (yes, we said this last month, and we still have some, but they have definitely dwindled more). When that vinyl is gone it won't be coming back.
- Next month will see the second release from the Wreckage System EPs - this one is Tomorrowd. A score to a film that doesn't exist. If you can't wait until December then you can check it out right now on our Bandcamp, or sign up to 65LABS and grab the mp3s from there.
- Paul from the band is still publishing his K.N.R.U. (the Komoy Noise Research Unit) newsletter relatively regularly. (Relative to 65's definition of 'regular', at least.)
- Rob's band Haus Horo smashed it at No Bounds festival in Sheffield the other week.
- That's it. No other business.
Thanks again for all your support.
65.x
