Mantua: 65daysofstatic
Sheffield post-rock enthusiasts return to Ireland for the third of fourth time this year to play at the Main Stage at Mantua on Friday night. I caught these guys in Crawdaddy in February and their show is definitely one to check out. They are going on a massive US tour in August and will return to Ireland to play Electric Picnic before heading over to the US once again in September/October to the support The Cure on another mammoth tour.
The latest album The Destruction of Small Ideals was released at the end of April. Upon initial listens I was underwhelmed and I thought the production on it was strange. It was only when I came across an interview in Stylus Magazine that I reconsidered. If you’ve been reading the blog for a while you may remember I featured an article on Stylus called “Imperfect Sound Forever” which talked about the modern trend of loud records and dynamic range compression. In the interview, Joe from 65 Days of Static says that that article inspired them to make the album a “quieter” album:
Basically this album is modeled on that article and Harvest by Neil Young and the volume that’s recorded at, because that has probably the greatest guitar solo of all time, in my opinion, on “Alabama”.
So basically, because The Destruction of Small Ideals was quieter and more conservative than most modern records released these days, all I could think when I listened to it was – THIS SOUNDS UNMASTERED. Once I got over the dynamic change then I started to enjoy the album more to the point where I consider it to be a more cohesive record than 2005’s One Time for All Time.
MP3
65daysofstatic -When we were Younger & Better
[audio:https://nialler9.com/mp3/65daysofstatic_-_When_We_Were_Younger_&_Better.mp3]
65daysofstatic – The Distant & Mechanised Glow of Eastern European Dance Parties
[audio:https://nialler9.com/mp3/65daysofstatic_-_The_Distant_&_Mechanised_Glow_of_Eastern_European_Dance_Parties.mp3]
