65daysofstatic (followed by 90 users)

65daysofstatic Biography by Scott Kerr

English outfit 65daysofstatic play a tense, dramatic form of instrumental post-rock which heavily incorporates electronic music styles such as drum'n'bass, techno, and glitch. Their guitar-led melodies and live drums are combined with sampled beats and digital processing, reminiscent of Mogwai as well as Squarepusher. The group gained a loyal following through extensive touring and well-received albums such as 2004 debut The Fall of Math. Their output during the 2010s has included more dance-influenced releases, like 2010's We Were Exploding Anyway (which included a guest appearance by the Cure's Robert Smith), to forays into soundtracks, such as the 2016 video game score No Man's Sky: Music for an Infinite Universe. Later in the decade, the group explored algorithmic composition techniques during their concerts and releases like replicr, 2019.

The band was originally formed in 2001 by Joe Shrewsbury, Paul Wolinski, and Iain Armstrong. In 2003, Armstrong left the band, and they recruited drummer Rob Jones and bassist Gareth Hughes (later replaced by Simon Wright) to expand their sound. Their earliest material consisted of pop mashups and remixes as well as original material. They released a few limited CD-R EPs followed by proper debut EP Stumble.Stop.Repeat in 2003.

They went on to release their debut album, The Fall of Math, in 2004 on their own label, Dustpunk Records. The record was well-received and the band amassed a cult-like fan base following a nationwide tour. Following this success, they entered the studio to record an EP in 2005, but they instead wrote their second full-length, One Time for All Time. They toured heavily throughout the year and into 2006 before laying down new tracks -- with contributions from members of the Mirimar Disaster, Digitonal, and Circle Takes the Square -- for their third album, The Destruction of Small Ideas, which arrived the following year.

They were invited to join the Cure on their tour of the States in 2008, and the following year released Escape from New York -- a live album featuring performances from their shows at Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall. Their fourth album, We Were Exploding Anyway, arrived in 2010 and marked the band's shift to more electronic influences and away from the post-rock arrangements of their previous work. This migration was aided with the release later that same year of the EP Heavy Sky, which predominately illustrated their electronic influences and the introduction of more synthesizers and samples. During a busy few years, 65daysofstatic undertook an IndieGoGo project to fund their alternate soundtrack to the science fiction film Silent Running. The original performance was commissioned by the Glasgow Film Festival to perform the new score live at the 2011 festival. Their successful IndieGoGo campaign saw the soundtrack recorded later that year and issued to contributors as a limited-edition vinyl release. Their fifth full-length album, Wild Light, arrived in 2013 and saw the band reintroduce some of the guitar-driven elements of their earlier work.

In 2016, 65daysofstatic recorded the soundtrack for sci-fi video game No Man's Sky. Titled No Man's Sky: Music for an Infinite Universe, the album was released by Laced Records in June of that year. During 2017 and 2018, the band performed a work titled Decomposition Theory or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Demand the Future, which incorporated algorithmic music and live coding techniques. In May of 2019, the group began releasing a series of monthly EPs of material created as part of Decomposition Theory. The band also released an experimental electronic full-length titled replicr, 2019 in September.