A few notable exceptions aside, Sheffield will forever be remembered as a city whose love of electronic music has left an indelible mark on the cultural landscape. From Cabaret Voltaire through to Human League and the influential Warp label and beyond, the steel city’s love of beeps and bleeps has come to define it. And, as displayed by the career of post-rock outfit 65daysofstatic, the prominence of electronics has had much to bear on the music made beyond those parameters.
In the 11 years since the release of their second album, the quartet justifiably increased their audience while incrementally developing their sound to also take in soundtrack work for videogame No Man’s Sky and an alternative one for the 1972 sci-fi classic Silent Running while taking 21st-century rock music into new territories.
To listen to second album One Time For All Time from such a vantage point is to reacquaint oneself with the sound of a band still in its developmental stages. Their hallmarks – polyrythmic drums, shifting time signatures, sweeping keyboards and guitars devoid of any 12-bar influence are all present and correct, but the measured pace of more recent releases such as Wild Light is preceded by an urgency bordering on the frantic. Rob Jones’s spluttering and dynamic drums take centre stage throughout as they doff their cap to the rhythms of drum’n’bass. The teethgrinding attack of Await Rescue can still induce anxiety, though the likes of Welcome To The Times display a sharp grasp of dynamics.
