Music > Live Reviews

65daysofstatic

Norwich Arts Centre

23/07/17

65daysofstatic have been around for 16 years now - surprising but true. But what does the name mean? Perhaps that after 65 days of listening to white noise makes you officially crazy. Maybe the theory that 65 days of disabling the communication systems of a nation while spreading propaganda is enough to overthrow a country. Both are damn cool concepts I'm sure you agree. In that 16 years they may have released only a few albums and EPs, but what treasures they are. Their debut The Fall Of Math remains their most loved collection, although the more recent soundtrack to the planet hopping video game No Man's Sky has brought them a whole new bag o' fans. They are frequent visitors to the Arts Centre, and tonight the hall is full and excited.

I'm afraid I missed support act Soyuz Rats, although having seen them before I can assume that their garage rock combined with vintage recordings a la Public Service Broadcasting would have fit in beautifully with the main act.

For an hour and half, to one of the most rapturous crowds I've ever seen at NAC, 65daysofstatic give us whispers and momentous soundscapes, an incredible level of beautiful, smooth noise, and tender silences. Starting with Asimov and ending with a double encore, with plenty of tracks from all their albums including a healthy portion of No Man's Sky tracks, pounding and complex rhythmic drums hammer us, keyboards create depths, there are swathes of guitar and walls of sound that overwhelm us. A laptop delivers samples and bleeps that give a nod to the galactic worlds that they sometimes inhabit.This is a full on instrumental rock band in black t shirts and jeans who give an energetic performance full of passion. Somehow, magically, they create just the right chords progressions to make you feel like your heart is absolutely broken into more pieces than it was originally made of, and two seconds later make your soul soar higher than it ever has before. It's very emotional, and I'm so grateful that this is instrumental...the inclusion of vocals would tip it over the top and make it way too emo. "It feels particularly good tonight" the band tell us, and indeed, the feeling in the room is one of huge mutual love and respect. Funny and confident repartee between the band and crowd only helps this along. There are tubular bells, simple piano moments, a mass of sound..it's never manic, always measured and timely, dense and melodic with that snappy almost military drum beat keeping everything inline. The band work together tightly and on a spiritual plane all of their own. The crowd know all the tunes from the first few seconds that they hear..wonderful stuff. Despite the fact that this is often epic and grand music, it's also pensive, introverted and modest, endearing us to it rather than distancing us. It's a fully immersive and inclusive performance, and a great time was truly had by all. Yes, it was an emotional rollercoaster, but we loved every minute. Someone shouts out "very good", and I second that emotion.