UNRELEASED/UNRELEASABLE VOLUME 1

This is a collection of rare, unreleased material recorded before 2003 and before the release of their first album 'The Fall of Math'. It was only sold at 65daysofstatic concerts between 2003 ' 2005. The band is a post rock group, but before officially releasing any records, they recorded several mash-ups and remixes of other artists, and most of these tracks are among those recordings. They started out as a band driven by guitars, but as they developed, they added in more and more electronic effects until the music was driven by electronics.

This album has some interesting recordings that are not available elsewhere. It starts out with 'Assault on Precinct 65' which is a remix of John Carpenter's soundtrack music from the 1976 film of the same name. The music is electronic and it recreates the music from the film with some nice effects. It starts out quite symphonic but reverts to more electronic effects and sound snippets from the movie. Very nice remix.

'I am Robot' is more of an original track with electronics and guitars mixed. The percussion is pretty much handled by electronics. There are samples from Sage Francis' 'Mullet' mixed through the track. It has a hip hop vibe, but with hints of post rock in the guitars. It utilizes dynamics quite well and is a surprisingly good track.

''' is a short track with samples from 'Deftones' and 't.A.T.u.'. It is a very heavy mash-up interrupted by some funny comments by Avril Lavigne about music.

'Face of the Earth (Clinging On To)' is a remix of the same song from 'The Dismemberment Plan'. It places a fairly poppy song in front of some heavy beats and static and includes some of the vocals from the song with other vocals layered underneath and on top of each other.

'Born Apart' is a great mash-up of Joy Divisions 'Love Will Tear Us Apart' and Underworld's 'Born Slippy'. The music is very processed and mixed over heavy beats. Some great effects are done with the original vocals.

'Everything We Talked About Yesterday' finally settles in to a 6+ minute track of original electronic music and post rock guitars. This is the type of music the band would become famous for and, even though it is a little rough in the mix which can make things seem too chaotic at times, it is still a refreshing take on post rock. It actually sounds almost like a remix of one of their own tracks, but I'm not sure about that.

'Default This' is another very short original track. It is a conglomeration of beats and electronic effects.

'Twentyfourtwelve' features the band The Tingler, who I don't know much about. It starts as a nice, simple piano and has electronic effects and field recordings scattered all over. After the words 'Christmas is cancelled!' it turns to a slow guitar melody with 2 guitars and bass playing. This one is actually quite nice. Soon, electronic effects start coming in again, then fade, and then come back with a vengeance. Somehow, we end on a solo piano again. 'My Hometown' is not shown on the track list, but it is a remix of Bruce Springsteen's song of the same name. It's pretty much the original song surrounded by mostly subdued electronic sounds and effects. Later, they mess around with the track and fade out on a skipping record of Bruce singing 'In 65, In 65, In 65'.' over and over.

With nine tracks, this is only a 27 minute album, so it probably qualifies more as an EP. For being early tracks, they are well produced, but there are issues with extremely heavy mixing at certain parts that distract from everything, so there are issues. The tracks are nothing else if not interesting, but nothing really outstanding. The album is fun and entertaining, but has little to offer in the way of being progressive. But it does hint to the direction the band would take in mixing electronics with post rock guitars. I doubt if anyone be interested in this much unless you are a big fan, but for those that are, it is a fun collection.