Return of the 65LABS Devblog - March 2024

So for the last few months we have been working on prototyping a new project for 65LABS. As ever, we have been trying to find that oh-so-delicate balance between creating something that:

• Provides an honest glimpse at the realities/working processes of being in a band like us.

• Wraps that unglamorous reality up in some hypersonic, para-social theatrics and myth-making of a 65LABS Grand Plan flavour. Because, let's be honest, the internet already has more than enough overly-earnest, white, cis-dudes approaching middle age messing about with synthesisers and guitar pedals. (Although to be fair we are no longer approaching middle age; we have arrived.)

• Gives us a framework in which we dare to share experimental/unfinished/failed music without that giving us the ok to just churn out any old rubbish for the sake of regular 'content drops'

We're making solid progress, if slower than we anticipated. The slowness is in part because of the aforementioned unglamorous reality of being in a band operating at this scale. The logistics of getting all four of us in the same room at the same time is pretty difficult.

Anyway, we have belatedly remembered... this is supposed to be a back channel, right? For a long time, these updates were a DevLog for Wreckage Systems before the V2 stream actually went public. And so rather than test your collective patience and make you wait for the time that a big, coherent launch of a new, glistening, 65LABS project is possible, what if we start putting the prototyping and figuring-things-out here?

So this is a soft launch for a possible season of video episodes we want to make. Not sure how many episodes will make up a season yet, 6-10, perhaps. And not sure how long they will be. And also, it is still entirely possible that it doesn't come together in a way we're happy with, and so the project will only ever have been this collection of back-channel only test videos that begin today.

The eventual plan as it stands currently looks something like this:

• An 'episode' of this 65LABS, um, communication, will be a different semi-live/studio/lab set-up, being controlled/used by some combination of the four of us.

• Each set will be some combination of new versions of old songs, autonomous generative systems, live-controlled Wreckage Systems, live-composition/sequencing/improv/whatever you want to call it.

• This might sound somewhat similar to Decomposition Theory, but as interesting as that was as a concept, we did not enjoy performing it. In part, our mistake was framing it as a performance in the first place. And so these episodes will be very much non-performances. Even though we will often be seen playing things, in this context we are thinking of ourselves more like technicians maintaining the custom live rigs we will build and less like musicians.

• Also, unlike Decomposition Theory, the emphasis is going to be on performing/re-presenting what has somehow become a vast catalogue of older 65 songs that we never get to play live in our more traditional band set-up. Not endless algorithmically-generated material.

• A new episode every month, available to everybody (not just patrons).

• Patrons will get early access to each episode. We plan to do this as some kind of an unlisted premiere, probably on a secret YouTube channel, where we'll do a live chat/commentary/Q&A discussing the specifics of this episode's live rig, how we use it, what we thought, etc.

• Patrons will also get high-quality audio versions of the mainline episodes/sets.

• There'll also be various patreon-only extra bits and pieces/development videos like the one included in this post.

So... that's the plan! By the time we're ready to launch it, if it launches, it will have a much cooler name and we'll be able to describe it a bit more succinctly. To be honest, we have no idea how long that is going to take. But in the meantime, during development we will be sharing prototype videos like the one above, and where relevant they will be accompanied by 65LABS Research Notes, like this:

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HYPERSONIC ANTISCALES 070324

[Skip to 02:19 if you want to ignore the aborted start with the strange syncing problem]

Hardware used: Moog Prodigy / Eurorack Modular Synth / Octatrack

Software used: N/A

Tracks From the 65 Archive: N/A

Time Signatures: 4/4Tempo: 98bpm

Technicians: Paul (left), Simon (Wright)

Generative Systems: N/A

Wreckage Systems: N/A

Other notes: This session was just a loose experiment, mostly looking for what new sounds we could get out of this particular combination of instruments. We weren't thinking about song-writing in the slightest. We also had half an eye on seeing how well this combination of instruments might work as a bit of unstructured, semi-improvised music within a more structured set. Paul gets particularly excited about stumbling onto a trick where the Moog Prodigy is getting routed through the Octatrack and uses the Octatrack's sequencer to make gated rhythms. Using a micro-delay with high feedback gets some really gnarly resonance going. Meanwhile, Si waits to the end of the video before figuring out how to disintegrate sound entirely.

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ANY OTHER BUSINESS

• Tickets still available for the Haus Horo (Rob from 65days) and NVLL (Simon from 65days) show in Sheffield AT A CEMETRY in May. Tickets/Details HERE.

• Lots going on over at Paul's new Komoy Noise Research Unit blog/newsletter, including the announcmen of a brand new Polinski record - MEET ME BY THE PANAMAX BARRICADES - that is out next Friday. Please do sign up (it's free (the newsletter, not the new record)). If you like the 65LABS updates you'll like this too. He's got a new video dropping next week too and will probably abuse his high-level 65LABS administration privileges to share that with you all in due course.