65daysofstatic
patreon
Wild Light Decade #15: Doxxx Yrself
🕑 Added 2023-09-08 11:00:05 +0000 UTCDoxxx Yrself. The best bonus track we ever wrote? Maybe. Are 65daysofstatic conflicted about it because of all the arguments with the label about bonus tracks getting added onto the end of Wild Light? Nah... Although we probably were, once upon a time. Not because of the track itself, but because of its role in the general release of Wild Light.
We get it - people listen to playlists and shuffles more than entire albums these days. And that's great. Whatever makes you happy. Or whatever gets you through the day. The problem isn't that we are scared of or resistant to change. It is more about wanting to keep the album form alive. Because while tastes and platforms and ways/contexts to listen to music inevitably change, it doesn't necessarily need to make the old forms obselete. You wouldn't argue that the novel form was old fashioned. Actually, maybe the 65LABS TikTok Research Wing would. But we're jamming their wifi to keep them offline, so who can say for sure.
The point is - songs are useful shapes to put music in. And a collection of songs in the shape of an album is also a good form to present music in. Together, songs organised in the right way can create an affect greater than the sum of its parts. Tracklisting an album is a long and arduous process. The same songs in a different order can manifest radically different emotions and intentions.
And so when we figured out that Wild Light needed to end with Safe Passage, we really meant, like, END. (A heated discussion over the very last second of Safe Passage probably caused the most band tension of the entire recording process, but that's a whole other story.)
But this is not how the people charged with selling the record think. And so, after much bitterness and, undoubtedly, a huge amount of passive aggression from our side of things, the Wild Light bonus tracks became a thing. They varied depending on region and format.
According to Wikipedia, Doxxx Yrself was the bonus track for the iTunes release. Which we thought meant that these days you could find it on the streaming services, but apparently this is not true (?) So maybe this is actually a brand new track to a lot of you! In which case - do seek out the actually finished version! It's better!
Anyway. Doxxx Yrself is a sibling to Heat Death Infinity Splitter in terms of pace and solidity, and feels like a faint foreshadowing of Asimov that we would end up writing for the No Man's Sky soundtrack a few years later.
It's a strong tune, probably 'relegated' to bonus track status mostly because Heat Death... did a better job of being the heavy-hitting opener and bringing what can only really be described as 'noise-swagger', while staying just the right side of melodrama. Even now, as much as Doxxx Yrself feels like a part of Wild Light, it is hard to say where exactly it could fit inside of it.
This is a recording from 65HQ before we took it into the studio to record properly.
Also, what an outro! For some reason we just tacked that little bit of magic on the end, shrugged, and then just finished the song. You wouldn't catch us being so careless with ideas that strong these days...
The Wild Light tour begins NEXT WEEK! Get your tickets. Nothing is sold out yet, either because we are no longer cool or because live shows are also an obsolete form or perhaps simply because the world is collapsing. Or a bit of all three.
We will be continuing the Wild Light Decade project from the road, but apologies in advance if the schedule changes a little.
Hope to see you somewhere out there, friends.
65.x
Comments
Cobalt_Afterlife
Doxxx Yrself has slowly become one of my favorite songs on the album over the course of this year. I was disappointed to see that its not on either of my wild light CDs. Glad to see it mentioned here and get some recognition
Ildikó Farkas
Oh yes! That was my first favourit from the album when I got the CD back in 2014. And still love it.
Martin Butler
This is brilliant; I'm sad that I've not heard it before (the price paid for not being an iTunes user I suppose). Any chance of an airing during the upcoming tour, perhaps...?
Adam
I hadn't heaerd this before, but it's really, really good.
theFrenchDutch
Well thanks a LOT James, as I had no idea about Artismal. My collection is now complete again :)
Elliot Ros
Doxxx Yrself is an underrated masterpiece. THE best track EVER.
James Harrison
It’s not even the best Wild Light b-side. I love Artismal, with the soaring synths
Louise
There have been quite a few tracks that I would gladly see released on a kind of Wild Light Decade compilation, and this is definitely high on the list!
Clément Goubert
I can confirm Doxxx Yrslef is still an apple music exclusive to this day, it's not on Spotify or anywhere else, which is a shame for such a banger.
