The noughties have seen probably the most radical changes in the music industries since the advent of the record. Consumption habits have dramatically moved from traditional to digital formats, music has been increasingly seen as something to steal rather than to buy, and listening habits means that nowadays, the album is becoming increasingly redundant. Or is it? Whereas it had, at least in some circles, become totally acceptable to fill records with substandard music, it is now essential for artists to create consistent pieces of work if they want to retain the attention of their audience. The last ten years have delivered their fair share of hits and misses, and this list doesn’t pretend to be in any way shape or form exhaustive. This is just, in no particular order, the definitive list of the 20 albums that have defined the noughties at themilkfactory.

JOANNA NEWSOM
Ys
DC303CD
Drag City 2006
05 Tracks. 55mins41secs
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An album like no other, by an artist like no other. Containing just five songs, some developed over fifteen minutes, Ys, named after a small mythical city on the coast of Brittany, France, is the second album by American folk singer and harp player Joanna Newsom. Van Dyke Parks wraps lush orchestrations around Joanna Newsom’s weird and wonderful tales to give her poetic lyrics additional relief and accentuate the emotional nature of her compositions.

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MURCOF
Martes
BAY23CD
The Leaf Label 2002
09 Tracks. 51mins55secs
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Sampling contemporary classical works and assembling them into stark electronic pieces, propelled by micro beats and glitches, Mexican artist Fernando Corona, recording under the name Murcof, created one of the most compelling and evocative electronic debuts of the decade.

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BROADCAST
Tender Buttons
WARPCD136
Warp Records 2005
14 Tracks. 40mins32secs
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By the time they released their third album, Broadcast had simmer down to just Trish Keenan and James Cargill, and had shed most of the rich and ornate forms of previous records to only retain the gritty electronic core of their music.

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ANIMAL COLLECTIVE
Merriweather Post Pavilion
WIGCD216
Domino Recording Co. 2009
11 Tracks. 54mins42secs
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Merriweather Post Pavilion is a far cry from the primal tribal sound of Animal Collective’s early records, yet it is also a testament of how the band have retained the essence of their sound while continuously evolving into more song-based forms.

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PORTISHEAD
Third
1764013
Island Records 2008
11 Tracks. 50mins06secs
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It took over ten years for Portishead to release the follow up to their eponymous second album, but Third proved worth the wait. Gone was the trip-hop of the mid-nineties, replaced with healthy doses of Krautrock, but at the heart of it still lies ‘that voice’.

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ARVE HENRIKSEN
Cartography
ECM2086
ECM Records 2008
12 Tracks. 51mins11secs
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After three genre-defining albums for Rune Grammofon, Arve Henriksen’s Cartography, released on ECM, showed a more mature approach. Working with the cream of Scandinavian jazz, Henriksen created with this fourth album a truly masterful work.

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BIOSPHERE
Dropsonde
TO66LP
Touch 2005
06 Tracks. 37mins52secs
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After a series of increasingly isolationist ambient records, Biosphere’s Geir Jenssen took a different path with his eighth album, incorporating jazz rhythms and richer, warmer soundscapes into his sumptuous ambient compositions.

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CLARK
Body Riddle
WARPCD149
Warp Records 2006
11 Tracks. 42mins21secs
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Clark has established himself as the most consistent of Warp’s electronic artists of the decade with a string of excellent electronic records. Gritty, raw and angular, Body Riddle, his third album, defined Clark’s sound more than any other.

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AUTECHRE
Quaristice / Quaristice (Versions)
WARPCD333X0
Warp Records 2008
11 Tracks. 67mins49secs
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Seventeen years on from their first release, Autechre continue to redefine their sound record after record. Quaristice, with shorter, snappier tracks, showed a return to more accessible musical forms, while its sister album, Quaristice (Versions), offered totally different versions of some of the same tracks.

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BURIAL
Untrue
HDBC002
Hyperdub Records 2007
10 Tracks. 50mins28secs
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A strong progression from the clinical dubstep of Burial’s debut, Untrue introduced haunting voices and swirling melodies, wrapped around razor sharp beats.

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TWINE
Twine
GI18
Ghostly International 2003
09 Tracks. 63mins32secs
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Twine’s fourth album constituted the pinnacle of the duo’s electro-acoustic work. Processing acoustic and electric instruments and incorporating them in their complex electronic constructions, occasionally adding vocal samples, they created a truly compelling record.

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BENOÎT PIOULARD
Précis
KRANK098
Kranky 2006
14 Tracks. 36mins52secs
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Combining delicate acoustic song forms and electronics, American musician Thomas Meluch, recording as Benoît Pioulard, produced a stunning record, filled with poetic touches and intelligent pop music.

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THE BLACK DOG WITH BLACK SIFICHI
Unsavoury Products
PUPLP3
Hydrogen Dukebox 2002
20 Tracks. 65mins26secs
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Prior to The Black Dog becoming a trio again, Ken Downie recorded this record with Scottish poet Black Sifichi, who can be heard throughout the album placing his odd surrealist tales over Downie’s impeccably classy electronica.

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MAX RICHTER
The Blue Notebooks
CD1304
130701/Fat-Cat Records 2004
11 Tracks. 40mins36secs
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One of the brightest talents on the new classical scene, composer and pianist Max Richter created a truly evocative piece of work with his second album, mixing delicate piano pieces, compositions for string quartets, discreet electronics and found sounds.

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THE VILLAGE ORCHESTRA
Et In Arcadia Ego
HPLL014
Highpoint Lowlife 2005
09 Tracks. 57mins00secs
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The first album by Marcia Blaine School For Girls member Ruaridh Law was released five years ago on the excellent Highpoint Lowlife, deploying inspired atmospheric soundscapes and complex beat structures over just under an hour.

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310
Recessional
BAY33CD
The Leaf Label 2003
15 Tracks. 54mins37secs
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Combining elements of hip-hop, jazz, electronica and folk has been at the core of 310’s work for over a decade now, but on their fifth album, their third for Leaf, the duo formed of Joseph Dierker and Tim Donovan gave their sound a more accessible twist while losing none of its original intricacy.

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VARIOUS PRODUCTION
The World Is Gone
XLCD204
XL Recordings 2006
12 Tracks. 46mins52secs
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Operating under a rather anonymous name, British duo Various Production conjured the contradictory forces of urban dubstep and pastoral folk into one fascinating record, served by a plethora of vocal contributors.

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COLLEEN ET LES BOITES A MUSIQUE
Colleen Et Les Boîtes A Musique
BAY53CD
The Leaf Label 2006
14 Tracks. 38mins55secs
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French artist has released three magnificent records in the last decade, yet it is this mini album, originally commissioned by French public service radio station France Culture, composed entirely on music boxes and processed on computer later on, that has proved the most enduring, evocative and poetic of the lot.

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SUPERSILENT
6
RCD2029
Rune Grammofon 2003
06 Tracks. 57mins51secs
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The sixth album by Norwegian super group Supersilent showed yet another dimension to the quartet’s incredibly vast repertoire by investigating the slightly more subtle ambient side of their improvisation work.

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BEN FROST
Theory Of Machines
HVALUR2
Bedroom Community 2006
05 Tracks. 38mins40secs
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Australian musician Ben Frost’s first album for Bedroom Community was like a series of shockwaves delivered in the space of forty minutes and five tracks. A deeply haunting and often threatening record, it continues to make a considerable mark.

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310
Lifeline
310 (Self-released) 2009
43 Tracks. 177mins29secs

310 appeared on The Leaf Label ten years ago, originally with an EP, NOD, quickly followed by an album, The Dirty Rope, yet, while they hadn’t benefited of a proper release network until then, this was actually the band’s third album, after the self-released Aug 56 (1997) and Snorkelhouse (1998), which were later collated on Downtown & Brooklyn Only. The project of Seattle-based Joseph Dierker and New Yorker Tim Donovan, 310 rapidly gained praises for their haunting blend of electronica, tainted with found sounds and occasional guitars and laid over hip-hop-infused beats, and continued to do so with their following releases, After All (2001) and Recessional (2003). After a four year gap, 310 returned with Sixes & Sevens, published on Conduit Records, in 2007. Split over two DVDs, Lifeline documents twelve years in the career of the band. The first disc collects a handful of live performances recorded in New York and London between 2000 and 2001, plus additional tour footage, while the second offers a retrospective mix of their work through twenty three tracks.

The first disc captures 310 in its live incarnation, with Andrew ‘Fire/Fly’ Sigler, then an almost full-time member, adding vocals, keyboards and other electronics. This DVD collates recordings made within a couple of weeks in October 2000, both in London, at Smallfish, the Arts Café and 333, and New York, at Brownies, plus an extra set recorded at the legendary Knitting Factory in June 2001. Each time, the music was recorded on DAT straight from the mixing desk and was later synchronised with the footage of the same performance. Most of the video filming is rudimentary to say the least, with often just one camera, placed on one corner of the venue, or, as it seems to be the case at the Arts Café, on top of an amplifier, filming the whole performance. Due to the concentrated time frame during which most of these recordings were made, there are many duplicate tracks here, but while the basis of the trio’s work is undoubtedly electronic, there are enough live input from each of them to make this a worthy document. The Knitting Factory and Brownies footage also benefit of a slightly more elaborated filming process, allowing, especially on the latter one, the viewer to feel much closer to the band and experience the performance in a more engaging way.

On the second disc, the pair present a retrospective mix of their career, with twenty three tracks culled from their first five albums plus a handful from the very limited and rare mini album Nothing To See Here, a short collection of atmospheric pieces the pair released in 2001, with archive black and white footage of New York in the early twentieth century, looped to work with the music. The use of old images is nothing new in the work of 310. Indeed, apart for Recessional and Sixes & Sevens, each one of their albums featured an old black and white photograph on its cover, and the pair pushed this further with Nothing To See Here, with each hand-made copy of the album featuring a unique picture. Here, while there is no specific narrative through this retrospective, these footages only accentuate the hypnotic character of the music and project the urban undertones of the tracks into a totally different time. This is perhaps best encapsulated in Urban Mantra. The track uses car horns as its basis, but on screen are looped sequences of traffic shot in the twenties first, then in the fifties.

This bumper audiovisual package is clearly targeted at fans of 310, bringing them two distinctive sides of the band, none of which have been particularly exposed before. Lifeline acts as a document of the band’s work over the years. While the live disc is just a snapshot of a particular time in the band’s life, the Retrospective Mix brings different periods together and demonstrate how, through their evolution, Joseph Dierker and Tim Donovan have created an extremely strong and consistent catalogue.

4.1/5

310

310
Sixes And Sevens
CR1307
Conduit Records 2007
10 Tracks. 46mins50secs

310, the band formed by New Yorker Tim Donovan and Seattle-based Joseph Dierker, are quietly celebrating ten years at the helm of their good ship with their latest album, Sixes And Sevens, released on Conduit Records, the title perhaps a semi-hidden reference to the fact that, their 2001 effort Nothing To See Here being a strictly limited affair, this album, their seventh, is only the sixth to received a high profile release. The pair’s debut album, Aug 56, was released a whole ten years ago on their own imprint, and their sophomore effort, Snorklehouse, followed a year later, firmly establishing their blend of ambient, found sounds, hip-hop-infused beats and melodic electronic music.

Released on Conduit Records, a label based, like the band, partly in New York and partly in Seattle, Sixes And Sevens undeniably bears the 310 stamp, but, unlike its predecessors, The Dirty Rope (1999), After All (2001) and Recessional (2003), Dierker and Donovan have produced an entirely instrumental record. The only vocal instances here are the band’s traditional samples making reference to their names. While long term contributor Andrew Siegler, aka Fire/Fly, is not present here, Dierker and Donovan have once again called upon a handful of collaborators. Ralph Rolle provides live drums on seven of the ten tracks collected here, giving pieces such as High And Tight or U Bastard increased relief, while a more subtle approach also adds to Radiator or King Summer. Turntablist Ali Shaheed Muhammad and trumpeter John Mulkerin provide additional textures on opener Fortuitous Bounce, the former by rooting the piece firmly in hip-hop territory, and the latter by giving the piece a jazzy sheen.

Paul Umbach adds to the menacing overtones of Black Acres by applying somber cello brushes, while the slow funk of Freedom Connection is given a slight Eastern European touch by violinist Mary Gross. Elsewhere, it is down to Dierken and Donovan to shape their environment by developing their familiar brew of acoustic, electric and electronic instrumentation, and refine the many contours of the music with found sounds and samples. The 310 sound has, over the years, become more sophisticated, but behind the melodies and layered orchestrations remain the hazy atmospheric backdrops and stunning ambient formations which have been integrant part of their work. Although not quite as exposed here as they were on Recessional, the moody meanders that build in the distance on Black Acres, Radiator or Track 8 convey much of the emotional turmoil of this record.

310 pack so much in their records that each listen invariably reveals new elements. Sixes And Sevens is no different. Brimming with sumptuous textures, gorgeous melodies and haunting atmospherics, this album is once again an impressive effort. In the ten years since they first appeared, 310 have forged a truly unique sound, with each new record adding to the band’s sonic riches. Impeccably deployed across Sixes And Sevens, these appear as bright and appealing as ever.

4.7/5

310 | Conduit Records
Buy: CD

The brainchild of Tim Donovan, who lives in New York, and Seattle-based Joseph Dierker, 310 have been producing beautifully detailed records for ten years, bringing together elements of jazz, hip-hop, folk, pop and ambient to create a truly unique sound. As they are gearing up for the release of their sixth album, Sixes And Sevens, on Conduit Records, we caught up with Tim Donovan to talk about the new record, how they find it increasingly easy to work 3,000 miles apart, and why the new album is primarily being released digitally.

It’s been four years since Recessional was released. What have you been up to?

Well, making the new record for one. But the entire record didn’t take four years to make. I think probably most of it was done two years ago. It’s just taken us until now to figure out how we were going to release it. In the meantime while sorting that out, we did some remixes for Six Degrees Records. One for Azam Ali and one for Karsh Kale. And we’ve been working on more new stuff, so hopefully it won’t be another four years before our next record.

You’ve got a new album, Sixes And Sevens, coming up on New York-based label Conduit Records. How would you describe it and how do you see it fit with the rest of your work?

I think this record has been a huge step forward for us and also a return to some of our older ways of working. A step forward in that we’ve pushed the production and the writing further than before. I think we’ve been moving our songs into more complex forms and arrangements with each record, but with this one the tracks have even more detailed harmonic and melodic structure and have a much more organic feel with Ralph Rolle’s live drums. And there’s even more guitar work on it which is really where our roots are. It also returns to an older way of working for us in that it reminds me of our third record, The Dirty Rope, where it was just me and Joe for the entire record. More of a duality in the work or a dichotomy per se. Once we came to the decision that these new tracks were going to be instrumental, then to me it felt like we were in the same mindset as on The Dirty Rope.

How did you come to work with Conduit, which is primarily known as a jazz imprint, and is this a permanent change of label for you?

Beck Henderer-Pena, the co-owner of Conduit, is a friend of Joe’s from when Beck was living in Seattle. Beck moved to New York and through Joe I got to know him here. We were looking into several different possibilities for the record once it was certain that it wasn’t going to be released on Leaf. Beck showed a lot of interest in what we were doing and suggested we do something with Conduit. We talked about different project ideas until Joe and I came to the decision that it would be a great idea to do Sixes And Sevens with Conduit. I think the most interesting thing about working with them is that now they’re half in Seattle and half in New York like us. It makes for easy dealings. But we’re taking it one record at a time like we did with Leaf and our self-released records. We’ll see how things go with this record and take it from there.

The new album seems more jazz-influenced than previous releases, especially on the first couple of tracks? Is this a bit of a new direction for 310?

I don’t think there’s ever been a moment in 310 where we’ve staked out a new direction per se. We just begin working on new stuff and it just goes where it goes. We’ve been influenced by a plethora of musical styles and we draw upon many different things. We’ve been huge jazz fusion fans since we were in high school, so it’s easy to conjure up those kind of ideas. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened as much on earlier records. The first track, Fortuitous Bounce, didn’t necessarily start out in a fusion direction. The beat was coming along like a funk track initially, but once we added the live drums and the trumpet it just went there on its own. And Ali Shaheed Muhammad’s turntable work was the cherry on top. That’s the nice thing about 310 for us, the freedom. It’s our artistic outlet where we let the tracks we create go wherever they want to go. They take on a life of their own and you just do your best to channel them in the right way. But somehow it always ends up being characteristically 310.

On Recessional, Andrew Sigler, AKA Fire/Fly, was credited as a full member, and he was also present on previous records, but for Sixes And Sevens, 310 is back to being just the two of you. Is this permanent?

No, it’s not permanent. I hope that we can include Andrew on future 310 projects. He’s been a very good friend of ours for a long time and he’s popped in and out on 310 over the years. He was very much involved in the making of Recessional so it was only natural that he be listed as a member of 310 for that record.

During the making of the new record Andrew has been living in Los Angeles and has been very very busy and hasn’t had much time to work on stuff with us. He lived with several of the tracks in their early stages, but as more and more time went by and as the tracks developed instrumentally, it became clear that was the direction for this record. Joe and I have developed a steady working rhythm between New York and Seattle. It’s a very easy process for us now. Adding the third leg of the Los Angeles element became a little more daunting this time. But I hope we can sort that out and include Andrew again in the near future.

You have surrounded yourself with a few additional musicians for the album, and there is a bit of a live feel to quite a few tracks. Are you planning to take the album on the road?

No. I don’t think so. It’s very tough for us to get together and play live since we live 3,000 miles apart. We’ve always been more of a production team than a real “band” I think. 310 started out with that mentality. But in the two year period around our record Afer All we devoted a lot of time and travel to performing live. Through the Leaf Label we were given several opportunities to play in Europe and that’s something we always wanted to do, so we jumped into it and made it happen. It cost us a lot of money to do it and the travel from Seattle to New York and visa versa just to rehearse before a show became quite daunting. But we’re glad we spent those two years doing that when we had the opportunity. We’d certainly love to play again, so it’s not out of the question. If it happens it’ll probably be just one off shows in New York and Seattle.

You still live on opposite sides of the US, and one would think that, with faster internet and Skype, it is easier to work while apart nowadays than when you started. Has the way you work changed a lot over the years?

Oh yeah definitely. I think each 310 record has been in step with the emerging technology of working long distance. And the faster the internet has become, the more efficient we’ve become at sharing ideas. We’ll send each other MP3s of rough track ideas and things initially and once we’ve decided on something that we both like then we’ll do a big upload of the Protools session for that track. From there we’ll pass back and forth more MP3s of roughs and then upload full files for the final additions so we both have them. Protools and the internet has allowed us to be much more on the same page all the time while we’re 3,000 miles apart. It shrinks that distance very nicely. No more waiting for that snail mail package with the zip disc in it. Although there was something nice about the waiting too. It’s a give and take.

On your first few records, your music was quite minimal, but in recent years, there has been a moved toward more elaborate arrangements and production. How did this change happen? Was it a conscious move?

Yeah I think it’s been a sort of natural progression of things. It also reflects what we’ve been into musically over the course of ten years now. Initially 310 was heavily influenced by things like Steve Reich, Brian Eno, Zoviet France, Rapoon, etc. That’s the kind of things we had in mind making our first two records. We didn’t even use sequencers on our first record, Aug 56. It was all free floating loops using samplers. By the time we did our second record, Snorkelhouse, we began to use sequencers to make the loops and beats. So things started to take on more structure and weren’t so free. It was starting to have more song elements along with the dark ambient soundscape elements we set out on initially. With each record I think that we’ve tried to work more and more toward that idea of a marriage of free ambient styles fused with a contained song structure. And as we’ve grown with that, I think we’ve pushed the production more and more where we’re getting more elaborate with the things we do.

It’s been ten years since you released Aug 56. Did you ever think that you would still be making music together after all this time when you started, and, looking back, what do you think about what you have achieved with your records?

Holy shit, we’re getting old no? Time flies. It’s all a blur I tell ya. Well I’m certainly tickled pink to have yet another 310 record out there and to be answering this question. It’s been a great ride so far. Each record posed its own challenge for us. I think this one has been particularly challenging because it’s a transition into a different way of releasing the record. But it’s been a great learning experience. I’m very excited about this record and the future of 310. I don’t think I’ve ever seen 310 ending for us. Once we got the thing rolling strong it just seemed like a solid and long lasting thing for us. Joe and I have been close buddies since we were fourteen years old. We met in a musical situation and developed a long lasting friendship and musical partnership since then. It was ten years ago that we did the first 310 record but it was twenty years ago that we were in a rock band together and played in college bars. 310 has just turned out to be our natural musical home. Joe likes living in Seattle and I’m a New Yorker down to the bone so the long distance music we’ve created is perfect for us. I think 310 will always be with us and we’ll always find a way of getting it out there for the people that enjoy it as long as we’re physically able to do it.

The new album is, I believe, due out primarily as a digital download release, with only a limited CDs being pressed. Why did you choose to go this way?

When we were looking into different options for releasing this record, many people we talked to were promoting the idea of doing only digital distribution for the release and that their physical sales have been going down while their digital sales have been going up. And certainly that’s an obvious trend. It’s a no-brainer. More people are downloading their music rather than buying CDs. I mastered a record for a friend’s label recently and when I saw him last he gave me a copy of the CD and he said that he thought that it would be his last CD release. He’s going to do it all through digital distribution from now on. He just didn’t see the point in printing up CDs anymore. And I hear that more and more from people. So when we discussed the new 310 record with Beck at Conduit we initially decided to go all the way ourselves and do it through digital distribution only and test the waters and see what happens. But as we mentioned this idea to some fans of 310 they seemed a little disappointed. They understood the move but asked if we could at least do a limited CD release for the people who still hate listening to MP3s and want a CD. I hate MP3s really myself more or less and I’m glad we made the move to make the CDs. It just is what it is. Things change and you have to go with the flow and make it work. So this record is a bit of a testing ground to see how this approach works. If it turns out well, then we’ll do the same thing for the next record. We certainly want to make it as easy as we can to get the CD version to the people that want it and we very much appreciate the interest in that.

For the CD version of the record we did a continuous mix of the whole thing like we’ve done on all of our past records where the tracks crossfade into one another. And for the download version, since it’s more common for people to grab individual tracks, each track has a beginning and end to make them separate and it isn’t a continuous mix. So that makes the CD version special from the download version.

As you just said, CD sales have been seriously slumping in the last couple of years, and as a result, Tower Records shut down all their stores in the US, and Virgin is pulling out of the market place altogether in the UK. Do you think this is the end of the CD as a music format, or could it favour small independent music retailers with a specialist offer?

I’ve definitely given up trying to be Nostradamus on anything, especially the music business, but my crystal ball tells me that CDs are pretty much going to be dead and buried in the not too distant future.

In 2001, you released Nothing To See Here, a collection of instrumentals released at a very limited quantity, with hand made packaging. What was the idea being this particular project, and why did you choose to release it that way?

Vince McLean who owns Manifold Records had the initial idea for that record. He went around to flea markets and purchased a whole bunch of old photographs and had the idea of a CD cover where each CD has its own unique old photograph attached to it like an old photo album. He’s been a huge 310 supporter since our first record and that cover idea very much reflected the same ideas we were doing with our covers up to that point. So he asked us if we could do a straight up ambient record in the style of our first record, Aug 56, for this release on his label. We loved doing that record. We made it at the same time we were making the After All record. They were very much side by side productions. One was a break from the other in styles. And in other ways they overlapped each other stylistically. But Nothing To See Here gave us a mission. An assignment to do. Make an ambient only record, period. No beats. And from the start we decided that it would be many short ambient pieces that had definite beginnings and ends. It wasn’t going to be a continuous mix like all other 310 records. The pieces would become short stories that would be companions to the photograph on the cover.

Do you think you will ever do something like this again?

We’d love to. If Vince called us tomorrow and said, “I’ve got another assignment for you if you want it”, we’d jump on it. I think for a project like that we need somebody to bring us an initial idea and say “I’d love for you to be a part of this idea I have”. We love those kind of situations. Remixes are a lot like that for us. Working in that capacity on music for a film would be great. We’ve always been open to film possibilities but nothing has panned out yet in that area.

On the 310 website, there are a number of rare tracks, some of which don’t seem to ever have been released. Would you consider collecting them and make them available on an album?

Possibly. A couple of the “rare” tracks on our site have been released on Leaf compilations or as B sides. St. Mesa Substation was on an Invisible Soundtracks release and Extra Virgin was the B side to the Opposite Corners single. Some of the others may need to be called in and reworked a bit now if they were going to go on a record. They’re sounding a little old to us. We always have these tracks that almost made it on records lying around that we revisit from time to time and see if we can bring some new life into them. We always talk about those tracks as if they’re sitting in the waiting room. They’re reading magazines, watching TV, chain smoking cigarettes, waiting to be called in to be reworked. Some tracks have been in the waiting room for a long time. They’re getting old and crusty with hairs coming out their ears and nostrils.

Most of your album covers feature what look like old photographs. Where do you find these, and is the visual aspect of your records important to you?

Our first three record covers are old family photographs of mine. The cover of Aug 56 is a photograph of my parents’ first television. Other old photographs later on were purchased at flea markets and things like that. Some of them are photographs we’ve actually taken ourselves and made to look like old photographs.

The visual aspect is very important to us with our covers. It adds to the element of mystery and imagination and different interpretation that we like to convey in the music.

Now that the album is almost out, what are your plans, either for the band or for you as individuals?

To push this record out there the best we can and hope that people enjoy it. We hope that listeners who have enjoyed our past records will hear something new and also something familiar in this one. But as far as 310 and the future goes, we don’t have specific plans other than to work on new stuff and push toward the next record and cross that bridge when it comes. We’d like to do more remixes. We love doing those. And hopefully get an opportunity to work on film music.

Sixes And Seven is out on 13 November on Conduit Records.
Email interview with Tim Donovan, November 2007.

310 | Sixes And Sevens | Conduit Records