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Optiviewer

by Format Wars

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  • T-Shirt/Shirt + Digital Album

    Straight from the notes to your chest.

    “Yes! Please rush me this item. I’d love to be one of the first people to wear the ‘hear’. I have enclosed the correct check/money order/cash in the envelope and have carefully checked my size.“

    Note: sizes tend to run slightly small. Please choose carefully as we are unable to offer refunds.

    Size guide (cm)

    Length Width Chest
    S 45.7 71.1 86.4-94
    M 50.8 73.7 96.5-104.1
    L 55.9 76.2 106.7-114.3
    XL 61 78.7 116.8-124.5

    Includes unlimited streaming of Optiviewer via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
Optiviewer 03:54
2.
Cloud Decks 02:35
3.
Continuous Partial Attention 04:12
4.
Platform Love 04:46
5.
Connectome 04:08

about

Melbourne-based, experimental rock trio Format Wars present their debut EP, ‘Optiviewer’, a sonic meander into the imagination.

Format Wars stand as a throwback to a golden age of music creation, when bands collaborated with live instruments and worked within the constraints of analogue equipment. They also represent a rejection of rock clichés and formulaic song-writing; unfettered by vocal-centric songs and conventions, they explore alternative time signatures and favour song structures that evolve rather than repeat.

• ‘Optiviewer’ is upbeat and optimistic, recalling a long-forgotten dream of the future as a destination of hope and progress.

• ‘Cloud Decks’ is a minimalistic call-and-answer dreamscape, with robotic, stuttering rhythms and commanding piano.

• ‘Continuous Partial Attention’ is an expressive and wordless ballad, sung in a language that somehow knows it will be not quite understood.

• ‘Platform Love’ is a road trip that explodes from a standing start with a tsunami of 8-bit Atari sound, melding and merging in a haze of heat distortion and VHS tracking noise.

• ‘Connectome’ retreats to a quiet sanctuary that becomes suddenly filled with rushing thoughts and fractal images, ending in peaceful contemplation and heightened awareness.

The trio began their creative journey after graduating from the same high school, focusing on extended, improvised guitar jams, inspired by post-rock royalty. Over time, they would embrace their own idiosyncrasies and forge a new sound, comprising 70s-era analogue synths, acoustic drums and a five-string bass guitar. Format Wars effortlessly fuse genres and styles from decades of music as varied as Led Zeppelin, Can, Boards of Canada, Tortoise, Radiohead, Weval and Rival Consoles.

Each instrument plays a vital role in the compositions: Steve Davies’ bass guitar alternates between driving chord progressions and wandering melodies; David Cox’s drums provide syncopated rhythms with the sizzle of reel-to-reel tape; and Matt Howley’s synthesisers create dreamy soundscapes drenched in tape echo and reverb.

credits

released February 2, 2024

David Cox - drums
Steve Davies - bass, guitar, piano
Matt Howley - synthesisers

Written, arranged, recorded, mixed and mastered by Format Wars

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Format Wars Melbourne, Australia

We are a three-piece instrumental band that compose, arrange, perform record, mix and master our own music from our home studio in Melbourne.

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