Subsource - Tales from the Doombox

  by Adrian Huggins

published: 3 / 4 / 2010

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Review

The press releases you get with promos are sometimes a help and sometimes a hinderance. Sometimes you wonder just how disillusioned the person writing it was. On the other hand sometimes the bands themselves and their PR teams seem to say all the things I as a music writer would love to say, but in a much better way. While to the lazy journalist this can be a blessing and make a good exercise in re-writing, I just don’t know on this occasion with Subsource how to add to it. To quote Subsource themselves- “Fucked off with so-called live dance acts mincing around behind laptops, and rock acts with no more substance than the product in their hair, we decided things had to change” YES. Yes, yes, yes, before even listening to their debut album, 'Tales from the Doombox', I was already wanting this album to please me, and it does. The problem is I’d feel a right charlatan trying to reiterate the band's attitude and their music, so there you go, a lesson in quoting when quoting works best. They have summed their attitude up perfectly and live up to it so well. It is a big statement to open up with, but this big bold statement is a tiny whisper compared to the noise that comes out of the speakers when ‘Tales from the Doombox’ is on your stereo. It’s a tough comparison because you can’t really sound “a little bit like the Prodigy”, but if you do like the Prodigy then chances are you will love Subsource. Packed with that balls-out attitude, enormous bass and genuine hip-hop vocals that have come from a credible place, rather than the usual shopping centre, teen-friendly type of thing that is thrust upon us in this day and age, the band have a fantastic sound of their own. Subsource manage to pull influences from a hip-hop, dubstep and also a rock background. While there are plenty of dance acts embrace more guitar-orientated sounds and visa versa, you often feel like some of them are doing it for the sake of doing it, and the result is basically a rubbish version of neither. ‘Parasite’, however, delves deep into the dubstep realm and sounds immense and would be a hell of spectacle live. Subsource are the real deal and provide the sort of kick up the arse that is more than welcome in this day and age. Current single ‘The Ides’ is huge and has a real west Indian vocal to it from front man MC Kimba, that could be just as at home in the middle of a down beat reggae track. Set against the crashing guitars and stomach- rumbling drum n’ bass/dubstep, it really gives off a new sound that crosses genres rather than just flirting with them. In their own words again “Something sinister is rising on the horizon”, I think that something is Subsource and it's about time something like this came along. Miss them at your peril. If the Prodigy or maybe even Pitchshifter are your thing and especially if you don’t mind Pendulum but find them a little safe nowadays, then Subsource may be your new saviours.

Track Listing:-

1 Tales From The Doombox
2 Street Soul Music
3 Some People
4 Disarm
5 Charge Me
6 The Ides
7 New Bones
8 The Reason (Parasite)
9 Machines In Real Life
10 Beats and Bandages

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/subsource
https://twitter.com/subsource
https://www.youtube.com/user/subsource
https://plus.google.com/11564456098735
http://www.last.fm/music/Subsource
http://www.songkick.com/artists/565999

Label Links:-

https://www.tumblr.com/search/doombox%