Everyone
loves a “supergroup”. At the very least, the formation of a new band whose
biography begins “featuring current/former members of...” always causes a bit
of excitement in the community who followed the members’ previous exploits, and
it is a successful, albeit slightly accidental, way of gaining the band an
early fanbase. Take Them Crooked
Vultures, for a recent example. The band were selling out gigs (in quite
large venues) before they’d even released one complete song, and why was that?
Because their vocalist/guitarist is Josh Homme, their drummer is Dave Grohl,
and their bassist/keyboardist is John Paul fucking Jones, that’s why. At a
smaller-scale local level, the formation of Sub Atari Knives in Melbourne in late 2011 got a lot of people immediately
talking, with a lineup boasting former members of K-Oscillate, Mammal, and MM9.
Hugo Tremayne (vocals), Nick Adams (bass) and Ben Ellingworth
(drums/programming) quickly got their heads together and wrote a bunch of
tunes, so they could get out there fast and perform some gigs to give the
curious fans an idea of what they sounded like. Though gigs haven’t been very
frequent, they have certainly been highly praised for their energy and massive
live electronic sound – and now the Sub Atarians have released an EP, which as
happens so often, raises that age-old question of “Can the band replicate their
live sound on their recordings?” (Or vice-versa.)
The answer,
in this case, is yes. The disc opens with Tremayne ambitiously boasting, “We
beat the common sound, we beat the common ground”, before a rapid crescendo of
drum-and-bass beats overtakes the senses, and Alter Ego gets the EP off to a great start. Though a few people
have commented that the band could use a live keyboardist/synth player, rather
than Ellingworth just using his laptop, in the comfort of your own home that
problem is simply not apparent. Heavily indebted to the current dubstep craze
that is sweeping the globe, Ellingworth’s vicious loops and buzzing synths
effortlessly create the kind of euphoria that is an essential part of good
electronic music these days.
The tracks
the band have chosen are a short but oh-so-sweet representation of where Sub
Atari Knives are at today, and the tunes might be familiar to fans with good
memories who have attended those handful of gigs. In terms of highlights, it’s
hard to go past Hear. Life. Spoken. ,
which more than anything else, is a great example of Hugo Tremayne’s impressive
vocal ability. As the EP progresses, it’s certainly something that stands out;
Tremayne’s obviously spent a bit of time listening to The Prodigy in his life,
but in no way is this a bad thing, as his aggressive vocal delivery is
extremely effective in getting the listeners’ attention. Nowhere is this more
evident that in the eponymous track Sub
Atari Knives, where the call to “Move and sway!” is one that has been
obeyed with great zest at previous Sub Atari live outings, and no doubt will be
in the future.
The presence
of Nick Adams, former bassist of Mammal, in this band has been a reason for
general excitement among fans of his previous work, but unfortunately on this
EP, it isn’t always exactly clear what the hell he’s doing. Obviously in
electronic music, the synthesised sounds and heavy beats play a major role, and
it’s because of this that Adams’ impressive chops sometimes take a backseat on
this disc. It’s not to say he can’t be noticed at all, but overall on the
musical side of things, it’s very much Ben Ellingworth leading the charge. Not
that that’s a bad thing, as overall, it’s just a solid EP. The music presented
here is of a very high standard and will hopefully see the Sub Atari Knives
name ascend to greater heights.
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