Subsource are a British electronic music group. Their current sound is a fusion of

dubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

and

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typi ...

genres and their lyrics have a theme of

social commentary Social commentary is the act of using rhetorical means to provide commentary on social, cultural, political, or economic issues in a society. This is often done with the idea of implementing or promoting change by informing the general populace ab ...

. The group has maintained a strong presence on the UK festival circuit due to the nature of the combination of dance music and live elements and they have consistently received critical acclaim for their live shows. Gig reviewers have commonly described their live shows as being energetic and displaying ferocity. Sound comparisons have been made to The Prodigy,

Pendulum A pendulum is a weight suspended from a wikt:pivot, pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, Mechanical equilibrium, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that ...

Innerpartysystem Innerpartysystem (often stylized as InnerPartySystem) is an American electronic rock band. The group consists of Patrick Nissley, Jared Piccone and Kris Barman. The band is well known for their live performance lighting largely by Andrew Nissley ...

and

Rage Against the Machine Rage Against the Machine (often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to simply Rage) is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commer ...

Musical style

Their current sound is a cross between

and

genres. In their earlier years, their shows were heavily improvised and often took place on the London squat/free party scene and their intention was to be 'playing dance-floor destroyers'.

Group members

* Stuart Henshall (vocals/bass) :Stuart plays a Clifton hand-built upright electric double bass through a synth effect unit. He came close to death whilst driving the tour van into a tree at V Festival. * Paul Frazer (electric guitar/synth) :Paul plays a

Fender Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuous ...

and A PRS through an

Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower * Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum ...

amplifier. He is Norwegian. * Dennis Ng aka Borg (synths/electronics) :Dennis plays a

Nord Wave The Nord Wave is a 49-key polyphonic synthesiser developed by Clavia. It integrates the playback and manipulation of samples into a virtual analog and FM synth engine, which is a rare combination on keyboard synthesizers. Sound Generation The Wa ...

and a Roland Handsonic HPD-15. He has also been seen using a Wii remote controller on-stage as a MIDI controller. He is British-born Chinese, studied at the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. * Vince Welch (drums)

Past members

* Neil Shervell (drums) * Kimba Mutanda (MC) * Stix (MC)

''Subsource: A Dubumentary''

Colin Arnold (Surgery Productions) directed a documentary following the band's journey over the course of 18 months, finishing in early 2011. The film's tagline is 'Most music documentaries are produced after bands have made it... very few capture their journey'. The film was released on DVD on 29 October 2012 by Left Films. The film was made available to view

John Landis John David Landis (born August 3, 1950) is an American comedy and fantasy filmmaker and actor. He is best known for the comedy films that he has directed – such as '' The Kentucky Fried Movie'' (1977), '' National Lampoon's Animal House'' (19 ...

described the documentary as being 'An insightful look at the truth about rock and roll.' 'Dubumentary' is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsdubstep Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the early 2000s. The style emerged as a UK garage offshoot that blended 2-step rhythms and sparse dub production, as well as incorporating elements of broken be ...

and documentary.

Releases

2010 – Tales From The Doombox (album)

Track listing # Tales From The Doombox # Street Soul Music # Some People # Disarm # Charge Me # The Ides # New Bones # Parasite # Machines In Real Life # Beats And Bandages NME gave the album a good overall review and described it as 'fusing dubstep with cyber metal with great aplomb'. They went on to describe their debut album, 'Tales From The Doombox' as being like ' The Prodigy teaching a noise violation seminar to

Sonic Boom Six Sonic Boom Six (often shortened to SB6) are an English five-piece band from Manchester, United Kingdom. Their eclectic sound combines different elements of several genres and has been described by ''Kerrang!'' as "taking ska, pop, grime, dubst ...

'. Other reviewers in print and online generally praised the eclecticness and mentioned facets of

breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and ...

drum and bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

, hip-hop,

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use the ...

and

being present in their sound. The band featured in Metal Hammer's 2010 Hot List of bands to watch. "Parasite" was used in the US TV Crime show ''

Numb3rs ''Numbers'' (stylized as ''NUMB3RS'') is an American crime drama television series that was broadcast on CBS from January 23, 2005, to March 12, 2010, for six seasons and 118 episodes. The series was created by Nicolas Falacci and Cheryl Heu ...

''. It featured in the rock-climbing opening sequence of the premiere episode of Season 5. "Disarm" was used by Sky Sports in the coverage of the first ever World Freerun Championships.

2012 – Generation Doom (EP)

Track listing # Molotov # The Feeding # Lay You Out # It's All A Lie # Anarchy # Kill The Thief
Overall, reception was positive for this EP which was praised for its darker, heavier tones compared to the band's previous sound - and for mixing punk, rock and dubstep in an original way. Other artists that commented for their press release for the EP include:

Liam Howlett Liam Paul Paris Howlett (born 21 August 1971) is an English record producer, musician, songwriter, co-founder and leader of the British electronic band The Prodigy, and an occasional DJ. Early years Howlett was born in Braintree, Essex, E ...

from The Prodigy – "These boys have a big, nasty sound, dangerous to my ears"

Benji Webbe Clive John "Benji" Webbe (born 11 March 1967) is a Welsh singer, best known as the lead vocalist and synthesizer player for the reggae metal band Skindred. Aside from his main project, he is also active in Diamond Spider, Dub War, Mass Mental an ...

from

Skindred Skindred are a Welsh reggae metal band formed in Newport in 1998. Their musical style mixes heavy metal, alternative rock and ragga. The band also integrate elements of punk rock, hardcore punk, reggae, dancehall, jungle, ska, hip hop, ...

– "It's the sound they use, they just f*ck up your speakers" Molotov was used in a trailer for the video game

World of Tanks ''World of Tanks'' (''WoT'') is a massively multiplayer online game developed by Belarusian company Wargaming, featuring 20th century (1910s–1970s) era combat vehicles. It is built upon a freemium business model where the game is free-t ...

which garnered over 200,000 in the first two days of going live.

Other tracks

Subsource are well known for their upbeat, loud and energetic remixes and collaborations with other artists - including: * Skindred – Game Over (Subsource Remix) - released as the bonus track on the Deluxe Edition of Skindred's album, 'Union Black' * Sonic Boom Six – Virus (Subsource Remix) * Foster The People – Call It What You Want (Subsource Remix) * Run Riot – A Light Goes Off (feat. Stu Subsource and Olly Hounds) – featured on Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2012) video game soundtrack

Resmashed series

# Nirvana – Breed # Rage Against The Machine – Testify # System of a Down – Toxicity # Slipknot – Duality # Soundgarden – Spoonman # Metallica – Enter Sandman

Use of music in films, TV and games

Subsource tracks also featured in the following video games: * Juiced: Eliminator (PSP) * MotoGP 07 (PS2) * MotoGP 09/10 (PS3/Xbox 360) * FIFA Street 3 (PS3/Xbox 360) They also composed a remix of

Strike Suit Zero ''Strike Suit Zero'' is a space flight combat game developed by Born Ready. ''Strike Suit Zero'' seeks to revive the space combat genre by introducing "strike mode" as a new element to the dogfight-based gameplay of classic space combat games. '' ...

's main theme, which was featured in the game itself, one if its trailer, as well as in the physical release of the soundtrack.

References

{{Reflist British electronic music groups