Submotion Orchestra
Spotlights carve across the stage like a lighthouse on a misty night.
This was the long-awaited return to Norwich of Submotion Orchestra following the unfortunate but unavoidable cancellation of their appearance at Jelly Festival in the summer. So instead, here we are at the UEA on a frosty December evening, with the anticipation of hearing tracks from the new album 'Alium', released only last month on Counter Records.
The Norwich gig comes at the end of a European tour, and immediately precedes a sold-out 'homecoming' in Leeds, the city where Submotion came to be in 2008 as part of a classical/dubstep crossover project commissioned by The Arts Council for performance in York Minster Cathedral.
The evening starts with a welcome appearance from Norwich reggae/ska/hip-hop favourites The Piratones, who have the audience skanking and grooving ahead of the bass-laden beats to follow. In spite of breaking a bass drum pedal early into the set, and a malodorous overheating amplifier, they turn in a solid performance that will surely win over new fans ahead of their EP launch later this month at Open.
As expected, it is the new tracks from 'Alium' that dominate Submotion Orchestra's set. Performing beneath a raft of inflatable stars not unlike pre-cast concrete blocks used in the construction of breakwaters, and lit by a shifting palette of predominantly blue and green light, the delivery is exactly what we have come to expect - atmospheric laying of keyboards, percussion and trumpet followed by trouser-flapping bass, and dense texturing. Ruby Wood's vocals add fragile beauty and moodiness, and whilst she is at times in danger of diverting our attention from the musicality of the band, you cannot deny the quality and the silky soul of her voice – reminiscent of Sade at times, yet maintaining that contemporary edge required by a jazz-dubstep fusion.
This isn't a voyage of crazy dance moves, more a sea of swaying and bobbing as wave after wave of bass-heavy ambience fills the LCR space, and spotlights carve across the stage like a lighthouse on a misty night. Simon Beddoe's trumpet playing has the plaintive call of a San Francisco detective tormented by unsolved cases and a doomed love affair. The drumming and the bass synth keeps the dub-step alive but, at the end of the day, it is the elegance and clarity of Ruby Wood that draws the focus at the live show, however integrated the production of the studio album.
