subNAUTIC

I was invited to check out a band called Subnautic a week or two back. They’re a mix of modern jazz (as far as I understand it anyway… think Isoptope 217, Tortoise, etc) with some ‘live IDM’ sort of twists. That’s not a great description, but yeah. They have a drummer (and he’s good!), stand-up bassist, and a piano/keyboards guy who uses some technical mumbo-jumbo that’s not that important (ok, he uses Ableton Live) to make intoxicating and entrancing tunes that build up and swell with occasional outburts of unbridled creativity. It was great fun. Worth checking out, for sure. They have a studio album as well, which I picked up at the show. It’s more thoroughly developed than their live versions with more subtlety and restraint. The live set is more improvisational, just as it should be in my perfect musical world. The show also incorporates a live digital painter providing real-time visual entertainment that more or less goes with the mood of the music.