Submotion Orchestra at Brudenell Social Club review

Image: ">Submotion Orchestra 

Submotion Orchestra does not have to push water up a hill to please the crowd at the Brudenell Social Club, Leeds. This is home territory for the band and its popularity in the city is noticeable.

Walking through nearby Hyde Park when the sun makes an appearance, it is not unusual to hear a Submotion track blurring out of a tinny iPod docking station.

Earlier on during the day of the gig, I heard the band’s album (listen to Colour Theory' below) playing in a food shop in the city centre. Local band – Kalyan, notably – take cues from Submotion’s intelligent blend of dubstep and jazz. And the gig is the second in two nights, both of which sold out. 

But the crowd is unusually reserved. When the band draws its set to a close with 'All Yours' the 'popular one' from the bands debut album, All Yours - there is no response from the crowd.

Nor is there much of a break between the bands last song and encore, because there is not an overwhelming call for Submotion to come back. In December 2014, when the band played mostly the same album at the same venue, it would have been impossible to say either of these things.  

One reason could be the absence of vocalist Ruby Wood. Hers is a characterful voice that sits perfectly on top of Submotion’s distinctive, multi-layer instrumental section. 

Two vocalists step up to fill her boots. Billy Boothroyd and Alyusha interchangeably take to the stage and sing very well. Billy’s voice, which features on Submotion’s newest album, Colour Theory, comes into its own during the raised-lights, cymbal crashing crescendo in 'In Gold' (listen below). Alyusha is flawless in covering Ruby’s broad vocal range. 

Submotion is much more than just its vocalist. The crowd’s dampened enthusiasm is not attributable to Ruby’s absence alone. 

The band does not play the type of music the crowd has heard a million times before. Submotion bring something unique and well thought through to the stage.

Electronically-rooted acts can struggle to bridge the gap between the studio and live setting. Not Submotion. The band's performance is tinged with electronica but not subsumed by technology. Its dubstep-inspired tracks are co-created by seven musicians, not one person and their Mac. 

Colour Theory also can’t be knocked. It is consistent with the Submotion people from Leeds to Lyon have grown to love and has the band’s signature hallmarks: chord progressions with depth, sway-inducing grooves, and a controlled but inventive use of technology. 

It is perhaps because Submotion has an established, signature style that twelve or-so songs have the effect of subduing the crowd at the Brudenell.

The band has mastered its own territory and is right to depart from it with caution. However, the themes that run though Submotion’s performance – euphoric build ups, grooves, delayed vocals and ethereal soundscapes – take their toll. This could be why the home crowd does not react to All Yours in the way it unmistakably did fourteen months ago. 

Check out all of Submotion Orchestra's remaining tour dates. 

Read our review of Animal Collective at the Ritz, Manchester.