I first found out about Submotion Orchestra after hearing a few amazing songs of their remixes album ‘Finest Hour’ – one of those albums being as good as the original. I then brought a copy of the original ‘Finest Hour’ which absolutely blew me away. The mix of soulful acoustic and contemporary electronic music was a discovery moment for me, opening my world to a new way of music. Three years after having their first EP release, they are touring their third album ‘Alium’ which is coming out on 24th November.
 
Submotion Orchestra are a seven piece band comprised of Dan Templeman (percussion), Tommy Evans (drums), Taz Modi (keys), Simon Beddo (Trumpet), Chris Wood (bass) and Ruby Wood (vocals). They formed at Leeds College of Music, along with all the other notable alumni, after accepting an invitation to produce a live dubstep project from the Arts Council. Their sound took off – and after holding a now legendary residency at Hukaz Bar in Leeds, they had created quite a buzz about their unique music.
 
Arriving at a busy Concorde 2, I heard the last few moments of support LV ft. Joshua Idehen producing very bass heavy beats that was sure to get everyone hyped for Submotion Orchestra. This did surprise me a little, as initially I thought this was going to be more of an appreciation gig rather than a moving and grooving gig.
 
Submotion Orchestra’s instrumentalists come on stage to raucous applause doing the intro off their new album. Then stunning singer, Ruby Wood enters on stage to sing ‘Blindspot’ which shows off the bands distinguishing dubstep-esque sound. They went on to do a set full of their newest material which sounded fantastic. The crowd agreed – as they were completely lost in wonderment to the trippy up-tempo beats, losing themselves and skanking to the sub-bass heaviness that incapacitated everyone. The crowd were in constant chatter which was a tad annoying for me and probably to the band. Not surprising though, as everybody was well on their way to a long night of partying at the Concorde 2 who were hosting Motor City Drum Ensemble afterwards.  
 
It was joy to witness Submotion Orchestra’s faultless performance – full of jazzy pauses, dub wobbles and haunting synths – the band were undeniably masters of the mixture of genres they seamlessly fuse together. The Dub-Electro-Ambient-Jazz was capped with Ruby’s pitch perfect vocals that were then fed through to Dom ‘Ruckspin’ Howard (sound engineer, producer and seventh band member), who overlapped the live sound with reverb and other effects making it something that you would of happily enjoyed in Ibiza or a jazz bar.
 
The popular ‘Always’, was the final song and it got the loudest reaction (although I am not saying it was the best song of the evening) with the audience singing along to every word. I would like to have seen a few of their more well know songs, not being able to pinpoint which album any of the tracks were on, as it all sounded pretty similar. You could say their music hasn’t progressed at all, but on the other hand, you could also say they have honed their own sound to perfection.
 
Website: submotion.co.uk