Uberbyte - Sic
Uberbyte is a uk based industrial band that rose from the ashes of the industrial rockers, Killing Miranda. The first time the big audience heard of Uberbyte was on the Endzeit Bunkertracks II album which had the song “total War” featured on it, it became a real dance floor smasher.
Now the first full length album “SIC” is released on Crunch Pod. The music is industrial for sure. On one side the band has influences of the “old masters” like leather strip and early wumpscut but on the other hand the band doesn’t close their eyes for the big names of today, like Grendel and Hocico.
The album has several tracks that will do great on the dance floor, especially their opening track: “Stand up (for Uberbyte)” is a great song to open a live show. The rest of the album is really in your face, both in lyrics as in music. Listen to “SSDM” and “Broken Spears”. A recommendation for all ols school ebm lovers is “I am the nation”. In some tracks the vocals of Uberman are combined with the vocals of Charlene which works really well.
We also did an interview with Uberbyte click here to read it...
Stand up (for uberbyte)
I guess we had to start our career by being all like "wassup dawg ?". Its kinda genius or dumb depending on your point of view. Seems people largely get it though.
Bring the Rain
In contrast to the first song we then wanted to lay down something dense and ambitious. I'm not sure we 100% pulled this one off but its certainly the most daring song on the album and helped a great deal in helping us establish what sort of envelope we could set for album 2 which, ironically enough, we've just finished.
SSDM
This ones my personal favourite and I'm proud of some of the ideas in here. You won't catch many EBM bands doing a half time section, or messing with the feel within a given bar. And I'm delighted we pulled this off. Its got complexities that you have to listen for, the technique is good because its not obvious. We wanted to be oblique with that. Not standing up and shouting "look how clever we are" but instead using the skills we have to service the song not the other way round.
Total War
I guess this is our best known song. And our most controversial. For the record there's no way I could support or indulge Nazism. Without going into my own racial background I'm married to a mexican so I'm not at all sympathetic to racial or eugenic theories. The opposite in fact. I wanted to make a song that utilised and satirised the politics of past and present and to me its a compare and contrast of Goebbels on one hand and Bush on the other. The delivery may be different but the message is the same. And I set this to music that I felt was really dark and ominous. And to me makes clear how much I loathe the rhetoric of nationalism. But some people don't get it. Fine. I'm not gonna compromise my message because of that.
Lift up your Voice.
Politically in fact I'm socialist, with marxist leanings. And very much against the status quo. "lift up your voice" is atypical of the sloganeering, rabble rousing side of what we do. The lyrics are simple but direct and have what I feel is an important message. In this case Im urging people not to be apathetic (the contemporary tool of repression) but to speak out against injustice and exercise their rights and freedoms. I do believe in democracy, but I feel that it requires a totally level playing field as does not in my opinion currently exist.
Mother Earth
I also wanted to address environmental issues on this album. Despite the title this is a vicious little song, and very dark and pessimistic. In terms of the damage we've done to the world, I'm personally very concerned that our greed as a species may prove self destructive and it was important to me to sing about it, to try and get my feelings across. As a piece of music its got strong nods to Hocico, and as we're a part mexican band (charleen and Rodrigo, our drummer when we play over there,are mexican) it seemed natural to give at least a bow to those guys musically as they're a tremendous inspiration to us.
You don't get it (we don't care)
This ones kind of my narcissistic rage boiled down to 5 minutes or so of pure stomp. As a band we're widely envied in the UK because we've achieved to much in a short time. We didn't throw money around or kiss ass we just got up there and won over the audience, got signed on the strength of our music and kept moving forwards. We're not part of any clique, we don't demand the blind support of anyone or make our friendship conditional. We're just a damn good band. I do like this track cos its catchy and aggressive and has nods to lots of our classic influences like PAL and Cubanate while being very "now".
Going Down
There's a loose, crunchy, tracey feel to this that in part was inspired by our label mates Cervello Electronico. I love Daves stuff. Mind I love the stuff of all the bands on Crunch Pod but this was definitely a nod to his style. This loopy, striding kind of feel. It's one of few instrumentals on SIC. Future releases will probably have more because I really like to do instrumentals and try different things. And thats what this is, it breaks things up and shows another side to us.
Broken Spears.
This is the best song on SIC almost without question. What we've done here stands out, its a total one of a kind song. Its inspiration was a bunch of aztec dancers we saw in mexico city, they did this change of pace I wanted to incorporate and this tribal, stomping kind of beat that drives this song. The percussion is inspired by mexoamerican CD's I've listened to. Add into that the Nahuatl (aztec) poem "broken spears" (which I had to adapt slightly to make the lyrics flow) and I think we've got something that is uniquely us and bears no obvious comparison. Every time I listen to this it gets better and I think everyone should hear it cos this is the point on this album where we've done something completely new with this style of music.
135335
Its the number of civilians killed in the iraq conflict between 2003 and 2006. In case you were wondering. This songs pacey and catchy and a bit techno (as in kinda schranz-y) round the gills. Its a bastard to play live ;)
Sertraline
One people seem to have picked up on. Its a much more sensative, melodic song than most of SIC. I worry its a bit limp wristed personally but people seem to love it and it does have some powerful pathos without a doubt. The duet on the chorus I love, its very personal and very much about the issues both me and char have faced over the years. In fact its the most inward looking, personal moment on SIC. The one that'll give you the most insight into who we are as people.
I am the Nation
I wanted to close with a total old school song. And this is that. Its so old school EBM its untrue. Very 242. But also a very english take on that, with strong elements of Nitzer Ebb and Cubanate. Again this is one of our "slogan songs" and partly satirises the cult of leadership while on another level calling for people to take responisbility, to take power in to their collective hands. Its been something of a dancefloor hit in parts of europe this one apparantly. Char doesn't like it ;) I do.
