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sunnyvale noise sub-element
Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element are a three-piece experimental electronic band from Oxford. Early experiments in noise have developed into more defined song structures, eventually separated into individual tracks and delineated into the current fractured cut 'n' paste avant-noise that has seen the band tagged as the sound of 'Kraftwerk remixed by Shellac' or 'Daydream Nation-era Sonic Youth meets Autechre'.
Further releases are now available from www.field-records.co.uk.
Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element are the following people:
Stuart Fowkes - electronics, bass, keyboard, sampler
Simon Minter - guitars, pieces of metal
Giles Borg - guitar, bass, keyboard
Interviews
- Sunnyvale by A Roman Scandal (from the Troublezine)
Discography
- I Love You Every Time You Smile split 7" (Field Records, 2006)
- Techno Self-harm CD (Field Records, 2005)
Reviews
sunnyvale noise sub-element, who open proceedings, are on superb form. they open with a five-minute wall of abrasive, dissonant noise that sounds like four guitars packed with plutonium ploughing into a petrol tanker under a mountain of cutlery. they break out into pretty half-tunes for a few seconds at a time before piling on the pressure once more and between the throbbing ‘air explosions and octave breaks’ and the statuesque ‘cow’, they’re quite incredible.
nightshift review of audioscope, 06.09.03
a new two-track demo recorded at the expense of the man (i.e. some
deluded major label a&r type who thought sunnyvale might be
the new radiohead). still, far better to be spending money getting
this stuff down than on some simpering ronan keating-endorsed c*ntage.
lately, sunnyvale have been called post-rock (no, no, no, no, no)
and even intelligent dance music (which, even leaving aside the
fact that dance music should never be intelligent - that's why it's
such fun - is bollocks since if you tried to dance to sunnyvale
you would get a hernia), but really, they're just intriguingly strange.
girl thief here is a confusing pattern of electronic pulses, chitter-chatter
rhythms and angular, misshapen guitar lines that sound like the
engine of some huge starship being overhauled as it deviously reaches
a coherent plateau of noise. how spiderman was tricked by his wife,
meanwhile, is kraftwerk's ‘numbers’ re-mixed by shellac.
someone famously said that writing about music was like dancing
about architecture. thankfully, sunnyvale have got round that one
for us by making music that actually sounds like architecture. and
so, demo of the month.
july 2003, nightshift
the early start has caught everyone by surprise as sunnyvale noise
sub-element take the stage. i have no musical reference points to
describe this lot, which is a good thing. there’s electronic
blurps and bleeps, lovely guitars, one or two bass guitars, keyboards
and someone playing a theremin at the back. add to this a tv screen
that changes colour and no singer and there you have it. while the
sound at previous gigs has been a bit hit or miss, tonight it’s
just the right balance of electronic wizardry and organic noodlings.
the tall frontman jerks like a demented spider hunched over his
keyboard, and the only break we get is called 'cow', when the theremin
comes into its own, sounding like a distant yeti screaming. they
are powerful, jagged and not easy listening, like having root canal
work at the dentist. music that is truly original is hard to come
by these days, but sunnyvale tread this territory with increasing
confidence.
www.oxfordbands.com review of the zodiac, oxford, 22.11.02
...and so to the cellar, easily venue of the night, where sunnyvale
noise sub-element (no, really) cement a growing reputation for (experi)mental
electronic post-rock. chattering samples and loping grooves swirl
over discordant, crystalline guitar riffs, creating a stunning,
unpredictable duophonic effect; the pcs centre-stage are the living,
breathing heart of this arhythmic, difficult music, complex but
always compelling, oblique but never abstruse. as an old man standing
behind the band looks on with equal fascination and fear, we can
only hope that the declaration ‘this radio station will remain
on air day and night’ proves to be the case.
from the oxford student, may 2002
'...the first track thunders in and it don't need no extraneous
gimmicks. it's got two minutes of darth vader breathing with beats
creeping up from three miles away, then throbbing bass burblings
and an insanely catchy guitar motif that re-occurs just enough that
you want to listen to it again when it's finished. 'air explosions
and octave breaks is altogether more of a downbeat affair, the sounds
are sparse but warm and punctuated by spurts of sputtering squelchiness
and angelic voices. just as you're thinking, actually that's enough
of the gothic angels thanks, it stops, counts to ten and then picks
up some chunky bass rock instead. good call. and then in true demo
style we get shown sunnyvale's other side - the sighingly gentle
guitar picked 'cow'. at the end, as far as i can hear, a spaceship
comes down and takes them all away. not completely unexpected, it
must be said.'
from online independent music zine www.diskant.net
'the only surviving going on down at the cellar tonight though is
the struggle to breathe through the heavy fug of sweat and expectation
that marks it out as the place to be once again (after last year's
monumental theremin / meanwhile back in communist russia / six ray
sun punt bill). by this hour it's as hard to pronounce sunnyvale
noise sub-element as it is to find a chorus in their incredible
expanse of computer, keyboard and guitar-driven experimental noise.
thankfully eschewing the one-note-is-all-you-need tedium of so many
experimental types, they instead blend and crush the classic krautrock
of faust and neu! into post-rock soundscapes, never content to stay
on any given path for longer than it takes your brain to work out
the equation. heads are scratched and hearts won in equal measures
and they win the special nightshift punt award for the band with
least in common with oasis of the whole night.'
review of sunnyvale live at the cellar, 22.05.02 at the annual oxford punt, from nightshift, oxford's music magazine
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