Cubanate
Cubanate |
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Cubanate is an industrial metal band from London, founded in 1992 by Marc Heal and Phil Barry with Graham Rayner and Steve Etheridge. The group became well-known known for its early fusion of distorted metal guitars, and techno percussion (later incorporating breakbeats) with industrial electronics and vocals.
History
Cubanate played their first UK tour in November 1992 supporting left-field UK techno duo Sheep on Drugs. The group signed to Berlin's Machinery Records shortly afterwards. Rayner and Etheridge departed after the first Machinery single, Body Burn (1993). The pair were replaced by Julian Beeston (ex - Nitzer Ebb drummer).
In May 1994 the Metal EP was Single of the Week in Melody Maker magazine and later that year Cubanate received media attention when they were weirdly paired with Carcass for what turned out to be a notoriously violent UK tour ending in death threats to Heal and an on-air confrontation on the Radio One Rock Show with Bruce Dickinson. The second album Cyberia (1995) spawned the hit single Oxyacetylene, generally considered Cubanate's creative peak. Oxyacetylene featured on the 1996 compilation album Mortal Kombat: More Kombat and was later used as the theme tune of the best-selling 1998 Sony PlayStation game Gran Turismo.
For live work around the Cyberia tour the band hired Shep Ashton on guitar and Darren Bennett on keyboards. After '96 Ashton and Bennett were replaced by Roddy Stone (currently fronting UK metal act Viking Skull) and David Bianchi (who later went on to become manager of rock bands The Enemy and Boy Kill Boy).
The third album, Barbarossa 1996 continued the industrial metal format, to diminishing interest, and despite being name-checked as influences by bands such as The Prodigy the group clearly decided a change was needed.
Signed in the U.S. to Wax Trax! Recordings for the act's fourth and final album to date, Interference (1998) was a departure from Cubanate's earlier techno experiments with a strong drum and bass influence that alienated some of their traditionalist fans but was heralded as revelatory by others. The album was co-produced by Rhys Fulber. However, Interference proved to be the band's swansong.
Although the act is not very well known outside the industrial scene, Cubanate had a brief vogue in heavy metal circles. Body Burn and Oxyacetylene were both Single of the Week in UK rock weekly Kerrang! and a number of early nu metal acts have cited Cubanate as an influence.
Sometimes referred to as "the last industrial band", no new material has been released by Cubanate since 1998, and the band has not performed live since December 1999, although bootlegs of the unfinished album "Search Engine" have surfaced.
Apart from Oxyacetylene, three other Cubanate songs were used on the Gran Turismo PlayStation game and the single Body Burn can be heard at length in episode eighty two of The Sopranos, first aired in May 2007 during the final season of the show.
Discography
Albums and EPs
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Antimatter | Released in the U.S. in 1995 |
| 1994 | Metal | EP |
| 1995 | Cyberia | |
| 1996 | Barbarossa | |
| 1998 | Interference |
Singles
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 1993 | "Body Burn" |
| 1994 | "Oxyacetylene" |
| 1996 | "Joy" |