Wayang by Suba

Otherworldly, poetic, imaginative and full of exploratory spirit: the music of Mitar Subotić aka Rex Illusivii aka Suba is somewhere out there. Pure spheres of sound, ruled by absolute expression and a sounding language beyond our notion of a language. Now Offen Music reveals another unknown chapter of his large archive. This time it’s a Suba record, an alias Subotić started to use already in the late 1980s in Yugoslavia. It became prominent after his relocation in São Paulo in the late 1990s, where he became one of Brazil’s most demanded producers of the time. “Wayang” was conducted in 1995, just shortly after Suba produced an album together with his old Yugoslavian friend Milan Mladenović under the project name Angel's Breath. Their record unites ambient, world grooves, polyrhythms, haunting synth lines, post-punk, funk, reggae, dub, Asian melodies and vocal experiments all turned into a demanding, yet slightly pop story arc for open minded searchers. Somehow the Angel’s Breath is discreet mirrored in “Wayang”, that was recorded in Suba’s Wah Wah Studio in São Paulo, Brazil. The album features eleven tunes of whom each single one dances in its very own pipe dream. You hear particles of classic, tripping trip hop, minimal music madness, drone psychology, African percussions, the sound of a jungle, all-consuming Wagnerism, tragically moving psychedelic, tribal neo wave, Balearic desire, ethnic pureness, industrial rudeness, traces of Alan Lomax and the Smithsonian Folkways world as well as syncopated polyrhythmic adventures, religious chants, sample experiments, mumbling synthesizers and even techno. It’s all there and as if time hasn’t moved on, its sounds fresher than fresh. Music that has been produced with no specific audience in mind, only guided by sound and the dimensions it is able to create. Consequentially it seeks for a listener that is willing to surrender, to feel the many particles of Suba’s divine musical imagination beyond the common grounds. “You don't love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.” Oscar Wilde once said. Suba is singing these songs without using his own voice. He chants with sounds, found voices and unheard rhythms. If “Wayang” would have been released during the times of its origin, Mo Wax music would have sounded frumpy and Warp would have loved to drop it for its fierce musical attitude. If someone now says, it is easy to judge backwards, we recommend to listen and jump irrevocably forwards. It will be a sublime, sparkling, spiritual, impressive, thrilling journey that elevates its listeners to a place of inspiration and enlightenment.
Michael Leuffen, November 2017