Mosh pit meets the martini set

Claudia Gunn, Jason Johnston (centre) and Nick Farrands want to put the feeling back into cool, emotionless DJ culture.

Nick Farrands arrived in London without any clothes. He was wearing some, but, unable to afford the excess baggage payment before leaving New Zealand, he emptied his suitcase to make way for a sampler.

"He had the essentials," smiles band-mate Jason Johnston, who met Farrands at Heathrow airport in December 1996. That sampler, an s2000 Akai, was the start of their band Substax - a mongrel mix of breaks, house, funk, soul, rock, and any number of other musical styles.

Johnston and Farrands lived in London, immersed themselves in club culture and made loud and bass-heavy dance music before heading home in 1999.

Now, with singer Claudia Gunn, who joined the band three years ago, Substax have released their debut album, Electro Soul Plane. They play tonight at Galatos.

The trio don't seem too concerned about the length of time it's taken to get their debut out. A couple of years ago they were on the verge of releasing New Zealand's first breaks album. But their record company Kog Transmissions ran into problems and it was never released.

Electro Soul Plane, from its ambient soundscapes on Music For Airplanes to the Massive Attack-meets-DJ Shadow eeriness of Lost In Transit to the streetwise and fun jaunt of What Up?, is more than just a breaks record. It's a better record.

"A lot of acts tend to write an album that is fairly monochrome in tone," says Farrands. "But we've created a lot of moods which are complex and the idea of the album is for something you can grow to love over time. It has all these moods that human beings have so it's got anger, it's got exhilaration, septic angst ... " he laughs.

"It's a kaleidoscope of sound. That's Claudia's line," laughs Farrands. "It risks serious art snobbery but I don't think we'd have a problem with being art snobs. I'd much rather be called an art ****** than I would be some sell-out musician."

Electro Soul Plane, is a diverse piece of work and the band say that has a lot to do with it being created over several years. Some tracks are more than three years old.

"That's what we're trying to do, get longevity into the material," says Farrands.

Adds Gunn: "You could look at it like a really awesome, vintage coat from the 50s that is still amazing, and you appreciate what it is and the craftsmanship. The way we write music is almost like writing a soundtrack."

Substax will take you on a visual and musical trip - especially live, thanks to the accompanying visuals created by Janine Randerson. And they're tired of the stuffy DJ and dance culture where the music is apathetic and cold. Substax want every night they play to be a party.

"People want to go and watch something. It's more exciting to see someone thrashing away on a guitar or playing a keyboard, when they're actually expressing something," says Farrands.

"To a certain extent, DJs are at the point of being emotionless and have been making that seem somehow cool for a while. How they got away with it I don't know."

After that mini tirade, Johnston's in damage control. "We do like DJs, because we want the DJs to play our music, so I like DJs, especially the really popular ones."

"I think there's room for performance and live music that is somewhere between a moshpit and a dancefloor," says Gunn.

"No, somewhere between a Wild Turkey cola and an Amaretto Martini, that's what we are," jokes Johnston.

Apart from the Wild Turkey sounding a bit bogan, he's not half wrong.