THE LAUNCH BOX: Subvision

Subvision is band from Stockholm, Sweden that has been classified as, Indie Rock, Pop Rock, and Alternative. It was officially formed on December 16 2002 by Tobias Forge (guitar/vocals), Gustaf Lindström (bass) and Thomas Daun (drums). With the intention of creating emotionally moving, weird and pop driven music, in stark contrast to the threesomes other band at the time, Repugnant.

Upon forming Subvision, a year of developing followed creating songs, rehearsing and refining their act prior to making their stage debut on November 8 2003. They also had a demo EP called Pearls For Pigsnawps. The full EP is on YouTube – Here is my favorite track from it, “Last Night”:

Initially, the band went through different stages of imagery and masqueradory, trying to extend the content of the music. In contrary to a result wished for, audiences were confused with the bands´ intentions thus further attempts to enhance the shows with theatrics and such gradually faded away. After all, it was agreed that Subvisions music and words speak louder than any costume worn by their members.

In December 2004, their plastic debut came in form of The Killing Floor EP, a four song cd to introduce the band to the world with. Reactions from the ones who were given it, bought it or wrote about it was very positive.

This is track 4 from The Killing Floor EP

Throughout the bands history, they’ve always had a problem keeping a second guitarist. After episodes with Torbjörn Brynedal or Franz Cedrins filling this vacancy, Martin Persner took the role of fulltime member as guitarist in Subvision in August 2005 (although he actually filled in for a short tour already in December the previous year).

Despite national gigging and minor touring most effort during 2005/2006 was put into the creation of their debut full-length album, So Far So Noir.

This is the video for track 1 off of So Far So Noir, called “Room 611”.

By late July 2006, Gustaf Lindström decided to jump ship after almost four years within the group. Replaced by Simon Söderberg.

On August 30 2006, So Far So Noir was released in Sweden. Praised within the national press, the album is yet to be released abroad… but you can listen to the tracks on YouTube and Spotify.

Echoes of 60s, 70s, and 80s pop music are found throughout, although there is a playful, if sometimes sinister, punk attitude that permeates the album. The songs are perfect and punchy little gems that are primed and ready for radio play and heavy rotation — catchy, lean and super addictive — but they never had much success outside of their native Sweden. And the writing is quirky and clever — listen to a delightfully absurd quote of the melody from the theme from the Godfather as it briefly and inexplicably appears at 1:35 in “Beyond the Moon,” linked below: