Sub-Division, The Primos EP

“FUCK CORPORATE FAKERS. SUPPORT TRUE INDIE MUSIC.” So blasts the slogan on the press materials of Mexico City quartet Sub-Division. “Watch for the crazy kids of Sub-Division as they make their way up the CMJ charts, just being added this week, and already closing in on the top 20 spot.” So reads the text of the press materials of Mexico City quartet Sub-Division. This young band has something yet to learn about how self-representation can obstruct one’s purpose. It’s to be hoped that they learn it. Though this six-track EP has only three actual songs, the balance being given to unnecessary remixes (including two of the same song), it promises a much greater wealth later on. What this band is doing could be described as punk rock if it weren’t so spooky and ethereal, or industrial goth if it weren’t stripped-down and (supposedly) largely live, but mostly it’s deceptively efficient and darkly intriguing. Though two of the three songs (“Express” and “Leave Me”) are seemingly marred by the thudding monotony of an industrial dance beat, both are much shorter their openings suggest — “Leave Me” is barely two minutes — and only around long enough to make a musical point and get out of the way. Furthermore, they are complemented by the weirdly pretty “Promise,” which seems to disappear when it has hardly begun, even at a full three minutes. Meanwhile, the heavy delay on Amira Baltezar’s vocals makes them ineffably disturbing, as if she were a translucent spectre instead of a rock singer. The combination is simple enough to be easily comprehensible yet strange enough to be interesting. If Sub-Division has enough ideas to fill out their music without bloating it with repetition, they may yet discover that people buy music not for its politics but for its aesthetic appeal.