Watch Submarine In Space Tap Into a Sweet Spot in ‘Sugarcode’ Live Performance Video

New Delhi instrumental act Submarine In Space get back to riding the waves of jazz-fusion, rock, funk and more on the jovial track “Sugarcode,” off their upcoming second album F5.

The song and album arrive four years after their debut album Wavelengths and shows off just how much confidence Submarine In Space have gained in their craft along the way. To their credit, the band even launched a crowdfunding campaign mid-pandemic to secure ₹4,00,000 for producing F5, a live album that was conceived in 2019 while they were touring Nepal.

Although foiled in their bids to record F5 in Mumbai in 2020 due to the pandemic (and again in 20201 when the second wave of Covid-19 surged throughout the country), Submarine In Space held their nerve and were able to give a whole new treatment to their album due to crowdfunding. Inviting an audience to a studio space in Delhi NCR and recording video and audio over the span of four days in May amidst a trippy set production, “Sugarcode” gives us just a glimpse of the sonic gymnastics of Submarine In Space. There’s also their meticulous attention to detail on the visual side, perhaps emulating live video performance productions from influences such as fusion act Snarky Puppy.

In the video for “Sugarcode,” we see there’s a submarine crafted out of welded iron sheets hanging as though in outer space, true to the band’s name. “Roots of lights went down from the submarine to individual stations and were being triggered by the music. The catch to this was that we were recording it live with an audience,” the band says in a statement. With violinist Sayan Sinha, guitarist Abhishek Mittal, bassist Madhur Chaudhary, keyboardist Vatsal Bakhda, drummer Vasudev Singh and percussionist Fidel Deli Murillo, Submarine In Space showcase just how well they work together on stage. The band says about the track, “As we grow old, we seem to take ourselves too seriously and forget about the kid that lives inside each one of us. This track is a message to take a pinch of sugar every day and enjoy little moments of happiness life offers you.”

As for F5, Submarine In Space take influence from the idea of the refresh button on a computer keyboard. With the pandemic and it’s ensuing lockdowns, the band also underwent a lineup change with Singh coming on board to take on drumming duties. The band notes in a statement about the hard times, “We had gone through a lineup change we did not intend on happening, and just when things seemed they had come to a halt, we were blessed to have found our new drummer Vasudev whose playing instilled confidence in us and gave us hope of continuing on the path to creating instrumental music.”  

That led to F5 becoming more about hitting refresh at regular intervals of life. “This album is a journey depicting that no matter how low life might seem and how many speed breaks you encounter on your journey, there is always a ray of light, an F5 button, which you can use to go back on continuing with your purpose in life, which for us is making music and giving it to the world,” the band says.

Watch the video for “Sugarcode” below.