Cubanate

History

Cubanate played their first UK tour in November 1992 supporting left-field UK techno duo Sheep on Drugs. The group signed to Berlin's Dynamica Records shortly afterwards. Rayner and Etheridge departed after the first Machinery single, Body Burn (1993). The pair were replaced by Julian Beeston (ex - Nitzer Ebb drummer).

In May 1994 the Metal EP was Single of the Week in Melody Maker magazine and later that year Cubanate received media attention when they were weirdly paired with Carcass for what turned out to be a notoriously violent UK tour ending in death threats to Heal and an on-air confrontation on the Radio One Rock Show with Bruce Dickinson.

The second album Cyberia (1994) spawned the hit single Oxyacetylene, generally considered Cubanate's creative peak. For live work around the Cyberia tour the band hired Shep Ashton on guitar and Darren Bennett on keyboards. After '96 Ashton and Bennett were replaced by Roddy Stone (currently fronting UK metal act Viking Skull) and David Bianchi (who later went on to become manager of rock bands The Enemy and Boy Kill Boy).

The third album, Barbarossa (1996) continued the crossover format, and despite being name-checked as influences by bands such as The Prodigy the group clearly decided a change was needed.

Signed in the United States to Wax Trax! Recordings for the act's fourth and final official full-length album to date, Interference (1998) was a departure from Cubanate's earlier techno experiments with a strong drum and bass influence that alienated some of their traditionalist fans but was heralded as revelatory by others. The album was co-produced by Rhys Fulber and Interference proved to be the band's swansong.

No new album-length material has been officially released by Cubanate since 1998. However, in 2007 a torrent appeared on the Internet with nine leaked demo tracks recorded by Heal in 2000 titled Search Engine. Featuring such tracks as Razor Edge, Superstructure, and Drowning Hands the material had been abandoned by Heal in 2000.

In October 2010 the band announced that they were recording again and would be releasing new material in 2011. A new track We are Crowd, was released on Alfa-Matrix's compilation "EBM1".

In a posting on his Facebook page dated 13 September 2011 Cubanate founder Marc Heal stated: "Marc here. I should have posted this a while back, but I wanted to let everyone know that I have decided conclusively not to do another Cubanate album. It was a real blast getting back into studio with Phil - and he came up with some brilliant music. But I'm doing something different with my life now and I've come to the conclusion to leave it. Thanks for all your support, I really appreciate it. I'll keep posting. M"

Both Heal and Barry have released solo work since that announcement.

Reunion

On Saturday 24 September 2016 Cubanate reformed to play the Cold Waves Festival (an annual Industrial Music Festival held in Chicago, Illinois) with members Marc Heal, Phil Barry and Vince McAley (variously from Dead on TV, GoFight and Die Warzau). The festival line up included: The Cocks (ex-Revolting Cocks Members: Richard 23, Luc Van Acker, Chris Connelly & Paul Barker), , 16Volt, Dead When I Found Her, Bloody Knives and Kanga — many of whom Heal has previously collaborated with in projects such as Pigface and C-Tec.

Legacy and influence

Although the act is not very well known outside the crossover scene, Cubanate had a brief vogue in heavy metal circles. The band toured with acts such as Fear Factory, The Sisters of Mercy, Rammstein and other rock acts, whilst Body Burn and Oxyacetylene were both Single of the Week in UK rock weekly Kerrang! and a number of early nu metal acts have cited Cubanate as an influence.

Oxyacetylene was featured on the 1996 compilation album Mortal Kombat: More Kombat and was later used on the soundtrack of the best-selling 1998 PlayStation game Gran Turismo. Apart from Oxyacetylene, three other Cubanate songs were used on Gran Turismo and the single Body Burn can be heard at length in episode eighty two of The Sopranos, from the final season of the show.