Electronic live band goes heavy on uptempo

By John Benson

A Realtime Digimob song would lend itself to ‘The Matrix’ soundtrack.

A collision of unique ideas and idiosyncratic sounds is how Realtime Digimob visionary Andrew Labedz describes the band he formed just over a year ago.

“I consider this kind of more experimental, minimalist and electronic,” said Labedz, a 1994 Austintown Fitch High School graduate. “It’s a lot of improv elements, and that’s where the Realtime Digimob is taking the music. It’s real time, and we use computers and synthesizers with everything done in live. We kind of play off the words of the band name.”

From a contemporary standpoint, the threesome — Labedz (vocals, keyboards), Dave Knowlden (synth, sax, keyboards) and Allan Williams (drums) — is compared to eccentric acts such as Thomas Dolby, The Flaming Lips and Trans Am.

“I’d say it’s avant-garde, and I’d classify it more in a sense of jazz, but it’s electronica,” Labedz said. “It’s not so much the jazz sound but more of the improv and not following the normal verse-chorus, verse-chorus.”

The outfit’s genre is a polar opposite to Labedz’s prior band Vessel, which predominantly played hardcore material. The Youngstown native and resident said he was interested in pursuing something different with the new group.

With roughly half a dozen shows to its credit in the last year, the threesome is hoping to expand its audience with gigs in Cleveland, Kent and Akron. The Realtime Digimob is scheduled to play Saturday at Cedars in Youngstown. In the meantime, there is talk of recording an album’s worth of material that will be given away free to fans.

One of the tracks that the trio recently recorded lo-fi style in Labedz’s studio basement is “Digimob vs. The Terrorbites.” In a nutshell, the song’s sound and mindset epitomizes the driving force and spirit behind the Realtime Digimob.

“The tempo is upbeat with a lot of arpeggiation in it,” Labedz said. “The idea behind it is you can kind of visualize a battle scene going on. It’s almost fantasy.”

When it’s pointed out that the song sounds like it would fit perfectly on “The Matrix” soundtrack, Labedz eagerly agreed.

In examining the sound and style of the Realtime Digimob, the reality is the trio provides something different from the Northeast Ohio music scene’s run-of-the-mill, rock, radio-friendly bands.

“So far, for the few shows we’ve done, we’ve gotten a great response, and it’s something different in our area,” Labedz said. “I think that people are taking to it as well. The music has some laidback elements, but I think it’s more energetic. We’re more of a live show band than a recording act.”