SlowEarth comes out of its Cage

While local acts such as Aerial and Drums & Effects have been creating live electronic music for years, and countless other bands have opted for a traditional rock approach, few Atlanta acts have put the two concepts together the way slowEarth has on its debut full-length, Cage.

“It’s an amalgamation of everything we’ve liked,” says lead vocalist and programmer Zach Solem. “We have an aggressive, hard side, and we mix that with our pop sensibility and our moodier, ambient sounds.”

SlowEarth started out in the mid-’90s as a band called Cage, which included Solem, guitarist Joe Price, bassist Rik Robinson and drummer Richard Farmer. With the addition of keyboardist Ben Thomas, Cage took on the new moniker slowEarth, borrowed from a song title on Cage’s 1995 self-titled CD — a slow, spacey work about man’s smallness in the grand scheme of the universe. Now, with Cage, slowEarth returns the favor by naming its CD after the group’s past incarnation.

For lack of a better reference point, slowEarth often gets compared to a certain industrial superstar — despite the band’s more drum-and-bass inspired sounds and pop sensibilities. “Don’t even mention the Nine Inch Nails thing,” Solem requests. “I don’t personally mind the comparisons, but I think some people are too quick to judge.”

SlowEarth plays a CD release show Sat., Nov. 17, at the Dark Horse Tavern.??