This is Mitar "Suba" Subotic. And this is his
story, a fantastic story that I would blush to put in a novel. Well, I might put it in a novel anyway,
despite the blushes.
OK, get this. Eccentric Tesla-style Serbian genius becomes "King of Illusions"
by playing anonymous avant-garde techno
music on Yugoslav radio – music he secretly
made up by himself while no one was looking.
Wangles UNESCO grant, scrams out of roiling
Yugoslavia in late '80s while the getting is good.
Ends up in Sao Paolo, where he speaks
scarcely a word of Portuguese. Somehow he
wangles odd jobs doing TV ad jingles and such,
then he befriends various movers and shakers
in Brazilian pop music by impressing them
with his dazzling European laptop ProTools
skills. Changes his name to "Suba."
Somehow this weird Serbian GETS IT about
Brazil's pop music as nobody has in ages! He
produces hit after hit! Dazzled disciples gather
at his feet! He has found his artsy metier!
Suba becomes Illusionary King of
Brazilectronica! Vast fame beckons!
In November 1999, as Milosevic is still in power,
Suba falls asleep in his Brazilian home studio,
drops a lit cigarette, and then gallantly dies of
smoke inhalation while trying to rescue Bebel
Gilberto's original tapes from the rising flames!
Very eccentric Suba "tribute site" here. Lots of
quirky animations and eerie noises. Probably
conveys what it must have felt like to hang out
with this guy.
"Exceptionally sensitive to nuances of mood and
color, Suba created fiercely expressive musico-
dramatic environments by superimposing and
synthesizing a wide range of dense and
interweaving electronic textures, his quick mind
enabling him to open and build heterogeneous
collages in the studio exactly as an artist wanted.
Says BÈco Dranoff, 'Suba had created such an
innovative sound and was so far ahead of the
curve that everybody wanted him. He opened a
whole new door.'"
And you know, that's a musician's victory.
Everybody cried when Suba perished, and they
did a nice tribute album for him. Then the
Brazilians moved right along. Suba died four
years ago. If Brazilians had a day of mourning
every time an artist died young, there wouldn't
be a day unblemished on the calendar.
You know what's encouraging about this dark,
very modern tale? A whole lot of bright, gifted
people died young in Yugoslavia for no damn
reason at all. Serbians fleeing to Brazil are kind
of the dank, scratchy underside of globalization,
but think of all the cool stuff Mitar Subotic
accomplished. And he never even asked
permission.
