Still hyped from their set at Electric Picnics a few weeks back, Subsource are on a roll. “We don’t want to stop for Christmas” says lead singer Stuart Henshall. “We’re just going to carry on through the New Year, hammer and tongs”.

The UK-based quintet have been gigging solidly for the last four years, with many a festival slot under their belts, and are gearing up to unleash their debut album Tales From The Doombox sometime in the New Year. Wearing their influences proudly on sleeve, the band often evoke comparisons to titans such as The Prodigy and Rage Against The Machine, with frequent nods to younger, equally innovative acts like Pendulum.

Their sound is an anarchic blending of dub, breaks, electro and punk - pretty much what you would expect from a band that counts a classically trained pianist, an ex metal head and a drum & bass drummer amongst their eclectic ranks.

This meeting of seemingly disparate musicians was a happily accidental design rather then an intentional play for any kind of diversity points. “We came together in a very organic manner” intones Kimba, the group’s African MC who shares mic duties with Henshall. “We’ve all been influenced by different things, but that kind of works for in our favour”.

Though the group benefit from divergent musical and cultural roots, Stuart is keen to stress Subsource’s collective inspiration. “We’ve all got love for UK-championed genres like dub step, breaks and drum and bass. We’ve tried to stay away from traditional genres, but still incorporate some of those elements within our own sound.” The band’s dynamic breed of noise grew out of a love for underground dance music and a passion for live instrumentation, a precarious combination that they’ve managed with a deft panache.

Though they share a collective recording space – affectionately dubbed “The Trench” – each member has their own studio, meaning the writing process takes a decidedly multifarious route. “One of us will pass around a skeleton sketch of a song and we all build on it. We come together at The Trench to flesh things out and finalize them.”

Writing in such a convoluted, albeit democratic, manner is not always easy for a band on the cusp of big things. “I think the next album may be written a little differently” says Henshall thoughtfully. “Because we’re doing back-to-back shows, we never have a consecutive, undisturbed amount of time to write and rehearse in. I’d like to see us working in the studio solidly, rather then having to rush off for gigs”. Though their writing has had to fit around extensive tours, it’s the type of hardcore schedule that’s nurtured their live performances, high octane affairs which have earned them an infamous reputation for crowd-rousing sets.

Many of their early shows garnered attention for their frentic, improvised altercations. Do they deviate less now that they have a solid album’s worth of material to showcase? “We still improvise, but normally it’s because there’s been a technical fault” Kimba chuckles. “We’re high volume, so we frequently blow out amps and fuses” he explains.

Communicating with their audience and the volatile energy play between them seems to work for Subsource, since their upcoming single ‘The Reason (Parasite)’, out on 26 October, came out of fan responses . “It certainly wasn’t our first choice for the single, but every time we play this song to festival crowds, a mosh pit forms, which we definitely encourage. It’s actually a song we’d written a few years ago that we’ve adapted and revamped, so fans who knew it the first time round can still connect”.

And presumably see how Subsource’s sound has evolved? “Definitely” says Stuart. “The main chorus is like a motto, it’s about what we do and why we love it, so it carries true but we’ve updated it for 2009.”

So where do they draw all this charged energy from? The allusions to Rage Against The Machine seem to imply Subsource have a political agenda. The album cover for Tales From The Doombox is a piece by street artist Faith47 , whose been dubbed the ‘South African Banksy’, whilst they’ve fashioned lyrical paens to the true accounts of island tribes fighting off oil companies with bows and arrows. They’re hesitant to be labelled as a purely political band, but Stuart explains “As socially and culturally aware people, it’s hard not be political; we’re just as happy to go for scalps as we are to get people jumping.  We’re not writing “throw-away” dance music and our aim is to combine the two ideas: strong lyrical content with blistering beats and bass lines.”

The band are also adamant about being politically conscious in the business side of running a band. “We keep abreast of company backgrounds and ethics so we don’t fall into something which perpetuates something bad rather than stepping closer to something good.  We’re proud to be different and to rally against this a little. If you’re McDonalds and you want to use a Subsource track on your latest ad then it just wont happen, ask Duffy.”

Whilst they feel a kinship with the conscious missives of RTMC, they’re also understandably proud of their ties with legendary UK dance pioneers The Prodigy. This fortuitous link arose when Stuart had the honour of assisting Liam Howlett on some pre-Invaders Must Die material.

“We had a mutual business acquaintance who arranged it all, and obviously the band was ecstatic. We wanted to be in a position where we could pass our material on to Liam Howlett and start an association, and we got it”. What was the man himself like? “He’s a legend! He is just a normal guy though, a bit of a geezer. He’s been producing groundbreaking tunes that have just blown us all away for the last ten years, so it was an amazing experience to work with him in any capacity.”

Heroes aside, Subsource have their own achievements to rejoice in. With tracks featured on both computer games and primetime US TV shows, commissioned remixes for acts like Datarock and GoodBooks, and consistently hyped crowds on the UK festival circuits for the last three years, the band are clearly hitting the right notes. They’re counting gigs in Japan and a tour or two with new dance heroes Buraka Som Sistema on their wish list - “They just killed it at Electric Picnic” – and if Tales From The Doombox tears 2010 up like we predict, those ambitious designs shouldn’t be too far off.

Subsource play Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen on 26 October.