Basszone with Rhys Grosvenor

August is here and it starts off with the moving of a Wheel. Now I know what you might be thinking, wheels move all the time, but in this case not all too often. You see August sees Auckland’s beloved monthly move from its home at Fu Bar all the way around the corner to Zen for its 3rd birthday celebrations. Things kick off at 10pm on the 5th and with 12 of Auckland’s finest hand-picked DJ’s to host, the $10 price tag is a steal.

Taking Wheel’s place in Fu Bar for the night will be Gridlock who is touching down for a tour. Hailing from the US Gridlock has been releasing on numerous UK labels since the late 90’s and now has a thriving imprint of his own. His debut LP, Break the System, still finds its way into my vinyl bag every gig with tracks as current today as they were when first released.

Also venturing over to our shores this month is recent Ram Record’s signing DC Breaks. This UK duo have been belting out a never ending stream of dance floor smashers of late and are currently working on their debut album due out on Ram. If you’re in Auckland you can pick up combo tickets for both these tours for the very reasonable price of $35, which again is a steal.

Ever wondered what the world record for the longest DJ mix is? Well last I heard it was 124 hours set in 2009. Quite frankly you have to have something a little loose upstairs if you volunteer for that set. Something slightly saner would be the five hour challenge Optimus Gryme is doing on the 12th of August at Zen. The only listed support DJ is Jason Howson, and to be fair you only need 1. I’ve been witness to a three hour Optimus set before and that was one of the best nights out I’ve had in Auckland, so the thought of an upcoming 5 hour set has me rather excited.

This month I thought I’d add a little something about an artist I had the pleasure of meeting while on tour in Oz recently. Cottonmouth is a Dubstep producer with over 100,000 plays of individual tunes on his Soundcloud. Now his bio is slightly misleading as the first paragraph reads, “COTTONMOUTH is a jolly nice chap from the English countryside, near Bristol. He uses excellent grammar, says please and thank you and fathers would be happy if he dated their daughters’. Having met the bloke I can tell you this is complete bollocks.

It should read “COTTONMOUTH is a jolly nice chap but a complete nutta!”. His music is of a fairly similar vein, starting fairly civilized and before you know it you’re hit with dark, screaming basslines, sinister drum programming, and disturbing melodies; which is not a bad thing at all. I recommend giving him a search next time you’re looking to purchase music. Look out for Tubular Bass which is also set for a remix EP including one from Kiwi dubstepers Echo Company.