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Damn, it's seriously winter now. Snow up at our studio hideout, which was definitely a pretty exciting event. We had a good friend of ours from America, Gridlok, staying for the week leading up to the big dump. We showed him a great time, pointing out all the local Lord of the Rings sites (Americas are obsessed with those films) and managed to knock out a proper thugged out Upbeats vs Gridlok roller. For those of you not familiar with Gridlok, we would definitely recommend doing some research, he is one of the truly original dnb producers.

Gigs for this month have seen us doing the usual routes as well as some of the smaller towns in NZ – down into the deep south in Wanaka for a big night and pretty much sold out venue with our good friends Opiuo and Mc Beau. Opiou does a Glitch laptop live show using a bunch of crazy gear so if he's in your area playing go check it out.. cool to see an old friend from back in the day killing it internationally and pushing some boundaries while he's at it!

Also good times in lil' old Blenheim – although it was the first time we've had to do PA setup on the fly while playing and trying to fend off a really enthusiastic bar lady trying to serve us some dubious alcoholic concoctions. From kids that used to drink Kristof mixed with Raro you must be doing something wrong if we think it's nasty...

Then Madcap touring set us up for a road trip to Napier and Gisborne with original MANHEAT, DJ Trei. We set out with the best of intentions of it being the great pie tasting tour of the east, but we had an epic fail, and didn't end up eating any pies. However we did discover one of the truly great bakeries in NZ, the 10o'clock cookie bakery in Masterton is honestly OFF THE HOOK! The shows were killer, especially Napier where 350 rowdy ravers got extremely messy.

-        Nerd disclaimer -

(Anyone else think that John Key gives off an overwhelming 'Enthusiastic Nerd Vibe' ?)

So we get asked quite a bit when out playing what software and gear we use to write our music. DAW wise we have pretty much always been on Logic since back when it first went to version 5. We bypassed the era where one had to use any hardware to make noises, and Vst's were blowing up, so have never really used anything outside of the computer to modify noises aside from microphones, instruments and an odd collection of synths we have acquired over the years.

As you may have noticed we love distortion, and some of our favourite plugins for adding a bit of chunk would be the Camelphat, Amplitube and for more twistedness, the D16 Devastor.  

We are really into sampling (a lot of Kontakt/EXS24 use) plus creating our own sounds so there's a nice blend of the digital side of things plus the old warmth, soul and crustiness of things that were recorded years ago.  Sampled drums are ESSENTIAL to us.. one of our biggest gripes with drum and bass these days

Damn, it's seriously winter now. Snow up at our studio hideout, which was definitely a pretty exciting event. We had a good friend of ours from America, Gridlok, staying for the week leading up to the big dump. We showed him a great time, pointing out all the local Lord of the Rings sites (Americas are obsessed with those films) and managed to knock out a proper thugged out Upbeats vs Gridlok roller. For those of you not familiar with Gridlok, we would definitely recommend doing some research, he is one of the truly original dnb producers.

Gigs for this month have seen us doing the usual routes as well as some of the smaller towns in NZ – down into the deep south in Wanaka for a big night and pretty much sold out venue with our good friends Opiuo and Mc Beau. Opiou does a Glitch laptop live show using a bunch of crazy gear so if he's in your area playing go check it out.. cool to see an old friend from back in the day killing it internationally and pushing some boundaries while he's at it!

Also good times in lil' old Blenheim – although it was the first time we've had to do PA setup on the fly while playing and trying to fend off a really enthusiastic bar lady trying to serve us some dubious alcoholic concoctions. From kids that used to drink Kristof mixed with Raro you must be doing something wrong if we think it's nasty...

Then Madcap touring set us up for a road trip to Napier and Gisborne with original MANHEAT, DJ Trei. We set out with the best of intentions of it being the great pie tasting tour of the east, but we had an epic fail, and didn't end up eating any pies. However we did discover one of the truly great bakeries in NZ, the 10o'clock cookie bakery in Masterton is honestly OFF THE HOOK! The shows were killer, especially Napier where 350 rowdy ravers got extremely messy.

 Nerd disclaimer -

(Anyone else think that John Key gives off an overwhelming 'Enthusiastic Nerd Vibe' ?)

So we get asked quite a bit when out playing what software and gear we use to write our music. DAW wise we have pretty much always been on Logic since back when it first went to version 5. We bypassed the era where one had to use any hardware to make noises, and Vst's were blowing up, so have never really used anything outside of the computer to modify noises aside from microphones, instruments and an odd collection of synths we have acquired over the years.

As you may have noticed we love distortion, and some of our favourite plugins for adding a bit of chunk would be the Camelphat, Amplitube and for more twistedness, the D16 Devastor.

We are really into sampling (a lot of Kontakt/EXS24 use) plus creating our own sounds so there's a nice blend of the digital side of things plus the old warmth, soul and crustiness of things that were recorded years ago. Sampled drums are ESSENTIAL to us.. one of our biggest gripes with drum and bass these days is the glut of lifeless, sterile and soulless drum noises. Sounds like my Tv wrote them.

Wolf Top 3 -

Kurt vile – Smoke ring for my halo

Zomby – Dedication

Flying lotus' “Lovers melt” mix

Snake Top 3

Bastille – Head Space

Mr Oizo - $tunt (Flying Lotus remix)

Hudson Mohawke - CBat

Gigs:

Aug 26 – Auckland

Aug 27 – Ohakune

Sept 10 – Hamilton

Sept 22 – Osaka

Sept 23 – Gunma

Sept 24 – Tokyo

is the glut of lifeless, sterile and soulless drum noises. Sounds like my Tv wrote them.  

Wolf Top 3 -

Kurt vile – Smoke ring for my halo

Zomby – Dedication

Flying lotus' “Lovers melt” mix

Snake Top 3

Bastille – Head Space

Mr Oizo - $tunt (Flying Lotus remix)

Hudson Mohawke - CBat

Gigs:

Aug 26 – Auckland

Aug 27 – Ohakune

Sept 10 – Hamilton

Sept 22 – Osaka

Sept 23 – Gunma