The weekend has landed and all that matters now is clubs, drugs, pubs and parties. You've got 48 hours off the 9-5, it's time to unbutton your hustle and breathe vigor back into life. Whether it be through losing your soul on the dance floor or grooving to it, we have your soundtrack covered. The EARMILK Weekend Selector, an exclusive guest mix series where we invite the latest budding talent from behind the booth to usher you through all the boozie and jam. From your morning bedside to tonight's evening formal, your weekend selector is here to fill a void of good taste and allow fresh connections to flow vicariously.
(WKND19) EARMILK Presents: Weekend Selector – Chaos In The CBD
Believe it or not New Zealand is home to more than just flightless birds and a pretty much undefeated Rugby team. It's where the duo Choas In The CBD resides from and their knack for forward thinking production has been praised in not just one corner of the world. Noted for their ability to churn out contemporary sounds of future house and hot blooded garage drum lines into buttery smooth R&B jams. But not to pigeon hole these two into half step, Chaos In The CBD also dabbles with four on the floor house. A perfect match considering their palette of presets are poised in a soothing aesthetic.
…for example I’m really into deep house and I love cheesy R&B and Ben also loves his ghetto hip hop and stuff like that so we try to incorporate all those genres in our music. We just don’t want to get stuck doing the same stuff all the time.
Opening on a blunt note, one that you can kick back and spark to. "Rollin 84's" is an unreleased original by the stewards on decks, an eerie warehouse jam with a vocal sampled that seems like it was ripped from a Snoop Dogg interview pitched octaves down. Swimming away from the current, the mix strays into 1995 for an early throwback of Jodeci's "Freek 'n You" into a cut from the Washerman debute that has been floating under the radar but deserves all the cues it can get. The tape continues to lounge in deep house bliss with tracks like FCL's remix of Audiojack and the Bambounou contribution "Fake Jake" which was spotted next to an original of their own in a Youngunz roundup. It all caps off with techno numbers, one being the Locked Groove remix of "Stalker Humanoid" which gives the 303 a run for its money and their latest remix for Tom Piper and Daniel Farley. Released just last week, the track crushes any assumptions attached to duo. Channeling bass in rave fashion with spaced out leads melting into a pill swamp of dosed melodies. It's a testament to uncertainty, and that makes the prospect of these two ever more exciting. We sat down with Louis, one half of Chaos in the CBD, to dig beneath their sounds and into their influences in our interview below.
EARMILK: Again we're interviewing another set of brothers, we had the duo Shadow Dancer on last week. And they mentioned that they have this brotherly instinct whenever they're hard at work in the studio. Would you guys say same?
Louis: Ben actually produces all of the music. I’m just there on stand-by for criticism and creative input and to annoy him and stuff. I’m always telling Ben to amend stuff in his tunes and although he gets a bit frustrated, it seems to work out pretty well. I would definitely like to work closer with Ben in the production process this year though.
EM: So tell me about your name "Chaos in the CBD", does it have any meaning and where did it come from?
L: Chaos in the CBD simply means Chaos in the Central Business District. I understand that not all big cities call their city centers CBD’s so it has led to much confusion over the years. We’re from a rather quiet suburb called Devonport and it’s simply that comparison from quiet days in Devonport to not so quiet nights in town.
EM: What kind of music would you say Chaos in the CBD plays during those not so quiet nights in town? Most of your tracks to me says garage on paper but there's a very distinct deep house and R&B element as well.
L: I guess we just dabble in various electronic genres. We both draw inspiration from a lot of different music, for example I’m really into deep house and I love cheesy R&B and Ben also loves his ghetto hip hop and stuff like that so we try to incorporate all those genres in our music. We just don’t want to get stuck doing the same stuff all the time.
EM: Yeah I noticed that you guys do some great work with R&B vocals in your tracks, do you two ever see yourselves producing a record for a solo artist in the future?
L: We’ve been talking about this a lot lately. Ben is really keen to one day produce music for other artists. We’ve been trying a few things out with vocalists lately and it seems to work really well. We have a few collaborative projects on the horizon that we’re pretty excited about.
EM: Seeing that you two are from New Zealand, what is the music scene like around there? How does it compare to Australia, and is there much room for two guys bent on creating taste making music? Do you perhaps plan on moving somewhere?
L: New Zealand is great, it’s a beautiful country but the dance music scene here isn’t quite right for us. It’s a small market and we feel we would be much more suited overseas. We would like to tour Australia sometime this year, it’s something we’ve been wanting to do for a while now. Ideally we want to live in Europe so we can work alongside like-minded people and tour lots too. We’re currently trying to co-ordinate another trip to Paris later in the year.
EM: A lot of remixes under your belt, can you clue us in on artists that you'll be laying your hands on in the future?
L: We’ve actually taken a step back from remixing recently so that we can focus on our own stuff. We have something like four or five EP’s already locked in this year so we’re pretty excited about that. As a result however we’ve decided to be more selective about what we remix. There are a couple unreleased remixes from us in the mixtape.
EM: Great to hear that we'll be seeing more Chaos in the CBD in the future. I want to say thank you for the tape and wish you guys well on the road ahead.
L: Cheers EARMILK!
TRACKLIST
01. Chaos In The CBD – Rollin 84's: CDR
02. Jodeci – Freek 'n You (MK Dub): ZAC Records
03. Washerman – Basement (Dub): Drumpoet Community
04. Audiojack Feat. Kevin Knapp – Stay Glued (FCL Weemix): Gruuv
05. Viadrina – Do You Really Want This? (Kool Dek 909 Is a Joke Remix): Klasse Recordings
06. Todd Edwards – This Generation (Original Mix): Body High
07. Bambounou – Fake Jake (Original Mix): Youngunz
08. Zebra Katz x Boyfriend – W8WTF (Chaos In The CBD Remix): Senseless Records
09. Savage Skulls – No.1 Spot (Chaos In The CBD Remix): CDR
10. Renaissance Man – Stalker Humanoid (Locked Groove's Lost in the Jungle Remix): Turbo Recordings
11. Tom Piper & Daniel Farley – LGFU (Chaos In The CBD Remix): Hussle
Check out their back catalog and grab their latest Tom Piper remix that's still wafting fresh out of the oven. Be sure to keep a finger on these two by following the links below as they are just getting started on a future that looks rich with tailored productions.
- Chaos In The CBD on Beatport
- Chaos In The CBD on Facebook
- Chaos In The CBD on Twitter
- Chaos In The CBD on Soundcloud
