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originals from day one |
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we all have musical moments that send shivers down the spine. most recently, i found myself having one of those 'moments' on sunday 7th of march. melbourne breaks act nubreed, a last minute inclusion on the two tribes lineup, were beginning their set, and for many this was the first opportunity to hear them with newly added member, dave norris, on drums. instantly obvious was that norris appeared nervous as hell, his face twisted in concentration and his mind a couple of tracks ahead as it ran over the newly learnt drum patterns of nubreed's ever growing back catalogue. yet just as obvious was the depth this fourth member brought to nubreed, the energy and brilliance that had previously only been evident during smaller, intimate performances suddenly on display in front of thousands of captivated onlookers. the 'shiver' moment arrived early and unexpectedly during their second track one day, an uplifting, melodic, vocal piece open to interpretation. were the lyrics penned by nubreed's mykel (michael walburgh) as a heartfelt message based on his experiences in south africa? or is the title simply a cheeky reference to the amount of time it took to write the tracks melody? whatever the case, it already had anthem status with the chorus sung by many in the audience, an amazing achievement considering there had been no radio coverage. from that point onwards, the crowd were in the palms of nubreed's hands, and many have described their set as the highlight of the night. "it was an amazing moment," agrees jase (jason catherine) who, among other duties, is responsible for nubreed's beatboxing. "i guess we should have expected ot as the reaction to one day has been so positive at all our gigs and from everyone we played it to. we've just completed a video for the track that was produced by tide and exit films." if you haven't heard of exit you'll undoubtedly have seen their hugely successful advert featuring a sleeping man's tongue that detaches itself which on a midnight crawl in search of beer to the music of benny benassi's satisfaction. the vinyl for one day features remixes by poxymusic, luke chable and the dirty fours (nubreed's guise when experimenting with 4/4 beats), all of which add new and rewarding elements to a track already destined to be a classic. "now that triple j and nova fm have it on rotation, the hype about it has grown even stronger and has given us a fantastic block for the release of our album the original." long awaited, the original combines 15 tracks that document nubreed's history since inception. while one day will introduced nubreed to a new legion of fans, just as important a stepping stone was their seminal production welcome. like their 2004 two tribes set, i remember exactly where i was the first time i heard welcome on the radio. while i had never heard of nubreed and was not even into dance music at the time, it had enough power to make the hard stand on the back of my neck as db's (danny bonnici) voice echoes lyrics over an eerie melody and breakbeat now commonly associated with a distinctly melbourne-born sound. championed by triple j, welcome saw this previously unknown trio thrust into the spotlight. however, the nubreed story begins many years earlier. "mykel and i had been friends since i was fourteen and my sister introduced us," jase recounts. "a bit later danny was in a band who required an m.c. and he approached mykel who, at some point, introduced me and we've all been friends ever since. we've always worked on music, sometimes together while other times apart. i do a lot of hip hop stuff on my own. we'd developed far enough to have all finished or be in the middle of projects of varying styles. so we decided 'ok, by the end of this year let's do one electronic song each and get them mastered'. however, once we finished them we never stopped. we just kept making more music and by the end of that year we had a fair number of tracks done." a few years later, having already established their credentials as both producers and a live act, nubreed signed a u.k. deal with tayo's label, mob recordings. while this was great news, the next necessary step was to find an australian label for the album. vicious, a melbourne based specialist dance label, proved to be the perfect fit. from mellow soundscapes to dancefloor monsters, the original provides the listener with a wide range of styles that defies genre pigeonholing or, as jase refers to it, "the style of no style. we incorporate many different sounds, styles and influences," jase expands. "yet at the end of the day it's done in such a way that it ends up being our sound and unique. we don't even try and cash in on the latest trends as the most important thing to us is making music that we're into and that pushes boundaries. it's the challenge of following our own path and succeeding that provides the most satisfaction." yet this is not to say that there weren't others who helped shape nubreed as we know them today. while their debut album provides a sonic history, just as much can be learnt by reading the extensive 'thank you' list, its autobiographical nature providing insight into how close knit the melbourne breaks scene is. for example, mastering engineer tony 'jack the bear' mantz is thanked because "...we would not have discovered the sound of breakbeats so early if it wasn't for your ear to the ground - our records sound the way they do because of you." when bought up in conversation jase responds with a chuckle. "tony was sneaky. years ago i'd be in his studio getting my hip hop stuff mastered. he figures i was into music in general so every time we'd have a break or we'd wait for something to finish up he'd just pull music from his collection and say 'hey listen to this'. it would always be breaks or electronic stuff. back then, when i was into hip hop, techno was like my kryptonite. techno for me was dudes banging their heavy trance down lygon street at 160 beats per minute. but slowly, listening to the early stuff from william orbit, bt and hifi bugs, i got into it because it was very beat driven and i was big into drums. tony said 'well if you like this stuff you should check out sunnysideup [now known simply as sunny] and it was all over after that. i was hooked." just as important and mentioned in the 'thanks' directly after mantz is a shout out to "phil k our honorary fourth member...". at times he has become a literal fourth member when the stunning phil k vs nubreed live show has wowed audiences australia over. sound-wise, it is obvious that his previous hi-fi bugs collaborative project with andy page has had a profound influence on nubreed. "phil k continues to be a mentor to us and plays a big part on the album as the second c.d. is a mix c.d. he did of our remixes, b-sides and rare tracks," explains jase. "other than for the obvious reason of giving extra value by having a bonus c.d. mixed by an amazing d.j., it also gives people the chance to hear tracks that didn't make it onto the album and that people can't get hold of." hinting at nubreed's future direction, thanks is also given on the c.d. sleeve to dave 'jizz' norris with the notation "my new friend and 3rd brother... let's kill it son!!" before meeting nubreed, norris had already made a name from himself as a drummer, percussionist, turntablist and programmer, having been part of db chills and worked with wicked beat sound system. after being introduced when nubreed visited sydney, it did not take much convincing for norris to move to melbourne and become the missing piece in nubreed's live act after db chills disbanded. "he brings us closer to being a proper live band," says an enthusiastic jase. "having a drummer really gives us more flexibility in what we can do. it's brought back all the stuff we missed about being in a band, yet because it's electronic music, everything has to be tight and we're lucky dave is a tight drummer. his addition to the live show has brought a new spark to the group and even outside of the live show he's contributing plenty of new ideas and enthusiasm." currently, norris is part of the live show, but once again hinting at his hip hop roots, jase likens it to the graffiti crew mentality where "you have to earn your stripes before you get into the crew. It's going as planned and we see him being involved in not only our gigs but all our new songs." while receiving overseas exposure through mob recordings, as well as from breaks d.j.s the world over, nubreed are yet to introduce their live show to the world. they plan to rectify this shortly. "the offers have been there, but before performing overseas we wanted everything to be as close to perfect as it could be," jase explains. "not that we've completed the album, have a huge back catalogue and done four or five national tours we are ready to take on the world. we've bought a heap of new equipment and scaled it down so that our whole live show fits in our backpacks. we're heading to asia first with the u.k. and u.s.a. to follow." nubreed play brown alley on saturday 8th may. the original is out through vicious/shock. |
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credits |
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reproduced without permission from inpress street press, zebra guide page 8. to be used for private and research use only. |
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© copyright 2004 gavin stok. all rights reserved. |
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