Deepgrooves articles

Riot Riddum Sound System

"Aotearoa's foremost indie dance label, Deepgrooves is the musical cross pollination of cultures that comes from the world's largest Polynesian city, Auckland. Reggae, dub, ragga, club, and hard beats from the mind and soul of the fresh crew with the new view - Riot Riddum Sound System, Leaders of Style, The Sound Foundation, Jules Issa and the Mighty Asterix, The Projector."

This is how the Deepgrooves label described itself in promotional material... (from an ad in Billboard Jan 1992, plugging various NZ labels).

It's a good insight into the minds of the folk behind the label, engineer Mark Tierney, Bill Latimer (owner of The Lab Studio) and Kane Massey, and captures something of the spirit in the music. Auckland central had a bubbling club scene that mixed and mashed styles every weekend - the hiphop and reggae heads all went to the same gigs, cos there was only about 200 people in central Auckland into those genres at that time. New Zealand hiphop was still a long way from standing up, it was just learning to walk.

Names like Stylee Crew, Native Bass (later Dam Native), DLT, Stinky Jim, Roger Perry, Teremoana, Slowdeck, Dubhead, OJ and Slave, Tuffy Culture and others, were all jumping on stage and having a good time at warehouse parties across the CBD, and in back yards like behind the Blue Tile Lounge on Symond St. That was the scene that gave rise to the Deepgrooves acts. It was a recorded representation of what was going on musically in the clubs in town.

I'm currently researching and writing a book on Deepgrooves, focusing on the music - if you know something about the label, please get in touch (love to hear from you, Kane Massey!). My email is petermac008 at gmail dot com. Thanks

Mighty Asterix

INDEX SO FAR OF ARTICLES......

Deepgrooves - Introduction
3 the hard way
Hip Hop Holiday - Three The Hard Way album reissued
Colony
Color Climax (Simon Holloway, Rob Salmon, Greg Davis)
Cinema (Jolissa Tasi (lyrics/vocals), Anthony Ioasa (music/arrangement), Kane Massey (concept/video)
DJ DLT
Ermehn
Ermehn - Walls of Steel - radio mix (audio)
Fuemana
Fuemana - Rocket love / Seasons music videos
Phil Fuemana interview, from Stamp mag, 1994
Freebass
Freebass interview, Stamp mag, Dec 1992
Anthony Ioasa /Grace
Grace - 1995 TV interview
Grace - Cool world - video/cover/review...
Jules Issa backgrounder, music video of Dangerous Game
Jules Issa - Found in you (audio)
Nemesis Dub Systems
New Loungehead
Projector Mix (Mike Hodgson, now of Pitch Black)
Riot Riddum Sound System Part One / Part Two / Part Three
Sound Foundation (DJ Dubhead, Angus McNaughton, Tuffy, Danny D)
Sofa So Good compilation
Sulata
Urban Disturbance (feat Zane Lowe) plus, UD, the lost 2nd album?
Unitone Hifi (Joost Langeveld, Stinky Jim, Angus McNaughton)

Colourblind: The Auckland Dance Scene in 1993, by Andrew Schmidt, Metro magazine.

ADDED Nov 15, 2012: deepgrooves.co.nz website been has resurrected, with this message, pointing to some major archival work going on...hooray!
"...the Deepgrooves "storage room" holds approximately 1000 recorded, remixed, demo'd and instrumental tracks in various states of completion, many that as yet, remain unheard. Over the next 12 months we will be endeavouring to digitise every functioning (unfortunately many have already deteriorated) DAT tape, 2" Tape reel, ADAT, cassette, 1" Tape reel, S8mm, S16mm, 35mm film reel, Hi8mm, BetaSP and digital Beta tape that we have. We will also be tackling the numerous boxes of negatives, photos and unedited videos that have sat in storage, in some cases for over 20 years. Please be patient, we have been "away" for pretty much the last ten years..."

LISTEN: a Deepgrooves playlist....



Ermehn, from his Samoans Pt II album

Jules Issa























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