WHO'S NEXT: Chaos In The CBD

Google Chaos In The CBD and you'll find a first page of results absolutely riddled with mp3 placements of their tracks on tastemaker, international club music blogs such as discobelle.net. Funnily enough, tropical house maestros Chaos In The CBD (brothers Ben and Louis Helliker-Hales, who are aged 20 and 22 respectively), hail from little old New Zealand. Devonport, Auckland to be precise.

Seated at Ponsonby Road's storied Santos Cafe following a family holiday in Fiji, Ben is quick to animate the story behind Chaos In The CBD's fast rise within the international tropical house blogosphere. Lifelong music lovers, Ben and Louis were raised by a father who works in insurance, and a stay at home mother. During their teenage years, "we were in a band together," Ben explains.

Operating under the handle Dionysus, the brothers’ earlier band played a mixture of what Ben defines as indie rock and dance. Garnering an interest in the sounds of the Presets, Digitalism, Daft Punk and classic eighties Chicago house, the brothers found their focus shifting and moved into the worlds of DJing and electronic music production. With Ben having completed an audio engineering diploma at MAINZ, Chaos In The CBD's percussion heavy, tropical house sound emerged, and - due to their savvy age appropriate approach to internet networking - their tracks quickly began popping up on noted music blogs such as the aforementioned discobelle.net, as well as cassettecouture.com, discodust and others.

Building tunes on Ableton Live, on a local level the brothers move within the same circles as the likes of unofficial Auckland house mafia affiliates Daniel Farley, Dick Johnson, Tim Richards and Maya Vanya. Internationally they connect with French club figureheads French Fries (of Paris collective YounGunz) and their peers, seamlessly blending into the global club music landscape. As a result, their energetic DJ sets stay stacked with exclusives. As Ben puts it, "In terms of being [based] in New Zealand, I can say honestly that we are up to date with what is good overseas-wise." Look out for some high profile overseas releases from the brothers in the new year.

by Martyn Pepperell

Listen at: www.soundcloud.com/chaos-in-the-cbd