Roni Size Announces New Zealand Tour In May

British drum 'n' bass producer Roni Size is heading to New Zealand for three whirlwind performances in May with compatriot Dynamite MC. The dates, which see the pair traverse Wellington, Auckland and Dunedin, are bookended by shows across the ditch in Australia. Here are the details for the shows on these shores...

Roni Size w/ Dynamite MC

Wednesday 13th May, Bodega, Wellington
Thursday 14th May, Neck Of The Woods, Auckland
Friday 15th May, The Foundry, Christchurch

Here's a clip for 'Heroes' from Roni's 1997 debut album New Forms...

And here is the clip for 'Blazin'' featuring New Zealand-born MC Tali...

PRESS RELEASE:

Roni started on the path of musical production when he was thrown out of school aged 16, but music had always been a part of his life. Roni was born and grew up at 'the top of the hill' a.k.a. St Andrew's, Bristol. From the bottom of this hill came the sounds of the 70s blues parties and sound-systems - the beat infected Roni's bones. So, after being expelled he walked straight into Sefton Park basement project, which allowed youngsters to try their hand on the decks, the mixing desk, drum machines and samplers. Here he learned the basics and his brother's comprehensive collection of Studio One records gave him material to work with. After setting up a home studio and buying a sampler, a musical master of production was in the making. Meeting up with Krust in the early 90's brought two musically compatible minds together, they faced the same dilemma of having no outlet for their music they put their energies into their own label.

Meeting up with Krust in the early 90s brought two musically compatible minds together, they faced the same dilemma of having no outlet for their music so they put their energies into their own label. With the help of Chris Lewis, Roni set up WTP (Where's The Party At?) record label as part of Circus Warp. From that Full Cycle and Dope Dragon were established in 1993. Bryan Gee was an early admirer, holding on to their tapes whilst at work at RCA recordings. When in 1994 he set up V Recordings, Krust had V001 with 'Deceivers EP' and Roni and Die had V002 with their debut release, 'Agility'.

"We looked at V as the strong brother label, with Full Cycle the sister following in its footsteps... Over the years the two gelled, people associated V and Full Cycle together. Through putting a lot of music out on these two labels we then got noticed by another label, a major - Talkin' Loud." Roni Size and Full Cycle were one of the first to bring the jazzy elements into the dark jungle of the early 90s. "We were using more melodies, more jazz orientated loops - sounds that in London only people like Bukem, or maybe Fabio or Peshay were using. But they were still using fat Amens where we were just using toned down breaks."

'It's a Jazz Thing' in 1994 sparked the interest of fellow experimental types James Lavelle and the Mo' Wax posse. Roni Size was picked up by Talkin' Loud and the compilation album Music Box was released in 1996. Their varying personal influences helped create the unique Full Cycle sound. "Suv was more dub, Die was more jazz, I was more ragga or bashment and Krust was definitely more hip-hop but we all had elements of soul and break beat in us, we all had graffiti stains on our hands, we all rode BMXs or skateboards. We all came from the same school - the school of the 80s and 90s. We've always tried to incorporate all those elements into our music. If we could put the sounds from spray can, the sounds from skateboards scraping along the road and of people falling off BMXs, in one record we would."

The following year 'Roni Size & Reprazent', took the world by storm with their New Forms LP. Winning the Mercury Music Prize boosted their international status and the world awoke to the sound of Roni Size and Full Cycle. The singles from the album all featured the unmistakable vocals of Onallee whose call for the music in 'Brown Paper Bag' is a signal all ravers still respond to. 'Heroes' and 'Watching Windows' are also modern day classics. The album went platinum and, surprised by their new massive fan base, Roni and the boys returned to the studio to concentrate on their output for V and Full Cycle & Dope Dragon.

In 1999 with Die, Roni produced the highly acclaimed Breakbeat Era album featuring vocals from Leonie Laws and in July the following year his 'Through The Eyes' compilation showcased tracks from newcomers D-Product and Surge. Later that year came the long awaited second project from Reprazent. 'In the Mode' delivered a variety of tracks, some featuring vocals from Dynamite and Onallee and some from collaborations with hip-hop legend Method Man, Rage Against The Machine's Zac de la Rocha and beat-box master Rahzel.

In 2001, Roni returned to the studio and started working with Tali who had recently arrived from New Zealand on her album 'Lyric On My Lip' In this time he also produced 'Touching Down' - released in October 2002. This, his first truly solo album, included 16 brand new dance floor smashers mixed into one hour's set and includes the massive singles 'Playtime' and 'Sound Advice' and is one of the biggest selling independent d&b albums to date. He came back to 'V' in 2005 with the release of 'Return To V' which included the top 20 hit 'No More' with Beverley Knight plus 17 futher vocal collaborations with artists such as Jocelyn Brown, Vikter Duplaix & Rodney P.

Roni Size resurrected Reprazent in 2008 with the release of a deluxe edition of his Mercury Music Prize winning album 'New Forms' on Universal and the band, with original members Dynamite MC, Onallee & highly acclaimed bass player Si John alongside Yuval Gabay (Soul Coughing), Jay Wilcox & D Product toured some of the biggest festivals in Europe incuding Bestival, Glastonbury, Lovebox, Exit and Rock Herk. As a result, they were amongst the nominations for best dance act from the UK Festival Awards.