07 October 2022 - 0 Comments

Melbourne based musician / producer Oakley Grenell celebrates 20 years of his independent Record Label with the digital re-release of the Jaded EP - his first body of work. 

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The year was 2002 and Grenell had teamed up with fellow artist manager & visual artist Hayley Dingwall to create Central Records. Based in Christchurch at the time, Central Records would continue to release an album annually for the next 10 years, keeping them extremely busy with recording sessions, video production, tours, press releases, artwork and world domination. . . (jokes).

Having just graduated with a performance scholarship from The Christchurch Jazz School for composing his final hour long concert, Grenell turned to the piano for composition experimentation.

Using the scholarship money to invest in a Juno Keyboard, a Mac computer and Digi001 interface, the production moniker ‘O.G’ was born. Labelling this first release as ‘jungle jazz’.

The previous decade had been ‘the golden years’ of the Christchurch live music and electronic dance scene. His popular band Bunyip had already toured NZ many times supporting Salmonella Dub, The Nomad, Pitch Black, Che Fu, King Kapisi and Ben Harper. The drummer of Bunyip, Oakley’s younger brother Redford Grenell, had also started the group Shapeshifter, who would take NZ live Drum n Bass to the world. As Bunyip cooled down, O.G became the focus with writing and recording sessions that would spawn 3 LP’s and 4 EP’s (the latest arriving this November).

New single Buss Dance feat. King Ru, Lotek & Hlats on Central Records is out on 21 Oct 2022

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