27 July 2011 - 0 Comments

EarthTonz NYE Music Festival
31 Dec 2011 – 1 Jan 2012 - Queenstown, Gibbston Valley Station

Are you ready to spend New Year’s Eve in one of the most picturesque places on the planet with some of the world’s hottest electronica, techno, dubstep, progressive house, hip-hop, beatbox and drum n bass acts?

New Zealand’s newest annual music festival EarthTonz NYE Music Festival is set to roar across Southern Alps this summer with over 15 hours of live music featuring TOMMY LEE (MOTLEY CRUE)&DJ AERO, the legendary CRYSTAL METHOD, THE FREESTYLERS, DJ MUGGS (CYPRESS HILL), KRAAK & SMAAK, AK 1200/DJ DARA/MC MESSINIAN (PLANET OF THE DRUMS), BOOMBOX, ANA SIA, HEATBOX and NZ’s own MINUIT. 

With the majestic background of Queenstown’s Crown Ranges and the Kawarau River, the Gibbston Valley Station has it all, including on-site camping from 30 December (only $15 for two nights!), free on-site parking, showers and bathrooms, 24-hour security, medical facilities, mobile/e-charging device stations, merchandise and plenty of food and drink options including award winning Gibbston Valley wines.

The festival has been set to specifically cater to South Island residents and holiday visitors who would usually have to travel north to celebrate New Year’s Eve at a major international concert.  With affordable ticket prices, full amenities and camping, EarthTonz is great value and an opportunity for the South Island to claim its own New Year’s Eve festival!

The festival’s name EarthTonz was chosen to reflect the beauty of this venue and two experienced promoters – one NZ and one American - aspirations to create a first class music fest while being environmentally responsible.  

Co-promoter Dan Allen said “Recycling and taking care of Mother Earth has been a top priority for us from day one.  It’s an honor to be presenting EarthTonz in Queenstown; an area well known throughout the world for its stunning scenery.  We have the entire dance music genre covered and to have such a high caliber of international artists for our first year is amazing. The stage, sound and light show will be unlike any ever seen in the South Island before and EarthTonz will create a very cool vibe with all the amenities you’d expect at a festival of this size.” 

Headlining EarthTonz 2011 is TOMMY LEE & DJ AERO (USA).  The duo will perform a multi-media DJ show - creating and manipulating music and visuals live.  Their dirty, nasty electro-house sound veers into the techno, progressive, break-beat and hip-hop territory and although Motley Crue fans may not realize it, Lee has always been a closet dance music fan and said, “Every drum solo I’ve ever played in an arena, I’ve always incorporated loops, beats, electronic stabs and samples.”  DJ Aero (aka Chester Deitz) is a hip-hop turntablist and previous member of The Heavyweights – the collective featuring DJs for Snoop Dogg, Everlast, Korn and Dilated Peoples.   In 1999 on the eve of his divorce from Pamela Anderson, Tommy Lee formed the rap-rock-metal Methods of Mayhem group with Master Mike (The Beastie Boys),Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit),Scott Kirkland (The Crystal Method),  Ken Jordan,  Snoop Dogg, Kid Rock, LI’L Kim, rapper Tilo, and jazz musician George Clinton(Parliament-Funkadelic).  Aero performed on the bands tour and Lee & Aero have been collaborating their own brand of performance art ever since.

One of the best live dance acts on Earth, The CRYSTAL METHOD (USA), are well known for dance floor anthems like Now Is The Time and Keep Hope Alive, their airwave smashes like Trip Like I Do and their collaborations with talent like Scott Weiland (Stone Temple Pilots), Richard Patrick (Filter) , Peter Hook (New Order) and Matisyahu.   The duo have dominated the remix, film soundtrack, TV, gaming and advertising worlds and have written scores for TV shows like Bones and Third Watch.  Their platinum debut album Vegas is one of the biggest selling electronic albums and the group are one of the top five of best-selling electronic acts in the US.

Innovators in breakbeat and dub THE FREESTYLERS (UK) have won endless awards, garnered international touring and recording success selling over half a million records and were the very first electronic act to play fully live on the legendary BBC Top Of The Pops TV show.  Aston Harveyand Matt Cantor’s track Drop the Boom launched the duo as The Freestylers and the 2004 track Push Up gained them a hit on the NZ charts.  Aston had been part of the break-beat hard-core act Blapps Posse, with cuts like Buss’ It and Don’t Hold Back before working with Definition of Sound, Rebel MC and DJ Rap and Matt Cantor has recorded with Andy Gardner from the Plump DJs as Cut N Paste and Strike.

DJ MUGGS (USA) is best known as the DJ and producer of Cypress Hill - a group made huge by singles like Insane in the Membrain, When the Shit Goes Down and I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That.  His music has been on movie soundtracks such as Training Day, Blade 2, Friday, The Cable Guy, Juice and the Colors soundtrack. 

Also well known for being one of the main members of the Soul Assassins Muggs helped pioneer the rap/rock movement and the mash-up scene in which deejays mix different genres of music with hip-hop.  His sound is dusty, filled with eerie, soul-driven beats, rock samples and minimal but hard hitting drums n bass. 

KRAAK & SMAAK(HOL), along with Heineken and Van Gogh, are some of the most famous things to come out of Holland!  Their debut album Boogie Angst and follow-up Plastic People album (the track Squeeze Me sold 70,000+ with the help of their famous flipbook video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYeTwfyx0nw ) brought them to the attention of the world and in 2009 they won the European Border Breakers Award (EBBA) alongside performers such as The Ting Tings and Adele.  Having remixed artists like Maxwell, Jamiroquai, Fedde le Grand, Don Diablo, Mark Rae, Richard Dorfmeister, Fort Knox Five, Soul of Man, Junkie XL, Sam Sparro, All Good Funk Alliance and performed at festivals such as Coachella, Rothbury and the Big Chill, K&S are set to musically invade NZ for the first time and their performance at EarthTonz is one that should not be missed!

AK1200 (USA) aka Dave Minner has collaborated with many other influential jungle and drum and bass artists including Aphrodite, DJ Dara, Danny Breaks, Dieselboy and MC Navigator, as well as with hip-hop artists such as A Tribe Called Quest.  A prominent American artist in the jungle scene, AK1200 has been credited for helping to bring jungle and drum n bass to the forefront in the US.  In 2000 he joined forces with fellow DJs Dieselboy and Dara to create the Planet of the Drums – a annual show that is known as the most successful and longest running  EDM (electronic dance music) tour in North America.

Also members of Planet of the Drumsare DJ DARA(IRE) aka Darragh Guilfoyle and MC MESSINIAN (USA) aka James Fiorella.   MC Messinian has performed at the Virgin Music Festival, The Coachella Festival, Area 2 Tour (with Moby, Busta Rhymes, David Bowie), and his music is in video games like Grand Taurismo 4, used for skateboarding/ snowboarding TV and has featured in Rap Battle DVD’s and the car street racing DVD TORQUE Video Magazine. 

Originating from Muscle Shoals Alabama, BOOMBOX (USA) is the dynamic duo of producer DJ Russ Randolph and singer/songwriter/guitarist Zion Rock Godchaux.   Randolph, previously known for his production credits (Rex Foundation, Saliva, Sugarland, Los Lobos, Chuck Berry) crossed paths with Godchaux while they were recording the Heart of Gold Band album At the Table with Godchaux’s mother Donna Jean - formerly of the Grateful Dead – which Godchaux had a hand in creating through writing, singing and playing multiple instruments, while Randolph engineered.  Together Randolph and Godchaux’s delivered their debut album Visions of Backbeat and BoomBox’s live shows are a high-energy fusion of RnR, vintage psychedelic and house.

Asian dubstep Queen ANA SIA (USA) unites the best elements of dirty dubstep, grimy glitch, and her personalized blend of ‘sexy global psy-hop’ in her own seamless world of sound. She has toured with some of the biggest names on the dance scene and brings another unique style to EarthTonz.

Beatbox Innovator and one man entertainment system HEATBOX (USA) is an unparalleled crossover between Motown, A Cappella, R&B, hip-hop, soul and funk.  Using a Boss LoopStation RC-50 and a DigiTech Vocal 300 to create his songs and recording each part live as he goes, Heatbox’s music uses no tracks, samples, or pre-recorded music so each song and performance is distinctly unique.  He has supported acts like George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Buckethead, Bassnectar, Warren G and Chali 2na and has two albums – Entertainment and System (which includes the video game Ninja Strike which was designed and programmed entirely by Heatbox).

Hailing from the end of the world MINUIT (NZ) will be bringing their distinct blend of quirky electro pop to the EarthTonz festival.  Fronted by the enigmatic Ruth Carr and backed by band mates Ryan Beehre and Paul Dodge, Minuit deliver the arsenal of indie infused pop melodies that have enchanted audiences in recent tours of Germany, Russia, the Czech Republic and Vietnam.

So there it is - 15 hours of EarthTonz music equalling one brilliant way to get together with your closest friends and greet the beginning of 2012!

ONLY 10,000 tickets are available so get in quick to be part of the first EarthTonz festival and hold your place in history! 

EarthTonz NYE Music Festival

31 Dec 2011 – 1 Jan 2012 - Queenstown, Gibbston Valley Station

On sale - Monday 15 August
http://www.ticketek.co.nz/, 0800-ticketek

Thanks to www.earthtonz.co.nz for this story.

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