Tonewheel is a collaboration between Denki Funk (aka Nick Lesek) and Don Bate, director of Benjafield Collective.

The debut release of the Tonewheel album featured leading Australian funk musicians combining with Denki Funk’s beats, loops and samples. Weaving amongst the musicmaking will be DJs SpinFX and Parkie, plus — for the first time in Tasmania — one of Japan’s leading video jammers spinning a visual journey throughout the night.

Tonewheel is available for $25 through all good local outlets.

Meeting in various cities over two years and working together via the Internet, Don and Nick have just mixed and mastered their tracks. Nick’s lay-it-down bass style samples and loops, combined with Don’s tunes, toots and vocal rantings, create a whacked-out electronic funk landscape. From chill to death metal country, this project has something for all.

An extended session in January 2004 saw the collaboration of BC artists Matt Boden (keys), Tom Vincent (piano), Galen Harvey-Allanson (drums), Zig (?), Lincoln Lefevre (guitars), and Dave Titherly (trumpet).

Samples

We’ve provided samples of some of the Benjafield tracks. You’ll need the Flash player installed to be able to hear these samples.