Shapeshifter: Back To Bassics.

Shapeshifter play Market Day at Davies Park on Saturday and the Great Northern Hotel in Byron Bay on Sunday.

The four members of Shapeshifter would all have to be well chuffed with life at the moment. Devin Abrams, Nick Robinson, Sam Trevethick and Redford Grenell have recently released their brand-spankingly new LP, Real Time, out now thru Inertia. And the verdict is all good.

One of the few bands game enough to claim the title of live drum and bass (it’s usually pretty hard for the drummer to keep up with 170-180bpm…), Shapeshifter wowed audiences in Brisbane on their last visit her. They supported Salmonella Dub (one of the only other good things to have come out of New Zealand) at the Zoo earlier this year, and I wasn’t the only one there mesmerised by their haunting and dark breaks. They’re returning to Brisbane once again, this time to even up the score and to take on the crowds solo.

How did you find this album to make after your experiences with your first EP? Has the process gotten any easier?

"We were chucked in the deep end with the EP because we didn't have as much gear or many production skills," says drummer Grenell. "And there weren't many live drum samples from myself. But with the album, we've put a lot more effort into getting live drum sounds."

"We recorded a lot of instruments and live breaks in real time," adds Abram (vox), who admits that Shapeshifter's musical approach inspired their album title. "There's obviously a compromise between organic sounds and sequencing. We want the album to represent our live sound as well as being able to be played out by a DJ who can play it next to other drum 'n' bass tracks."

Both albums are released on NZ owned and run Kog Transmissions' Low Profile sub-label, which is run by Concord Dawn, another New Zealander making big waves in the world of Drum and Bass worldwide.

"As the album developed, we had to make a decision as to what was best for us and Kog was the obvious choice," says Abrams. "Electronic music is what they're all about."

So is New Zealand a country of really big drum and bass fans? Drum and dub?

"I don't know what it is but people have taken a big liking to drum 'n' bass in Christchurch. There are lots of DJs and people trying to produce drum 'n' bass and there are lots of clubs and parties. House is pretty quiet in Christchurch. Drum 'n' bass, hip-hop and trance styles are pretty big and dub is going off. Everything but house, basically."