Chaos In The CBD

A Peckham EP that became a basement anthem

The dirty, sax-infused house of Midnight in Peckham still sounds a decade later as if it just came off the platter. Released in 2015 by Rhythm Section International, the EP by the New Zealand duo—with Isaac Aesili's trumpet solo as its hallmark—slipped into the liturgy of the most musical deep house and still circulates as a booth classic. It wasn't their first vinyl: they had already passed through Amadeus, ClekClekBoom, Needwant, Hot Haus, Church, and Mule Musiq. But that record, born in South London, gave them a sound recognizable at the first listen: jazzy chords, velvety percussion, and that analog dust that, despite themselves, took them out of the lo-fi house trend.

Brothers in the booth, far from the studio tempo

Louis and Ben Helliker-Hales—the latter, Beans—grew up in the coastal suburbs of Auckland, with The Cure and Joy Division in the family living room and the North Island sea as a landscape. In 2009 they played their first set; in 2012 they moved to Peckham. A chance encounter with Bradley Zero on the train threw them straight into Rhythm Section, YAM Records, and Balamii radio. In the studio, they cultivate calm and brass; in the booth, they play heavier, lower, and faster. They have been through Phonox, Corsica Studios, Boiler Room (London, Beirut, Melbourne, Barcelona, and Glitch Festival), Lost Village, Defected Croatia, Rainbow Disco Club in Tokyo, the Mixmag Lab, and the San Remo stage at Glastonbury. In 2017 they were nominated for the Aotearoa Music Award for Best Electronic Artist.

In Dust We Trust and the first album, finally

With their friend Jon Sable, they founded the label In Dust We Trust in 2017, home to Accidental Meetings, Zona Del Silencio, Hydrate, Te Puke Thunder, Brainstorm, and Intimate Fantasy. In 2023 they curated fabric presents Chaos In The CBD. On May 9, 2025, A Deeper Life arrived, a fourteen-track record between deep house, jazz, bossa, and balearica, with field recordings from Aotearoa and collaborations from Nathan Haines, Isaac Aesili, Novelist, Stephanie Cooke, and Josh Milan. It reached No. 2 on the UK Dance Chart and No. 34 in New Zealand; Mixmag dedicated a cover to them. They remain based in London, constantly touring, defending a house that doesn't need to reinvent the wheel: just keep it spinning with warmth, craft, and very little posturing.