About Us
The Story So Far (as of May 2009)… FINEPRINT AUDIO are a group of musicians from the southwest UK who predominantly write drum and bass was originally formed by MERGE, RENZO, and Merge’s brother RICH in south Devon in the mid nineties. In 1996 they met the dj/producer RUBDOWN, all brought together through similar musical backgrounds and a mutual appreciation of technical electronic music. A short and general version of their story is: They all got into hip-hop and acid house in the late 80s and began to buy vinyls. In ‘91 and ‘92 they got their first turntables and mixers, and learned how to write hardcore and acid techno tracks with synths+ataris running Notator and Cubase. In the mid nineties they went to every rave that they could and fell in love with jungle and drum and bass. They bought samplers in ‘96+’97 and started to build their studios up. During the late nineties they DJ’d around the south and southwest UK and sent their tracks to their favourite producers, attracting interest between 2000 and 2003 from East Side Records, Timeless Recordings and Moving Shadow amongst others, but had to work at it a few more years for a proper breakthrough.
In 2006 and throughout 2007 Renzo’s Track ‘RELENTLESS DUB’ was played on 1XTRA’s INTABEATS show by DJ BAILEYand it was this that finally exposed Fineprint’s productions to the world. Many big name+radio djs then began to request tracks from them to play on their radio shows or drop in their sets and this prompted the birth of a live drum n bass act in early 2007 that they named FINEPRINT AUDIO LIVE. The live act is now recognised as one of the finest live dnb acts in the UK and they have previously supported GROOVERIDER, BAILEY, D-BRIDGE, CYANTIFIC, TC, MAMPI SWIFT, BLACK SUN EMPIRE and PENDULUM.
FINEPRINT AUDIO LIVE is made up of MERGE (playing synths+samples) RENZO (on bass guitar,bass synth+turntablism) ABI (vocals) DAMIAN (drums)+ RICH (engineering). These are the core members of the band but there have been other artists performing in the line up along the way, and there will continue to be more live collaborations in future. FINEPRINT AUDIO LIVE are residents at QUAKE!, events in Exeter UK, dedicated to futuristic bass heavy music. Check the ‘NEWS’ page for up-to-date info on dates and lineups. MERGE+RENZO also produce dubstep,hip-hop breaks, techno + j-tek, and FINEPRINT AUDIO LIVE also perform these styles in their sets. On the downtempo side of things they have played at nights with DJ FOOD, BREAKFASTAZ, SMITH+MIGHTY, KILLA KELLA, N-TYPE+JAKES, proving high quality in their verstility. You can see videos of some of their gigs in the ‘VIDEO GALLERY‘ page.
FINEPRINT AUDIO LIVE have performed mostly around the southwest of the UK in the past including Portsmouth, Bristol, Cornwall,South Devon+ Exeter and will be playing in these areas again in future, but are constantly travelling and are available to be booked almost anywhere in the world.
RUBDOWN has lived in Thailand for the past 5 years and DJ’s there regularly, but prior to this he has played all over the UK. He is FINEPRINT’s DJ representative in Asia. RENZO has also DJ’d at many big events all over the UK and is available for bookings anywhere in Europe and the USA. They have both supported many of dnbs big names in the past including FABIO, JACK FROST and RAY KEITH. Both DJ’s + FINEPRINT AUDIO LIVE can be booked in the ‘BOOK US/CONTACT US’ page of this site.
FINEPRINT AUDIO are dedicated to giving away the majority of their productions away completely FREE.
Thanks for taking the time to check out the site.
