1200 Techniques is an ARIA Award-winning Australian hip hop group consisting of DJ Peril, N'fa Forster-Jones and Kemstar. Whilst primarily being in the genre of hip hip, they drew influences from other genres including rock, funk, soul, electro, drum and bass, electro jazz and breakbeat. They released their debut studio album in 2002. Artist Direct said "Although Australia had an underground hip-hop scene starting in the late '80s, it wasn't until 2001 that it began to be recognized by the mainstream of Australian music. 1200 Techniques were an important part of that moment, with charting singles, appearances on TV shows like John Safran's Music Jamboree, and a sound that contained an eclectic blend of rock, dance, and funk influences to win over those Australians unconvinced their country had a place as a producer of quality hip-hop music."
History
Brothers DJ Peril and Kemstar were involved in the hip-hop scene since the early 1980s as pre-teens. DJ Peril started with The Island Boys, one of Melbourne's first ever hip hop crews and DJ'd in a number of different bands. Peril formed 1200 Techniques in 1997 with brothers Nfamas and Kabba. Kemstar joined soon after, replacing Kabba who moved to London, England in 1998. Kabba's vocals can still, however, be heard on some of the group's early tracks. 1200 Techniques continued with the three remaining core members, recruiting a drummer for live shows. In 2001, 1200 Techniques were signed to an independent label called Rubber Records and they released their debut Extended Play titled Infinite Style. The lead single from the EP "Hard as Hell" was released and had a low budgetvideo clip which saw the song receive national recognition on Triple J. In April 2002, the band released the single "Karma", the lead single from their debut studio album Choose One. "Karma" became a crossover success. Choose One was released in June and peaked at number 20 on the ARIA Charts. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2002, the group were nominated for five awards, with "Karma" winning ARIA Award for Best Independent Release and ARIA Award for Best Video. Also in 2002, the band won Best Debut Artist" and Best Hip Hop Act at the Dance Music Awards. The group supported Linkin Park on their 2002 Australian tour that year and headlined their own tour with support by American rapper Princess Superstar. Their second albumConsistency Theory was released in January 2004, and peaked at No. 38 on the ARIA album chart. Three singles were released from the album and all appeared on the ARIA singles chart. Following the album's release, the group appeared at the Big Day Out festival in early 2004. At the ARIA Music Awards of 2004, the lead single "Eye of the Storm" was nominated for two awards. The group went on hiatus in 2005 to allow the individual members to pursue solo work. In October 2014, the group broke nearly a decade of silence by announcing the release of a new extended play. After a successful fundraising campaign on PledgeMusic, the band released Time Has Come in January 2015.
DJ Peril released a solo album, King of the Beats in 2006, which includes the singles "It's About to Blow" and "Rock Ya Baby". the latter featuring singer Rahsaan Patterson. Nfamas released a solo album, as N'fa, called Cause An Effect in 2006. Both of the album's video clips were directed by his friend, actor Heath Ledger. Kemstar played guitar with his band Quarter 2 Nine circa 1990 as well with the Australian supergroup The Jack for the 2004 Thunderstruckfilm soundtrack, performing on the songs "Crash & Burn" and "It's a Long Way to the Top ".
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. 1200 Techniques have won two awards from eight nominations.
