Multi-instrumentalist Luke Dubber, also known as Luke Dubs, and Angus Stuart, best known as Elgusto, make up the Australian electronic/hip-hop group Hermitude. From Blue Mountains, New South Wales the two long-time friends began making music together in 1994 when Dubber and Suart were 16 and 11, respectively. After Stuart returned from the US with a set of turntables, the duo began collaborating without vocals and with Dubber on keyboard, calling itself Hermitude. The group captured intricate instrumental soundscapes on its 2002 EP, Imaginary Friends, earning praise and press for its debut album Alleys to Valleys. The duo's second album, Tales of the Drift, was made with a surge of percussion and rhythm obviously inspired by Stuart's youth in Cuba. The Cuban-insprired sound brought international attention to the band and prompted tours in Japan, the US and Spain.
