Sunday 25 April 2010

BLOC 2010 review

I went down to Minehead as the electronic music geek in the trafficmag.org team. An amazing time was had by all. Below is my contribution to the 'top 20 sets of the festival' the four of us compiled. The final, collaborative version is here:
http://www.trafficmag.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1423:bloc-weekend-2010-top-20-sets&catid=36:interviews&Itemid=159

1. FLYING LOTUS
Steve Ellison aka Flying Lotus came to Bloc as one of the the most talked of underground music artists around. His musical heritage and cross media abilities have been picked over. Warp are waiting to release his third studio album this summer. His solo live set was reported to have totally eclipsed the efforts of four piece band Battles on the Warp records tour earlier this year, and he announced that this he was presenting a “new digital set” using his own visuals at Bloc. Should be alright then.

Last year Bloc had Aphex Twin and Florian Hecker to challenge our perception of what is possible with electronic music, and this year the 26 year old from California did the same. It really was an astonishing performance.

Our intrepid photographer tried to get close enough to uncover the secrets of his equipment, but no can do; it seems improbable that anyone could produce so unique a set using a fairly typical Ableton/midi controller/DJ mixer set up, but maybe we just have to accept that this man knows something other performers don't. Whatever his mysterious techniques, it allows him to breezily trip from style to sound, bringing in everything from jungle, soul and murdered electro house. It's become a bit of an easy trick to drop Radiohead's 'Idioteque', but edited to within an inch of insanity, it seemed he had a new take on this – as he had a new take on everything.

You can't overlook that Flying Lotus' roots, his basic template, is hip hop. But the way he turns that simple beat upside down makes it feel like the smart-ass punk nephew of the loops and skits Grandmaster Flash had run through earlier - a distant relative living in a different city, a different time. The unconventional percussion tracks he layers over the top of his grooves, sounding neither like drums nor even entirely in sync, make for an unreal and constantly surprising experience. His is the hip hop of bottles kicked along broken streets; urban music aware that there's deep timeless space above these city streets.

I barely even noticed the rest of the audience, entranced as I was by the visuals juddering along to the music and the relaxed yet busily working presence of Flying Lotus at the controls. This was beat music to shock all those who thought there was nothing new to be done with dance music.

To my relief, it turned out there was plenty of excitement to be had with the other performers in attendance; for the hour after this set, I wondered whether I would be able to enjoy anything else at the festival in comparison with this (fortunately Alden Tyrell was in town.) As all who saw Flying Lotus will tell you, watch this man.


2. DERRICK MAY
Picture the scene: there are just two hours remaining of the festival. Joris Voorn has been rinsing some of the smoothest hi-tek soul for the last two hours. The final performance of the festival is a set from legendary Detroit DJ Derrick May.

The contrast between a producer leading a new generation of Dutch techno producers and one of the first wave of Detroit producers who created techno was intriguing. After enjoying the glossy and flawless selection from modern master Voorn, how would a DJ of the old school using the traditional two Technics 1210's and two CDJ's format appear?

For probably the first time all weekend, we had a seamless transition from one artist to the next on the main stage (the break between sets usually dissipated all momentum in the main room.) May did, however, take pains to make sure Voorn got full appreciation for his set, walking over to complement him and join in the applause. Voorn had built his set up to a massive thumping house beat, so the initial transition from the jacking peak of the Dutchman's set to the reduced level of May's opening groove gave a chance for the dancers to regroup and review.

What we actually got from the revered godfather of techno, was a selection of deep and soulful house. For sure, the beat was heavy, and whenever he plays seriously he plays deep, but anyone expecting heads down thumping techno was instead taken on a journey in sound by this master selector.

We had cuts with samba percussion, trumpets and saxophones, leading to deep techno classics like 'Groove a la Chord' by Aril Brikha and Laurent Garnier's 'Acid Eiffle' (both on his apparently soon to relaunch Transmat label.) We had some superbly dubby techno sounding like 90's UK techno don Steve O'Sullivan. When it looked like he'd step up to a kicking techno sound he sidestepped instead to some fresh Berlin techno records I've got somewhere but have yet to identify (who says minimal is nondescript?)

So how did an exercise in the old skills compare with Voorn's hi-tek flex? Voorn has all his sounds at his fingertips and under control and knew exactly how he likes to execute his tension building mixes and the effects he'll apply. He can grin at his audience and dance to the carefully selected loops in his library. Derrick May spent long spells facing his record box picking out awesome unknown tunes that twist and turn and build and break. For a while he span some tools and hit on three deck mixes, but he was probably best letting the tunes do the work and slowly mixing it up until it didn't feel like I was in the main hall of a Butlins holiday camp in Somerset anymore, I could have been next to the speakers of any club with a Funktion 1 rig.

Last year Carl Craig was charged with doing this same job, and to my anguish he played a whole bunch of new European techno which, whilst perfectly danceable, was not what I want to hear from such a figure. Like Derrick May, he can play tunes that are decades old and so deep, so soulful, so powerful, that most of today's producers don't get close. And that's what May did, building his set around the most gorgeous and energising dance music, cutting the bass once in a while, then giving it to the crowd full whack and standing back to enjoy the tune himself. And ultimately it was house music that ended the festival and left us refreshed and euphoric after the dancing as we dispersed into the night.


3. T++
Tec-bloc, the third room comparatively, is all black and could hold at least 1000 people. In the darkness at the back is a seating area and if you look closely you'll notice a wild west theme. The Funktion 1 rig sounds sweetest in the dark in here, I reckon. For the Saturday, epic Bristol and London club night Subloaded we're in charge and asked T++ aka Torston Profrock to finish their run and, as it didn't operate on Sunday, the Tec-Bloc room itself.

He took to the stage after a Marcell Dettmann and Shed's back to back session had been soured by technical problems, at the same time as Surgeon started in the main room... there went all the techno fans. The sound of T++ has rough echoes of his associate Monolake, and ethno-electronic artist Muslimguaze. Its a pretty mysterious and impenetrable construct of rhythms.

The sight of T++ tells you this is not just serious or technical music however. Bearing the logo of London based label and shop Honest Jons Records, retailers of everything from Tony Allen and Lord Kitchener to Scottish folk rock, he was not still while the beats were in motion. Mopping his brow under the stage lights, he seemed to make every alteration happen not with the turn of a dial but a heave of his shoulders.

The crowd was perphaps three deep. Though we may have been few, we hung on every beat and demanded an encore; although Torston did coyloy ask, taking a breather with less than 10 minutes left, which he looked like he really needed. The sweat on all our brows was testament to the capability for his unique vision of dance music to ensnare ones hands and feet in rhythm.


4. ALDEN TYRELL
Alden Tyrell is a stalwart of the crucial Dutch electro label Clone. He looked rather shy on stage with his Nord synth and laptop, as though he'd only come round to have a chat and a cuppa. His set of unashamedly cheesy and uplifting disco and electro was easily the highlight in the intimate Jak-bloc room.

Unfortunately I missed the first half of this set, hanging around elsewhere waiting for Shed and Marcel Dettmann to do something interesting, but came in to find a gleeful crowding of the dancefloor. I was so glad to be in there when half of the crowd inexplicably began singing along, 'do-do-doooo, do-do-do-do', to 'Rendezvous at Rimini'. I must have missed something: so far as I'm aware Tyrell is a fairly obscure though highly esteemed italo-disco and analogue electro producer, so why the dancefloor suddenly threw their hands in the air and started a sing-along I have no idea.

He rounded his set off with a stonking acid track which totally mashed up the floor, and left the stage with a bashful grin. If the love from the crowd was anything to go on, these dancefloors need a whole lot more synthtastic joyous analogue music.


5. LUKE SLATER
Luke Slater AKA Planetary Assault Systems is one of the most successful and prolific British techno producers. But not many people seem to know who he is, even though Dave Clarke is the only techno DJ and producer who even comes close in one sense.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this live PSA appearance was that Luke Slater appears to work with an engineer. Whether he is just recruited for the live presentation or Slater's regular studio engineer I don't know. I can't even say that they knew each other - for the duration of the set they both started at their own pair of Macbooks, without ever once looking at each other.

The selection at Bloc was basically a reproduction of the Temporary Suspension album released last year on Ostgut Ton. The tracks are gaunt, heavy techno with rough edges and clanking, acid saw parts, and were presented more or less consecutively over ninety minutes. The crescendo's grew ever greater, the kick ever more relentless and penetrating. Call me a techno-head, but I loved it.

The imagery conjured by the Planetary Assault Systems name and icon fits perfectly with the musical aesthetic. The whole thing seems to invoke some inhuman sci-fi future, of automata and alarms, and it was those robotic beats held us captive until the sonic structure finally collapsed at 6am.
Correction: Slater's accomplice on stage got in touch to say he was the VJ

6. AUTECHRE
Autechre are on the road this March ahead of the release of 'Oversteps', their tenth LP by my count. Since 1998 they've been making a particularly abstract and confrontational kind of electronic music that means most people either love or hate what they do; to many it sounds like a racket. To others, unparalleled.

To judge by the sound tonight, Autechre fans might find the new album a treat. The beats are still as fractious as ever, but less effort was made to subdue the harmonic elements of their synth work. In keeping with their Quarisitice album, they would quite quickly skip from idea to idea. They're playing with a much more stripped down set of equipment right now, and probably because of this the sound was rawer and more upfront. As ever, they explore the limit of their machines, making truly experimental electronic music.

The set was played out in as near as possible to total darkness, with no light show whatsoever. When you could see what was going on, moving around the hall, the sight of people engaging with the music was almost as interesting as what was heard. Here a wafting of hands; their a rhythmic chopping of limbs, mantis stylee. The overall experience was wonderfully disorientating. After hours of good old repetitive beats, I felt lost in Autechre's unpredictable beat scape. And sometimes lost is a good place to be.


7. MARK ERNESTUS & TIKIMAN
Hardwax approved bashment and dub, with the first class sing jay Tikiman doing a superlative job on the mic.


8. SURGEON
A comparatively sedate set, building from an ambient/trip hop beginning. Surgeon eschewed dubstep for a rave influence in this live A/V set. The cheesy dancers which sometimes got in the way on the main stage were replaced by his personal yoga duo!Looked happier enjoying a groove to some nice tunes, than he has done in the past when sternly constructing intense laptop mixes.


9. JORIS VOORN
Joris Voorn has rapidly found himself place at the forefront of the electronic music scene. Given this I was extremely curious to see what his popular live sets entai. So on seeing his name on the line up he was immediately on my “must see” list. After a hectic but unequivocally enjoyable two days and nights of music, it was finally time when Voorn played the penultimate set on the Centre Bloc stage.

Starting his first track, the first chunky loop, as Skream and Benga made their way off, he lost most of the crowd in an instant. But with a few uptempo house grooves, including Moodymann’s 'I Can't Kick This Feeling When It Hits', Voorn quickly had a dancefloor of his own going. For pretty much the whole set he stood up swaying away, clapping the beat when he could. His Traktor Scratch and CDJ's set up allows him to easily layer up several tracks at a time; it sounds like pretty much everything he plays is looped.

After a good half an hour the mood became a lot deeper, the change signified by him looping Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’. An obvious choice? Maybe. But his decision to only sample the bassline meant it worked out credibly. This deeper sound kept the rolling, bouncing beats from earlier and ensured the crowd remained as energetic as ever. Paul Kalkbrenner’s ‘Sky And Sand’ from Berlin Calling was next to be heard, and there were also further crowd teasing samples in the form of Cevin Fisher’s classic 'You Got Me Burning Up', the vocal and bass line from another classic, ‘I Feel Love’. As the set drew to a close Voorn moved to a much harder techno sound, the final samples coming from Plastikman's 'Spastik' and Green Velvets 'Flash'.

Voorn's showmanship and skills got the whole front room rolling to his beat. Musically it was all over the place, with even Mr Scruff getting a look in, but it was carried along with a skill that evoked as great a crowd reaction and appreciation as anyone else received. It was also managed perfectly to bridge the gap from Skream and Benga’s boisterous performance to the understated but equally riveting festival finale set from Mr Derrick May.


10. BENGA b2b SKREAM
If Benga and Skream were still Adegbenga Adejurno and Oliver Jones, and they went on X-Factor, what do you think would happen? I can tell you what I envisage, and it involves Simon Cowell's teeth scattering across the stage like an un-choreographed dance troupe, and the police leading Oliver away.

Playing back to back, the dubstep of Benga and Skream holds few real surprises. This particular seam of dubstep, with the tracks' tendency to rapidly switch between contrasting A and B sections, does seem massively affective at getting a whole dancefloor to jack; this was the only time the main room floor was literally bouncing.

The interplay and mock-drama between the two DJ's had the potential to be extremely cheesy but it all added to the excitement of the performance. The addition of MC Sgt Pokes to the 'Skenga' show was barely even a distraction really. These two have enough presence and character on stage to easily handle crowd much larger then the 2000+ here today.

They finished with a full 7 or 8 minutes of a track from Skream's forthcoming album, a sunny, jungle style track with big drum and bass production. It sounds like it will be a big album for him, with major collaborations, and he prowled the stage triumphantly throughout. This man isn't gonna shut up soon.


11. ADAM BEYER
The Swedish techno don was the best technicial mixer of the festival, but, without a major presence of techno heads to really get things going, he was left with nowhere to go. A lot of really fine stripped down, slightly dubby tracks in that icey Scandinavian style, but he got lost playing housey tracks to try whip up some momentum.


12. LINDSTROM
A lively tour through the highlights of Lindstrom's production back catalogue. A pleasure, but bereft of the twists and turns offered by a Lindstrom DJ set.


13. BEN PEST
Glitchy house and Boards of Canada-esque electronica hit the spot in the Fenchurch Dome on Saturday afternoon.


14. PEVERELIST b2b APPLEBLIM
The two Bristolian's bought a different flavour with their back to back set. Exchanging five records each, they allowed their constrasting styles to impose a kind of structure on this collaboration. Appleblim's preference for seemless mixing and flowing grooves made for a steady build till the switch to Peverelist, who's rougher and more errant selection made many crafty changes of direction.

15 minutes in and there were only heads nodding on the dancefloor but check your watch and its only 18:45. It wasn't so easy for a dancefloor to get moving to this, but perhaps it wasn't meant to. The sound was a skeletal version of dubstep, a dub-variant not really related to urban music at all. Like Shackleton, the influences seem to be sourced straight from the plains of Africa, occultism and all, without the historic detour via the slave plantations of the America and the West Indies.


15. ROOTS MANUVA
Full on live hustle in the main room. The hip hop-rock show sounded big, looked big, but was ultimately two speed.


16. OMAR S
As much interested in tones and textures as the gently swinging beats which framed music. Purely deep house and unexpectedly leftfield.


17. MODEL 500
The performance by Juan Atkins' Model 500 crew was hotly anticipated. Although watched enthusiastically by some, performing tracks one by one with Atkins, Mike Banks and Mark Taylor jamming on keyboards sounded like techno was being reimaged for the hotel lobby. With all due respect to these inspirational producers, they are not admired most for their ability tickling the ivories and their laid back jams were not what the party needed - especially not with the frantic beats of Autechre creeping in through the floor between songs.