The BLOC Weekender Blog: a first-hand account

The BLOC Weekender Blog: a first-hand account

8 April, 2008 | 1.18AM

• Written by: Caleb Rakes
• Filed under: Music News: bloc weekend, darqwan, karl bartos, kode 9, n-type, skream

Take an electric line up that would make Wire Magazine wet itself several times over, a family holiday resort near Great Yarmouth, superb Spring weather one can only find in the UK and a couple thousand ravers couped in classy seaside chalets and what do you get?

BLOC Festival 2008!

Initially driving to the resort from Luton, with the Shamen blasting out the speakers at ear throttling volume, we were preparing ourselves for a night of blaring techno and dubstep, whilst having the option of resorting to the homeliness of a chalet that provided bedding, warmth and washing facilities.

Upon arrival, we soon gathered that the chalets weren’t the glamorous houses we had fantasized them to be, and in fact reminded me somewhat of my student dorm I had lived in for the first year of university.

Never fear — the party must go on.

Once outside, we are greeted by out chaperone for the weekend, Keiren Lomax AKA Komonazmuk.

Komonazmuk is the west country dubstepper, head of Mode Recordings, leading member of Bristol’s Hench movement and one of the participators in Beatport’s free track promotion at BLOC.

He assures me without further ado that the Skull Disco posse (which includes Shackleton, Peverelist, Necta Selector and Appleblim) are already there and have secured their chalet for a long weekend of partying.

On the way to the main BASSBLOC arena to watch the first act of the evening, we are lead through the arcade room.

Heavily distracted by many such machines, like the 2p machine and even more riskier the 10p machine, we lose 30 minutes and pick up minor gambling addictions.

Amon Tobin comes on at 11 pm and proceeds to destroy every life form on the dance floor.

With a Funktion One PA surrounding the dancefloor so that the sonic assault comes from all angles, the crowd are subjected Tobin’s classic electronic broken-beat onslaught, incorporating material from almost all his works.

The crowd responds especially well when he drops in the drum & bass record of the year, Lynx ‘Disco Dodo’, working the whole room into a frenzy.

This has to be the only way to experience Tobin, as never before has his work sounded so big and epic.

Earplugs – check.

Next we work our way to view to Dave Clarke.

The techno master doesn’t mess around; he goes straight for the jugular with his “no prisoners” beats.

Cue lasers.

The crowd are loving it so much that it seems like they’ve been watching him for days.

On closer inspection, when looking into their eyes I suspect that many have.

I am tempted to stop and investigate further, but I’m sure there’s something else we’re missing in another room — it’s a problem that ends up recurring throughout the entire weekend.

Moving on, we catch the end of Rusty and the start of Necta Selecta.

This is the dubstep party — the one for those looking to pick up on the new releases, to see their favourite up and coming stars and to feel the warmth and deepness that only Bristol’s finest dubsteppers can provide.

Necta kicks off the first round of this west country tag team special.

His mixing is heavy and furious, and he’s kicking off with some old school rave and garage.

Next up is Appleblim, whose mixture of house sounding dubstep is warming the crowd up to a treat.

He serves up the forthcoming release by Martyn on his Applepips label, as well as Mode’s Skrew Kept.

There are no old tunes here; it’s all fresh.

This room is so electric that Pinch and Komonazmuk of Tectonic are just gazing from behind the decks.

Next up Punch Drunk artist Peverelist AKA Tom Ford.

He seems small and shy behind the decks and lacks the charisma of N-Type and the boyish good looks of Skream, but makes up for it in blissful melody in the tracks that he plays.

Each track blends into the next with fluid ease, with no time for rewinds here.

The dubsplates come out, and the crowd are even treated to a bit of ‘Boat Noodles’ as well as Mode’s ‘Bad Apple’.

Towards the end of the set, the sound man approaches me, ashamed he can’t stay until the very end as he has to attend to one of the other stages.

“Give Tom a kiss for me. He’s just played one of the best sets I’ve seen.”

How can I refuse to fulfill such a wish?

(I did.)

Later on, outside, we are accosted by Komonazmuk, buzzing from the set and picking down and cutting up the set track by track.

Although it was amazing, he informs us, it’s nothing compared to what his set will be like on Sunday.

Behind us, a girl approaches with a Beatport BLOC promotion card in hand.

“Why this Komonazmuk fella’ got a Japanese name then?” she asks – which is my cue to leave, I reckon.

We wake up the next morning and its now Day 2; there’s no stop to this 3 day party, or so it would seem.

It’s no ‘Carry On Bloc’, but more akin to ‘Fear and Loathing in Great Yarmouth’.

We’ve been invited to observe the Fancy Dress Go Kart Racing Tournament in the afternoon.

On the way, we pass the swimming pool, which is open and running, although thankfully none of the festival goers have brought swimwear and the pool is desolate.

We get there to find that the theme of the tournament is Mario Kart.

Our man of the weekend, Komonazmuk is dressed as Pacman (although the officials have stated him far too drunk to get behind the wheel of a moving vehicle).

Never before have I seen so many people dressed as Mario, Luigi, the Princess and Toadstool.

As each car passes a lap, the opponents chuck out bananas in an attempt to cause their opponents to slip.

This, however, proves to be not as effective in the real world as one might have expected.

As we await the main evening’s entertainment, we treat ourselves to several hours of BLOC TV.

The free TV channel is beamed into the chalet courtesy of the festival.

The channel consists of old Martian movies, bizarre Japanese animations and highlights from the main stage.

We also find time to check out the local town of Hemsby, and quickly check ourselves back into the festival site.

As Saturday afternoon draws on its time to check out, Claro Intelecto is playing in BASSBLOC.

Thankfully this time we note that the sound has been softened from the previous aural onslaught present in this arena the day before.

The sound levels were at a ridiculous level initially, and we felt like we were at risk from some sort of spontaneous human combustion from the internal vibrations going on in our vital organs.

Claro Intelecto play hard, dicing industrial techno with mildly warmer melodies before continuing the relentless high BPM battering.

Technically, it’s masterful but not the most afternoon-friendly of Claro Intelecto sets to be getting on with.

At midnight in BASSBLOC, it’s something special to behold.

We’re treated to Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk, the headline of BLOC and someone that both the English and German members in Beatport’s crew are equally excited about.

The next hour and a half is nothing less than a showcase of the hits of the founding fathers of synth pop complete with a full visual show.

I feel lucky to be witnessing this, and sample spotting for all the music that has followed since using the Kraftwerk blueprint is a sport in itself.

Comparing notes afterwards, it seems that there is a line drawn in the Beatport camp over the performance; us English are blown away, having never had the opportunity to witness the original Kraftwerk lineup, but the Germans among us very much feel that they witnessed diluted cover versions of the original greatness.

I am left to ponder how amazing seeing the original Kraftwerk must have been, but feeling grateful that I had the opportunity to see this very special performance at BLOC.

Back into the dubstep fold, and first up is Milanese.

His record history says it all, as he left Warp to pursue his recording career with Planet Mu.

This is highlighted in the music he plays live, playing electro filled dubstep, some heavy Timbaland, a bit of Dizzee Rascal and finishing off with some full on breakcore, much to the crowd’s delight.

As Oris Jay (AKA Darqwan) beckons the stage, he must be thinking how on Earth he can follow that?

With his number 1 fan in toe, the BBC’s Mary Ann Hobbs, Oris goes straight for the record bag labeled “Now That’s What I Call Dubstep”, as every tune is an anthem.

BLOC are treated to a set of all their favourite tracks, as Oris Jay slams down everything from Benga & Coki’s ‘Night’ through to Rusko ‘Cockney Thug’ and Tes La Rok’s remix of ‘Round the World Girls’.

The room is vibrating to the maximum, and the sweat drenched carpets are just getting wetter and wetter.

If you’ve seen N-Type before, then you know what a character he is.

The guy’s larger than life, and his hands are constantly in the air with his infamous gun salute, playing the dirtiest, noisiest dubs you’ll ever hear — the kids love it.

It starts to become apparent already that the scene is acquiring its regional variances, as this London boy likes to play it heavy and loud, in comparison to the Bristol house sounding vibes.

But wait, the best is still yet to come.

Skream comes on to a grand reception and instantly attempts to gratify the crowd with a killer cut from his Disfigured Dubs label.

The stage is packed, and in the back, we can see everyone from The Bug through to Kode 9 and our trusted hero, Komonazmuk.

30 seconds into the first track, there’s a reach around from our good friend Keiren and a rewind ensues.

As it goes, Keiren manages to rewind the first 4 tracks of Skream’s set (with justification I might add), and is subsequently removed from the stage.

Oli Jones goes on to play to the crowd’s delight, dropping in some new dubplates whilst dropping in some of his tracks such as ‘Wobble That Gut’ and his remix of The Klaxons ‘It’s Not Over Yet’.

The sound is big and heavy, and the tunes come thick and fast, proving there’s a reason why he’s a head of the game.

Towards the end of the set, he slows it down, dropping in some slower tracks and finally finishes with the forthcoming release by Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan ‘Saw Something’.

As the crowd starts to descend from their mighty peak of high end, wobble induced basslines, they look on to see Skream mime along to this fresh remix, and gaze at the ridiculously young producer prodigy.

Bigger things are yet to come for this boy from Croyden.

And so we come to the end of BLOC.

As we walk through the arcade for the last time, I seize a promotional CD that has been left invitingly on a fruit machine, neon lights illuminating it tantalisingly.

Reading the title of ‘Westcountry Shakedown Volume 4’, I smile to myself, thinking that this will be an interesting soundtrack to the long drive back to London in the hired car.

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