2011 marked the fifth anniversary of the BLOC weekender festival, which currently takes place at Butlin's holiday resort in the small town of Minehead in Somerset, UK. Main draws for this year's festival included a live A/V set from the reclusive Aphex Twin, Laurent Garnier's main stage closing LBS live show, as well as the first LFO live set in over three years. This year's BLOC also featured stacked showcases from Bristol's Subloaded crew, Glasgow's Numbers label, Croatia's Outlook festival, Mary Anne Hobbs, and Modeselektor's hand-picked Modeselektion stage.

The plan was always to end the pilgrimage at BLOC, which was only a couple hours outside of Bristol.  This would all have been well and good aside from the fact that tickets to this years festival had been sold out for months in advance. With unfailing faith, I found myself at the Bristol Temple-Meads Bus terminal with a coach ticket to the festival grounds in Minehead, but ticketless to the actual festival itself.

As eager festival-goers began slowly showing up in droves at the Bus Terminal, I struck up a conversation with a crew from Galway, Ireland who had some prior BLOC experience under their belts and asked what they thought my chances were of being able to score an extra ticket outside the grounds.  Right off the bat they mentioned that their friend had an extra he was looking to get rid of and just like that, all systems were GO.

The party really starts on the BLOC coach buses which you can book online and catch from either Bristol, London, or Manchester. The chartered buses drop you off you directly at the Butlin's resort in Minehead on either Thursday or Friday afternoon, completely hassle-free.  The drive from Bristol through the English countryside was breathtaking, although I quickly learned that people from Ireland are considerably less impressed with rolling green hills and flocks of sheep than a kid from Brooklyn. After a quick lesson in buckfast and an in depth explanation of craic from the Galway crew, we arrived to the site around 5pm on Friday and got situated.  Instead of the eternal struggle of pitching a tent before the sun goes down and you've had one too many; one of the many beauties of BLOC is simply checking in at the gate, receiving a key to your chalet apartment and getting settled in right away.


Walking through the gates, it was immediately apparent that Butlin's is something with no comparable equivalent back home in the States. Originally opened to the public in 1962, the holiday camp is set up for vacationing families looking to get away for the weekend, complete with a bevy of activities to keep the children busy during the day and onsite accommodations in the form of chalet apartments. Each resort contains a canopy pavilion which links together pre-existing buildings to form an all-weather enclosure which houses the various concert arenas, shops, arcade, and other amenities. The resorts also boast an indoors water park complete with waterslides, hot tubs, lazy river, and a wave pool.


After pounding a couple quick celebratory pints, there was no time to waste as I made my way over to the Tec:Bloc stage where the Subloaded showcase was already getting underway.

Mensah was already in the midst of his set as I entered to the familiar sounds of 'Fatherless' by Breach. After Mensah, fellow Bristol native Guido manned the CDJs for a captivating set of his own that featured a ton of the jazzy and orchestral-led original productions that he's become known for. You can listen to Guido's recent 2011 promo mix which showcases a bunch of his forthcoming tunes HERE.


Gemmy then followed suit and played some forthcoming material on his new W.O.W. (World Of Wonders) imprint. Be on the lookout for his debut LP on PlanetMu as well, which should hopefully see release later this year. Personal favorites from the set included the stonking 'Level Up' ft. DreadMC as well as 'Go-Gem', which can both be heard in his most recent 25 minutes of WOW mix.

In keeping with the early Bristol theme of the night, Tectonic label-head Pinch was next to step to the decks and started off his set with some bassbin rattling dub reggae. One of the biggest crowd reactions of the night came when he dropped Dizzee's classic 'I Luv You' in the midst of an eclectic set which featured a little something for everyone.  Other standouts included recent Tectonic release 'This Is It' by Addison Groove as well as Pinch's own 'Swish' which is set to be one of the biggest dubstep releases in recent memory. In case you've been living under a rock with limited Wi-Fi, you can still grab his Resident Advisor mix from ealier this year HERE.


Ready for a slight change of scenery, I migrated over to the Modeselektion showcase at Red:BLOC to catch Siriusmo perform his live set in the rammed arena. The set included many of the tunes off of his recent 'Mosaik' LP, which saw release earlier this year on Modeselektor's own Monkeytown label. You can purchase and preview the album via Juno HERE.


After being packed into venues like sardines to see Mala in Amsterdam and London the previous week, it was nice to have some room to properly skank out for his set back at the Subloaded showcase. It doesn't get too much better than listening to Mala rinsing dubplates with Pokes on the mic, bolstered by a weighty and crystal clear Funktion-One sound system. Mala's set featured some cerebral eyes down tunes from Deep Medi labelmates Goth-Trad & VIVEK, as well as the stunning remixes of his own 'Changes' by both Distance and James Blake. Mala originals 'Eyez VIP', 'Mountain Dread March', and the blissful set closing 'Alicia' were a treat to finally hear out on a system that could match the inherent bassweight. The most rawkus moment had to be the 3 consecutive (and well deserved) reloads that Coki's unreleased clanger 'Marduk' received. "Largin up the Coki wobbler each and every!!"


The next destination was the Numbers showcase at the Jak:BLOC stage to see sets from LandoKal and Rustie. Having missed both of Rustie's previous performances in NYC, I made it a priority to not miss his set at BLOC.


His set didn't disappoint and showcased some impressive spells of turntablism on the 1s and 2s. Highlights were his remix of Girl Unit's 'WUT' live on the fly, as well as delving into some grime from Dizzee and D Double E while showing off some serious dexterity on the decks.


Rustie's set wrapped up around midnight and the next stop was back to Tec:BLOC to catch the last half-hour of Untold. Untold's music has always been impossible to pin down, always able to find a happy medium between the sounds of sub-driven techno and dubstep while perpetually keeping ahead of the curve.




Backed with an enormous L.E.D. backdrop, the energy in centre:BLOC was extremely palpable for LFO's set. His live renditions of 'Freak', 'Tied Up', as well as 'LFO' from the classic 1991 Warp LP 'Frequencies' created absolute pandemonium on the dancefloor. His set served as a reminder that Warp still remains one of the most important and influential labels in the whole of electronic music.


BLOC DAY 2:

While Day 1 featured brief pangs of paranoia that you were always missing a set that you shouldn't be, there's something about waking up that first morning at a festival that allows you to simply relax, appreciate your surroundings and just be content with wherever it is that you might end up. With over 60 world class DJs and producers from around the World all converging in one place, you really can't go wrong.

One can also never underestimate the rejuvenating nature of a mid-festival shower. Took some time in the early afternoon to explore the site's grounds and amenities which also include a miniature golf course, an all night arcade, sports bar, Irish pub, and a plenty of options for food. Where else are you going to find a care bear playing putt-putt, whilst swilling on a 2L bottle of red wine??


Headed to the Ableton RFID Dome in the late afternoon to check out Addison Groove's live demo (sans Roland 808) utilizing Ableton Live and the Native Instruments' Maschine controller. A unique festival experience reminiscent of an attentive Kindergarten class quietly sitting down together around the DJ booth inside of the carpeted dome. Directing everyone's attention from above about was the live Ableton session screen being projected onto one half of the ceiling, while a camera focused on the DJ triggering Maschine was projected on the other.


Mary Anne Hobbs' showcase then got underway at Red:BLOC with a powerful set of her own to start Saturday evening off on the right foot. Representing the Night Slugs camp, L-Vis1990 completely leveled it next with a DJ set of his own before Addison Groove took to the stage to perform a live set. There's just no imitating that booty dropping sound you achieve when playing drums through time tested analog hardware such as the 808 and his set definitely got the whole crowd to drop it down low.


The rest of Saturday night was spent at Centre:BLOC enjoying the musical stylings of Four Tet, Aphex Twin, and Vitalic. Having initially gotten into electronic music through the music of Richard D. James, seeing him live has always been somewhat of a holy grail. While his stateside appearances have remained few and far between over the past decade, BLOC was the ideal place to experience his live set for the first time.


This particular performance also incorporated a visual element by way of live facial-mapping (see video below) of audience members that even two months after the fact, I still have trouble conveying in words. After an extended intro that was enough to drive a crazy man sane and then back again, the bassline of Fis-T's 'Night Hunter' seemed to catch much of the audience off guard. From there, the sounds of Ramadanman's 'Work Them' and the joyous synth stabs of Jam City's 'Ecstacy refix' produced one of the biggest 'WTF?!' moments of the entire festival. Hearing Aphex dropping tunes from 502 records, Swamp81, and Night Slugs respectively was something that I never expected to hear. His set came across as an education in the ways of Rave, from it's early roots all the way to it's current manifestations and offshoots. From dubstep, to acid techno, IDM, breakcore, and jungle; the set covered many of the bases in a way that only Aphex Twin could get away with.


As if Aphex Twin wasn't already the audio/visual equivalent of insanity, THIS is what I found on BLOCtv, the festival operated TV station when I returned back to the chalet. Don't mess with Executive Koala.

BLOC DAY 3:


Waking up on Sunday with the realization that the bass vacation was nearing it's end was bittersweet, but there's no crying in raving and there was still plenty of mayhem to get into before all was said and done. After a quick stroll down to the beach for lunch and my first encounter with Monster Munch, the ultimate in hangover cures, it was time to get down to business. Sunday's programming couldn't have been planned any better, with the irie vibes of Outlook taking over Red:BLOC with Gentleman's Dub Club, Exodus, Iration Steppas, Top Cat, and Kenny Ken. While not backed by their notorious sound system back in Leeds, it was still a treat to finally see Iration Steppas live dropping dubs from the likes of Gregory Isaacs (RIP the Cool Ruler), Peter Tosh, and Barrington Levy. After two solid days of thumping EDM, a little reggae does a body and mind good.


Next up was legendary MC Top Cat taking all crew through a collection of his classics, including an a capella version of 'A Friend In Need' and 'Joker Smoker'. The MC then stayed on the mic while Kenny Ken stepped up to the decks to close out the festival in a proper ragga-jungle style. Highlights included 90s throwbacks ShyFX & UK Apache- 'Original Nuttah (Kenny Ken VIP)', Kenny Ken- 'Nuttin A Gwan', and Zinc's remix of 'Ready Or Not' by the Fugees.


And thus ended the trip of a lifetime. FWD>>, Amsterdam, DMZ, Dubloaded, and BLOC all knocked off the bucket list. Out to everyone that I met and chatted with along the way for helping to make it the experience that it was. Massive shouts go out to my Irish crew who adopted me as one of their own at BLOC. Seriously great craic. Also, big up the man like Kish for putting me up in London. Hope to return the favor someday brother. Want to also thank all the photographers who helped contribute to all of these reviews: Anie.se, Andre Eggens, Ashes57, Liam Richardson, and Liz Eve.

If anyone wants to send their lear jet to come pick me up in NYC and take me to Outlook in September, I won't say no.