Bloc 2011 – First Ten Acts Announced

2010 was my first Bloc Weekend experience, and I got to say as far as format goes it’s hands down the best festival in the UK. Taking place at Butlins Resoort in Minehead, it’s a big draw that you’re always only about five minutes from your own room and bed.

Last year with Omar-S, Loops Haunt, Kelpe Anti-pop Consortium and of course Dodger Man being among the standout highlights, there were also an unfortunate number of younger hype acts that just didn’t deliver. Bloc 2010 was the festival where ‘Footcrab‘ first assaulted our ears, and it became painfully obvious that digital format has truly killed the next generation of record spinners. I’m a convert to the wonders of the Traktor, Ableton et. al – but watching Lindstrom build a stunning set one night compared to some of the younger crews needle-dropping hype tunes it became clear that software has made redundant the art of DJing, building up a unique set and reacting to your audience.

Rant over. Still the best festival in the UK. I’ve been looking forward to hearing next year’s line-up since my return back in March. And although there’s nothing in this world could ever make me attend another painful Seth Troxler set, overall the first ten are looking big. We’ve jacked the profiles from some of our favorites who’ve been confirmed as below.

via Bloc Weekend Lineup Page

DIGITAL MYSTIKZ [DMZ / UK]

 Co-founder of Brixton’s legendary dubstep dance (and label) DMZ and the man behind the Deep Medi Muzik label, Mala is a true bedrock of the global dubstep scene. As deep and meditative as his label name suggests, Mala’s sound has been celebrated for a timelessness that evades so many of his contemporaries – this year’s ‘Return II Space’ longplayer on DMZ offering dubstep purists a journey of depth, longevity and emotion (often one of enveloping, intoxicating dread).

BLACK DEVIL DISCO CLUB [LO RECORDINGS / FR]

As much as we love to bring the rave at Bloc, we also like to bring some proper heritage… and the unfathomably deep and funky Black Devil Disco Club have got the latter in spades. Originally released in 1978, Black Devil’s ‘Disco Club’ EP was an epic journey into the furthest galaxies of experimental, electronic disco. A masterpiece in cosmic sound, it remained a rare, sleeper sensation of the past until its creator – onetime French library music writer Bernard Fevre – returned in 2006 under the guise of Black Devil Disco Club with more dark disco delights and gothic electronic funk.

BEARDYMAN [BITCHEW BREW / UK]

If you have seen beatbox experimentalist Beardyman ‘perform’ before then there is no way you’ll have forgotten just how jaw-droppingly impressive and side-splittingly funny the whole shebang is. The two times UK beatbox champion loops up beats, bars and mad mouthmade sounds like some mutant breed of Rahzel and Jamie Lidell with some Rolf Harris and Richie Hawtin genes spliced in for good measure. This is next level mouth aerobic shit with some serious technical trickery and a side order of acerbic wit and leftfield nonsense.


DOPPLEREFFEKT [DATA PHYSICS / US]

Drexcyian Detroit electro unit Dopplereffekt may be shrouded in mystery but they remain one of the most enigmatic and influential electronic music acts in living memory. Purist Detroit electro at its most envelope-pushing, the unique Dopplereffekt sound has often been mimicked but rarely bettered. Their EP’s collected on the ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ LP on DJ Hell’s International Deejay Gigolos and releases on Aphex Twin’s Rephlex are essential bedrocks in any serious electro heads collections.

MODERAT [BPITCH CONTROL / DE]

Moderat = Modeselektor + Apparat. The coming together of Apparat’s subtle, dreamy pop atmospherics with the Modeselektor duo’s glitchy mutant techno and melodic dubstep bastardisations might have seemed like an odd combination, but it has long proved an inspired one. Sounding like an electronic offspring of Burial, Aphex Twin and Radiohead spliced with the classic German trance sound of Sven Vath’s Eye Q records, their self-titled Moderat album on BPitch Control is hands down one of the most beautifully unique electronica LPs of the last few years and their live show is an audio-visual headtrippin’ mindfuck like no other around right now.
This will be the last Moderat live show till 2013.

LFO [WARP RECORDS / UK]

We are humbled to finally welcome Warp records originator and UK techno godfather Mark Bell, aka LFO, to Bloc. It’s impossible to overstate LFO’s impact on the scene we now cherish via genre-defining chart hits ‘L.F.O’, and ‘We Are Back’, collaborations with Aphex Twin and a long-standing creative partnership with the incredible Bjork, dating back to her 1997 album ‘Homegenic’.
LFO has not played a show in the UK since 2008.

…Awkward Movements?