Page 31 - Zone Magazine Issue 010

butlins resort - minehead - uk 11-13 march 2016
event review - uk
Minehead isn't the sort of place you would expect a congregation of some of the finest names in the techno community. To be honest, it's not the sort of place you would expect to find anything other than a small seaside town that's predominantly fit for retirement. However, for a weekend in March, for what will sadly probably be the last time, Bloc had taken over Butlins to deliver three nights of dark and distorted sonic mayhem, which we gladly ventured to alongside four thousand other revellers.
Armed with at least twenty of us from the not very far away city of Plymouth, we were all riled up for the Friday night, which boasted a selection of high profile, and more to the point, high quality artists that really took our fancy.
Floating Points kicked things off for us in the main arena (that didn't take very long to fill), with a chilled sound scape of half electronic, half acoustic performances before we noticed that Blueprint Records very own James Ruskin was on in the 'Crack' arena. As expected, Ruskin didn't disappoint, championing forthcoming records on his own Blueprint imprint, like the title track from the new four track EP from Surgeon, and his own wicked 'Page One' by Ruskin himself and DVS 1. He also impressed by dropping a few choice classics such as 'Work That Motha Fucker' by Steve Poindexter, and some of his older productions.
Ireland's Sunil Sharpe had the hard task of rivalling Surgeon & Blawan's Trade act so we decided to see half of one and half of the other, neither of which disappointed. Sharpe delivered some seriously dark and harder cuts that really did the damage, while Trade really tweaked their impressive modular gear selection over a devastatingly fierce live performance that left us awestruck.
Speedy J should need no introduction to those reading, producing many an anthem from the nineties, and the man proved he could rock it in the main arena, with a ferocious set that
seriously took no prisoners. This was relentless from the word go, and we loved it. Finally was Germany's very own Ben Klock to wrap up the proceedings on Friday, but by this point I had to pass out so missed his selection, which is a shame as I normally really enjoy his sets.
Most of Saturday afternoon was spent in various pubs in Minehead, as well as watching Wales vs England in the rugby, which raises the question as to why there were so many Wales fans in Minehead, but that can wait for another day. We returned back to hear Bloc label favourite JoeFarr play a quality set of dark and atmospheric numbers that got us in the mood for the evening ahead, keeping the energy consistent throughout.
Radiohead's Thom Yorke surprised us by performing quite an abstract set that was a world apart from his material as part of the band. While many of us were doubters of how good it would be given his Boiler Room performance, we really enjoyed. It was cool to chat to Russia's techno legend, and fellow Saturday night artist, Nina Kraviz who was also admiring the set of Thom.
A quick shuffle over to the 'Carhartt' room, where London's very own 0 Phase really blew our minds, playing many a release of his on Token. The kicks were ferocious and the bass lines driving, exactly how we like it! After that we ventured to the pub where 'John Heckle + Automatic Tasty' went back to back in a change to the billed sets, digging out some rather spiffing oldskool techno from the nineties, ending with 'Jupiter Jazz' by the wicked 'Underground Resistance', definitely one of the sets of the weekend for us.
We caught the last bit of Four Tet who were keeping things funky before Nina took control, playing a few tracks off her Trip imprint, including my favourite 'Barcode Population' by 'Barcode Population' and surprisingly dropping some killer older trance productions in there too such as 'Back To Earth' by Yves Deruyter, and 'Tremora Del Terra (XVX 1)' by 'Illuminatae'. Jeff Mills rounded the evening off with a brutal onslaught
of live TR909 programming and some menacing productions to go with.
Sunday highlighted how ruined some of my friends were, after persuading one friend that we hadn't actually been in the pub for four hours watching a football match and that it had only been forty five minutes, we checked out snooker legend and surprising techno connoisseur Steve Davis who aside from taking part in the celebrity pool tournament with some of the other artists delivered four hours of rocking and varied electronic music! Jerome Hill also caught our attention in the 'I Love Acid vs Super Rhythm Trax' arena who brought his acidic A game to the table!
I ventured to the Metalheadz arena to see dBridge and Dom & Roland really quirk things up with some high octane drum'n'bass, but sadly had to miss Goldie as was being dragged in the main room to hear Omar-S close everything, and boy what a set he did! Three hours of varied house and techno cuts with a serious party atmosphere, with an almost at capacity main room rounded off the musical selection to a tee! There was definitely something for everyone here if you are into electronic music and we left the Monday feeling ecstatic.
It was such a shame to find that the promoters of the event made this their last festival, blaming a younger crowd on being too safe compared to the days of yesteryear as a reason as to why they are not continuing to do any more. However, all is not lost as they are concentrating on their 'Bloc. London' club nights, which are continuing to a great success in the country capital!
Connect: http://blocweekend.com Words By Louk
Pics By Ralph Butters, Maz Kallis & Daddy's got sweets