Bloc is SOLD OUT!
Thanks to everyone who bought their ticket – you are in for one hell of a party!
Here’s a taster of what’s to come.
We stumbled across this beauty on Bloc TV the other day. Altern8 smashing the s**t out of Red:Bloc on the Sunday night at the sold out 2009 festie. Braindrop will be hosting this exact same arena this Sunday 14 March. Boom!
Dear Braindrop family
It is with deep regret that we have to lose the fantastic Congo Natty from our Tranz-mission bill. This is through no fault of Congo Natty – unfortunate circumstances beyond Slammin Vinyl’s control were to blame.
Loefah, Doorly, the McMash Clan and Broken Note will still be headlining Slammin’s Vinyl’s flagship event.
Big up to Congo Natty and Rebel MC – we will be getting the crew back to a Braindrop in the very near future.
In the mean time, check out the FULL Congo Natty crew at their show at Jamm, Brixton on March 19. Huge performances from the whole crew, including Rebel and Tenor Fly, plus some of their newer talent. PLUS King Tubbys infamous dub soundsystem, featuring the legendary Channel One. Follow this LINK to check the Facebook event.
Also make sure you check them at Bloc Weekend in a coupla days time!
Boom!
Only a few more sleeps until Bloc! And we’re bringing you the last of our Braindrop @ Bloc interviews. This week we have the incredible honour of speaking with MJ Cole, a true dance music legend and arena headliner for our Braindrop showcase on Sunday.
Mr Cole was one of the leading lights of the UK Garage scene. Responsible for many a UKG classic before (Talk to Me / Treat Me Right are 2 of our faves), it was the seminal Sincere which catapulted him into the limelight. A timeless masterpiece, it set the bar for his production style for which he would become famous. Tight, skipping beats, punchy bassweight, lush classical arrangement and his much copied off-beat vocal snippets. Pete Tong got hold of one of only 20 test pressings and the rest is history. A hugely successful and inspiring career followed – including a string of anthemic singles, a Mercury Prize nominated album, countless classic remixes, a hectic international dj schedule and the rise and rise of his label – Prolific Records.
Where as a lot of leading UKG producers have all but disappeared, MJ Cole has adapted and developed as an artist and remains a towering force on today’s bass music scene. His current musical output retains the musicality of his earlier productions and crosses them with the tribal riddims and shuddering bassweight of UK funky. Check out the massive AO ft MC Serocee, or Fly Up Ya Banner (produced jointly with fellow UKG legend Zed Bias) for a taster.
MJ Cole kindly took some time out of his busy schedule to do a quick interview with us. Enjoy! Read More >
Posted by chris in Blog, Featured, Interviews, Mixes.
You can now start counting down the days until Bloc Weekend hits Butlins Minehead. And it looks like it’s going to be another sell out year for the UK’s best out-of-season dance music festival.
On Sunday we’re taking over Red:Bloc for 8 hours of Braindrop. We’ve chosen the legend that is DJ Hype to bring the whole festival to a close, aided by his MC Daddy Earl.
We tried to get an interview with the man himself, however Mr Hype is very busy gent indeed and alas this wasn’t possible. So we thought we’d run a feature on him anyway and remind you as to why he deserves his legendary status. Read More >
Need a pick me up? Then try yoga laughter therapy. Or better still just watch this video. Joker!
Thank you to everyone who entered our final Bloc 2010 ticket competition. We had a silly number of entries and it’s taken all morning to go through the whole lot.
We had all styles of music entered – dubstep, techno, jungle, breakcore, d’n'b, gabba, hardcore, funky, old skool. And some very dubious remixes of Animal Hospital, Antiques Roadshow and ITV News.
The nature of this competition, and music in general, is that it is inherently subjective. So without further disclaimer, here is our favorite: Read More >
Saturday 3 April sees Braindrop make our debut at Slammin Vinyl’s Tranz-mission @ Alexandra Palace. And we’ve drafted in man of the moment Doorly to headline alongside Congo Natty, Loefah, The McMash Clan and Broken Note.
If you don’t know about Doorly by now then . . . well . . . we’ll tell you about him! Doorly is a hugely talented and prolific dj, producer and promoter who’s career has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the last couple of years. In fact after looking at his recent CV I had to restrain myself from poking my eyes out with a fork out of jealousy.
His DJ sets fuse dubstep, electro and techno in an old skool block party style, mashing up an eclectic and bass heavy selection using 3 CDJs, 2 turntables, an EFX unit and Pioneer DJM 800 mixe
Doorly’s first big break came in April 2008, when he was invited by a certain Pete Tong to record a live Essential Mix for Radio 1. This led to many good things – some huge international bookings, as well as residencies at Wax:On, Metropolis, Ibiza Rocks, Ibiza’s Reclaim the Dancefloor, Annie Mac Presents and Zane Lowe’s “DJ Hero’ tour
His productions have been getting a lot of airplay as of late, most noteably his MASSIVE remixes for Dizzee Rascal, Basement Jaxx, The Prodigy and Groove Armada (to name a few). And his solo productions are banging – check out “Toys / Horse Step” which is out now.
We caught up with Mr Doorly whilst he was on his Austrailia tour to ask him some questions about some very important stuff. And the lovely guy gave us a brand new Annie Mac mix for download. Link is at the bottom of the interview. Enjoy! Read More >
Posted by chris in Blog, Featured, Interviews, Mixes.
Wow – Nike used 16 Bit’s anthem “Jump” for their new Nike tv campaign.
We’ve had 16 Bit to play at Braindrop a good few times now – they make some of the most well produced bass music out there and they always smash it when playing out. Big up guys! 
Check out the 16 Bit Myspace
The mighty Vent join us for an exclusive back to back set with Reso at our Braindrop @ Bloc showcase.
This production / dj twosome have been smashing the global underground to bits as of late. They make big, fat, glitchy, thumping bass music that smashes down genre barriers and varies hugely in speed.
Their collaboration with Reso, Rumble, has become a crossover anthem, having gained a-list dj and radio support worldwide. 2009 saw them play storming sets at Glade and Glasto, work with Si Begg, Cursor Miner Tippr, Deekline & Wizard, Ctrl-Z & Stereotype – and enjoy successful releases on Hardcore Beats and Colony Productions.
2010 is going to be a big year for these immensely talented producers. Make sure you check out their Glade 2009 live set – which we’ve put up for download at the bottom of this page.
Enjoy! Read More >
Posted by chris in Featured, Interviews, Mixes, Uncategorized.
In one month’s time Bloc returns to Butlin’s Minehead for an almighty weekend rave up. The line up is HUGE! In fact it’s just plain silly. Acts so far include Salt ‘n’ Pepa, Roots Manuva, Ellen Allien, Mixmaster Mike, Surgeon, Autechre, Kode 9, Congo Natty, Flying Lotus etc etc
We’ll be hosting Red:Bloc for the entire of Sunday, joined by DJ Hype & MC Daddy Earl, MJ Cole, Reso vs Vent, Raffertie vs Kanji Kinetic, AGT Rave Cru, Bass6 and us – residents The McMash Clan.
We’ve got one more ticket to give away – so we’re running a Youtube competition. This time it’s all about your favourite tune.
Here it is . . .
For your chance to win a free ticket to bloc post a Youtube link to the sickest tune you know on the Braindrop @ Bloc Facebook event page.
FOLLOW THIS LINK to go straight there:
