|
 |
|
|
|
|
Blim, all in your face
"Frankly if it paid the bills I’d be happy playing every club to 300 people with low ceilings, brick walls and a strobe in the corner. A sweat box."
The Rennie Pilgrems, Plump DJs and Meat Katies of the world have recently been held up as breaks luminaries, with all praise justified. BLIM (Gervase Cooke) is a name that is seen sitting beside the big guns in Muzik and DJ Magazine headlines, largely due to him sharing spliffs in the studio with the Pilgrems and Pembers of the world every other week and making certified crafty cuts ("Eskimo" for chrissake!). Simply, he is as connected as Don Corleone circa The Godfather One. Bred on classical symphonies so loved by Marlon Brando, BLIM has carried on the legacy of timeless music, minus the horse head in the bed.
The Boy Lost In Music also records under High Prime (with Freq Nasty) and KASHA (with Chris Carter). He has started making ripple with his label TRACK Records after cuts on Hooj, TCR, Distinctive Breaks, Marine Parade and Botchit & Scarper. With BLIM relaxing in front of the television watching the Pommies play cricket, it seemed a perfect time to pick his brain about break-house, Brighton and burning bridges with Botchit. It was high time to ask Gervase Cooke (who names Ozric Tentacles ‘Pungent Effluent’ as his fave album) where he thinks the massive breaks octopus is going to spread its eight arms. But first the Melbourne bit.
Last time here, BLIM rocked it for the Fokus crew, this time round he makes Peace at Seven. If we get him out of the restaurants. Cooke lives up to his real surname and remembers the multicultural delicacies quite clearly. "Melbourne has great Japanese food. I played with Brewster and spent some time in the record shop," he recalls of Melbourne.I really liked Melbourne. It’s cool and old and it’s got a café and bar feel to it. It reminded me of Brighton and San Francisco and both of those towns are very breaks orientated. Not all about the fucking huge super clubs – they’ve got a lot of cool, little shit going." At last count we had 19 new breaks clubs open up yesterday. Thanks for noticing.
A visitor here seven months ago, BLIM has locked himself in his East London studio since then. His soon-to-be-completed album has breaks DJs and punters champing at the bit. "I’ve got seven done now… the rest are on their way," he states confidently, adding "I can see the light at the end of the tunnel." BLIM will continue to put his head down and pillage and plunder on his G4 computer ahead of picking up an easy cheque at Gatecrasher. "I’m a Producer/DJ rather than a DJ/Producer," he asserts.
A regular boffin about town, Cooke has managed three collaborations intended for the album, while no doubt a few more aces will be tucked up his sleeve. "There’s one with Chris on the first single which was out about a month ago ("Check it Out" TRACK Records). There’s one with Mark Pember (Meat Katie) on single that’s just about to come out. I just finished one as well with Rennie for the third single called ‘Two Freaks’." My spies inform us that the 4/4 house beat is being built in the mix.
House and Breaks? Together? The purists are stroking their chins and rolling their eyes. But they are fools. "I don’t really believe in making rules. There’s a trend that started with a few of us a few years ago. We kind of wanted to go that way and do stuff that’s more groove based. That’s one of the reasons why I left Botchit, because I could see that was not the way they were gonna go," he explains, no regret in his tone. "Speaking to Rennie after a while it was clear that that was the way he wanted to go." Hessian rough house. Phat Phestival Breaks. Groovy like gravy. It all makes sense.
No I’m serious. The Festival beats that unfuse the feets. And you can tell BLIM wants to coin a genre that supersedes nu-skool breaks (which all of these cats have been trying to disown for years anyway). "What Rennie and I have been doing lately is festival breaks. It does seem to work in both places. The house people are getting onto it." Please sir, may we have some more?
"There’s a few of us about. Mark’s (Pember) up to it. Rennie’s up to it, Koma and Bones…It makes music a lot more accessible and it’s better for parties." More desirable than dark drivel that breaks bogans try and fob off. "It has factionalised as it was going to inevitably do. Any new scene will start off quite eclectic then spur off into two or three little sub-genres and that has clearly happened now. As much as 75 per cent of breaks that are released now I just know I’ll never play in my set."
To hell with the chin-strokers. "The purists can sit and be pure," he quips, loosening up his tone for the first time in the interview, "I don’t mind being impure." Does he often have impure thoughts? "All the time." Don’t be too concerned that BLIM is going to go the way of the artificial 80s, like house and electroclash recently. He has no illusions of leg-warming grandeur and will not be jumping in the studio with Junior Jack or FischerSpooner. "80s pop music was just an aberration for me. I thought it was abominable."
He’s not afraid of looking back though – evidence of this being he has dug out an old acapella from an early drum n bass piece and whacked it on his next single "Crazy Things” – keep following young BLIMSTER and you may end up crazy silly too. You may even lose your chops.
TOP Three Crate Corkers
1. Rennie Pilgrem vs BLIM "Two Freaks"
2. Chris Carter "Bottyfunk"
3. Klaus "G’s Groove"
|
|
|
|
|
|
Published / Thursday, 05 September 2002
 Post a comment
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Features
|
|
|
