- It's been well-documented by now, but Bloc.'s last festival was a disaster. In July 2012, just a few hours into the first night of a two-day event, police swarmed London Pleasure Gardens and shut down Bloc.'s first experiment in the UK capital. Thousands of partygoers lost the £100-plus they'd paid for a ticket, Bloc. went into voluntary administration and the wider UK dance community mourned what seemed like the loss of one of its best-loved brands.
But then Bloc. bounced back. In February 2013, the team came across an East London venue, did it up and started throwing semi-regular club nights. Gradually, the nightmare of 2012 faded and faith in the brand was restored. And then, in October 2014, big news hit: Bloc. would be returning to Butlins for a three-day festival in March 2015. If you'd told me in the immediate aftermath of 2012 that I'd be heading back to Minehead three years later I'd have doubled over laughing, and yet here I was travelling down the M4 early on Friday afternoon.
Annoyingly, severe traffic made the journey from London much longer than expected, delaying the arrival of hundreds of revellers by several hours. Finally, after 11 hours on the road, I arrived onsite and headed straight for Hudson Mohawke in the Centre Stage. Aside from a batch of refurbished chalets, the look and layout of the festival felt much the same as in 2011, with the music split across five venues of varying size in Butlins' huge central arena. The myriad fast-food outlets and tacky glare of the arcade games remained, and the crowd appeared a classic Bloc. mix of young guns from London or Bristol, older ravers and industry heads. Across the weekend, the vibe was nothing but friendly.
Friday night got the festival off to a decent start. Upstairs, Hudson Mohawke played a schizophrenic set of ambient tones, quasi-EDM and Notorious B.I.G., which at times felt a touch self-indulgent. Downstairs, in Reds, Objekt powered through an hour of breakneck bass and electro, before Rødhåd turned out charismatic techno to a half-full FACT stage. It was rumoured that the festival hadn't sold out, which was easy to believe. Dance floors weren't always full, and though the music was mostly spot-on, energy levels dipped at points. This made Jackmaster's last-minute cancellation a blessing in disguise—Robert Hood was moved to the Centre Stage and, with one less headliner on the bill, a bigger crowd gathered to witness what was easily the best set of the night, climaxing with "The Bells" and Hood's own "Never Grow Old." Euphoric throughout, it felt like a proper party.
Since the beginning, Bloc.'s unique selling point has been its first-rate lineups, and Saturday was a classic case in point. Levon Vincent set the ball rolling with 90 minutes of moody techno, but it was the one-two punch of Omar-S and Moodymann that brought things to life. The former dropped a slew of his own hits—"The Shit Baby," "Here's The Trance Now Dance," "Day"—much to the crowd's delight, before KDJ went the way of J Dilla, O.D.B. and Andrés. Midway through, he brought Rick Wilhite and Omar-S to the stage, and the latter dropped "The Shit Baby" for anyone who'd missed it the first time.
Meanwhile, in the Carhartt stage, Dean Blunt gave what may have been the most challenging performance of the weekend. He started with sing-a-long renditions of cuts from Black Metal, then finished with 20 minutes of intense strobe lights, drone and white noise. The contrast was powerful, the effect nauseating, and it lent the festival a provocative edge. Later, Autechre would show a similar disregard for the rules, performing difficult, glitchy electronica in total darkness.
For those that could hack it, the afterhours in the Carhartt stage provided some of the festival's best moments. Body Hammer did a great job on the Friday, but it was World Unknown the following night that brought the real weirdos out to play. Going right through until 10 AM, the music and atmosphere were both druggy as hell as Andy Blake and Joe Hart laid bare their eclectic, danceable tastes. E.S.P's "It's You" was a particular highlight.
After two days of full-throttle partying, the crowd wore visibly weary smiles as they emerged in fancy dress on Sunday night. The buzz early on centered around a surprise guest slot at the I Love Acid stage, widely presumed to be Aphex Twin (who'd been spotted wandering the arcade on Friday). In fact it was Space Dimension Controller, who blew up the small room with flamboyant classics like Freestyle's "Don't Stop The Rock."
With only three out of five rooms open, the venues were at their fullest and most alive on Sunday. Randall tore a sweaty Reds apart with his slick mix of jagged drum & bass and jungle, helped along by an ever-buoyant SP:MC ("clap like you're at the opera!"). But it was at the Centre Stage, with Ben Klock and Marcel Dettmann going back-to-back to close out the festival, that the vibe was most electric. Come midnight, the cavernous room was fit to burst with jubilant ravers, fist-pumping away to the pair's catchy, big-room techno. For the last track, Dettmann dropped LFO VS. Fuse's "Loop." The crowd roared as a sea of white confetti washed over us.
Bloc. upset a lot of people in 2012. But for those who knew and trusted the brand from before, there was never any question that what happened in London was simply a big mistake. Even setting aside this past weekend's pitch-perfect programming, great sound and wild, carefree atmosphere, Bloc. 2015 was proof that the team's dedication to its audience, and its passion for throwing top-notch events, is stronger now than ever. I know I'm not the only who thinks the UK festival circuit is all the richer for having Bloc. back in business.
Photo credit: Jake Davis