PSNE May P23-35 Live 5/5/11 12:46 Page 29

May 2011 www.prosoundnewseurope.com live 29

WORLD Bloc party-time Dave Robinson is the new kid at the Bloc, a three-day festival of electronic music in the West Country

Earthquake bass. Concrete beats. Bleeps and blarps and Kevin Martin, AKA King Midas Sound, shakes Red:Bloc f blips. And a bodyslam or two of dubstep. Where are we, some deso- crew have hosted their acclaimed Ableton RFID (Recursive Function late industrial estate on the periphery indie weekenders at the site. Immersive Dome). “I have a Logic of Berlin? Er, no. Butlins. For the last three years, it has been System, I’m a big fan of the old stuff, For one weekend in early spring – home to Bloc, a festival that delivers an because I’m a one-man operation so I in Butlins, Minehead, Somerset – it’s increasingly impressive line-up of elec- needed stuff I could move around,” says electronica central. tronic acts, old and new. But this is no Kirkby. He’s been involved with Bristol’s Before the pallid masses from the Creamfields, it’s a little more ‘chin- dance scene, particularly dubstep, for a Midlands descend on the quiet coastal strokey’ than that. A little more leftfield while. His spec for the RFID – where region for a summer of Factor 50- and eclectic. This year’s line-up included punters are encouraged to try out DJing based fun, Butlins fulfils another LFO, FourTet, Speedy J, Vitalic, and a gear supplied by Serato/Ableton/ brief, you see, and that is as a venue double-headline of Aphex Twin and Novation includes “four 18” subs, four for, well, whoever wants to hire it. dubstep stars Magnetic Man. dual 15s, CS1296 top cabs”. Marillion and their fans held their Rik Haines is head of production What about other kit at the event? own mini-festival here a few years for Bloc: “We started off in Pontins in That’s Siebert’s responsibility. “I liaise (L-R): The neon-tinted Ed Siebert, Rik Haines and Paul Rose in the Butlins atrium back, and the All Tomorrow’s Parties Hemsby, Norwich five years ago, but with all the artists and managers to make outgrew that. Since we’ve been here, at sure we have all the kit. This year we have the bigger Butlins venue – which is four Midas desks, five Mackie 1604 and around 6,000 capacity across the site, 1202 mixers, 20 technics 1210 turntables, and it was sold out two months ago – 14 CDJ1000s and 2000s, half a dozen we’ve had to up our game. Pioneer mixers… It’s interesting to track “Now we have an event which is not over the years what kit continues to just banging ‘four-to-the-floor’, it’s more appear on the riders. [Allen & Heath] of a live feel – though there aren’t a Xone:92 and [Pioneer] DJM800 mixers massive number of live acts.” are always the most common requested. Butlins is divided into several spaces, Oh and a Xone:4D, the new A&H mixer, such as Tec:Bloc and Jak:Bloc. The largest, but that was difficult to source. We’ve a Centre:Bloc, has a capacity of 2,800. few keyboards – a few Korgs, a Moog Sound system provision falls to Voyager – but not a single drum kit on Audio Funktion, a Bristol-based outfit site! I’ve not had to deal with anything run by Paul Rose. The ‘k’ is a give- like that!” He laughs at that realisation. away: Audio Funktion have carried But he would like to see more live Funktion One gear for around seven performers, right? years now. The company’s regular gigs “Of course,” says Siebert. “The include several festivals, including the worse gig I ever saw was Brothemstates. Arcadia stage at Glastonbury and Rock He just sat there with his laptop and a Ness in Scotland. projector. It was just so dry. Ed Siebert, technical manager of “If you can have someone use some Bloc since its second year, brought the kit, and see what they are actual doing, AF onboard. “I like working with the it makes all the difference. When you guys, and I like how they make events are putting energy into what you are sound. The way their engineers tweak doing, the crowd can engage with it so the system, it sounds perfect.” much better. Siebert talks of another dance event, “From an aesthetic point of view, we Glade (held near Newbury), where he’s want more live music, fewer DJs. But used “a home-made rave system, big bins, from a technical point of view,” he laughs, to punch the bass out in a different way”. “it’s a darn sight easier when it’s just DJs!” “But with techno, you want crisper, sharp- Siebert cites King Midas Sound, the er, more professional sound, and F1 gear infamous dub specialist Kevin Martin, couldn’t be better,” he says. “I think it can who has three benchtops covered in gui- be quite a dynamic PA, it can work for tar pedals, effects and more. He’ll be the real ravey stuff because the bass is manipulating his sound like no one else bloody good, but it’s got the range that dare. “It took a long while to set up, but not all PAs do.” my word, is it worth it!” For the main room (Centre:Bloc) Rose Siebert says he would love to enter- has spec’d eight Resolution 5 boxes, plus tain everyone in the main atrium space, eight 218 subs a side, for the FOH sys- but the noise requirements, the venue’s tem, with two rear stacks of six Res 5s and acoustic design and budget capping six 218s. “In Red:Bloc we’re using the makes that impossible at this point. Have F221 powered subs with Res 5s and some they had any moans about noise so far? Res 4s for infill; Tec:Bloc is Res 4s and “One complaint last night, just the one. F218s, the same with JakBloc; and in the And that’s because someone left the fire Irish bar, Res 1s and 118s. So pretty much doors open.” the full range of F1 kit.” Maybe the doors weren’t closed. Or “Our audience, they all know about maybe the muscular beats and sledge- Funktion One, they know it’s good,” hammer bass lines were just too big adds Haines. to be contained by a lowly seaside hol- It’s not just Tony Andrews’ purple iday village… Q enclosures at this event, though. Greg www.audiofunktion.co.uk Kirkby, head of High Pressure Sound www.blocweekend.com Systems, has provided the kit for the www.funktion-one.com