Our good friend Shaun Bloodworth is this week having his first solo exhibition. Containing Photographs and Film, documenting the UK and US electronic bass music scenes, since 2005, with over 200 pictures from FWD>>, DMZ, Low End Theory, NYC and Sonar . There will be collaborative work from GiveUpArt, Humanstudio, Peter & Paul and of course the NSEW project that he completed with our good selves.

The exhibition ‘UNDERGROUND‘ will open 28th April until May 14th, in Sheffield UK, with a special ticket only event on May 7th, with DJ sets from MaryAnne Hobbs and Grievous Angel .

In the words of Shaun himself:

“Most of the subjects are of a different generation to me, a group who are much maligned by the media – accused of being lazy, consumer-driven and selfish. However, I consistently find the opposite to be true – they are hardworking, talented and driven by personal experiences, living their lives to the full.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this journey, its never to judge a book by its cover.”

So those guys over at Planet Mu have been championing the footwork / juke sound over in Europe for a while now as we explained in our Juke feature last year.

Well now they have got a Footwork tour starting tomorrow and hitting a city near you very soon with a formidable line-up of DJ Rashad, DJ Spinn, Chrissy Murderbot and a whole gang of footwork dancers (yes!!).

Catch them at:
21/04/2011 Thursday UK Brighton, Jam
22/04/2011 Friday France Paris, Batofar
23/04/2011 Saturday Switzerland Geneva, Electron Festival
28/04/2011 Thursday UK Leeds, The Wardrobe
29/04/2011 Friday UK London, The Big Chill Bar (Chrissy Only album launch)
29/04/2011 Friday UK London, Village Underground
30/04/2011 Saturday UK London, Sadler Wells (Dancers Only) http://www.breakinconvention.com/breakin-convention-2011/line with repeat performance monday and a discussion panel too.
06/05/2011 Friday BE Antwerp @ Petrol
07/05/2011 Saturday UK London, Corsica as part of planet mu night
11/05/2011 Wednesday DE Berlin, Get Wavey at Magnet Club (Chrissy Only)
13/05/2011 Friday UK Camber Sands, Butlins, Bangface Weekender
14/05/2011 Saturday UK Manchester, The Deaf Institute

We have a pair of tickets to give to the Village Underground show in London, the Leeds show at The Wardrobe, and the Antwerp show at Petrol.

To win, simply tell us your best dance move and why. Answers to be sent to info@bleep.com.

To celebrate all this lovely footwork footy-ness, we have reduced a bunch of the major footwork releases to a brilliant price so head over to the Planet Mu page on Bleep to get yourself some bargain footwork albums.

Cologne-based Kompakt is one of the great independent record labels, treasured for its diverse but ever-brilliant mix of ambient, minimal techno, tech-house and more. On 3rd April, South Bank Centre and Ether festival celebrate their more ambient side with a one-off event, as Kompakt co-founders Wolfgang Voigt and Jörg Burger perform a special set produced for this concert alongside live visuals. Plus there’s also an exclusive live ambient sets from The Field’s Axel Willner (solo) and Walls.

We have a pair of tickets to give away for this event, to win simply e-mail info@bleep.com and tell us your ideal ambient setting and why?

This could be your “happy place”, a place where you go escape the daily madness of your life… points are awarded for creativity.

Last Thursday, we had a little Bleep x Bloc warm-up party in Paris with Joy Orbison, Lone, Boxcutter and Max Cooper… This was merely a taster for the weekend we were about to embark on…

Surreal does not even begin to describe the lunacy that is a weekend spent at Bloc festival in Butlins. From the utilitarian-esque rows of chalets to the noisy games arcade and the culinary options that extend no further than a Pizza Hut buffet; we’ve never had so much fun dancing around on garishly decorated carpets. One thing is for sure, no other festival on our British shores represents the best of underground electronic music, big and small, and past and present, as well as Bloc does. We were thrilled to present our Bleep Showcase on Sunday evening over on the Jak:Bloc stage this year where some of our favourite artists played to a packed out crowd.

Leighton (Bleep DJ Competition Winner) I Bleep.com Stage I 13.03.11

Boxcutter I Bleep.com Stage I 13.03.11

Luke Abbott I Bleep.com Stage I 13.03.11

Our Bleep Competition winner, Leighton, kicked off proceedings warming the stage up for Planet Mu’s Boxcutter who played the difficult early slot to a completely packed out room. To have a queue extend from the Bleep stage right through to the amusement park is no mean feat at 5pm. Following this, Luke Abbott delighted the crowd with his blissful electronic melodies, which left things to Jacques Greene to switch things up a level or two, delivering some pumping future bass rhythms. What followed was a full on 90’s rave with Lone skilfully dropping some gems, such as Adonis’ Trax Records classic, No Way Back and his own Pineapple Crush. Kyle Hall then stepped in to close the stage with some hands in the air moments with the 90’s club jam, Show Me Love and Moodymann’s Freeki Mutha Fucker.

Jacques Greene I Bleep.com stage I 13.03.11

Lone I Bleep.com Stage I 13.03.11

Kyle Hall I Bleep.com stage I 13.03.11

Elsewhere, Rustie rocked the Numbers showcase with his trademark aqua-crunk beats and some particularly choice cuts such as an (as of yet) unreleased Hudson Mohawke gem. Space Dimension Controller stole the show at the Resident Advisor showcase with his distinctive boogie-infused house beats. Jimmy Edgar worked his excellent live show with improvised vocoder, seamlessly switching from electro to funk to all out jungle within the blink of an eye. Alva Noto represented the Raster-Noton camp, bringing us a performance that balanced between the experimental and the club experience perfectly, pleasing a dedicated crowd as well as converting some new devotees.

Space Dimension Controller I RA Showcase I 12.03.11

Alva Noto I Overkill Showcase I 12.03.11

LFO I Centre:Bloc I 11.03.11

Aphex Twin pulled out a brilliant (and suprizing) set that journeyed from beautiful ambient harmonics to dubstep (even dropping Ramadanman and Night Slugs’ Jam City!) to an incredible crescendo of drilling beats and white-noise… The previous night, one of the standout moments of the festival perhaps belongs to LFO and the rapturous reception that Freak received from the Centre:Bloc crowd.

We shall see you there next year…

Words: Laura Humphries I Photos: Margot Didsbury
For more info on Bloc: http://www.blocweekend.com/

Om Unit – The Timps EP – out next week on Civil Music

OK… our friends over at Rinse and FWD are teaming up again for another party of gargantuan proportions. The line-up is HUGE and includes Roska (pictured), Skream, Geeneus, Marcus Nasty, Jackmaster, Zinc, SBTRKT, Horsepower Productions, Ill Blu, T. Williams, to just name a small portion of those playing… The event takes place on the 1st April at Fabric and more details can be found on their listings page.

To win a pair of tickets to the event, simply head to the Bleep Facebook page and post on our wall why you think you deserve a pair of tickets… That simple!

In January, we launched a Bleep DJ competition to win a Rane SL 3 for Serato Scratch Live Digital Vinyl System; an Ableton Live 8 Software Package; a pair of TMA-1 headphones, and a chance to DJ at the Bleep stage at Bloc Festival.

We were overwhelmed with the response. We had over 160 entries to the competition, with nearly 40k plays across these mixes. There was some really great mixes and it was really difficult deciding the winner… But there can only be one…

The winner of the competition is DJ Leighton. His mix can be found above and you can catch him DJing at the Bleep stage next Sunday at Bloc Festival…

Last week, we ran a competition giving away an awesome Lazer Sword package… all you had to was answer: “What would be your ultimate weapon and why?”… Above was the drawing by the winner and below is what he had to say about it:

“Apart from a Lazer Sword, my ultimate weapon would obviously be a solid Platinum Dragunov, encrusted with rare African diamonds and a chain-saw on the front for extra saftey, small side cannons that shoot ninja stars and LAZER sight. It’s fully automatic, so i’d carry a huge pack of silver-lined bullets (In case of werewolves) which also doubles up as a huge speaker/subwoofer combo. OH and it’s also modified to shoot Bees if the occasion ever arises. Also the trigger is made from the Obsidian of an old Mayan sculpture that was stolen from an underground Mayan temple, causing loads of old Mayan zombies to come to life under my command and KILLLLLL.

Yours sincerely,
Ben”

Check out Lazer Sword on Bleep

2 weeks ago, we were pretty happy to tell you that we were hosting a showcase at Bloc this year. The festival has now totally sold out, but for those of you who can’t make it we have decided to give you 2 exclusive mixes from the artists at our stage. As well as that, we are also throwing a Bleep x Bloc party in Paris as a special preview of the event.

The event will take place at La Machine du Moulin Rouge and the line-up includes Joy Orbison, Lone, Boxcutter, Max Cooper and Bleep DJs.

Thursday 10th March – Bleep Presents Bloc
JOY ORBISON / LONE / BOXCUTTER / MAX COOPER / BLEEP DJs
More Info / Facebook Page /

La Machine du Moulin Rouge / PARIS 18
80 Boulevard de Clichy – metro Blanche
Paris, France

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If you have been lucky enough to get a ticket to Bloc, make sure you check out our showcase on Sunday 13th March (the closing night of the festival).

- Lone
- Kyle Hall
- Boxcutter
- Luke Abbott
- Jacques Greene

More Info on the Bleep showcase / Bloc website

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In the meanwhile, check out these 2 exclusive mixes from Boxcutter and Lone.

Both of these music videos are available to download in high-quality on the
Autechre – EPS 1991 – 2002