Event Info
APPLEBLIM (Skull Disco, Apple Pips) Bristol Uk @ Hush, June 1: appleblim, Longshanks, Big Reds
Tickets available @ Ditch Records & Whitebird... $10
Easily the largest dubst...
10:00pm - 2:00am Doors at: 9:30pm
$10 advance tickets
Hard-copy tickets
Physical tickets at: Ditch Records 635 Johnson St Victoria BC 250.386.5874, 768 Yates St Victoria BC, V8W 1L4 Phone #: 250-380-7040
Event Description
Tickets available @ Ditch Records & Whitebird... $10
Easily the largest dubstep act to grace Vancouver Island - we are very excited to host the UK's legendary APPLEBLIM @ Hush, June 1st.
For those of you that recognize the name, you know what a treat we are in for, and for those of you that are curious - read below to catch a glimpse of a man responsible for setting trends, pushing boundaries, and pursuing depth in bass music.
Also featuring the Hush debut of DJ / Producer Longshanks, a well seasoned dancefloor devastator; and diverse low frequency stylings from the Big Reds (Gobe - Frame - Rhythmicon).
Mark your calendars, tell your friends and polish your dancing shoes. This show will go off!
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Appleblim
www.myspace.com/appleblim
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While currently & originally a Bristolian, Appleblim, like many before him, was hugely influenced by a stay in London circa '94: “I just caught the bug: listening to the radio, finding out what was going on & picking up my first jungle tunes.” Like many of dubstep’s pioneers, be it Loefah, Burial or Kode9, Appleblim had caught the jungle bug & through it, developed a love of dub, bass & dark spaces that would keep him in good stead later. He learned to mix on a mate’s set of decks but thought little more of it. In fact the world might not have known more of Appleblim were he have not discovered a club called FORWARD>> (later to be recognised as the birthplace of dubstep) & a friend called Shackleton.
Appleblim & Shackleton shared a love of two things: percussive 2004 era dubstep like Digital Mystikz’ “Conference” (later released on Soul Jazz) & Berlin’s Burial Mix, the most overtly dubby label of the techy German bass/space pioneers Basic Channel. Together Appleblim & Shackleton formed the unique Skull Disco label, which became best known for releasing Shackleton’s, uniquely dark, paranoid & organic percussion jams. But while Shackleton was gaining recognition as a producer of uncompromising vision, Appleblim was quietly working on his direction as a DJ. “I’m not a creator in the same kind of way [as producer Shackleton],” he explains. “I’m more the person who carries tapes & records around to people’s houses, being the one sat next to the stereo going ‘oi, check out this!’ That’s what I feel like I’m still doing now.”
At the beginning of 2007, Appleblim, like many of the headz who have attended the club religiously only to turn into participants, got asked to play at the very space that had inspired him & Shackeleton: FORWARD>>. “It’s very strange going from being a raver who was there obsessively down the front to going to someone standing behind the decks. It’s definitely an honour: I’ve had countless epiphanies down there, so if I can give people a few of those then that’s my job done.”
Shackleton & Appleblim have since put the Skull Disco label to bed -- "Ten releases seemed right," reflects Appleblim -- but Appleblim is busy funneling energy into DJing & running his new label, APPLE PIPS. Orbiting around the dubstep/techno axis, the label has released 12"s from Ramadanman, Bredan Moeller/Beat Pharmacy & T++ among others.
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'Dubstep Allstars 6' mixed by Appleblim
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'Dubstep Allstars 6', mixed by Appleblim, is perhaps the definitive & most coherent document of the recent outbreak of dubstep/techno.
In essence the mix brings together many of the pioneers of this sound (from Bristol’s Peverelist, RSD, Pinch, Komanazmuk to Appleblim himself) & blends in fellow sonically if not geographically contiguous experimenters, such as Martyn, TRG, 2562 & Ramadanman. Built around two emotional peaks, first the early glory of Pinch’s brave diva house dubstep “Get Up” & towards the end, Martyn’s warm & synthy anthemic remix of TRG's “Broken Heart”, it is expertly mixed, selected & arranged such that it soon feels like a whole, as if the lines between the tracks, not to mention the moods, reference points or genres, are rendered meaningless.
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Notes on the evolving axis of dubstep/techno...
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Now an entire sub-movement seems to be gathering pace underneath the dubstep umbrella, the boundaries between dubby techno & techy dubstep seem to have dissolved. The critical question is, however, will the upshot be more than or less than the sum of its parts? Are we headed for “dubstep” sets that are little more than just rigid 140bpm techno? Will it become totally clean formless e-lead headspace, with the edge, the rude awakening of the urban bass injection lost?
Appleblim is unconcerned.
“I think there’s a lot of genre blurring going on,” he explains “and there is a sort of a danger that it will become 140bpm techno, but the answer is [that] it needs to retain some funk and swing. Having said that I try to just view great music as great music, and always have, so that I might play a tune by a ‘dubstep’ producer that sounds essentially like a ‘techno’ tune… in the end, if it moves you it moves you… Obviously it’s a bit of a cliché to start mellow & work upwards but I find it works for me: the harder tracks have much more impact if you have played some spacious, deeper, more ‘head’ music first. I like to build a set, not always start with bangers. I like to create an atmosphere..."