Bloc 2011: Highs and Lows

[dj_yt]

Damn. I forgot about seeing Black Devil Disco Club and Sirusimo. Both awesome sets as well. Definitely going to check more of them out - plus lone as well, who sadly I only caught the final 20 mins of.

The medics mentioned the window jumping person to us when we were chatting to them. Nasty.

Regarding the Dome - never found it that difficult to get into (max queue was about 5 mins I think). But would agree that it was rather cosy in there!

[Guil]

Highs: Man there is so many!

Garnier: What an amazing set to finish with, dying to find the name of that epic tune he played right before man with the red face. (fingers crossed for a full video of that set)

Gnanmankoudji is the name of the track you are looking for

Spoke to the sound control crew right at the end of Garnier´s set, told me it had been recorded...Fingers crossed for a Rapidshare/Mediafire link...

[StarStuff]

Highs: Man there is so many!

Garnier: What an amazing set to finish with, dying to find the name of that epic tune he played right before man with the red face. (fingers crossed for a full video of that set)

Gnanmankoudji is the name of the track you are looking for

Spoke to the sound control crew right at the end of Garnier´s set, told me it had been recorded...Fingers crossed for a Rapidshare/Mediafire link...

Thanks man I found it.. What a tune! I saw a big professional camera at the back pointed at the stage so I assumed they had recorded it. Even the audio would do me, an epic way to end! He's playing a 5 hour set with the two musicians accompanying him in Dublin on Easter Sunday...CANT WAIT

[Rogue Molecule]

Same as loads of other people but...

Highs:

The weather
Moderat
Buckfast meetup (extremely high standard of nonsense chat)
Plenty of running around on the beach spannered

Lows:

The Dome (it just shouldn't be used as a proper venue. No disrespect to I Love Acid though.)
The smell in Jak:Bloc (someone needs a new carpet!)
Getting so destroyed on Thursday night that I totally screwed up Friday
Getting so destroyed on Saturday night that I totally screwed up Sunday

[mrgriff_rox]

Highs:

LFO - completely smashed it!
Vitalic - Amazing
Snares - could only take about 30mins but was awesome
DJ Funk - Absolutely hilarious, couldn't mix for shit, but such good fun!
Modeselektor - getting everyone up on stage at the end was brilliant stuff
Jimmy Edgar
Bloctv - Best year yet, notable highlights, Holy Mountain, Forbidden Zone, Executive Koala, Hercules Returns (so funny), the Mr T motivational vid, DJ Yoda stuff, Desperate Living, the guy screaming in the phone for about 5 mins!
The sound in Centre Bloc - totally amazing this year, can't big it up enough, dead loud but so clear you can still have a conversation
Top Cat and Kenny Ken closing it off on Sunday, I did some total mad dancing in my Ming costume (even sweated my beard off)

Lows:
The spikey haired, cunty security guard in Red Bloc (and his grinning mate with a tooth missing) who pulled me out during Jimmy Edgar, made me feel like shit, searched me, then stole £20 off me cos they knew I wouldn't notice at the time! Nearly ruined my night that. Seriously it's not my fault you are a total cunt, so dunno why you had to take it out on me (sure I wasn't the only one) In general thought the security were more of an arse this year
Queue for AFX, annoying cos I was in there for end of Dopplereffekt and the beginning of Four Tet, but thought I would nip for a cig out the back door, never saw the queue
The Dome - didn't even bother this year, don't think it's that good, far too hot, learnt my lesson about queues last year, missed some wicked stuff though
The rain on Saturday night bummed me out a bit

Erm think that's it

Seriously the best Bloc I have been to so far (out of last 3) pity about security really

[desire82]

I spent fri, sat and sun in Jak bloc had an amazing wk/end. Our group found the security amazing, helpful polite and really welcoming even when i lost my jacket a female helped with her torch and went looking, 10 minutes later she came back with my coat in hand.
I remember that female from last year she was not rude at all and the lads were a right laugh. Music was banging so much better than last year. Place was proper full which made a change from last year.
Only bad thing i could say is needed more bar staff.

[LUHG]

Some dude went psycho in the chalet next to us and jumped out of a window on the saturday morning - crcked his skull open and had to be taken away by an ambulance. I'm not sure which chalets we were in but we were right next to the church (anyone know the story behind this?)

What actually happened was that a bloke was sleeping in his ground floor bedroom, and a crazy Irish bloke leapt in head-first through a closed window.

He slashed his head open, tore a radiator off the wall and, when medics turned up to treat him he proceeded to attack them too.

If you can't handle your drugs, don't fucking take them.

[sideshow bob]

highs -

chalets - shower bed bloc t.v microwave ( dont think ill be able to do a camping festival after that)
music - sat was the greatest clubbing experience of my life moderat four tet were unreal and aphex last 10 minutes wtf amazing day
people - met loads of wicked people such a good vibe everywhere
buckfast - hell yeahsss

lows -

it having to end

BLOC 2012

[risk49]

Haha! Great reading all these perspectives. Brings me back to the best weekend I think i've ever had!! And i've had a few of 'em, being one of the older members. I may be 38 but I went fucking mental all weekend and now I feel around 58.

Highs! (Fri) Ancient Methods - Totally stunning. My top act of the whole weekend. So fucking atmospheric and deep. Oof. :10:
LFO - YES! played an absolute blinder. Siriusmo - really got it all going for me, Beardyman - great craic! Enjoyed Apparat & Modeselektor also.

(Sat) Dopplereffekt - so cool to hear them, really different pace to all other acts.
Alva Noto - pure class. Aphex, Snares, Daedelus, King Midas, Vitalic & Speedy J, I really enjoyed them all. Sadly for me I like nearly all the artists on the bill, so it was impossible to see everything, I was gonna be disappointed by clashes no matter what.

(Sun) Sadly due to my drastically increasing age I was completely fucked and could only drag myself to Boxcutter & Lone who I thought were excellent, but I danced like a Valium-filled-zomby near the back, haha. I blame Aaron Funk and all his brokencored insanity. Went way too mental to him, and am only just feeling my back again now.

The crowds were great fun, I encountered very little in the way of asshole behavior.
The security staff were OK to me, but I saw/heard some dodgy stories. This needs to be sorted!
Fancy dress was great, well done for all the effort. Some awesome costumes!!
The dome was simply too small for the likes of Gerald/Vibert/Ceephax/DMX/Posthuman. Missed most cos of queues

Oh and Thurs night was great as well, Ben Pest and RadioactiveMan had it bangin' in Tek:Bloc and that made it feel like it was already happening. Nice one guys!!
Big thanks to everyone involved in making it so good. Next year is gettin closer every day!! Can't wait, but can it possibly have as great a line-up as this one

Finally, does anyone know what happened to the traffic lights at the top of the road to the left of the camp, as when I arrived (on Thurs at around 6pm) the bizzies had a road Bloc in place, blue lights a-flashin', and it seemed that some over-enthusiastic raver had seen the lights and started pumping his hands in the air, only to plow straight over them. Hope the poor geezers weren't hurt or anything but it was fairly mad to get that close (20 yards) only to crash and possibly miss out??

btw - @CyberMonkey are you that very tall Belgian geeza we met in the cue fer Aphex?

Until 2012......

[potatopotatopotato]

Highs:

Boxcutter! Awesome. Set of the weekend for me.
Modeselektor/Apparat/Moderat wow
The Dome. Seems to have split opinion but I loved it. A Guy Called Gerald, Mark II, Vibert, Global Goon, AGT, Ceephax, Ed DMX etc etc - I practically lived in it.
Thursday night Brackout - can we start on Wednesday next year?
Bloc.tv - like having a stage in your chalet. Some of the weirdest shit I've seen. Being filmed by them too!
Security - much better than any other festival I've been to, and most other places too.
Everyone I met - again, much better than at other festivals. No aggro or anything. Sound crowd.
So many other sets: Speedy J, running between Kenny Ken and Laurent Garnier and managing to enjoy both, Four Tet, Daedelus, King Midas Sound, LFO, Drop The Lime, Ancient Methods, Aphex Twin, Legowelt

Lows:

Monday morning.
Radioactive Man should have been much later in the night.
Only catching half sets by Radioactive Man/Daedelus/Moderat/King Midas Sound/Dopplereffekt - running between stages. But I still got to see them all, so not a proper low I guess.
Having no money until payday
Toddla T - only set I saw all weekend that disappointed.

Awesome weekend, complaining seems kinda unfair. But what the hell!

[mike_t]

Highs - BLOC

Lows - Stupid security : BLOC sort it out

[cathalorourke]

Highs - BLOC

Lows - Monday

[dublinstep]

This was the first Bloc I missed. Somewhat ridiculous considering I live in England now, but work on Friday evenings, daytime Saturdays, and Mondays in one job that I cant take leave from until June, so couldnt go this time around. Not sure I wanted to anyway - too much of a good thing can be a bad thing and all that, a break was needed.

What actually happened was that a bloke was sleeping in his ground floor bedroom, and a crazy Irish bloke leapt in head-first through a closed window.

He slashed his head open, tore a radiator off the wall and, when medics turned up to treat him he proceeded to attack them too.

If you can't handle your drugs, don't fucking take them.

I know people will gripe about security being dickheads - but having read the above, what do people expect them to do? Happily let people wander around openly snorting and swallowing anything illegal in plain view? If you're going to do drugs at a festival, be discreet about it and keep your head connected to ground control a bit. How much effort does it take to walk back to your chalet and do whatever you want in private? Not much.

Events like the above put the entire festival at risk - reports of drug crazed lunatics attacking local St John's Ambulance volunteers get into the local Minehead Community News and its curtains for Bloc (and also put any other festivals there under the microscope). Sorry it was an Irish person too, I'm a bit embarrassed.

[Warpiggy]

exactly...i have yet to be annoyed by the security at bloc. but i have friends who have been...they are generally the people that are sucking on their foreheads when they go through the gate tho so can't have too many complaints. if you look monkeyed you'll draw more attention to yourself at the end of the day.

people seem to think that just cos it's a rave, a blind eye is turned to everythin that goes on inside...bullshit. discretion is always the name of the game, no matter where you are. without gettin too much into it for fear of moderation by the powers that be ,

definately a shame it was an irish person tho...i've been havin a little bit of a flame war with people slaggin off the influx of irish on facebook...just hopin they don't see this story

[Space_Monkey]

Highs:

Joy Orbison
Ben Klock
Oscar Mulero
Garnier
Moderat