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home » festivals » BLOC weekend » BLOC weekend 2010
BLOC Weekend is a dance festival with a bit of a differenceBLOC Weekend 2010 reviewThursday 18th March 2010 Day 3 and the fatigue is starting to set in. Possibly the most gruelling festival of the year, we try and put our rave faces back on for the final hurdle of this rave marathon. No better way to start the day than a trip to see AGT Rave Cru at red: BLOC. Now regarded as the quintessential Sunday pick me up, they play to a hardcore few who still seem to be at it from the night before and turn out to be just the pickup they needed. Prodigy medleys, techno and jungle classics littered throughout the set, even some light relief in the form of Technohead's 'I want to be a hippy' and it did just the trick to lift our spirits. Mix Master Mike from The Beastie Boys is our next port of call in centre: BLOC. The usual hip hop tricks are brought to the table, clearly a skilled guy on the decks but the track selection is nothing short of horrific. Something you'd expect to hear in a bad school disco. It's party music and while some of the crowd go for it, a lot of us meet it with disdain. We decide to check out MJ Cole instead who doesn't seem to be much better, mixing a lot of the lesser dub step around at the moment and a lot of big party hitters from Dizziee Rascal and Fake Blood which don't quite fit right. Kanji Kinetic vs Raffertie puts us in good spirits again. The emphasis is most definitely on the bass with these two, they've got a big daft sound that conjures up memories of some of the early 90's raves brought to us by rave luminaries like Altern-8. Joris Voorn takes it down a notch. Straight up techno, albeit slightly too polished and a bit too sleek than the harder stuff I've become accustomed to throughout the weekend. Derrick May comes to close the festival off in style, one of the true innovators of techno. May's techno is made for this sort of occasion. Encompassing all the great styles of techno on display at BLOC, the man can go from jackin' Chicago house to minimal to the hard hitting end of the spectrum. BLOC Weekend maintains its status as best UK rave weekender of the year. Only in its second year in the Minehead venue, it's managed to progress from last year. Security improved, at times last year they seemed to lack common sense and at times decency, they've thankfully addressed that problem this year and the Butlin's staff were great throughout the duration. They've added two decent new venues to the festival, which undoubtedly helped crowd control, Fenchurch Dome aside I barely saw one queue all weekend. Only slight concern in the venues was the sound in some of the smaller stages like jak:BLOC seemed to be a bit poor compared to last year. Plenty of clashes throughout the weekend, but that just show the strength of the festivals line-up. Their BLOC TV was on show throughout your accommodation all weekend again, showing everything they could find from the bizarre to the weird. If you are looking for a dance festival with a bit of a difference, BLOC is definitely the one for you. review by Paul Mullin
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