Jamie Roberts aka Blawan is a hotly tipped producer/dj from Sheffield, UK who appeared on the map out of nowhere last year. In case you haven't noticed yet, Blawan uses masterfully percussion instruments throughout his production. This is due to his time spent drumming in post-punk bands back in South Yorkshire before the whole dub-step-and-all-its-off-shoots sound became the primary source of listening.
After sending on some tracks to Untold he got a phone call from an excited David Kennedy (Ramadanman/Pearson Sound), a member of the triumvirate which makes up Hessle Audio, that same day. With this release he joined a small number of high profile artists on the critically acclaimed label. For those unfamiliar with Hessle Audio, it is a bass music label based in Leeds which has been at the forefront of new directions in the big mess of music that has been known as dubstep since 2007, and now on its 18th release. The 13th Hessle record "Fram" b/w "Iddy" released last May and was Blawan’s debut.
There’s a certain spastic glee to the British producer’s misfit bass music. Built from rambunctious, elastic rhythm tracks that whip, snap, and crash in all directions, they always land in a wonderfully satisfying thud even if not always in the exact place you’d expect. Blawan carves intricate veins of acid into his wooden percussive monoliths, and the corrosive bubbling courses violently and virulently through each track.
"Quite possibly my favourite producer on earth right now!" – Mary Anne Hobbs, Radio Xfm
Estonian-born Firejosé aka Mark Stukis pondered into the electronic music world in the 90s, gradually moving from listening to records to going to raves to DJing, falling in love with drum'n'bass. After years of spinning and producing solely one genre he started to grow tired of it. His adventures would take him to jungles of Central America, where cut off from modern trends of electronic music, he started crafting his own style. After moving back to civilization and coming in touch with the music scene again, he slowly started spreading his work.
His sound is always on the deeper end of the musical spectrum but also with a dancefloor tip, the production style of tracks on Yellow Lanes EP have drawn comparisons to the likes of Floating Points and Joy Orbison. His musical influences range from Arvo Pärt to Rage Against the Machine, from Bjork to The Prodigy, from Kompakt to Metalheadz, from J Dilla to Zed Bias.
DJ-ing wise you will not be disappointed also - Firejosé has a solid background in double dropping dnb dubplates - a skill which he has brought over to these unfamiliar territories he is exploring musically now.