Blawan (aka Jamie Roberts), first hit our radar with his 2010 Hessle Audio release ‘Fram/Iddy’. It’s a release that came about through Jamie being at the end of his university degree and not sure what to do. He had Fram on his computer.
“I was too scared to send my stuff out because I thought it was crap and I wasn’t happy with it. I thought you know what? I’ll just send it. And I sent it to Jack (Untold) and within two hours I got a phone call from David Kennedy (aka Pearson Sound/Ramadanman) which was just like insane! I was shaking on the phone! Just like ‘Oh my god!'”
His EP for R&S Records (which came out in March 2011), was written last August, during a period when Jamie was listening to a lot of acid house. He sent the track on to R&S, they liked what they heard, and he wrote two more to keep it company. “It’s one of the first tunes I dropped down to 130, to like a sort of house tempo,” he says of Bohla “but I still wanted to keep that like swung, garage-y feel to it.”
Bohla [RS1102] by Blawan
Blawan's most-hyped to track to date, ‘Getting Me Down’, has been causing a stir on internet forums & blogs alike since being dropped on Rinse FM by Ben UFO when he stood in for Oneman back in January. The track rotates around a R&B accapella, adding a fluid, warm, buoyant, slant; different again to the almost cyborg-like grooves of his R&S release.
For much of his youth Blawan spent his time 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. “I guess you could say the early stuff I wrote, I was kind of jumping on the bandwagon a bit. As I’ve gained my roots a little bit I’ve been bringing it back to the stuff I really want to make, rather than just 140 garage… At this moment in time, like, keeping it around house tempos is where I’m at. It’s just that, I play out, and I never really go above 132 in my DJ sets.”
Another of his tracks getting people talking is 'What You Do With What You Have' (heard here via a set rip of Hessle Audio's Rinse FM show):
Have a listen to his Fact Mix:
Also watch/listen to his mix for the Boiler Room:
BR #47 Blawan from PLATFORM MAGAZINE
BR #47 Blawan by BOILER ROOM▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Also on the Dot To Dot 2011 bill are SBTRKT (live), Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (live), Hyetal (live), Ed Sheeran & lots more.
For more information/tickets check out the Dot To Dot Official Facebook Event.
For more information/tickets check out the Dot To Dot Official Facebook Event.
