B – Artists
Biography
HOUSE has always found a welcoming home in London. The wealth of clubs, venues and party promoters playing host each week to the world’s foremost DJs and artists is testament to that. Fabric, Secretsundaze et al have become bywords for underground, cutting-edge quality. Yet with Berlin and Detroit
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HOUSE has always found a welcoming home in London. The wealth of clubs, venues and party promoters playing host each week to the world’s foremost DJs and artists is testament to that. Fabric, Secretsundaze et al have become bywords for underground, cutting-edge quality. Yet with Berlin and Detroit talent often dominating the column-inches, homegrown labels and producers are sometimes denied the attention they deserve.
And it’s not because they don’t deliver. Far from it. British talent generally, not just from the smoke, cuts it with the best of them when it comes to quality house and techno. A case in point is gifted young producer BLM and his first-rate Fear of Flying label, which he co-owns with long-time pal Jay Massive.
BLM (aka Ben Micklewright) came up through the ranks from bedroom DJ at 15 listening to 2-step and garage [he admits to still dropping the occasional 4/4 garage bomb in his sets even now with Todd Edwards and the Kerri Chandler-produced Kamar particular stalwarts], through to a formative stint at the Midlands’ respected Massive Records, where he met Jay and his love of house took root. A sound engineering degree and a move to Nottingham, where he spun at the city’s then-key clubs, widened his musical education.
Still only 23 and now based in London (he’s originally from Oxford), although BLM’s been making music since 2004 it was the launch of the label and at the same time his own production career proper three years ago that sent out a statement of intent. Tracks such as the techy Believe In Love, the sublime Gyms Are For Pussies and the Balearic-tinged deep house of Oi Pedro, Do You Do Chips have marked him down as a name to watch out for and helped confirm Fear of Flying’s status as a label on the up.
BLM’s idiosyncratic take on deep, minimal house [whether it be the garage influence clearly evident in his work or the irreverent track titles] is a breath of fresh air from the earnest posturing of many a serious producer. And the label’s other artists [Leif to Pawas to Cally] also tread their own individual paths yet nonetheless manage to compliment both BLM and Fear of Flying’s approach. Together they form a well-matched collective, but lazy dance music by numbers it definitely isn’t
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© 2010