Bloc promised their fifth anniversary of weekend festivaling would be a birthday to remember, and they delivered on their promise with one of the most universally-praised dance festivals ever. From start to finish there was hardly a set that disappointed and with the stage set for a finale by Laurent Garnier's latest project, LBS, his three hours of house and techno was a set that will live long in the memory of all who witnessed it.
Friday
Having spent the last four years getting to grips with how to host an underground dance music festival at a holiday resort, on the evidence of Bloc 2011, they've nearly nailed everything from the organisation to the line-up and the scheduling. With leading acts from start to finish there were always going to be clashes, but it was a rare moment you ever wished you'd been anywhere else but the room you were in. Case in point was on the Friday, the first of the three days filled with techno, house, dubstep, electrco, reggae, dub, acid and electronica. In Red:Bloc, Modeselektor hosted their own Modeselekton stage featuring stand out sets from Siriusmo with his pounding electro and Apparat's epic soundscapes. By the time Modeselektor had blasted out a set, beatboxer Beardyman, dubstep supergroup Magnetic Man, Subloaded's dubstep draws Pinch, Mala, Loefah and Untold as well as the Numbers representatives Rustie, SBTRKT and Jamie xx had also played. Bloc seemed intent on spoiling everyone for choice.
Over in the Centre:Bloc one of techno's pioneers, LFO, stepped onto stage with Luke Vibert and Richard D. James looking on. Mark Bell's giant video wall pulsated to the beats and the crowd went wild for "Simon From Sydney", "Mentok 1" and, of course "LFO" were dropped though his set felt oddly disjointed and when "LFO" did hit the speakers the only difference from a recording was the speed of the tune notched up to please the dancefloor. For many LFO was a stand out set, perhaps I just wasn't up to Bloc speed on Friday. Still, reports also came in of Shackleton rocking Tec:Bloc and I set about finding what would be the best destination for my ears. With only two stages open and a lukewarm response to Drop the Lime's largely unengaging set, I was keen to get a look in at Jak:Bloc where Plex had compiled an impressive array of techno talent including Ancient Methods and Silent Servant. Alas, owing to only Jak:Bloc, the smallest stage, and Centre:Bloc now open, the queue for Ancient Methods proved off-putting and a misguided mind meant I ended up back at the main stage watching Claude Von Stroke's closing set. Though Von Stroke was a fine choice for closer, my chalet mates reliably informed me of what I had missed by refusing to queue for my music: put simply, I wish I'd been listening to the tougher, more niche reverberations in the darkest realm of the Bloc festival to round off my Friday night.
One of techno's pioneers, LFO, stepped onto stage with Luke Vibert and Richard D. James looking on
Saturday
Saturday started in fine style with a dip in the swimming pool, or rather Splash World, at Butlins to reawaken the senses from their slumber. Never has a flume ride been so welcome than after a night of relentlessly good music and once refreshed the first port of call was the Mulletover hosted Tec:Bloc. There electronica originator Black Devil Disco Club, aka Frenchman Bernard Fevre, was proving that while he may have started making music on the 1970s, he's still well-versed in delivering dancefloor fun for the modern ear. His disco-tinged ditties in which he got on the microphone to marvelous effect were a good Saturday late afternoon tonic to the seriousness of Friday night, and he fed off the good vibes the crowd were feeding him, pausing between songs to say thank you as he set up his next track. Leaving Bernard to finish off his set, I took in the last tune of L-Vis 1990 and Addison Groove, though nothing stuck in the memory until the three-hour Visionquest show featuring Seth Troxler, Shaun Reeves and Lee Curtiss. I could have listened to their smooth house and techno grooves all night but over at Centre:Bloc Moderat were calling for attention following Apparat's fine performance on Friday. Up on stage with companions Modeselektor who help make up the electronica trio, their epic soundscapes fed through the Bloc soundsystem where whisking revellers off into another world. As their last show until at least 2012, Moderat gave their current material a tremendous send-off that will have delighted and frustrated fans in equal measure: if Moderat could have played again on Sunday, no one would have been complaining.
Dopplereffekt treated Bloc to a rare live appearance after Moderat, though I ducked out to get some air ahead of Four Tet and Aphex Twin which proved to be a massive error. Not only did Dopplereffekt's set get touted as a highlight of the weekend for many, such was the queue when I came to return that I only made it to Centre:Bloc just in time for Aphex Twin. While the queue became longer with some claiming up to an hour's wait (though I'm not sure how accurate that could be) as Aphex Twin started, there was plenty more for those who missed out to see if they didn't want to wait: namely the ghetto tech of DJ Funk, the techno of The Advent and Oscar Mulero or the underground vibes of Soul Clap. As for Aphex, he kicked off with ambiance as a live video recording of the crowd played back on the many screens surrounding him and built up to his trademark delving into all manner of rave, breakcore and industrial techno. He greeted the crowd with two thumbs up and a job well done, just as he did in 2009 when The Hecker provided a surround sound element to his set. This seemed to be a far more focused 90 minutes that continued the high standards already set by Bloc 2011. Electro hero Vitalic pumped Centre:Bloc full of energy with his classic floor-fillers "La Rock 01" and "My Friend Dario" combined with a few hints of dubstep in his new material and Speedy J's looping techno was a fitting close to Saturday's main attractions. Body Hammer saw events through to the early hours in Jak:Bloc thanks to Legowelt and Joe Hart among others, though it was a shame Jerome Hill's usual 7am slot was absent this year. His set on the Thursday warm-up Brackout was a standout set, however in the past his wonky techno had been ideal for the early Sunday morning crowd.
The crowd buzzed with excitement – never have I seen arms and inflatables waving around with such abandon at Bultins Minehead.
Sunday
When Sunday rocked around it was with some effort that we made it to hear innovative dubstep producer Boxcutter get behind his laptop in Jak:Bloc for 5pm, and while we were treated to a cracking set, he should surely be gifted a bigger stage soon as he played a similar time and stage back in 2008 to equally rave reviews. Matthew Dear's deep techno and the ragga jungle of Top Cat backed by Kenny Ken hit the mark for many, though the standout set for Sunday, and perhaps Bloc 2011 had to be the three hours of Laurent Garnier's live show LBS on Centre:Bloc. The whole weekend the impressive main stage lighting had been of the highest order with a telling addition of the lasers criss-crossing the dancefloor as well as centrally while the Funktion One system was always crystal clear, yet it seemed to take on a whole new dimension when Garnier was supplying the soundtrack. The crowd buzzed with excitement – never have I seen arms and inflatables waving around with such abandon at Bultins Minehead past midnight. As Garnier counted down the minutes to the close of Bloc's fifth anniversary the atmosphere intensified and Garnier's live blends of house and techno hit the spot. It was a fitting end to a Bloc so full of divine sets and surely a closing the Bloc team could not have predicted would leave such a lasting mark.
As the crowd poured back to their chalets there was a tinge of sadness that Bloc was over but jubilation in a weekend so well spent. From the Brackout party which had to be extended from a midnight curfew to a 2am finish due to so many people checking in a day early to kickstart their weekend to Laurent Garnier's closing set, Bloc rarely put a foot wrong, save for a couple of niggles. The first, unfairly, is down to the scheduling of so many top acts against each other. Saturday was particularly tough as Venetian Snares, Aphex and Oscar Mulero would have divided many Bloc-goers however that's the price you pay for a line-up so full of class. The other gripe was with big acts in small places: the Ableton Dome returned with I Love Acid hosting two days featuring an old skool set from A Guy Called Gerald, Luke Vibert, Ceephax and Altern8's Mark II which is great in theory, but the queues to get into the dome, as well as having to re-queue if you needed to nip out for any reason, meant they were heard by a small minority. Another stage in the Skyline would have been far more apt even if the sound and visuals would have suffered. Similarly Jak:Bloc needed a bit of a clean and again the queues at 4.30am were frustrating. Still, it mattered little in the end as Bloc's fifth birthday was a gem of a weekend that will be a fond memory far beyond this summer's festival season. Well done Bloc, roll on another five years.
Republished October 2026.