Appleblim‘s reputation was forged in the dubstep arena, but the listening tastes of the Bristol-based producer, DJ and label-owner in fact run far and wide.
His Rinse FM podcasts of 2008 hold a special place in FACT’s heart for representing the vanguard of contemporary bass music alongside classic jungle, folk, techno and much else besides – depicting a world where Alice Coltrane and Davy Graham rub shoulders with Gescom and 2 Bad Mice, where Mr Fingers and The Beach Boys meet T++ and Shed.
A lifelong wax obsessive who once worked the counter at Camden’s Record & Tape exchange and used to play bass in NME-approved math-rock outfit The Monsoon Bassoon, the Apple Pips head honcho knows his onions, and retains a wide-eared but discerning enthusiasm for new and old music of all kinds – a quality all too rare among established artists.
For this, the latest instalment in our monthly Five Records series, we asked ‘Blim – who plays the Bloc Weekend festival in Minehead, March 12-14, and will release a new EP, Lipsmacker, with Al Tourettes on Aus in May – to pick out a quintet of cherished records from his collection and tell us their significance to him. Below is what he came back with…
01: DEAD OF ALIVE
‘YOU SPIN ME AROUND (LIKE A RECORD)’
(EPIC 7″, 1984)
“This is the first record I ever bought with my own money, from Asda in Nottingham (my Mum had already bought me that cornerstone of UK hip-hop, Morris Minor and the Majors’ ‘Stutter Rap’!). I vividly remember the first time I played it, sliding the fresh untouched vinyl out of the sleeve, the feel of the tone-arm switch on my dad’s turntable getting clicked to the ‘down’ position, the intoxicating smell of the brand new 7-inch, and then the pumping synth bassline hurtling out of the speakers! I reckon it’s begging for a re-edit, in fact I saw Richie Hawtin at The End about 8 years ago, and he dropped the beats, synth and bass from it into his set – it sounded fricking amazing!
“Obviously Pete Burns looked bonkers, and that was appealing…”
“When I was about 8 or 9 my mate’s mum was bang into Dead Or Alive, I used to call round his after school, and she’d put this on, and ‘Thats The Way (Uh Huh)’ and we’d dance around the living room! Now, i didn’t understand at the time that Pete Burns was a massive queen, and that this was essentially Stock, Aitken & Waterman doing the ultra-gay Hi-NRG style of Patrick Cowley and Bobby Orlando, but I must’ve had a penchant for gay disco very early on! Obviously Pete Burns looked bonkers, and that was appealing…I also loved Pet Shop Boys’ early stuff, which again was a British take on that camp electronic disco sound. I love the way that pop music can subvert you without you even knowing it, the way things get into your head and have an influence before you even really know why…”
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