Bay Area bass fiend Bleep Bloop hit the headlines recently as the first artist to be signed by DJ Shadow for his new Liquid Amber imprint.
Dig deeper and you’ll see he’s been around for more than a minute and that this landmark release follows a whole gamut of badness on labels such as Saturate and Robox Neotech. Dig even deeper and you’ll find a vast range of free downloads.
Dig right down to the roots and you’ll get an impassioned story of a unique time in electronic music history: when dubstep first hit the US.
Get to know…
“Most of my favourite music comes from across the sea,” says Bleep Bloop, real name Aaron Triggs. “Not just the UK but the whole of Europe. But my first entry point into anything electronic was Coki, Benga and everyone making the dubstep way back around 2007. A friend came back from Burning Man and was like ‘check this out! It’s called dubstep.’ No one had a clue what it was over here back then. We started digging all the classic guys – Coki, Benga, Skream, Caspa and shows by Mary Anne Hobbs and the Rinse crew.”
From these early musical adventures he hit grime. He cites the likes of Wiley, Flowdan, The Bug, and Footsie as major inspirations, and just one quick blast on his 10,000 Watt Lazers EP will back up these references:
Angular, brutal and barbed with a bass tongue that tickles with both a west coast and UK twang, it’s the sound Bleep Bloop has been cooking since he was first baptised by bass all those years ago. Yet at 23, most of that cooking was done when he could only dream of hearing the music in its most natural environment.
“Super young,” he agrees. “I couldn’t get into any clubs or bars to hear it! I remember my first rave, though; Skream, Benga and Rusko. All these artists blew my mind. I’d been hearing the music on a shitty home system with a little sub and two monitors. So to hear it live was incredible. Especially on vinyl. I remember going to see Caspa playing all these dubplates. Mala too. Just totally out of this world.”
You can describe Bleep Bloop music as out of this world, too. For an all-out, sense-popping experience, his exclusive-riddled Earmilk mix is well worth checking out. As is this collection of free downloads. For DJ Shadow, though, it was this…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShnTpp3oADk
“I saw him play at this festival called Emissions. Suddenly I hear this and think ‘hold on!’ When I realised it was me, it blew my mind. After the show my friends suggested I go and talk to him. Was scared to talk to him? Of course! I was super intimidated! But a friend was really pushy and forced me to do it. He was right. Smartest move I’ve ever made! He’s very passionate and humble. It’s all about the music. It’s not about the ego or being a big DJ. We connected on pure music passion.”
Now it’s time to connect with Bleep Bloop with a pure music passion. In the coming months expect a whole range of new material, including… A track entitle Yep on Smog City Volume 3 (released this week), remixes on Saturate, an EP on Robox Neotech and, later on in the year, more on Liquid Amber.
He’s also dripping out a steady flow of bootleg remixes via his socials. The first one – a tripped out, face-melting repurpose of Pusha T’s earliest incarnation Clipse – is up right now. Check it and stay checked in, 2015 is going to be a big year for this Bay Area bass fiend.
