Blawan

Emerging from the post-dubstep scene and a key figure in the industrial techno revival, Blawan (real name Jamie Roberts) is an English producer from South Yorkshire who, over the course of about a decade, has become a sure bet of the contemporary techno scene, one of the most in-demand names in the orbit of that strain of electronic music that most absorbs the dark, solid Berlin sound. His first major appearance dates back to 2011, when his version of "Bloom" was included by Radiohead on the remix collection "TKOL RMX 1234567".

Grinding out one EP after another, Blawan has fleshed out a meticulous, creative study of new conceptual forms applicable to techno music of the new millennium. Dark, oppressive lines, though mediated through a careful interweaving of rhythmic and melodic elements, pursue the earnest attempt to broaden and update the modern grammar of club music.

Through his label Ternesc, the Briton released the EP "Communicat 1022" in 2016, followed a year later by "Nutrition", key turning points that reveal the path Blawan chose to follow: we're still in techno territory, but the landscape grows ever more fragmented and transient, its power implosive and disjointed, never devoid of anguished tension, acid frequencies and robotic whimpers.

In 2018 “Wet Will Always Dry” became the English producer's debut album, marked by an unprecedented oppressive tone. The hammering rhythms grow ever more merciless, the chilling descent into an electric hell unfolding through a murky asphyxiation, with piercing kicks and high-tension scrapes. The forward momentum presses on relentlessly, growing darker and more disturbing: the listener moves surrounded by a tide of alternating-current anguish, caught between alienating catharses and post-nuclear nightmares. A raw, devastating violence that places Blawan among the elite of the fiercest techno gunslingers of our time.

In 2021 Jamie Roberts confirms the subversive nature of his work across the five tracks collected on “Woke Up Right Handed“, an ultra-detailed effort born of that ongoing research capable of delivering ever more defined and refined results. For the first time he's welcomed under the wing of XL Recordings, meaning greater visibility compared to much of his earlier self-released work. “Woke Up Right Handed” offers an authoritative mix fusing anguished moods, leaden percussion, vocal lines that never quite resolve into clear code, buried under tons of noise and effects, a fascination with UK bass, and glimpses of trance nostalgia, in an ideal closing of the circle between past, present and future.

In 2023 a new EP containing five unreleased tracks, “Dismantled Into Juice“, brings further confirmation, with the English producer signaling his intent to gradually move toward more melodic shores.