Inspired by underground house and techno music and a desire to push boundaries with technology to perform live electronic music Loop Corporation was born. As the name suggests the live show is made up from layering individual loops of chunky grooves, infectious melodies and deep bass lines in an improvised performance offering spontaneous on-the-fly creativity to deliver a soulful beat tweaking serving of house and techno.

At the heart of the Loop Corporation live setup is a MacBook Pro running Ableton software. Ableton is fully midi-mapped to interact with the Liine Lemur app on an iPad using a self-customised version of the Livecontrol 2 interface. Similarly, a Jazzmutant hardware Lemur touch screen controller also controls Ableton through a fully self-customised interface. This touch screen hands on approach to controlling the Ableton platform allows creativity to flow freely throughout the performance and opens up all manor of possibilities when performing live that other approaches for control don't allow making every performance very unique. 

Loop Corporation has released on labels such Warped House Records (UK), Nude Photo Music (USA), Kornerhouse Records (UK), Rapid Fire Records (USA) and Digit Records (UK). Release support has come by way of global DJ’s such as Richie Hawtin, James Zabilia and Tim Sheridan and airplay support (and an interview) has come from BBC Radio Nottingham’s ‘The Beat’ show (the largest listened to show outside London, syndicated across the BBC Midlands network). Loop Corporation has also charted in the top 10 downloads on Traxsource and Nowtrax.

Aside from working on the live show and endlessly in the studio Loop Corporation also found time to study the theoretical side of music gaining an FDSC in Music technology and BSc (Hons) in Audio and Recording Technology. Loop Corporation infuses this sonic knowledge with cutting edge technology to create forward thinking music and be part of the new generation of live electronic music artists.

Dj, Manchester, UK

I work in Eastern Bloc Records in Manchester. 
I used to work in Selectadisc and Funky Monkey in Nottingham, and played on original pirates Switch FM, Freeze FM and Power FM.

Resident for Open Arms at The Bomb. Regular guest for DiY and many other nights at The Bomb. Resident at The Social, Bluu (Nottingham, Manchester, Liverpool), The Maze, Saltwater, Fever at The Skyy Club, Friends & Family (Fat City) at The Market Bar, Dubble Bubble, Browns, Dogma, The Academy, Stone Bar, Broadway, The Malt Cross, Sumo (Leicester), Bellameys...

I've DJ'ed alongside Gilles Peterson, Earl Zinger, Nightmares On Wax, Bonobo, Lonnie Liston Smith, Jazzanova, Charles Webster, Paul Wain, Dave Smith, DiY, Lone, Bugz In The Attic, The Sugarhill Gang, Congi, Geiom, Leaves Berlin, Devils Jukebox, Sola Festival, Red Rack'Em, Alga Rhythms, EVM128, Mike O'Mara, Jim Bane, Swindells, Tayo, Frank Tope, Crazy P, Hot Toddy, Ron Basejam, Terri Walker, Joe Buhdha, DJ Fever, DJ Sneak, Gary Funky Monkey, Steve Hodgkinson, Coyote, Aim, Max Essa, Tim White, Daniel Wang, Sean Escoffery, Tim Love Lee, Alabama 3, Inland Knights, Zara McFarlane, Shaanti Sound System, Detonate, Mexrrissy, Ex Friendly, Mark Rae, The Nudge, Killer Jim, Mr Skip, Fatima, Mo Kolours, Flako, Sounddhism, Antibalas, Throwing Snow, and many more...

Player of drums and maker of music since around 1985 with the likes of - 

SONS OF MU

IDIOT JOY

RUBBERNECK RECORDS

LUTHER RIGNO

SEISMIC BEAT PUSHER

SUPERBEATPUSHER

NORTHGATE SLIDE

THE KING TOURETTES

REAL DIAMOND

THE TABLOIDS

THE RAW TOUR

DUBSKAMEN

MARBLE

VELVET BANDANNA

NEW FUNKY GENERATION

SABAR SOUNDSYSTEM

THE ELECTRIC EFFECT

RUEPOINT

LORD HA HA

CAN SAMBA

PHOENIX SAMBA

SONS OF MU
Enjoyed many gigs and looking forward to many more :)

Ben Lappin (aka bloik) has firm roots in music having played the piano since he was 7 and bass guitar from 17. His first live gig came at 19, he has since played in numerous live bands covering styles such as rock to dub, punk to funk and anything in-between. He is still performing live to this day as either bloik (which started in 1995), Howling Buddha and an experimental modular synth duo called Betty And The Physics. 

At the age of 21 Ben was involved with setting up the successful Nottingham studio ‘Rubber Biscuit’.

At the age of 24 the electronic bug bit him following the purchases of an Atari, sampler and his first synthesiser.

This presented an exciting problem for Ben. How could he infuse his band background with his new love of electronic music whilst not being restricted to one particular genre?

The answer was ‘bloik’!

Bloik’s sound is a fusion of dub, jazz, house, acid, afrobeat, breakbeat and drum and bass. 

Bloik’s ‘Loungin'’ track was featured on Fabric Live 17 mixed by Aim and was highlighted as one of the stand out tracks. Fabrics own press release picked this track out by saying "there's lashings of sub-sonic melody as bloik invites you to lounge around". BBC on-line reviewer Alastair Lee described it as "bloik's filthy electro jazz cut". BBC radio 1xtra have also given airplay to the D&B track 'The Stalker'. Both tracks feature on bloik’s ‘Volume One’ artist album.

To contact bloik please email:

Ben Lappin (bloik)
bloik03@hotmail.com

Or

Andy Cessford (Head of A&R FA Recordings)
andy.cessford@formationaudio.co.uk

Writer/blogger from Malmö, Sweden. I like indie pop/rock/folk, electronic pop, techno/house, punk/post-punk, alternative rock, and much more... 

FA Recordings is the record label arm of Formation Audio.

Our team has over 20 years experience in the audio industry, having worked on album production and mastering through to sound design for theatre shows.
We aim to excel in all aspects of our work. Attention to detail with our client's projects has led to our reputation as a company that delivers the highest quality consistent output and a customer service that’s second to none.

If you have a project in mind, contact us. We are always happy to discuss your needs and explore ideas before quoting a job. We have a wide network of contacts within the audio industry and if we cannot deliver the best for your project we’ll know someone who can.

Charlie: Vocals
JP: Wurlitzer/Keys
George: Bass
Michael: Drums

Munro perform a hybrid of live drum'n'bass, jazz & dub.
Miles Davis once said it's not what you play; it's what you don't play. Less is more. When everyone plays, the total diminishes. Urbanspacelab understand this. With simply four players (JP Wurlitzer, Michael drums, George bass and Charlie vocals) their use of space gives their sound unusual clarity and definition. This band has reminded me of why I love music: of what music can be. Like all great music, it creates its own space and you are transported somewhere else, to a better place.

Formed sometime this century, 'Test Machine' is the brainchild of Pat Gunning, JP Braddock and friends. Many influences including: The Velvets, Bowie, Wilco, Air, Royksopp, The Gratefull Dead's country vibes, King Tubby and the Toots on wax all rounded by warm valves.

Fusing sixties art rock, seventies garage and dark naughties ambiance, brooding scratchy soundscapes, with the sound of classic guitars and a Wurlitzer piano.

What is it we like or dislike about music, ask yourself? For us, an album should make some kind of sense, its image should be constant from start to finish. We think it’s possible for music to be visual, to draw pictures in the listeners mind, weather these pictures are memories or evolved from the music it doesn’t matter … it’s about capturing people. It’s also nice to dance!

We think the simplicity in our music is its strength, you can’t dream to a 28 chord, slap bass progressive mind f***. We have six-minute songs with two chords, these chords become like a mantra and it’s what happens between these chords that’s important. Imagine painting a wall white and putting a Picasso in the middle of it, your eyes are always drawn to the middle, but the white is what makes it good.

Radium88 are based around composer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Tim Thwaites and singer Jema Davies, together with Clare Hunt - violin/vocals, Matt Clare - guitar, Mike Clifford - cornet/low whistle and Joe Thwaites - clarinet.

Most electronic music has traditionally either meandered through cerebral experimentalism or headed straight for the dancefloor. Not feeling like they entirely belong in either place, radium88 are content to carve out a niche of their own, making thoughtful melodic electronica with elements of dub, classical, folk and psychedelia. Partly vocal and partly instrumental, their music features splashes of orchestral colour from live strings, cornet and clarinet. The sound could be loosely described as crystalline pure angelic vocals soaring effortlessly above a Blade Runner soundtrack as re-envisioned by Massive Attack. Or equally the sort of sound you might get if Bjork were to collaborate with Philip Glass or Orbital with Beirut. 


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