Blastique - "1over8" with the acapella of Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"
Blastique is widely credited as a sonic surgeon of sorts, and is rapidly becoming one of Malaysia’s pioneer dance music exports; his assertive and progressive sound already earning him successful releases on
Electrofly (UK) and
Silo Recordings (UK).
Classically trained in music, he has since spent the past 7 years perfecting his electronic music production skills. Today, a degree-wielding Sonic Artist, Blastique laces his sound with scalpel-like precision, technical mastery, and an unrelenting attitude that refuses to be pigeon holed.
With a string of solo releases on UK labels such as Silo Recordings and Electrofly Records (incl. Do It Like Rabbits, Rukus, Breathe Life In & Acts of Terror), and support from the likes of; Hybrid (Distinctive), Andy D (Ministry of Sound), Nick Thayer (Fingerlickin’, Streetwise), Soul of Man (Fingerlickin’), Vlad Sokolov (TCR, LondonBreaks, MoS) & Precision Cuts (Smart Breaks, Simple) amongst many more… Blastique has also teamed up with producers Nutek and Glynn Tandy to form Nu-Tandique. Their first release, a remix of The Radiators' Gimme Head has featured on MOS Summer Sessions Vol. 5. As a recently released single (on Vicious), it secured a top ten place in the Aria Club Charts for over 4 weeks straight! Immediately following this was yet another quality remix by Nu-Tandique of 80’s hit “Don’t You Want My Love”, with support from the Flash Brothers & Miguel Migs, amongst others.
On the performance front, Blastique has played alongside; Satoshi Tomiie, Dreadzone, Layo & Bushwacka, Soul of Man, Groove Armada, Nigel Dawson, Josh Wink, and DJ Lord (Public Enemy), to name a few, and in addition to a residency at RAW KL, has performed at several events around Australia and Malaysia including; OneAM feat. Blastique@Ambar, Xlive feat. Missy Elliot, Recharge Revelation, Global Gathering, lushouse@twentyone, Heineken Thirst 2006, Sessions & Eclectic Phunk@Zouk, Regenerate, The Backroom, Breaks n’ Bass & Nu Tek@Nouvo, Pioneer Digital DJ Battle ’03/’04, Juice DJ Quest 2003, Deep Down 2.
2006 was the year in which B4C was formed, together with “Chinared” (a.k.a. John Kuan) & the elusive “IV” (a.k.a. Raj J. I.), with the intention of detonating unwitting dance floors everywhere; their collective passion for meat, glitch, broken beats and distortion made for a genre-bending amalgamation of sound, both in the studio and on stage, promising to be a live PA explosion of pure intensity and terrifying proportions.
In addition to his recent releases, Blastique has made frequent appearances on compilations such as Presence 1-3, Levis and the widely-spread KLue and Junk magazine cover CDs. Abroad, he together with BadBoyBen (Funkshoppe), remixed Hong Kong groups; The Pancakes chart topper I Want To Fly, and Wildchilds 20-Something.
To this day, Blastique continues to contribute to the scene, be it genre-bending releases, unreleased promo contributions for compilations, or helping up and coming artists like himself polish and develop their sound further.
Despite the apparent obsession, it hasn’t always been beats, breaks and bass! Reuben graduated from The School of Audio Engineering (SAE) in Malaysia with a distinction, was presented with the “Best Overall Acheivement Award”, and commenced work as a producer and recording/ mixing engineer in numerous top production houses. Recently, he completed a honours degree in Sonic Arts, at Middlesex University, in London.
He has been able to apply what he learnt as a classical musician to dance music production, resulting in some overall beguiling sounds. Reuben names Bach, Beethoven, General Midi, NuBreed, Hybrid, Sasha, Starecase, Chus & Ceballos, Dr. Kucho & Wally Lopez, Meat Katie, Atomic Hooligan, Stanton Warriors, JDS, Plump DJs, Rennie Pilgrem, Layo & Bushwacka and Trentemoller, as some of his influences.
Blastique performs live, and integrates his arsenal of MIDI gear & Ableton together with some tight programming, resulting in a sound that can be possibly described as progressively techy, funky, melodic ‘n breaky.
