Hessle Audio at In:Motion, Bristol

Over the past few years, a handful of record labels – and a more generous handful of artists – have led a blisteringly fast transformation of British dance floors. Cast your mind back five years. It was obvious whether an artist would be a ‘Friday’ or a ‘Saturday’ act at Fabric, and Four Tet was known primarily as a master of folktronica, not as a purveyor of punchy, two-step laced, rhythm ‘n’ bass.

Fast forward to 2012, and the post-dubstep landscape is almost impossible to wrap a coherent narrative around. At the centre sits Hessle Audio, the imprint helmed by Ben UFO, Pearson Sound, and Pangea, and a label which can lay as strong a claim as any other to have shaped (and been shaped) by the transformation of the place Dave Pearce likes to call ‘clubland’.

It is not without a little excitement, then, that Bristol’s In:Motion series welcomes back Hessle Audio on October 5th. Starring the aforementioned Hessle dons, plus Four Tet and Dutch legend Legowelt, it’s a mouth-watering prospect. Idle Hands, Bristol’s leading independent record store is hosting Room 2, and has rounded up Rinse FM’s Alexander Nutt and the much feted Floating Points for the evening. Chris Farrell, Idle Hands boss, explained why he is particularly looking forward to Alex Nutt’s turn on the decks:

“I remember when I heard his Rinse CD, it was a bit of a revelation how good it was! I’ve seen him DJ a few times since and he’s absolutely fantastic, one of the best DJs I’ve ever seen, he always just brings it you know? It’s a good DJ that doesn’t make (playing across genres) too tokenistic, and he’s very good at that.”

Playing across genres is certainly something that the Hessle boys have down – which means it isn’t easy to know exactly what you’re likely to hear on the night. But Farrell says this isn’t a problem in Bristol, given the city’s musical heritage:

“Bristol’s a dubstep city – me and a friend put Ramadanman on in 2007…but the thing about genres, dubstep or whatever, it’s true that it’s not what it used to be, but everyone’s kind of operating in a scene that came out of that, so whether or not its dubstep I don’t know, that’s just a term isn’t it? You listen to the recent Pearson Sound stuff, and it’s very bare-bones, very influenced by grime. It might not be what it was a few years ago, but it’s still coming from that route of adventurous music rooted in heavy subs and made for sound systems you know?”

And there’s no arguing with that, whatever label you give it.

Tickets for the show are available from the In:Motion website and Idle Hands.