Who we are
Bleep43 is Bea Brennan, Dan Bean, Emile Facey (aka Plant43), Jo Johnson, Toby Frith, Ken Odeluga and Anya Stang. Some of us wanted to have a profile page and some of us either haven’t got it together yet or chose not to have one.
What we do
Bleep43 April 2010 Volcano specialParties
Bleep43 was founded in 2000 by Toby and Emile with the intention of providing information on electronic music via the internet and with the birth of our parties in 2002, promoting local DJs and live acts in the London area.
At Bleep43 we believe in keeping the spirit of underground dance music alive, but also providing our carefully selected guests the chance to express themselves to a knowlegeable and appreciative audience away from the commercial enviroment of the bigger clubs. We firmly believe in live music and always try to have a number of artists playing their own material.
In September 2002 we embarked upon a series of nights called “Slices” at legendary former toilet-cum bar Public Life in the heart of Shoreditch. From thereon the aim has been to cover a wide spectrum of genres to our audience, from house and techno to electro, disco and dub, but to also foster the talents of local DJs and live acts in the London area.
Our move to Corsica Studios in 2006 enabled us to take advantage of a 2 room venue, but with a capacity that enabled us to maintain the intimate vibe we’ve kept. We also firmly believe in giving DJs a longer time frame to play - it is not uncommon for our DJs to play for 4 hours plus.
The venue’s location and aesthetic means that it remains in relative isolation compared to the epicentre of London’s nightlife, yet the upside is that our crowd is composed solely of people wanting to hear our guests. Recently we’ve attracted crowds from Germany, Ireland, Greece, Italy and further afield, and this is an opportunity to offer our sincere thanks to those who make such an effort.
The range of guests we’ve had demonstrates our commitment to this philosophy. Over the past few years we’ve had the following : Surgeon, Derrick May, Omar-S, Pole, DJ Stingray, Intergalactic Gary, I-F, Convextion, $tinkworx, Rob Hall, Kevin Reynolds, Donato Dozzy, DJ Pete, Patrice Scott, Legowelt, Newworldaquarium, Scorn, Daniel Bell, Hieroglyphic Being to name a few.
With the relaunch of this website in August 2008, we turned our attention more evenly to matters such as interviews, features and reviews, which were admittedly intermittent previously, and were the original purpose of the website.
Interviews with the likes of Octave One, Monolake and Scape One and other content have been moved across to form part of our archive.
Reviews of some of the more notable releases in the field are now much more regular, as we cast a discerning eye over developments.
The site was designed by Emile Facey and configured by Jo Johnson with valuable input from Dan Bean. Content is provided by all Bleep43 members but it’s fair to say Toby does most of the work on this. Dan and Jo help keep the site architecture in shape while Emile continues to give the visual side his care and attention. We also added Gustav Brown, Sam Stagg and Jeremy Yellen as contributors towards the end of 2009.
Bleep43 Podcast
The Bleep43 weekly podcast was originally broadcast on Wireless FM from 2005. We have produced more than 200 shows covering all manner of genres within the huge field of what we know as electronic music.
Special shows have focused on James Stinson and Gerald Donald, Popol Vuh, Alice Coltrane, Uwe Schmidt, Conny Plank and Brian Eno while other shows share live and DJ sets from our parties and other one-off sets.
The show is run by Toby with guest mixes and special shows by a range of contributors.
You can subscribe to the podcast on this page (see top right).
Bleep43’s first vinyl release - a four track EP with E.R.P., Plant43, Orphan and Jo Johnson is out now. Thanks to Guy McCreery, Neil Oliviera, Sam Tinley, Jason Smith and Doug Adamson (Jacen Solo, Lifeworks compiler).
Bleep43 TV
In 2008, we published our first video interview - a few minutes with DJ Stingray aka Sherard Ingram when he played for Bleep43 in April. Ken asked the questions, Bea filmed the interview, and Emile edited it and designed the titles.
We are currently working on another film, this time an interview with Vienna’s Microthol, along with footage of some live sets from our past parties.
