I’ll take any excuse to nab a Friday off to escape the mundanity of work and start the weekend early, and the appearance of Appleblim in Oxford on this particular Thursday was more than sufficient. I was looking forward to hearing Appleblim; he has become known for sets that embody the idea of a musical journey and frequently blur the lines between dubstep, house and techno, so I headed out with high expectations.

After arriving at 11.30 I eventually got inside at 11.50 and the club was rammed but I managed to take up a position with drink in hand and I settled in for Appleblim’s set. He came on at 12 o clock and entered at a restrained pace, minimal influenced rollers dominated the early section of the set and created space and atmosphere. The pace was increased gradually, the set moved into more up tempo territory as kick drums propelled the set into more overtly techy sonic regions. Detroit and deep house style chords provided a soulful edge to much of the middle of the set and added a healthy dose of colour which both soothed my tired head and kept my pissed body dancing.

Appleblim added some two step flavours into the mix creating an infectious rhythmic dynamic that went down a treat with the crowd and which led consummately into the end of the set, here the energy really picked up. The crowd had thinned and this created a more manageable amount of space within which to shake a leg as Appleblim dug deep into his bag and pulled out some stone cold classics, DMZ – Chamber (pure percussive cacophony) and Skream and Benga – The Judgement (a dark, two-step growler) were both in there and apart from absolutely going off, they also provided an historical tether to Appleblim’s futurist selection. By this time my dancing got more vigorous and my recollection got hazier (the two could be related) but I can assure you the set ended with a bang and at the end of it all I was very impressed with the way Appleblim built his set and kept the crowd along for the ride.

It’s a rewind, my dear

So my high hopes for Appleblim’s set were fulfilled but I did have two niggling reservations before I went out. Firstly: would the midweek student crowd be into Appleblim’s deeper take on things, secondly: would the sound system be up to the task of representing the all important sub bass of the music? I’m happy to say that my reservations were unfounded. The crowd got straight into Appleblim’s set and followed wherever he went, dancing all the way. Everybody was bang up for having a ‘spiffing good time’; and that, after all, is what these things are all about. The crowd did not seem massively clued up about who Appleblim is, at least not to the level you would expect at your average dubstep night, but this created a party atmosphere that was refreshingly free of train spotter chin-strokery. Although it did also produce some interesting misunderstandings: a special shout has to go out to the girl who wouldn’t leave my mate alone because she thought something was wrong when he was standing with his eyes closed listening to the music, and also to the girl who was confused after a rewind; the complete look of bafflement on her face when the music stopped was pure gold! A brief introduction to UK sound system culture and then off she skanked again.

As for the system: I was pleasantly surprised. In my opinion there is not a system in any club I have been to in Oxford that can do justice to the bottom end of dubstep, that considered I think the system at Baby Love Bar did a decent job of showcasing the tunes across all frequency ranges. So a success then, I would say, and with any luck this is an indicator of things to come within Oxford.

Appleblim is founder of the Applepips record label, co-founder of the Skull Disco label www.skulldisco.com. Dubstep Allstars Vol. 6 is available now from HMV. Find out more about Appleblim at www.myspace.com/appleblim.

This was a guest post by Interpolate