Steve Bicknell – Bassiani Podcast 217 Tracklist
From London’s inner suburbs comes this next guest, a through and through veteran of UK techno whose touch has left a lasting mark on the world around him. Steve Bicknell’s early days were spent in the intoxicating worlds of dub, reggae, acid, DIY warehouse parties and pirate radio, an auspicious mix of references that would inspire him to make music of his own. After a string of residencies at the UK’s then most influential parties, he launched his own series with creative collaborator Sheree Rashit: LOST. These legendary gatherings brought together names like Plaid, Jeff Mills, Juan Atkins, Robert Leiner, Basic Channel, and a wider array of future techno hegemons. This was swiftly succeeded with the duo’s launch of imprint Cosmic Records, whose triumph went on to spawn another three successors: LOST (early provider of Bicknell’s dancefloor sounds), Clubtracks (for Chicago-leaning fare) and ID(entity) (a channel for the work of well established music-makers who wanted to release under a secret alias). A nine-year pause in productions came to a halt in the mid 2010s with Steve’s most recent label, 6dimensions, an exploration in sound and the whole spectrum of human emotion. Finally, 2017 saw Steve team up with Luke Slater and David Sumner under the LSD sobriquet, a force for the creation of ‘lysergic machine music’, heavily danceable stuff (just ask ADE, Dekmantel, Awakenings). With a story as full and enduring as Steve’s there’s much to pull from, and only experience in the flesh could attest to the depth and scope of his musical evolution, but it’s clear that the voice he has honed has only become louder and more refined. It’s a techno that’s fully embodied, a blistering percussive barrage that invokes something profoundly human and fundamental. Bassiani Podcast 217 is just a taste of what Steve has to offer, a window onto a world of sound he’s meticulously crafted for over three decades: masterfully layered and piercing sounds that shimmer and relentlessly rise in lockstep with a formidable 4/4 beat.
