Blastique - How Does It Fly?

Biography of Blastique

Born in 1982 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, classically-trained Blastique (a.k.a. Reuben Samuel) is well on his way to becoming one of Malaysia's youngest and most talented dance music producers. Picking up the violin at the tender age of 4 and a half, and the piano at 5, Blastique turned his hand to dance music and began composing music in 1999, instead of attending computer science lectures at university in Perth, Australia, like he was supposed to!

Throughout 2000, he came out with various experimental tracks while trying to find his true musical direction. After receiving encouraging comments from seasoned dance industry professionals and numerous top 10 posts on the mp3.com.au Dance/Electronica charts, he decided to work on his music in earnest.

Whilst in London in 2006, Breathe Life In & Acts of Terror, recently became part of the quality Electrofly Records catalogue, alongside originals from the likes of; Shiloh, Fretwell, Infekt, Pete Gawtry & Jono Fernandez, and remixes from the likes of Rennie Pilgrem, Blim and Wrecked Angle!

A few years prior to this, on home grounds, Blastique had released Feel Your Pain on the first installment of Presence, a compilation showcasing Malaysian acts. Abroad, he together with BadBoyBen (Funkshoppe), remixed Hong Kong groups; The Pancakes chart topper I Want To Fly, and Wildchilds 20-Something. His breakbeat mix of BadBoyBen's Get On Down and Party was on the b-side. 2 more tracks, Boogie.com.my & Breathe Life In (Clean Scratch Re-Rub) appeared on PRESENCE 2 (Starrabbit Productions) and was released in July 2003. The Human Calculator was also included on the Klue/ Levi's compilation CD later that year.

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 was swiftly picked up by Scat Productions as a producer and recording/ mixing engineer. Recently, he completed a honours degree in Sonic Arts, at Middlesex University, in London.

To date, Reuben has collaborated with Michael Veerapen, Lewis Pragasam, Saidah Rastam, Pete Teo, BadBoyBen, Suhaimie (TBR), Terence C & Alvin Teoh, on numerous productions and releases. 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.

Since his return from Perth in 2001, Blastique has played alongside DJ's Satoshi Tomiie, Nigel Dawson, Josh Wink and Soul of Man, to name a few, and has made several appearances at venues all around KL; Cyberpark, Cyberjaya (Regenerate), The Backroom (Chemical, TBR Anniversary), Chinamax (Breaks n' Bass), Nouvo (Breaks n' Bass, Nu Tek, Juice DJ Quest 2003, Pioneer Digital DJ Battle 2003), Espanda (Pioneer Digital DJ Battle 2004), Emporium (Deep Down 2), The Disco (Regenerate), Carbon (Deep Down 2) and Penang (Gurney Plaza NYE Party 2002).

Blastique performs live, and integrates his Roland Groovebox & Ableton together with some tight mixing on the decks, resulting in a sound that can be described as progressively melodic-techy-tribal n' breaky.