Orchestra featuring pianist Freddy Kempf!  Arpanet and more venue details...

1. M.S. Stubnitz: 2,541 tonnes of ex-Communist nautical mayhem

The Motor Ship Stubnitz is a deep-sea fishing vessel that belonged to the German Democratic Republic before the collapse of Communism. It is 80 metres in length and weighs 2,541 tonnes. A team of forward-thinking artists and engineers have converted it into amoving platform for the sonic and visual arts.

It's about to become the most exciting venue we've ever used for Bloc.

Urs Blaser ('Blo') is a Swiss-born sonic artist who spent the eighties touring Europe rigging avant-garde art happenings in industrial spaces across the continent. When the Berlin wallfell, Blo travelled to the port in Rostock where the DDR's fleet was being catalogued to assess its scrap value. The Stubnitz, the largest ship in the fleet, was existing in an owner ship vacuum between an ousted repressive regime and the future government of a reunited Germany. Via a series of complex negotiations now lost to history, Blo took possession of the Stubnitz in 1992 and quickly set to work.

The hull of the ship was gradually modified to his exact specifications - both in terms of the performance space and the audio installation. An atrium gallery looks over a main dance floor,creating an industrial, hi-spec venue inside a maritime monument to Europe's recent,turbulent history. A second club space at the stern of the vessel as well as the deck are alsofully kitted out for Bloc-specced throw downs.
 
Stubnitz is a maritime monument to Europe's recent turbulent history, an amazing industrial themed space that has played host to live performance, art installations and the occasiona ltechno DJ for the past twenty years. She'll be visiting London for the first time to moor exclusively at Bloc 2012.

2. The Venues of London Pleasure Gardens: How will Bloc use the space?

It's been such a blast being so close to the unfolding mystery of the London Pleasure Gardens project. Watching the concepts for this never-before-attempted cultural wonderland develop into a tangible space we can locate Bloc in once and for all has been a mind blowingride, but being able to finally share the details is thrice as thrilling.

The London Pleasure Gardens itself is a sixty thousand square metre site of Victorian Docklands. Bloc will be using some temporary structures, but the Gardens themselves come with two huge, permanently installed nightclub venues. Most of the venues are to be located at the water's edge, and the site itself is adorned with the art and architectural folly of London's brightest, and often most deviant artists.

The main stage for Bloc in 2012 is a monolithic auditorium that will teleport Bloc's reputation for inter-stellar production values to another, better dimension. The shows we've been formulating deep in the laboratory will be totally immersive audiovisual spectaculars that will continue Bloc's trajectory to becoming a truly omni-media presentation of electronic music and culture. The gargantuan stage will also be encased in a ring of steel shipping containers to focus the experience for the Bloc family.

The largest of the permanently installed structures at the London Pleasure Gardens is The Hub. The design will be familiar as the main stage at the Shangri-La area of Glastonbury -however that concept has been developed to produce a vast indoor space that will be the second largest stage on site.

Sitting next to the Hub is the other-worldly Dome stage. An acoustically treated, 30m geodesic dome presented in the round - with the DJ's appearing in the middle of the crowd underneath an immense battery of lights and lasers - this stage is one of the most individual we've ever worked with.

All these spaces – including the main stage – are covered and sound proofed.

In keeping with the London Pleasure Gardens brief to deliver the most unusual experience you'll have this summer, the former Charing Cross floating pier has been converted into a cocktail bar that sits shimmering delightfully at the foot of the grand Millennium Mills building. It's a beautiful place to watch the sun disappear into the dock and Bloc takes control of theLondon night for the first time.

3. Arpanet: UKExclusive added to line up.

Among the most revered projects of Drexciyan overlord Heinrich Mueller,Arpanet’s cerebral excursions into electro’souterspace realms are pretty much incomparable. Until this year, he and cohort To Nhan Le Thi have only appeared live on stage as Arpanet once before, their legacy kept alive by their peerless series of releases (mainly on Rephlex) and a typically head-spinning conceptual legend that’s the stuff electro dreams are made of. Combining their own visuals, exclusive material and who knows what else, this is a UK festival exclusive, and a very special coup for Bloc indeed.

4. Ceephax Acid Waltzers.

Ray Keith, Ceephax Acid Crew, DMX Krew and Nathan Fake playing on a fairground waltzer next to a communist battleship in the heart of London's Docklands? No, you haven't banged your head. You're just reading the programme for Bloc 2012.

Andy Jenkinson has been a firm part of the Bloc family since day one, responsible for unforgettable Bloc memories including the infamous Ceephax Acid Karaoke session. Returning this year with a stage that is essentially a literal interpretation of his excellent Waltzer label, Andy’s bizarreand breakneck fusion oftechno, gabber, electro, acid and disco knows no boundaries and has come to be regarded as a proper highlight of the festival, in all its wayward forms.

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