- Friday 3 July
The British musician and producer Blawan – aka Jamie Roberts – has a rare ability to create sounds that simultaneously make the body want to dance and open up the darkest corners of the soul. And his music appeals just as much to fans of metal, noise and experimental electronic music as it does to the rave enthusiasts of the techno club.
His latest album, SickElixir, released on XL Recordings in 2025, is a powerful testament to his flair for an almost post-apocalyptic style of dance music. The album garnered excellent reviews from outlets including Pitchfork, which described Blawan as follows: “His corroded dance music, steeped in hellish glossolalia, conjures a vast, violent, and unknowable world.”
Blawan himself considers SickElixir to be his true debut album, as it is here that he has truly found his own voice. Nevertheless, he has been a prominent figure on the electronic scene for many years and, since 2010, has built a solid reputation as a traveller through the dark subconscious of club music, where a musical foundation in techno and dubstep mutates into strange and often frightening forms. As early as 2011, he was invited to contribute to Radiohead’s remix album TKOL RMX 1234567, and this has been followed by a long series of strong EPs as well as the critically acclaimed debut album Wet Will Always Dry (2018).
With heavy, rumbling basslines, almost industrial techno beats and soundscapes pushed to hallucinatory and distorted extremes, Blawan is known for creating intensely powerful live shows, and we are proud to welcome back this visionary electronic musician, who also performed at Roskilde Festival in 2019.
