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 4½ and the piano at 5, Blastique turned his hand to dance music and began composing music in 1999 while attending university in Perth, Australia. It was around this time that he also picked up mixing skills on weekends, when his mobile DJ mate would get some gear out. After a few weeks, he spent weekends DJing at various house parties.

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.

Locally, Blastique has released “Feel Your Pain” on the first installment of Presence, a compilation showcasing Malaysian acts. Abroad, he together with BadBoyBen, on Funkshoppe, have remixed Hong Kong groups; The Pancakes chart topper “I Want To Fly”, and Wildchild’s “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" have 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

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. Currently he is completing a degree in Sonic Arts at Middlesex University. 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 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.