Point B is available for live sets.
http://www.point-b.co.uk / http://www.myspace.com/pointbmusic
Showcase Mix:
Press Release and Biog:
Point B is the creation of writer and producer Richard Bultitude. Suicide Beauty Spot is his second studio album and takes his sound above and beyond all that has gone before it with a stunning sonic journey that massages the synapses and shakes the hips. The sound he has perfected over the last 7 years is a slick, textured, bass rich take on Dubstep/2-step.
Fans of his electronic peers such as Burial, Autechre and Tipper will find this potent brew infused with reflection and bittersweet calm. Having established himself with Erratica & Orson Records he quickly found himself appearing alongside Boom Bip, Nathan Fake and Squarepusher on Time Out’s massive The other side:London compilation. Live shows put him on rosters with the likes of Tim Exile and Andrew Weatherall at events across Europe.
After a spate of remixes and a Digital EP 2006 saw the Cinder Cones & Animal Bones EP punch its way onto the airwaves and turntables of many a DJ and was a favourite of BBC Radio 1’s Mary Anne Hobbs and Oneman. His debut album A previous version of myself (SCSI AV) caught the attention of various high profile publications including WIRE magazine and paved the way for this release.
Maintaining his characteristic playful sense of melody and effortlessly flitting between genres, Suicide Beauty Spot is a brooding, contemplative and dark work of beauty and is Point B’s first full-length album on Combat Recordings. Whilst embracing the urban rhythms (dubstep, hip-hop, 2 step) so familiar on his 12” vinyl releases, this long player embraces some lovely live instrumentation in which the likes of his santoor, Irish harp and marimba animate the bass-heavy soundscapes. Remixes are in the pipeline from Boxcutter, Kelpe, Cursor Miner and Cloaks.
Recent Reviews & Press: – more on Point B’s press page.
DJ Mag:4/5
Melancholy two-step
As dubstep comes of age, so the quality moves out of the realm of DIY bedroom productions and into that of the rich, layered compositions found in Suicide Beauty Spot. Genuinly exciting exploration of the sonic possibilities opening up out there.
Ben Arnold
K Mag (Read original here):
Unforgiving streets are the thread that connects Richard Bultitude with his brooding electronica-informed dubstep-ish work as Point B. Yet despite his current base, Brixton, presenting an obvious starting point for such links, experiences in previous hometowns had more affect on a sound refined throughout his imminent second studio album ‘Suicide Beauty Spot’.
“I found the streets of Bradford and my birthplace Birkenhead tougher than my current location,” he admits. “They certainly fuelled some of the angst, frustration and fear that’s sometimes expressed in my music. Brixton has had a mainly positive influence. The area is so rich with the sights and sounds of other cultures that it inevitably inspires creative thinking.”
The title of ‘Suicide Beauty Spot’, meanwhile, is a direct reference to an equally bleak but rather more picturesque setting: East Sussex headland / notorious death leap site Beachy Head.
“I heard a radio program about Beachy Head,” Bultitude elaborates. “That place has seen some tragic things alright but remains unspoiled and beautiful.”
The resultant evocative elements of his self-coined ‘itchy deep-step’ are aided by often unusual live instrumentation prevalent within thought-provoking production work, bleeding a little humanity into the record’s alien landscape.
“All the instruments are played by myself, though not always very well,” he self-effacingly claims. “I’m not classically trained but I have played guitar since I was a nipper. I have a modest but ever-growing collection of instruments, the most weird and wonderful being my santoor [an Indian dulcimer], which has over 100 strings. The most recent addition is an Irish knee harp.”
Excited by Photek and forward-thinking mid-’90s duo Chaos & Julia, drum & bass was an important formative force for Bultitude, who moonlights as d&b project Xammatu, as well as under ‘squashy hip-hop’ guise Planes. He also went through “a good stint in my late teens with party d&b such as Peshay, E-Z Rollers and Grooverider.” Dubstep has since become a bigger catalyst for his music, though.
“The rise of the dubstep scene gave me all sorts of ideas the more I started to understand it,” he explains. “The dynamic between the slow, plodding half beat and the 140 bpm 2-step rhythm is really compelling. The use of modulated bass as a rhythmic and physical force is key too and was the perfect ingredient to the repertoire of electro / garage I’d started to build. But I do still love d&b. I bought some Breakage recently and it made me want to freak.”
WORDS Adam Anonymous
Fly Global Music: (Read original here):
As the title and cover suggests, Suicide Beauty Spot reflects both the dark and lighter sides of Point B’s take on beats, 2-step and dubstep that’s a very individual outlook with lots to recommend it.
Point B (aka Merseyside born Richard Bultitude) is acclaimed as “Brixton’s foremost melodic electronic artist” has his debut album released on Combat Recordings.
By contrast with the ‘dark knight’ that is King Cannibal (who had ‘Badman Near Dark’ out on Combat last year and his debut album Let The Night Roar released on Ninja Tune on Monday), the twist with Point B is that he draws influences from a broad canvass like a Burial, Flying Lotus or even a El-B.
And it’s not long before his inventiveness catches you’re ear, after the bitty-bass bin opener ‘Weightless’ there’s the sweet haunting of tracks like ‘Candour’ and ‘Someone Else’s Past’ where electronic and acoustic worlds meet. As a fan of dubstep, hip-hop, 2 step garage, Point B is different to your average bedroom/basement bin head as in addition to the samples and drum machines, he also plays live instruments like his santoor, Irish harp, dulcimer and marimba and his works best on the suitably entitled ‘Guilty Pleasures’.
More ‘traditional’ Mary Ann Hobbs territory is ‘Bathed In Night’ and the wobble of ‘Minerals’ and ‘Headland’.
And then as a counter to the bass beats, there’s the cinematic “warm electronica” of ‘Further Thoughts On Movement’, ‘Alien Language’ and the fantastic ‘Wingform’.
The track that best represents the album’s multi-directions is the title track ‘Suicide Beauty Spot’ that’s full of foreboding doom with some additional percussion on a structure that elevates and “offers impressive views over London” and the electronic music scene.
Perhaps it’s because he is currently resident in Brixton that is sound is more underground beats inspired since his debut album in 2006, A Previous Version Of Myself. With past live performances at Festivals in Europe (including the Bloc weekender), he’s played alongside the likes of Andrew Weatherall, Tipper and Lusine. We’re told that the launch party will be in London at the Corsica Studios (see details below) as part of Plex’s 3rd Birthday celebrations that will also feature Berlin’s Hard Wax as well as other Combat Recordings (Understandably selling out fast).
Suicide Beauty Spot is an usually and special set with that’s packed with tracks that will have a shelf life longer than this weeks’ next best thing; definitely one to follow.