Billowing smoke and halogen-bright strobes emanated from the main stage, gesturing the takeover of one of Ireland's most thrilling jockeys. Stepping up to the decks, blk. was all smiles and ready to deliver a banging set for his second performance at the Marlay Park festival, following his smashing debut last year.

As he kicked off the first track, the Tipperary DJ certainly didn't hold back on the bass, as even amid throngs of rain-drenched bodies, the heavily hung vibrations radiated in your chest.

blk. at Longitude, Dublin, 29 June 2024. Copyright Bailey Shropshire/hotpress.com

A thumping beat kicked off the next track: a rousing remix of REVEX's 'Don't Stop The Rhythm'. Leading up to the first beat drop, "the decks supremo" stretched his arms wide, almost God-like, while smoke swelled before him. The audience relished in the electrified atmosphere, some waving colourful smoke flares as they bounced atop their friends' shoulders.

blk. ignited the stage further with a reworked take on Franck's 'Catch Me,' a sonic hypnosis of hard techno, that turned the crowd into an ocean of arms and pogoing heads. The crowd and the DJ coasted on similar wavelengths, feeding off each other's racuous energy as the bass lifted and dropped like an EKG monitor.

I saw two friends look at each other in between tracks, their body language suggesting a needed time-out to catch their breath. Mind you, we were three songs in at this point. But as soon as the next banger ensued, they simply could not resist the beat. They were up and dancing once again. I looked back over later in the show and they were still going strong. Something about blk.'s music just keeps a crowd going non-stop.

blk. at Longitude, Dublin, 29 June 2024. Copyright Bailey Shropshire/hotpress.com

Bumping around while enthusiastically fist-pumping and wrist-flicking to their heart's content, the festival-goers basked in the euphoric frenzy of sound as the jockey bursted into a hardcore spin on Technoboy's 'You Drive Me Crazy'. As the track tumbled across a spiraling soundscape, his fingers toggled the EQ and gain with rote precision and implementation, a clear-cut sign of his talent and mastery of the decks.

The crowd reached a dizzying fever pitch as blk. kicked off the title track from his Middlefinger EP, which dropped last August. As he implored the crowd with the stem-winding refrain of "put your middle fingers up," a sea of hands flipping the bird abided with fervor.

Throughout his hour-long set, the DJ took listeners through a rager — from the bouncing bass and the swelling synths to the spellbinding repetition and gestural liberation. It was a masterclass in the non-stop run EDM anthems and a fitting summation of blk.'s sonic prowess.