By Benji Chapman, Music Editor
A comment from April 2024 shows the viral DJ Fish56Octagon responding to accusations of being an industry plant with the words: ‘I work full time. This is still a hobby. And I’m short and bald and 44. They would have at least gone for someone with hair.’ Fast-forward to the present and the same man, affectionately known as ‘Fish’, has built up such a die-hard following that he’s quit his day job and transitioned to content creation and DJ’ing full time.
Amidst the explosion of social media in recent years, the world has seen a host of major personalities surface into the public eye via Instagram. Some only stick around for weeks, and others last longer before they’re exposed as sellouts and are briskly turned on by their own fans.
It’s a delicate tightrope walk then for influencers, who must maintain their public perception as earnest and sincere while regularly producing engaging content and maintaining online growth.
But if anyone springs to mind when it comes to an act who’s hit the nail on the head or perhaps more aptly, dropped the needle at just the right time, it would be none other than the nation’s current favourite DJ, Fish56Octagon.
As if by the fates, his name – itself randomly generated by TikTok’s algorithm – has been plastered on posters and social media platforms since an unexpected rise to fame in early 2024 that reached a climax with his announcement on the Boomtown lineup that year.
With a particularly packed performance at Reading festival, he proved himself as convincing to younger audiences who discovered his videos online, but you’d be misguided to suggest that his reels are Gen-Z fodder for ever-shortening attention spans in the younger demographic.
Take a listen to his Soundcloud mixes and you’ll find a selection of tunes that harken back to the conceptual years of trance, techno, house, and drum and bass.
It’s nearly impossible to pin down what genre Fish will stick to; favourites are constantly changing thanks to his eclectic and ever-growing record stack that lurks in the background of his reels, placing him centre-stage in his silk dressing gown laden with fresh Weetabix crumbs.
With his newest live show, ‘FishTales’, he seeks to transport the varied experience of his social media presence to a live setting by working through hours of different electronic genres.
Taking to Marble Factory stage at 23:00, it wouldn’t be till 05:00 that the final track was played out, which is something of an anomaly in the current state of British nightlife, and especially for larger Bristol-based venues such as Marble Factory.
Opening with softer techno, the gears were gradually shifted up as he powered through the earlier hours of his set with a choice selection of vintage tunes. As I first stepped into the venue, my initial feelings were of surprise at seeing the man himself so visibly focussed on the music.
In his videos, he’s carefree and playful, yet his austere expression behind the four CDJs that were laid on the stage suggested a seriousness that evades his online persona. It wouldn’t be long however before he played along with the crowd with playful gunfingers and expectedly groovy dance-moves.
Lit by a flashing logo behind him, he was flanked by a camera crew who would capture moments of glee as a drop played out, met with satiated cheers from the audience. His stage presence was refined, but engaging, and about as close to his Instagram depiction as you would expect.
The synchronicity between his online and real-life character stands as a further reminder of his sincerity that cannot be understated. The crowd weren’t just paying for an opportunity to catch someone famous at their moment of fame: the performance was a showcase of some of the greatest and oldest electronic music.
As refixes of rave classics such as The Prodigy’s ‘Smack My B*tch Up’ were spun, whoops of delight made clear that the crowd were well-versed in old-school hits that were accompanied by the more contemporary speed garage that followed Fish’s set from respective DJs Matter and Bailhole, who performed back-to-back afterwards.
By contrast, the duo worked through popular modern tunes in the 140 BPM range such as ‘flight fm’, ‘Shella Verse’, as well as Overmono’s ‘Turn The Page’ remix that have been in healthy circulation on the DJ circuit since its release.
Closing off the night well into the wee hours, many members of the audience were staying inside Marble Factory's cavernous warehouse to avoid the devastating winds outside from storm Darragh before making treacherous journeys home.
Upon deciding that no number of Red Bulls could sustain me, I begrudgingly made my way back early to avoid the storm, while reflecting on the performance and Fish's impact on the changing electronic music scene in the digital age.
Fish turns next to his world tour and a new project entirely, a record label called ‘Octagon Discs’. I expect with a further rise to success that critics will be poised to further challenge his authenticity, as was the case in the Reddit thread that opened this piece.
The new label will serve as a platform for up-and-coming producers seeking to get their music out there, while platforming some of his personal favourite producers such as Declan Knapp who introduced the new label with his speed-garage revival of 'Superstylin''.
I for one am firmly of the belief that the label will be only as a successful, popular, and genuine, as the harmonious co-existence of his real-life and online personalities. The question of whether or not Fish is the real deal isn't even on the cards for me: you only have to see it firsthand to believe it.
Featured Image: Benji ChapmanWhat are you hoping comes next from the new record label?
