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Other Locations Vancouver Island, Victoria, Nanaimo, Nelson, Kelowna Alberta, Ontario, Washington State, Oregon, California, etc |
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KJ Sawka (Live dnb/breakbeat drummer!) August 25th (Kelowna)
KJ Sawka's myspace with tunes for the slow computer people<<<----click Here are some music videos and some live videos for you to check out!! KJ Sawka live with just a drumkit <<<----click KJ Sawka live on c89.5<<<----click KJ Sawka - Simple Functionality (DNB video)<<<----click KJ Sawka - Montreal (Breakbeat video)<<<----click and lots more videos on youtube Seeing Kevin Sawka on the drums is the only way to believe the hype, the assumed exaggerations of his abilities: that he can play the most complex of jungle, drum'n'bass and breakbeats utilizing no loops and no extended samples -only his two hands and two feet. Whereas some artists claim to be performing live drum'n'bass, live electronica, etc., it's more often than not a drummer playing alongside pre-programmed beats if there's a drummer at all; Sawka, however, can perform each and every 808 bass kick, snare slap, and compressed highhat tick himself, in real-time. 10 years ago -when drum'n'bass was very near it's zenith in popularity, and Kevin was playing in prominent rock bands in Seattle (grunge was huge)- someone played him an LTJ Bukem track, and, as he says, "It scorched my brain. I dropped everything, and focused solely on how to recreate that on the drums." He heard Dieselboy as well. More brain-scorching. He started writing utilizing the style, and honed his new concepts and approach to the drums. He debuted the new sound in the band 94th Street, a band years ahead of it's time: a pop drum'n'bass band with a sense of humor. While the band didn't gain much momentum, the word about Kevin was out: there's a drummer in Seattle who's performing jungle and drum'n'bass beats on acoustic drums, what was once thought to be absolutely impossible by any human. And here Kevin was making it look easy -like watching a jazz drummer who's said to play "like water flowing," Kevin instead was doling out insanely syncopated d'n'b. Word spread quickly. Seattle resident superstars were checking him out. Michael Shrieve, drummer for Santana for many years and lover of drum'n'bass, took him under his wing and showed him off to anybody and everybody: Andy Summers of the Police, Bill Frisell, Amon Tobin, Jack Dejohnette, Will Calhoun, and many more. Kevin at this time was playing an amazing next-generation drumkit: a custom half-acoustic, half electronic drum kit with one diabolically huge kick drum, one insanely tiny kick drum, three snares, a multitude of trashy sounding cymbals & saw blades, a few electronic drum pads and all the acoustic drums set to electronic triggers. His band at the time -still ahead of it's time- was the all-improvisatory avant-garde drum'n'bass trio Siamese. They toured the country multiple times in '02 and '03, bringing down the house in San Francisco at latenight afterparties and raves; in New Orleans during Jazzfest; opening for LTJ Bukem and MC Conrad in Portland; and, put simply, slaying nay-sayers and dropping the jaws of industry, musicians and fans nationally by performing astonishingly long sets of uptempo jungle and d'n'b without set breaks -without even breaks between songs. Again, seeing is believing. Throughout this timeframe Kevin was always recording his own material, which is now seeing the light of day with his present project "that will never break up" -KJ Sawka. Mostly IDM-based and reminiscent of an uptempo Ninja-Tune-like style, the tracks on Synchronized Decompression should evoke the pioneering work of Sawka's main influences: Amon Tobin and Squarepusher, with a bit of grit a la Dieselboy. Using some of Seattle's most widely-known underground female singers, they bring a balance of Seattle darkness, moodiness and beauty. Live and in the dj scene, Sawka is pushing the envelope with his one-man balls-to-the-wall dancefloor show, which now does include a laptop, samplers, loops, and a rack of gear to produce a full-on production -plus projections, live-action cameras, and intelligent lighting (be on the lookout for some online-only live tracks released in the weeks prior to Synchronized Decompression). For many live music venue gigs, Kevin also employs a full band like heard on the upcoming single Subconnectors -featuring ethereal female vocals, a keyboardist, and a cellist performing similar material in an in-your-face way that only the reverse-engineering, seemingly bionic Mr. Sawka can bring. This show goes from 9pm-4am The venue is located in Kelowna, BC, just off Enterprise on Cary road. If your from out of town then let us know at the door and we'll let you in for the price of a presale ticket! Click here to view a map of where the party is located<<<<<-======================================== ============= Last edited by jabel; Jul 31, 07 at 01:19 AM. |
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