Event Info
KJ Sawka Live @ The Woods Studio: K J Sawka, DJ Tones, Dangamouse, Roli Breaker, Self Evident, DJ Cure
Dubstep & Drum n Bass performed on live drums, samplers, FX & mac by ....
KJ ...
10:00pm - 5:00pm Doors at: 10:00pm
Event Description
Dubstep & Drum n Bass performed on live drums, samplers, FX & mac by ....
KJ SAWKA
(Violence - Hospital - Seattle)
Support from ....
Tones
Deception
Roli Breaker
Dangamouse
Self Evident & Cure
KJ SAWKA - GIVE THIS CYBORG SOME STICKS
by Katie Sauro, Seattle Sound
Imagine you’re at a loft party. Hour after hour, throbbing jungle beats batter you from all sides, and rapid drum palpitations assail you with suffocating fervor. You look up and, with nary a deejay or drum machine in sight, realize that all that noise pours forth from one man – a solitary drummer named KJ Sawka, pounding away almost as quickly and powerfully as human nature allows.
Using only a half-acoustic, half-electronic drum set and a laptop pre-programmed with keyboard and bass lines, drum n’ bass guru KJ Sawka produces dynamically enthralling electronica with an all-but-unmatched aggression. Sawka’s debut LP, *Synchronized Decompression (released last year on local imprint Wax Orchard) catalogues this explosive energy, but the album’s 13 tracks can hardly contain it. As Sawka himself explains, his immutable force derives from a committed exploit of live drums.
“Even when a person has a live keyboard there, live drums just really take it to that next level of intensity,” Sawka says of his inimitable style.
Adding to the organic vigor of the acoustic drums, Sawka flaunts the lightning speed and breakneck chops that have shaken the local electronica community to its core. Garnering praise from, and even playing sets with, Seattle musicians as diverse as Reggie Watts and Bill Frisell, Sawka’s rapidly expanding fan base swells with every next performance.
“For one thing, [people] like to see the live performance, and it’s definitely something unique,” he says of his burgeoning success. “This drum n’ bass is really different from any of the drum n’ bass that you go out and hear in the clubs. It seems like they definitely accept that difference, and they like the originality of it.”
Fans also appreciate the stamina demanded by Sawka’s sets, which can last anywhere from a two-hour club show to a six-hour loft party to a 12-hour festival performance. Songs bleed into one another, pooling into one extremely long dance groove.
“That’s what really trips people out,” says Sawka of his festival performances. “I mean, my head just starts going to a crazy place, and it’s pretty intense when that happens. It’s like running a marathon, kind of, but a musical marathon.”
In-Person Event
Fri. September 11th 2009 + Add to Calendar
The Woods Studio
