DOWNLINK + DIESELBOY + KJ SAWKA
FRIDAY, MAY 15th
@ WAITING ROOM
DIESELBOY
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› www.djdieselboy.com
› http://www.destroyplanethuman.com/db/
› http://dj.beatport.com/dieselboy
› www.facebook.com/Dieselboy
› www.twitter.com/djdieselboy
› www.twitter.com/planethuman
› www.youtube.com/thedslboy
› www.destroyplanethuman.com
› http://firstwefeast.com/author/dieselboy
At a time when headline “DJs” shamelessly play pre-programmed or pre-recorded sets and the masses mindlessly embrace the charade, Dieselboy stands out as a rare veteran of the art and craft of live DJing. His focus on creating complex and unique mixes every performance have created legions of fans around the world. Very few artists mix live on three decks with more precision, intensity or finesse.
For over two decades one of the world’s great ambassadors of drum ‘n’ bass and more recently dubstep, Dieselboy, also known as Damian Higgins, is America’s most iconic underground bass music curator and pioneer. He was the first drum ‘n’ bass artist to chart a single on Billboard’s dance chart with “Invid” in 2000, and the first American voted into the UK-based Drum & Bass Arena Top 10 DJs online poll in 2004. He has appeared on magazine covers, been heard on MTV, ESPN and numerous video games, and sponsored by DC Shoes and Pioneer Pro DJ.
In 2002 Dieselboy founded Human Imprint, North America’s most prolific, dynamic and innovative drum ‘n’ bass label, and is co-founder of dubstep/electro label SubHuman, both now under the umbrella of Planet Human. Planet Human is beloved by its fans for top quality high energy releases by international vanguard artists including Bare (US), Mark Instinct (Canada), Mayhem (US), Muffler (Finland), Nerd Rage (US), Nightwalker (UK), NumberNin6 (US), Pixel Fist (UK), Subshock (Spain), and Zardonic (Venezuela).
Dieselboy’s legacy is one of trailblazing dancefloor devastation non-stop on the international club circuit as well as at major global music festivals including Bonnaroo, Coachella, SXSW, Electric Daisy Carnival, US Virgin Mobile FreeFest, Detroit Electronic Music Festival, Summerfest, Ultra Music Festival, Shambhala (Canada), Global Gathering (UK), Creamfields (Poland), Pirate Station (Russia), Jisan Valley Rock Festival (Korea), and PHAT 09 (New Zealand). He also toured with Moby’s Area2 and played metal concerts with Orgy and Disturbed.
Dieselboy’s DJ career began in northwest Pennsylvania DJing high school dances, and progressed as a University of Pittsburgh student learning to beat-match vinyl live on college radio and playing trance, happy hardcore and breaks at house parties. His 1994 mixtape “The Future Sound of Hardcore” led to out of town bookings and his ensuing popularity and skills led to the honor of being the first American asked by a British drum ‘n’ bass label to mix a compilation (“Drum & Bass Selection USA,” 1996).
In 1997 Dieselboy moved to Philadelphia becoming drum ‘n’ bass buyer and T-shirt designer for seminal rave culture/record store 611. In 1998 Dieselboy was the first American drum ‘n’ bass DJ to be nominated for Best Drum & Bass DJ at the Global DJ Mix Awards and tied with LTJ Bukem. From 1998 to 2004 Dieselboy hosted North America’s premiere drum ‘n’ bass weekly “Platinum” at Fluid.
A passionate connoisseur of food, books and film, Dieselboy has continuously raised the bar for mixtapes and mixed CD compilations as art forms, and each from 1992 to his February 2012 tour de force “Wake The Dead” stands the test of time. State of the art showcases of producers and graphic artists of each respective era, Dieselboy’s mixes have been described as “cinematic” and “intoxicating.”
Dieselboy’s goal in creating “Wake The Dead” was “to make the most intricate, layered, nuanced, amazing drum ‘n’ bass mix ever done. Period.” In its dramatic intro (a Dieselboy signature) thenarrator describes a soul-crushing epidemic of epic proportions – a thinly veiled reference to the death of the art of DJing – a theme that has resonated amongst his DJ/producer colleagues and fans and beyond.
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DOWNLINK
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› downlinkmusic.com/
› facebook.com/downlink
› twitter.com/downlinkmusic
› beatport.com/artist/downlink/102752
› youtube.com/officialdownlink
Downlink has been punishing dancefloors all over the planet with his heavy brand of dubstep. With roots in Jungle & DnB, he is no stranger to the vile side of subsonic dance music. Growing up in a cold industrial town in British Columbia, Canada, he was first introduced to dubstep in 2007 and soon after took to production. While maintaining an appreciation for sparse and laid-back dubstep, Downlink set out to explore a more frantic, adrenaline fuelled style, influenced by everything from heavy metal to astrophysics. His first two releases charted at #1 on several popular online distributors and soon he found his way onto Rottun Recordings which seemed a suiting place for his music. With the release of his “Ignition EP” he has gained DJ support from the likes of Excision, Datsik, Stenchman, Borgore, DZ, 16 Bit, Dieselboy, Evol Intent, Crookers and many more. Downlink is not one to be pigeon-holed and is constantly on a quest to evolve and refine his sound. With this in mind, one thing will always remain constant – a pure unadulterated heavy listening experience…
KJ SAWKA
› kjsawka.com/
› facebook.com/OFFICIALKJSAWKA
› youtube.com/user/KjSawka
› twitter.com/kjsawka
› instagram.com/KjSawka
Seeing Kevin Sawka on the drums is the only way to believe the hype. 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. If you can catch him in the right moment live, at a show, or in a studio session you’ll witness him perform each and every 808 bass kick, snare slap, and compressed highhat tick himself, in real-time.
“I’d like to be able to play like that all the time, however, live, I want to give the people the fully-produced, complex sound I’m envisioning, so I not only play the drums, but I manually trigger the basslines, melodies, riffs and now even the light show and projections with my drums so it’s a lot harder to focus on playing every single little single sound with my sticks. But it’s like I’m playing even more with my sticks lately, not less.”
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. Breaks, drum’n’bass, IDM-based and reminiscent of an uptempo Ninja-Tune-like style, the tracks on Synchronized Decompression and now Cyclonic Steel should evoke the pioneering work of Sawka’s main influences: Amon Tobin and Squarepusher, with a bit of Noisia and Boards of Canada. 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. For many live music venue gigs, Kevin also employs a full 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.