Sepalcure, Shigeto, Santa & Simple
This April, in partnership with XLR8R, GAFFTA and Two Circles, we are proud to present to you a night of leftfield bass à la Sepalcure, Shigeto, Simple and my band Santa. Limited space is available and we are expecting to sell out, so please be sure to get pre-sales.
WHEN: April 29th, 2011
9PM-4AM
WHERE: Gray Area Foundation for the Arts
55 Taylor, San Francisco, CA 94131
COST: $12 pre-sales / $15 door
TICKETING: Presales
Sepalcure – (Hotflush Recordings)
Sepalcure’s combination of love for bass and 90s house acapellas is the culmination of a cathartic two week collaboration between Travis Stewart (Machinedrum) and Praveen Sharma (Praveen & Benoît). Their mix of tribal dub, house and two step beats works equally well for both late nights in the club and rainy, introspective nights at home. Detroit techno chords cut through wooden beats, neon synths and dubbed out atmospherics. Listen to their XLR8R Podcast.
Shigeto – (Ghostly International)
Artists take on pseudonyms for a multitude of reasons, but in Zach Saginaw’s case, those reasons run deeper than most. Zach records under the name Shigeto. It’s his middle name; it’s also his grandfather’s name, a tribute to the Japanese branch of Zach’s family tree. Shigeto also means “to grow bigger”—appropriate, given Zach’s premature birth-weight of less than a pound. Today, Shigeto stands for Zach’s vividly beautiful electronic music. Beat-driven but given to richly textured sound design, rhythmically fractured but melodically sumptuous, Shigeto’s music is a bridge between the past and present, bringing the artist face to face with a creative legacy that spans decades.
Zach’s body of work has grown over the last few years to the tune of several EPs on Moodgadget as Shigeto and with A Setting Sun, a pair of EPs under the alias Frank Omura (another family-name reference), and remixes for Worst Friends, Praveen & Benoit, Tycho, Mux Mool, Charles Trees, A Setting Sun, Beautiful Bells, Shlohmo, and more. The Semi-Circle EP will be his first release with Ghostly International; the full-length Full Circle is on the horizon. Semi-Circle is a fiercely independent work of art, nominally indebted to instrumental hip-hop but, like Zach, straddling many worlds at once. Cool shades of ambient music, stuttering early IDM, dubstep sub-bass, and jazz melodicism color Shigeto’s palette, which he wields with a painterly attention to detail.
Simple – (Two Circles)
Simple is the moniker of Detroit-born Konstantin Papatheodoropolous. The Motor City’s soulful influence is apparent throughout his productions, but a sort of refreshing mood escapes the expected. After moving to San Francisco, Simple saw his first releases on his own label, Two Circles Records and Berlin based Produkt Schallplaten, in 2008, and quickly gaining attention from peers. Casual Sex, Simple’s first foray into the 2-step realm was released on Two Circles and slowly gained popularity over 2009. In 2010, he released a single to accompany a variety of artists on an Ilian Tape compilation. Impressed by his works shortly thereafter, Konstantin was asked to release his own EP on the Munich-based label, with remixes by brothers Dario and Marco Zenker. After hearing Konstantin’s work on the Mary Anne Hobbes show Bristol based Sub Depth Records approached Simple to do an EP as well as compilation CD. In early 2011 Konstantin was asked to be a part of the first american Skweee double lp being put together by Poisonous Gasses (PDX). As the year continues forthcoming EPs on Ilian Tape and Sub Depth line the horizon.
Santa – (Cunei Media)
Santa is a seven piece electroacoustic ensemble based in San Francisco. The group’s sound is hinged upon Cullen Miller’s electronics and is fully actualized with the accompaniment of trumpet, tenor and alto saxophones, alto flute, drum kit and upright bass.
Cullen Miller is an American composer, electronic musician and sound designer born in Detroit, Michigan. He is currently residing in San Francisco, California. His music is a laptop fused hybrid of aleatoric, electronica, dub, and jazz; incorporating original field recordings, programmed rhythms, fragmented vocals, synthesizers and traditional instrumentation. His compositional endeavors began by learning double bass and studying contemporary classical and jazz theory under the Netherlands based composer and bassist, Chad Langford. He utilizes and designs custom software applications that are configured in graphical environments. Miller performs periodically with his band, Santa and under his dub guise, Selande. He has releases on Igloo-Rec (AR), Konque (NYC), and Cunei Media (SF).
