Our featured artist page takes a more in-depth look at an artist who has caught the eye of Jukebox Heart. Here we feature KiloWatts.
KiloWatts, aka James Watts, is a native of Dallas, TX, but currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He began as a young lad playing the piano, took up making music with trackers during his teenage years, and has since continued exploring digital expressionism via electronic music. He is one half of KiloWatts & Vanek, of Holophon Records in Germany, a glitch-pop project with wide appeal.
He is a part of Artificial Music Machine, based in Austin, TX, with which he creates his most intricate and thoughtful work. He is a staunch supporter of file sharing, and played a part in the setup and launch of Soulseek Records.
Musically, he likes to move you emotionally with deep vaporous melodies, annoy you purposely with noisy musical dishevelment, and entertain you with an irresistable pop appeal – but not all at the same time. He enjoys a distinct storytelling quality within his music, almost as much as making asses move. There are worlds to be explored in his ever growing body of work.
Featured here are four tracks from his albums ‘Problem/Solving’ and ‘Routes’.
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This is Track 4 from the album Problem Solving, called Rocketeer.
Problem/Solving is an introspective and inspiring aural conglomeration of a thousand different experiences, taking sharp turns through calm somber reflection and gutwrenching chaotic confusion – a blend of exquisite melodic structures, lush ambience, and engulfing rhythms.
Problem/Solving shows us in CD form exactly how the whole can be more than the sum of its parts. It eloquently captures the myriad dichotomies of the human condition – knowledge and confusion, destruction and creation, reflection and progress… Driving rhythms give way to abstract sonic imagery. Subtle soundscapes mesh seamlessly with playful experimentation. These disparate elements, each masterful in their own right, come together to form nothing less than an inspired sonic journey.
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This is Track 8 from Problem Solving, called “Easter Lily”
Exciting with experimental urban textures, the rich moods of KiloWatts music has high appeal. This occasionally just takes the top of your head off and explodes into ecstatic highs while retaining a deep ocean reverberation. Echoing caves, haunting melodies and sultry beats mingle with tangible notes of refined delicacy. Just when I thought this album might only be instrumental, a ghostly angel’s whispers appeared. The heaviness of the first track melted away into ethereal bliss. ‘Algae’ is wildly creative. ‘Enter Lilly’, featured here, is awash with oceanic textures, waves washing over nature sounds. ‘Last Horrah’ is sensual and exotic with emotionally complex rhythms. ‘E Suffix’ has warm reverberations and interesting timing with ghostly vocals that mingle with the music in intriguing ways.
The label, Artifical Music Machine, partly run by him, has an impressive roster of artists including Afreet, The Aleph, Book of Shadows, Dreamtigers, Gift Culture, Inversion Effect, Limiter, Merzbow vs. Tamarin and Static Storm System.
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Track 5 from the Routes album, called Subway.
Routes is a travelogue, a record of places and destinations that crackles and pops with the urgency of perpetual motion (check in, check out, get on a plane, take a boat trip). The eighteen tracks of Kilowatt’s latest (some are ambient field recordings of conveyances) seamlessly flow as a fascinating aural trip that isn’t the sort normally put together by your local travel agent. Mixing glitch and complex programming with warm downtempo and psychedelic loops, static and the sound of the rails with boarding announcements and lilting melodies, KiloWatts takes all the stress out of travel.
‘Subway’ arcs us across metropolitan boroughs, clicking and flexing with a futuristic groove, a Kundalini snake rhythm that matches the rolling percussion of the trains. Hiccups and catches in the sound allow for the injection of melodic parts into the mix as if the car is start-stopping for more passengers.
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Track 10 fron the Routes album, “Safety In Numbers”.
‘Safety In Numbers’ turns the packed dance floor into a slow-moving mass of accidental humanity. Elbows and shoulders brush, voices connect, eyes meet. The breakbeat climax sends hearts in a frenzy — new routes are planned, new destinations chosen, rendezvous are agreed upon.
The common thread running through all of his music is an uncommon sense of narrative. We move from track to track with a new world unfolding on the fall of each beat. having just returned from the sea. With tides urning and earth’s quaking and waves crashing, Routes sees James Watts as having just returned from a journey; he can tell you stories…