Saturday, January 10, 2009, Shows start at 8pm

Bio

"We are The Synthetix!" The Synthetix are a brand new, innovative rocky but funky electronica/hip hop duo from Chattanooga, TN. With a eclectic blend of piano, organ, analog tweaks, endless hours of samples, lush pads, and hard hitting bassy beats, they jumped straight into the hipster motivated "jam band" scene in the Appalachian/ Atlanta area.

The Synthetix were started by Jonathan Burkett and Ward Southeard, and have had a multicolored spectum of guest artists such as Mike C, the Universal Hustlaz, and so many more. The two started, played in and wrote all music and lyrics for an electronic rock band , Guilded Lily from 2000 to 2003. Ward played keys and synths and Jonathan played guitar and handled most of the programming. Towards the end of Guilded Lilys reign, the two slowly slipped into an alternate genre of music.

After collecting more and more equipment and simply messing around in their music room for hours on end, the two started recording make-shift recordings using a Roland MC-303 and a Korg MS2000 plugged into an old tape recorder. With the recordings came a new project, and a new name: Liquid Angel. As the duo started taking the music more seriously, the style tightened, the equipment got more sophisticated, and the name changed; The Synthetix were born.

Jonathan Burkett was raised in a home full of music. His father was a church music leader so he was introduced to music at the very early age of 5, when he began playing the piano. By the age of seven, Jonathan had started playing guitar. Throughout the years, he picked up various instruments such as violin and banjo. He grew up listening to everything from Pink Floyd to Led Zeppelin, and then he obtained The Prodigy's "The Fat of the Land". That album changed everything for the newly up and coming "electroid."

http://www.myspace.com/wearethesynthetix

Klimchak loves opposites. That may explain why he's played with bands as diverse as disco diva RuPaul and avant hipster Bruce Hampton. "I think of music as a crazy-quilt of different styles and patterns. I'm the thread that holds the whole mess together," says the Atlanta-based composer and percussionist. "I love the clash of colors and opposing patterns. That's where the music comes alive."

On his new solo CD, The Beat and The Buzz, he works the difference between electronic and acoustic music styles. Electrobeat buzzes clash with soulful hand drumming. An urban funk groove explodes into a hoedown of jaw harp and handclaps. Tuvan throat singing provides a sound bed for a flowering samba ensemble featuring the pig-like grunting of the Brazilian Cuica. This could be the loops of sample-hungry turntable collagists and laptop-toting poindexters. But it's not. One of the important qualities of Klimchak's music is that he plays it all himself. "I don't have anything against buying and using samples and loops of other people's music. For what I'm doing it's easier and quicker just to record myself playing the instrument."

Of course that is easy for Klimchak to say, since he owns and plays literally hundreds of instruments. "I've been collecting sound-makers since the late 1970's. When I have some free time, I usually sit down and learn to play a new flute or percussion instrument." It could be an early electronic instrument like the sci-fi staple, the theremin or a low-tech rawhide frame drum from the Middle East. It's all grist for the sound-mill. "In the modern world of Ebay and the internet, locating exotic instruments for cheap and getting instructions on playing them is a lot easier than it used to be."

Klimchak has been working exclusively in this style since the mid-eighties. Between stints with RuPaul, Hampton, and his two bass-vocal-percussion band, Fab Area, he began working on solo works for modern dance and theater. He uses his knowledge of exotic instruments and the sounds they make to provide a live underscore theater productions. Many of his recent works have been at the Georgia Shakespeare Festival. He has written and performed scores for the plays: Othello, Henry IV, Hamlet, Tartuffe, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Cymbeline. In addition, he's done scores for Shakespeare's Coriolanus at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, a live score for No Exit at Le Neon Theater in Washington, DC (nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for best sound design), and a live score for Malinche performed at the Bovenzaal Stadsschouwburg in Amsterdam.

Klimchak's dance work is equally important to his style. His recent work includes scores for Jane Comfort ("Three Bagatelles for the Righteous, excerpt (Election Update 2004)", performed in NYC at the Joyce Theater by Jane Comfort and Co in September) and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar of Urban Bush Women ("Are We Democracy?", performed in November at Emory University's Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts). He regularly composes for faculty and guest choreographers at Emory University.

http://www.myspace.com/klimchak

Drawing from many musical influences from around the world including Jazz, Blues, and Flamenco, Kevin Spears uniquely mixes these styles into a musical experience all his own. His music bridges Africa to America from Jazz to Rock. After his live performances you hear things like “I’ve never seen anything like it” or “He’s like Michael Jordan on Kalimba.”

To witness a live performance, you hear and feel echoes of Africa, Duke Ellington, Hendrix and Hip Hop. It leaves you asking “How can so much music come from one man on what seems like a simple instrument, he sounds like a 4 or 5 piece band.” Kevin’s gift on the Kalimba revolutionizes what can be done on this instrument.

Kevin has performed around the country from Washington D.C. to Anchorage Alaska, and has opened for Artists such as Pieces of a Dream, Chuck Loeb, Yonrico Scott (Derrick Trucks, Earl Klugh), Jeff Moser and Jhelisa Anderson (U.K.). In addition, he will be featured on the upcoming project by master percussionist Bill Summers (Herbie Hancock).

It is uniquely beautiful and inspiring to witness this artist who is one with his instrument!

http://www.myspace.com/kevinspears

Jim Combs is a solo ambient musician who works with audio and MIDI looping devices under the name of Sensitive Chaos, and was voted "Best Local Electronic Act" in 2005 and 2007 by readers of Atlanta's Creative Loafing.

The first Sensitive Chaos CD entitled Leak was deemed one of the twelve best CDs of 2006 by Bill Binkelman of the New Age Reporter and has received airplay since it was released in late 2006 from industry heavyweights including Public Radio International's Echoes (145 stations across the U.S.), Soma FM's Space Station Soma and Cliqhop idm, WWSP, WXDU, WUSM, WTUL, KRFC, WETX, WVKR WDIY, and KTUH.

"Leak is one of those maddeningly difficult to categorize/describe CDs that drive me nuts. I want to scream out loud how good it is, but after writing those words the details are tough to articulate! The reason that the music presents difficulties in describing it is, of course, indicative of how much talent the man behind Sensitive Chaos (Jim Combs) brings to this venture. Wielding a vast array of electronic keyboards and synths, he weaves heady and adventurous (yet from my perspective wholly accessible) ambient/electronica that crosses over into jazz fusion at times and also has some pronounced elements of retro EM as well. The music can be warm and friendly, even whimsical, or shadowy and shrouded in textural mystery. Leak is a thoroughly enjoyable album. Combs consistently impresses with how he blends his melodic and rhythmic synths, always maintaining a coherent vision and never allowing the improvisatory nature of his music to overwhelm its sense of purpose. I highly recommend Leak for its inventiveness, its beat-happy effervescence, and its thorough lack of pretension, not to mention it’s just a flat out fun album from start to finish." - Bill Binkelman, New Age Reporter

http://www.sensitivechaos.com

http://www.myspace.com/jimcombs