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30
Saytek
Say the name SAYTEK to yourself and you’ll most likely find that your mind whiskers off and begins to envision a hard hitting super-powered Japanese Kung Fu legend. Some kind of relation to cartoon hero’s Goku & Gohan, spiky blonde haired Super Saiyans from Dragon Ball Z. But the Saytek aka Joseph Keevil that we speak of is, to put it simply a highly talented House & Techno artist from the UK shores who captivates dance floors with an array of synths, FXs, a Roland MC909 and controllers. Once hearing him play live such a thought is a fair representation of an individual that pulls all the punches during his shows and whom we believe to be a mere mortal, just like the rest of us.
The art of playing live always seems to offer a different feel to a set played by a disc jockey. A DJ set consists of an artist playing a selection of records all made by a range of different producers, whilst an artist that plays ‘live’ delivers music with a whole different concept. The artist uses their allocated time and simply creates their own sound by throwing in their kicks, hats, snares, selection of samples and bass lines as they please. In a nutshell, the artist is creating a 2 hour long track, LIVE in your face. This is art form that Saytek seems to have mastered. In all honesty he was the 1st act that I’d ever seen play live, in fact Saytek was my 1st ever credible booking and he kindly offered to play for free, helping to raise money for the St Mungo’s charity back in 2012. Even watching back his video recorded performances on Dancetrippin.tv and Be-At.tv, you can see the energy that he inputs into his live sets and that same energy transcends onto the dance floor, evidently.
Please feel free to correct me if i’m wrong, but the range and style of tracks that an artist produces will more often than not mirror the style of music that is delivered in their live sets. Saytek being one of the artists that could be said to fit that particular mould. This not being the case for a number of DJs. He can proudly sit back and boast a back catalogue of 118 releases (found on Beatport), that date back to 2006 on acclaimed labels such as Wiggle, Soma, Cubism and John Digweed’s Bedrock Music with his latest offering dropping this April on Republic Artists Records. The 3 track EP entitled ‘Challenging Behaviour’, is a stone cold reflection of the kind of range that Saytek is able to reach during his live sets with. From ‘Bubbling Over’ with its menacing synth hooks and droning bass lines to the more up-tempo ‘Another Acid Track’ and title track ‘Challenging Behaviour’, built on solid grooves, heavy kick drums and clever percussion.
Considering live acts don’t play other people's records, the mind does boggle as to how it works with somebody wanting to hear a particular track from the act that they produced. Ahead of the release and his up coming performance at Warehouse LDN for part 2 of the Quest launch series Audiation Magazine managed to catch up with the man that is Saytek and a delve into his mind.
www.sayteklive.com