If Paul Revere were alive today and charged with warning Bendites of a pending British invasion, he might be doing it by stapling flyers to telephone poles advertising a July 4 show for U.K. electronic music producer and breakbeats pioneer Kafty Kuts (aka Martin Reeves) at Bend's Liquid Lounge. After all, in place of bayonetted muskets Reeves will have turntables and instead of an army of Red Coats, he'll bring out a giant dance party. In Bend, the relationship between Americans and Brits will look a lot different on this Independence Day than the one celebrated nearly 240 years ago.
All historical bravado aside, Krafty Kuts might just be the biggest DJ name to ever traipse through our little mountain hamlet.
In the last two weeks, the DJ has played a castle festival in Romania, done a stylish photo shoot with a vintage Lamborghini Countach and flown first-class (the kind with a lounging chair and personal flat-screen TV) to tour in Dubai. This guy—with a long list of released hip-hop-inspired mixes as well as notable collaborations with Kurtis Blow and A-Skillz— is huge. He even has his own DJ Tools iPhone app and record label.
The former break dancer started using breakbeats—a syncopated rap-style drum beat infused into electronic music—to create tunes for other break dancers to perform to. That hobby eventually culminated in the release of his first album, Freakshow in 2006. Since then, Reeves has been recognized three times (2009, 2010, 2011) by Breakspoll—an international organization that compiles listener votes—as the world's best breaks DJ and currently sits atop the organizations list of the 50 best breaks DJs ever.
Currently the DJ has an online footprint bigger than most social media addicts. He sports an endless stream of updates to Facebook, Instagram, Soundcloud, YouTube, Mixcloud, Twitter, Vimeo and Pulse Radio, to name a few. With regular tours that crisscross continents, Reeves is truly everywhere. With each post, each new mix and each tour stop, Reeves is only after one thing, making people dance. He touched on that during an interview with Rip It Up late last year.
"It's just good dance music with lots of bass, lots of funk," said Reeves. "It's fun, it makes you smile, but it's not too commercial. It's just good music. That's what I'm all about; good times."
Krafty Kuts
9 p.m. Thursday, July 4
Liquid Lounge
70 N.W. Newport Ave.
FREE
