Jonathan Kane

Jonathan Kane was a founding member and signature drummer of Swans, the New York band who took humility and degradation to a higher level of slow intensity and made it hurt so good. Since that legendary group disbanded, Kane has kept busy drumming with the likes of minimalist composers La Monte Young and Rhys Chatham, and he’s apparently learned a lot from them. February, Kane’s debut for the prestigious Table of the Elements label, finds him channelling the drawn-out minimalist styles he picked up from Young and Chatham into a hypnotic blues swagger that, strangely, has as much to do with modal rotation and shifts as it does with Krautrock time-keeping. Imagine a time-weathered blues band getting downright arty without losing the down-home feel of their cherished Americana swagger. Kane’s drumming holds the intricately amassing patterns locked rigidly in line, supporting his bass and guitar work but never leading it or taking centre stage before it. February is a detailed and deliberate minimalist work that swings as well as it encircles itself.