Kuma
How do you answer a simple question like, to paraphrase the title of John Cale’s autobiography: “What’s Canadian for Zen?”
Bristol-born and Vancouver-based, Kuma has been attempting to do so for over twenty-five years. Destroying old worlds and building new ones, he’s left his fingerprint on the international electronic music scene as a producer, DJ, promoter, label owner, and radio presenter.
As well known for his contributions to Canadian bass music as his presence in modern ambient, Kuma’s is not your average sound. Influenced equally by the sonic manipulations of classic Wax Trax records, early Goldie and Philip Glass, he has chosen his own direction, one designed to shake whatever room you might be in.
A noted advocate for the transcendence of self, situation, and time through sonic means, the Canadian producer has spent his musical career opening doorways and stepping through using beatless music as the key. Internationally recognized efforts for Thomas Ragsdale’s Frosti and Soundtracking the Void imprints, Waxing Crescent Records, See Blue Audio, and Fallen Moon Recordings have been noted as part of a modern resurgence in ambient music.
The sound system influence of his Bristol lineage constantly shines through his dance floor material, being recognized for his work helping to grow the early days of Canadian dubstep by the likes of BBC Radio 1′s The Breezeblock and their infamous Dubstep Warz show. In 2008, Kuma signed his first tune, Vancouver’s first dubstep signing, to Bristol’s Immerse Records. A dive-bombing stepper called “Dawn Stepped Outside,’ it intrigued legendary 2-step producers Horsepower Productions enough to craft a remix played by the likes of Mary-Anne Hobbs and Martin “Blackdown” Clark. Resident Advisor’s Andrew Ryce has proclaimed his bass music to have “an unparalleled sense for percussion, contorting 2step’s bounce and swing into a woozy, punch-drunk sway.“
As a curator, Kuma’s influence can be seen everywhere. A champion of terrestrial radio, he’s a former host and producer of the show Just Concerts on Canada’s national broadcaster, the CBC. For almost twenty years he’s been found on Vancouver radio station CFRO. Kuma can be found on-air every Thursday night at midnight, showing off Vancouver’s electronic music community to the world,via the institution that is his radio show, Art Of Beatz.
With over two decades of event promotion behind him, Kuma has remained a steadfast figure on the cutting edge of Cascadian bass bins. He was the first person to bring dubstep to Vancouver, hosting Kode 9 as part of the Forward Sound series, which later saw shows from the likes of T-Power, DJ Rupture, Move D, and Spacetime Continuum. Like to lie down? Kuma’s been involved in many ambient events whether as a member of Vancouver’s pioneering Team Lounge collective or as co-curator and producer of the internationally well-received Pan Ambient series.
In 2001, Kuma founded The Konspiracy Group, a brand that has served as home to artists from around the world as a label, booking agency, promoters, and a continued bastion in the fight against conservative thinking in electronic music. Making its name working with veteran North American junglists like Sage and UFO! early on, The Konspiracy Group was the first booking agency to take on dubstep during its initial breakthroughs in North America.
