Kuma
Location: Vancouver.
Affiliation: The Konspiracy Group/Frosti/Waxing Crescent Records/Soundtracking The Void/See Blue Audio/RF/Immerse
Style: Ambient. Dubstep. Drum and Bass. House. Techno.
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.
Discography:
Kuma – You Cannot Cheat The Muse (See Blue Audio)
Kuma – Buy The Tools You Need With Time (Frosti)
Kuma – Sapporo Dubs (RF)
Kuma – Hounds and Echo In Conjunction (Waxing Crescent Recordings)
Kuma – Rainbow Kaleidoscope For Constants (Fallen Moon Recordings)
Kuma – How To Shoot Somebody Who Outdrew You (Soundtracking The Void)
Kuma – Time Makes Memory Of Us All (Soundtracking the Void)
Kuma – Mine EP (TKG Music 006)
Kuma – ONLYEVRFWD EP (TKG Music 008)
Kuma ft Juakali – What It’s Not (TKG Music 005)
Kuma ft Amalia – Fall (TKG Music 005)
Kuma ft Juakali – What It’s Not (Grevous Angel Remix)(TKG Music 005)
Kuma – Wanderer’s Song (Brap Dem Recordings/Hearts Of Bass)
Kuma – Dawn Stepped Outside/Lost In Translation 12″ (Immerse Records)
Kuma – Dawn Stepped Outside (Horsepower’s Mk7 Remix) (Immerse Records)
Kuma – Of Silence and Secrecy (TKG Music 003)
Remixes:
Rhombus Index – Axiom (Kuma’s Slightly Ecstatic Remix)
Dogtablet – Start To Fade (Kuma Remix)
Dogtablet – Deletion Complete (Kuma’s Faster Remix)
Rennie Foster – Just A Mask (Kuma Remix)
Clubroot – Dulcet (Kuma’s Sad Clyde Remix) (LoDubs)
The Blood Of Heroes – Wounds Against Wounds (Kuma Remix) (Ohm Resistance)
St. Helens – Ground Effects (Kuma’s Three Cups Of Miso Remix) (riversof)
Not Me – FLT (Kuma’s Tope Suicida Remix) (CSAF)
As part of Gunshae:
Gunshae – The Sky Is A Gateway, Not A Ceiling (TKG Music 011)
Gunshae -The Lost Cascadian Suite (Panospria)
Gunshae – Out Of Darkness, Light (Ohm Resistance)
Gunshae – Begin Again (Basic Sounds)
Gunshae – Traveling Without Memory (TKG Music 001)
Gunshae – “Deeper Down” (TKG Music 002)
Gunshae – “Sound Washed Ashore In Tokyo (Bare Remix)” (TKG Music 002)
Press:
Wyrd Daze Interview
Electronic beatmakers join with Pacific Wild for place:vancouver collection
Mixes:
Interzone Vol 1 (Techno/House)
On High (Dub Techno)
COTEOF Podcast (Techno/House)
Duende: (ambient/downtempo) – 12/12/12
And Who By Fire (Dubstep) – 2/12/14
Los Angeles Reversioned (Dubstep/Footwork/Jungle)
In Heavenly Love Abided (Techno/House) – 4/15/12
That World Ended A Long Time Ago (Ambient/Downtempo) – 11/5/13
And This Is What You Get When You Least Expect It (Ambient and Downtempo – 3/15
2 For Tomorrow, 1 For Today (House/Techno/UK Funky)
For When You Have No Off Switch (Ambient/Downtempo) – 9/25/11
Under The Stars And The Night Sky (Dubstep)
Live At Bonzai (Techno) – 10/3/13
Twice For The Bodies/Live At Bonzai (Techno/Industrial/Footwork)
In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up (House Techno/UK Funky)
Alto Stratus (Dubstep/Techno/UK Funky) – 10/31/10
A Konspiracy In 15 Parts for Symbiosis Radio (Dubstep/Ambient
The Weight Of A Traveller’s Footprint (Downtempo/Ambient) – 7/5/09
Plasmodium Radio (Dubstep/House/Techno/Ambient)
Persistence Is All (For the 11:11 Agency) (Ambient/House/Dubstep) -1/1/11
Signals From Radio Mars (Dubstep)
Live at the Art Of Beatz 10th Birthday (House and Techno)
Live at the Art Of Beatz 9th Birthday Party (House and Techno)
Kuma and Eve aka Evilbear- Live On Art Of Beatz 2006 (Four Deck Ambient)
Kuma and Eve aka Evilbear- Live On Art Of Beatz 2007 (Four Deck Ambient)
Songs Of Bass and Devotion: Live At Soundwave 2009
Pure Live Psychic Automatism (Dubstep)
Hymns For The Explosive (Dubstep)
Love Is The Message Vol 1 (Techno/House/UK Funky)
Love Is The Message Vol 2 (Techno/House/UK Funky)
Love Is The Message Vol 3 (Techno/House/UK Funky)
Love Is The Message Vol 4 (Techno/House/UK Funky)
Love Is The Message Vol 5 (Techno/House/UK Funky)
Love Is The Message Vol 6 (Techno/House/UK Funky)
The Alchemical Composition Of The Heart (Ambient/downtempo)
Cumulonimbus (UK Funky/Dubstep)
As Above, So Below (Dubstep)
Live At Signal Saturdays (Techno/House)
Answers for New Ages (Bass Music)
Hope and Ashes (Downtempo and Ambient)
Live At Soundwave: (Ambient and dubstep)
Calling Out The Vultures (Dubstep)
Forward Sounds for Backward Times (Dubstep)
Snowblind (Ambient and Downtempo)
Stanford Is Burning : Ambient on Four Turntables w/ Eve, live on KZSU, Stanford, California.
Of Darkness and Southern Tongues (Drum and Bass w/ Eve)
Southern Fried WREKage (Drum and Bass with Lady Eve)
Shards of Potato and Banana (Ambient and downtempo)
My Life In A Bush of Ghosts: (Drum and bass)
Shards and Fragments (Ambient and Downtempo)
Kuma vs Tawney: Live In Seattle on Four decks (ambient/experimental/noise)
Links: