DJ Lowdown - James “Kuma” Graham

Left-of-centre electronic music has few champions in Vancouver greater than James “Kuma” Graham—producer, DJ, booking agent, and cohost of CFRO’s Art of Beatz (which airs every Thursday at midnight on 102.7 FM). The latest in Kuma’s long line of projects is Forward, an ongoing series of parties showcasing local artists and dubwise international stalwarts like T-Power and Kode9; the next FWD party is scheduled for New Year’s Eve (details to follow at www.thekonspiracygroup.com/). Recently, Kuma put down his headphones long enough to reflect on matters past, present, and future.

MOST RECENT PRODUCTION

“”˜Doppler’, which can be found alongside several of my other dubstep productions at www.myspace.com/kumadj/.”

BEST GIG

“It happened in winter 2005, watching English dubstep icon Kode9 and a very large sound system combine to cause parts of the ceiling of a [East Vancouver] warehouse to fall apart.”

DREAM GIG

“Dead Voices on Air to open, Sunn 0) as the main course, and Digital Mystikz to close with Adrian Sherwood doing sound. I wouldn’t need to play; I’d just sit in the bass bins.”

FAVOURITE LOCAL DJ

“Too many to mention, but I’ve got to give love to Motomasa and Lady Eve, my AOB cohosts, and to Amalia Townsend, the voice of broken-beat in Van City.”

WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT ART OF BEATZ?

“The no-holds-barred musical policy. Every week, our guests represent a different side of the local and international electronic-music scenes. From progressive house to jungle, dubstep to experimental weirdness, we take pride in being able to show off the immense amount of diverse and amazing music that this city has to offer.”

WHAT MAKES THE VANCOUVER SCENE SPECIAL?

“The fact that every time it gets me down thanks to crap promoters, crap DJs, or crap sound systems, it continues to pull out diamonds in the rough.”