James Kumo

James Kumo grew up in Kent (UK) during the 1980s, listening to London based KISS 100fm. It was here where he first heard many of his musical influences - dj's such as Paul 'Trouble' Anderson, Dr Bob Jones, Gilles Peterson, Danny Rampling, Patrick Forge, Colin Favor & Colin Dale, listening to anything from jazz, funk, latin, disco, soul to house & deep electronic grooves. James especially favouring Dale's 'Outer Limits' show, where he delved into some of the deeper electronic music.

By 1988, he had started making regular visits into Central London, to visit various record shops - Quaff Records, owned & ran by Roy The Roach, Berwick St Soho, Charlie Chester's then Flying Records, ran by the likes of Rocky Diesel, Jo Mills, Lofty and crew in Kensington Market & Dave Wesson’s Zoom Records in Camden Town - and it was here where James starting buying music.

By the early 90s, he'd moved to West London and was a regular at many London club nights where the djs were playing the kind of music he found inspirational, including the The Drum Club (Soundshaft), Shiva Shanti (The Gardening Club), Trouble's House (The Loft), New Hard Left (Bluenote), Open all Hours (Ministry Of Sound), Strutt (The Cross), it was also around this time he visited the Balearic Island of Ibiza, where he frequented night spots like Amnesia, Ku, Space and of course, Cafe Del Mar.

The exposure to this music developed James' own eclectic taste even further and by the early 1990’s he was djing himself at various nights in and around London. This included a two year residency at The Langley, Covent Garden, London, plus nights at Cherry Jam (London) , Notting Hill Arts Club (London), Nuphonic’s Bridge & Tunnel (Shoreditch, London). Further afield, he has also been a guest at The Bomb (Nottingham), and more recently, Discotonic (Dublin), Development (Manchester), Tribal Sessions at Sankeys (Manchester), Killer Robot (Cape Town SA) & a special daytime ‘Dalaflat Music’ Event in Cape Town, South Africa.

In 2004, James Kumo moved to Manchester, then later in that year married.

As passionate as ever about the diversity of music styles, today, apart from hearing him play some of the most futuristic electronic music and full throttle techno, you can also find him playing music by artists like Ednah Holt, Carl Craig, Bonnie Oliver, Rhythm & Sound, Chymera, Quincy Jones, Chet, Needs, Manuel Gottshing, Vince Watson, Chicken Lips, Inner City, Beat Pharmacy, James Mason, Taho, Antonio Ocasio, Aril Brikha, Eurmir Deodato, Fingers Inc, Quince, Cantoma, Stevie Wonder, Gino Soccio, Joris Voorn, Underground Resistance, Chaka Khan, Blaze, Grace Jones, Francois K and many many more.

In May 2006 James began a monthly club night in Manchester entitled Kumo , along with his two partners Paul Hughes and Marc Kets. "Kumo is all about having an intimate gathering, with an up for it crowd who's musical love is as varied as our own, people who aren't afraid to hear lots of different genres within the night". Previous guest dj's have included Balearic Mike, Rekid (Matt Edwards/Quiet Village/Radio Slave), Moonboots (Aficionado), Philarmonix, Diesel (X-Press 2/Balistic Brothers/Heavy Disco), Terry Farley (Faith/Junior Boys Own), Mark E (Jiscomusic) & Kelvin Andrews (Soul Mekanik). Unfortunately due to Marc leaving Manchester for sunnier climates (Los Angeles) the parties were sadly put on hold.

September 2007, saw the birth of his first child, which in turn inspired him to turn his hand to production work, after many years of listening to other people’s music, this was his time, and after many many late nights in the studio, he found himself churning out electronic trax, one after the other.

In February 2008, see’s James Kumo’s first full release on Amsterdam’s Ann Aimee Records, entitled Kumomusic EP Vol 1, with Vol 2 to follow soon after. So watch this space, there is plenty more to come!

James has just launched his artist website and you can visit it here.