Kid Kameleon is a Oakland-based performer pushing an eclectic mix of genre-defying bass music. 

He’s an electronic music veteran who’s been performing since 1997, recognized internationally as a tastemaker and energetic innovator with over 100 mixes to his name. He performs live with Ableton and APC40 – cutting and layering loops at lightning speed, blurring the line between a live and DJ’d set. His signature “future bass” sound is filled with tricked-out drums, head-nodding beats, heavy bass, and full spectrum synths that tug at your heartstrings. His style hits the sweet spot between dance floor madness and headphone listening. As a world-renown music journalist and performing DJ, he’s on a mission to expose international listeners to fresh new sounds from rising artists.

Drawing sonic connections and blending styles is part of the Kid’s DNA – that’s why “Kameleon” fits him perfectly. His current sound is a mixture of glitched-out and cutup instrumental hip-hop, slow/fast drum and bass, intricate post-dubstep, global beats like digital kudoro, footwork, trap, dub, and even the broken end of garage and techno. He’s always on the lookout for tunes from unexpected places – like “Pixelhouse” from the far corners of Japan, club tracks from Africa or “VHSwave” from the heartland of America. A sense of humor and theatrical spirit are big parts his live shows – they give him a unique ability to connect to his fans. Kid Kameleon is a reminder to the universe that no one can connect to a dance-floor crowd like a great DJ.

A born traveler who's been touring internationally since 2002, he first planted roots in ‘90s New York City warehouse culture with DJ Spooky and the Soundlab crew. Together they explored a fusion of underground hip-hop, jungle, techno and dancehall. Next he spent 9 years contributing to the vibrant San Francisco scene, throwing genre-bending events of future beats, downtempo, dubstep and global bass with his crews Surya Dub, False Profit, and The Den SF. In total he’s played in over 25 countries and with 1000s of artists – a tiny slice include Mala, Porier, Starkey, Richie Divine, Dizzee Rascal, Squarepusher, Machinedrum, Kode9, Pole, Bassnectar, The Glitch Mob, Tycho, Flako, Robot Koch and even Coxon Dodd.

Kid Kameleon’s mixes have been going “viral” since before YouTube existed. People still point to 2004’s Absolutely Shocking and Even More Shocking as an important moment in eclectic bass music culture, on par with mixes by Coldcut, dj/rupture and The Gaslamp Killer. Featured on Kid606’s Shockout label, they were praised by influential music writer Simon Reynolds, who went on to interview the Kid about technology in DJ culture for his seminal book Energy Flash. Career highlights include the 2nd ever XLR8R Podcast, a unique mix of “discarded loops” for Electronic Explorations (Rob Booth lists Kid Kameleon as a major influence), a guest spot for Tom Ravenscroft on the BBC, the raucous Must Love Loops on Cock Rock Disco, and dozens of others for Percussion Lab, Mashit, Modyfier, Spannered, Dublab, Memekast and more. Kid Kameleon has also been a music journalist for the past decade, writing under his given name Matt Earp. Often “calling” groundbreaking performers years before they become international stars, he’s interviewed 100s of artists including The Bug, James Blake, Flying Lotus and Mary Anne Hobbs. He spent 6 years as a staff writer at XLR8R in the 2nd half of the ‘00s and wrote the world’s first column dedicated to bass music (‘Basic Needs’). He currently writes for Create Digital Music and Vice’s Thump.

Kid Kameleon moved to Berlin in 2013 to further explore his “future bass” sound and connect with boundary-pushing artists and shows in Europe. After 3 years, he returned to Oakland in the Spring of 2016.

I used to rap, now I make beats

https://boacjackson.bandcamp.com

Matt Baggiani is following