The news of Ka’s passing has cast a cloud of sadness over me. I didn't know him personally, but have admired his work since the early days. I was blown away by Grief Pedigree and I bought all of the albums directly from him in the mail order days. His relatively simple website had a line saying “Please be patient. I don’t go to the post office every day.” That always made me smile.
His discography as Ka is an impressive achievement. He has a singular sound. An amazing writer and an amazing producer. The simplicity in the music is deceptive, but there are some genius choices being made. Chord changes are used sparingly. The music is the perfect backdrop for his writing, which is dense and full of amazing word play.
He came across as a sincere, caring person. Sadly, he closed his web shop because the realities of shipping physical product in a grip-and-flip era complicated his interest in sharing music with people. However, instead of selling things online, he held pop-ups and spent time conversing with people. A few friends were able to attend and said that he really took time to speak at length with each person.
I spent the last week listening to a lot of Ka, almost exclusively. His albums aren’t easy listens that immediately grab you. Sometimes you have to give an album a few runs before it grabs you. In the whole discography, there’s probably one that grabs you the most.
Looking back on how he handled his career, there’s so much to respect. He did things his way. He never seemed to chase anything, rarely worked with others, just stayed focused on his own thing.
I’d recommend listening to any of the albums. The most recent 5 have been in my headphones all week.