The Bangladeshi-Canadian producer and DJ Raf Reza has been instrumental in Toronto’s eclectic electronic music scene for over a decade, where he has made everything from boogie to house to more dubwise sounds. On his debut full-length album Ekbar, he combines the low-end power of dubstep and jungle with traditional Bangladeshi folk and forward-thinking electronic music. Released on the Toronto label Telephone Explosion, the project reflects Raf’s transcontinental upbringing, from Tokyo to Toronto with musical detours in Glasgow. It’s an ever-evolving sound, rooted as much in his own personal story as any genre delineations. I sent some questions over to the artist; read the interview and listen to Ekbar below.

Tell us about your new album.

Raf Reza: This is my first go at doing the "album" thing. It's kind of hard for me to say a lot about it, which is probably why I made a record to show what words couldn't say. What I will say is that I hope it helps to continue bridging the gap between folk/traditional music within the realm of electronic music composition. I think it's important to keep folk music traditions active, even in this globalized world we live in today. We need music for more than just entertainment, we need it for ceremony, for mourning, for praise of good fortune, for hope during hard times. I think folk music is really good at reminding us of the latter, and frankly I think the world of electronic music needs more of that. For me, this project was a study of what the possibilities of Bengali folk and traditional music can look like through the cabinets of a dubwise soundsystem.

Did you have a clear plan as to what you wanted this record to sound like before you started working on it?

I don't ever really have a clear plan of what I want things to sound like. It does become clearer the more I work on it. Sure, there were sparks of ideas leading up to this but I think the refining happens largely during the process of creating for me.

Your bio says the new album “served as a research outlet for your fascination with the late-era internet arrival in the Bangladeshi cultural landscape.” Did you discover anything new about your own Bangladeshi culture or history during the creation process?

It's pretty wild how the internet was just dropped on Bangladesh out of nowhere, where a majority of the population is incredibly uneducated. It's resulted in both extreme horrors and exciting triumphs for our people. I think my biggest takeaway is that more and more Bangladeshis are looking towards a future that is different from our status quo, but between total political corruption and a lack of proper education infrastructure, the majority of our society is let down and robbed of a better future. I think for us our culture and music is the only thing that unites us, yet we don't do enough to champion it and allow it to flourish. For me it was very exciting to see how much my work inspired others trying to do the same thing back home. I didn't realize how big the community of the new generation of music producers and performers was back home, and frankly they are all making massive leaps to create an environment where pursuing music is encouraged and nurtured. I hope that they are able to continue to maintain a positive environment for people to create and make their voice heard, whether it's in the city streets of Dhaka or in the village fields.

How does your approach to making an album differ from making singles?

I tend to make most of my music sporadically, often I go weeks without making a single track. Working on this album was different because it was truly the longest I've spent constantly making music and refining my work. Sometimes it went on for days where it was really the only thing I was doing. It really felt like the hardest I've worked on one project. I never really thought I would ever be in a position to be working on such a singular concept, but here I am. It was cool to have such a long-running feedback loop between the studio and the club gigs playing this music, especially from my Bangladeshi friends who were just as excited and surprised as I was with this project.

When I think of Toronto music, I often think of the mashups of different sounds and cultures. Has a city like Toronto helped shape your sound? Has it made it easier to express yourself creatively?

Toronto's rich multicultural landscape rivals that of New York and London in my opinion. I feel lucky to have experienced the dancehall sounds back when I lived in Scarborough during my formative years. I'd say it had a big impact on my love for the bottom end. I get sad when I think of how much of our rich musical heritage does get pushed out of the city. Thankfully there are a lot of people documenting and archiving things now to make sure that the cultural landscape of our city is remembered and also celebrated, beyond just some mural or plaque at the places where these things used to happen. There is also such a deep history of DJ culture that spans across all genres in this city, though I think we kind of suck at sharing information and resources between the different generations. I'm lucky to be in a position somewhere in the middle of that, where I can freely access/process/apply ideas from both up and down.

Sound system culture has evolved over the years from its roots in Jamaica, expanding to the rest of the world, how has it influenced your work?

The bass and the drum is the foundation. Everything else is built on top of that. What I love about reggae music is that there is so much space, created by fading musical phrases in and out of the mix. I love how it can convey deep sorrow and sadness with such sweet delivery. It can be incredibly gentle yet so powerful with the booming basslines. I find it fascinating how this tiny island outputs so much music that touches the hearts and souls of millions worldwide. I love how it's a practice that comes from the "less is more" and "use what you got" approach. Shamelessly lo-fi yet captures every frame of the emotional spectrum. Needless to say, it's a great motivator for me both sonically and spiritually in my music.

How did the artwork come about?

The artwork illustration is a piece made by my old pal Devon Marinac. He sold me the piece about a decade ago when he was trying to score some cash to go hit the pub. I think he sold it to me for about $60, and it has sat on my wall ever since. Devon's made huge strides with his art since then but I still felt like he was owed more than what now would buy you maybe three pints of Guinness in Toronto. I asked him if I could use it for my cover art, and threw him some scratch to help offset the "Cost Of Chilling Crisis." 

The Bengali typeface title "Ekbar" was developed by my friend Raeda Sarwar, who has a special interest in typography for the Bengali script. It's quite rare to see young Bangladeshi's pursuing a career in graphic design, never mind one that is so specific to our typeface. We met through mutual friends in the Bangladeshi events series AGT. I was very fond of her work and her deep interest in pursuing her passion, representing the depth and richness of our culture, and wanted her to be involved in creating a custom type nameplate for the cover.

The art direction was facilitated by none other than my dear friend Karim Mohamed. Karim and I have a many years long history of working on projects spanning art/graphic design and music. He's done countless flyers for me over the years, tour posters, DJ gigs, you name it. It's been nice to watch him and his work grow over the years, and now I see he's blossomed into an extremely talented and sharp designer, DJ, and all around bodmon. Watch out though, his rates are going up after this!

I am so grateful to have had such a talented and stacked selection of individuals who helped bring this project to life on my behalf, and that includes Jon Schouten and Steve Sidoli who facilitated this entire project via Telephone Explosion Records.

This album is filled with a wide variety of incredible samples (from film soundtracks to folk music), without revealing your source material, how do you dig for samples?

Obviously with a very large shovel, a very tiny brush, and many hours to spend inside a hole.

The collaboration on the album is a poem read by Joba Poetry. How did this collaboration come together?

I met Joba Poetry at an event called Bdeshi, which is a Bangaldeshi-run community gathering for those who grew up outside the home country. It's a meeting place for us to kind of figure out who we are, and how we relate to each other. I heard him recite some poetry at one of their events last year and I was just fascinated by his flow, and incredible mastery of our deep and beautiful language.

I reached out to him some months later and thought it might be fun to get into the studio and record some of his stuff. Once we got together, I was so moved by his poem that I thought it was very important that we did an English version too. Although English isn't his first language, we worked together to create a translation that maintained his poetic diction and meter. We did it all on the pen and a pad, while listening to Rhythm & Sound for a few hours.

It was Joba Poetry's first feature on a musical recording, and I hope to make many more with my dear friend!

What is the ideal setting to listen to Ekbar?

In a dark basement with a huge sub stack and one red light or in the fields where the sound carries for miles ... Would not recommend it for the wine bar though.

What have you got planned for the rest of 2025?

I need to finish a handful of records I said I would make for some other labels that have been patiently waiting. Oh and I will also be touring the album live PA stylee through the UK come July/August, especially excited for Field Maneuvers festival. I'm premiering my first feature OST soundtrack coming out very soon for this incredible film Betrayal by Lena MacDonald. I'm hoping to get some decent rest in between all that and some quality time with my loved ones who I haven't had the chance to spend as much time with as I would have liked to.