DJ’s Do Guetto – Free Comp – A Slice of Luso History

djsdoguetto

I don’t hate Elvis Presley. But if I were to explore the early days of rock’n’roll, he is not an artist I would spend much time on. Conversely, this post takes a minute away from Lisbon’s kuduro usual suspects, to focus on the underground artists that kept the crowds bumping, at a time when kuduro spread its wings in Portugal. Let’s go back to 2006, when the world discovered the term kuduro via Frédéric Galliano and Buraka Som Sistema‘s work.

I had some very interesting conversations about a year ago with DJ Marfox and the crew at Príncipe Discos, an outlet for dance music of the highest caliber based in Lisbon. The convo gave birth to a piece I wrote for This Is Africa, which essentially looked into how the various Lusophone sounds melted together in Lisbon, or more precisely, in its periphery.

While Buraka may be responsible for introducing the term kuduro to a wide global audience, it is heads like DJs Marfox, NervosoN.K., Fofuxo, Pausas and Jesse who spread their electronic, often kuduro-based sound at home. First throughout Lisbon’s periphery, and more recently, with their successful Noite Príncipe parties, to the center of Lisbon, and along with it, to the media and Portugal as a whole.

This comp comes days after Marfox’ impressive free Tarraxinha compilation, and is yet another important chapter in the history of electronic music in Portugal and the Lusophone world as a whole. Much respect to the Príncipe crew for giving us a chance to get schooled.

Here’s the full story in their own words:

Released on the first day of school, 18th September 2006, ‘Dj’s do Guetto Vol. 1′ is a crucial landmark in the history of Portuguese dance music. Not only was it one of the first few albums released in this country that spread itself in a very quick and vast manner through digital media, but it also united six prominent producers, inheritors of traditions that have been working in mutating geometries which are exclusive to Portugal.

Seven years ago, Marfox, Nervoso, N.k, Fofuxo, Pausas and Jesse were people processing the information coming in from kuduro, tarraxinha, house and techno, that they definitely turned into their own idiom. During this moment of time they formed a collective uniting several areas of Greater Lisbon and its surroundings, between where they were living and the high schools they attended – Portela, Chelas, Quinta do Mocho, Quinta da Fonte, Sacavém, Massamá, Damaia, Barcarena, Reboleira, Cacém, Queluz, Fonte da Prata, Barreiro and Paço de Arcos. After a short while it was commonplace to hear these sounds coming out of MP3 players and cars with ambitious soundsystems, not only in the capital but also throughout the afro-portuguese world.

The tracks that make out the more than two hours of explosive music presented here are essentially grounded in its instrumentals. Ruthless kuduro beats going at least at 130 BPMs and over, with the occasional tarraxo, funaná and kizomba in the mix. Still today they clearly sound like visionary and precocious works, if we think that these musicians were all under 21 years old at the time. As always, Lisbon remains a harbour, and it was here that Angolan electronic music, the disco culture outside of the heart of the city, an enormous fondness for bass, and both the party and the melancholy of the projects and the suburbs met.

The precision and care with the impact of the sound is impressive, millimetrically controlled in order to maximize the brutality of rhythm in any set of speakers. Rhythm is the essence of these compositions and the element that is all-transforming (alarm sirens, horror movie keyboards, kalimbas, cut-up voices, which are mutilated and cut-up again). Ranging in vibe and territory through universalist epics, works of pure percussive and amelodical austerity, grinded attacks towards dizzy spells and cardiac problems, there is a clear feeling here of wanting to imagine a music for your friends but also for a planet that is as yet untravelled. It is also there that this music’s strength resides, and, let’s start to get used to it, where its beauty comes from.

Needless to say that ‘Dj’s do Guetto Vol. 1′ hit hard on a lot of people. It is forever in the foundation of what constitutes afro-portuguese dance music, and it will continue to inform its future, as its present is so alive, and nearly everyone that is part of it heard this record with close attention. But there is a large piece of world yet to hear these 37 tracks, and there’s even more world that should now have a better way of understanding a history as important and recent of what makes out the music produced here and now. This history is still pretty much new, but we already have crucial music behind us which genesis is necessary to know, where it came from, for what reasons, why it is how it is, and what it caused. And music one must return to or get to know, as all which is contained in these sounds is still as fresh today as it was in the day the kids got back to school in September 2006.

This free digital reissue contains the files that survived PCs which have tragically passed away, the WAV files and Fruity Loops (amongst other software) projects from where this music was born out of and apparently lost forever. Being as it is, we tried to find the files with the best audio quality for each MP3 we now make available to you.

The title present in the original artwork of this compilation is written as being by the “Dj’s do Guetto”, though it was popularized through its creolized name, which is present in the titles of each shared file – “Dj’s di Guetto”. We chose to preserve the two versions in accordance with the original form of this music.

Maskarado – Monami – acapella

We won’t call this one a remix contest, instead we want to shift towards a permanent musical lab: we will regularly post stems, vocals, instrumental parts, drum loops, for you to work with. All creative commons, you can do anything you like with it, as long as it’s not commercial. If you do have commercial endeavors, then contact us and let’s work it out. If it sounds good we’ll probably want to release it!

If you’re not familiar with Maskarado, check him out here and here. We are sharing his acapella, which you can download right here. BPM is 125, go crazy!

New Kuduro House: Maskarado – Monami

Maskarado is a familiar name for anybody paying attention to Angolan house and kuduro. He’s the go-to MC for many of the best crossover kuduro-house tracks out there – starting with the massive Angolan hit Elegom Bounsa, produced by DJ Djeff, unavoidable Angolan afrohouse artist whom we had the pleasure of releasing a couple of years ago. Monami is only the latest in a string of Luandan hits propelling Maskardo to the helm of Angolan music. Monami pay attention.

Kuduro is Dead?!?!

(Originally published in the Lungu Lungu column for Fader magazine) It pains me to say it, but it appears kuduro is seriously fading out in Angola. It’s so hard to believe. I was there just two years ago, and kuduro was blasting out of every single candongueiro and radio station, all day long. But there is hope! A lot of hope, as producers trained on kuduro are still behind the decks. If you’ve been reading this column, you already know about my current addiction of choice, Angolan afrohouse. Well, here’s a second round of Mwangolé dopeness.

DJ X-Trio grew up in Luanda. In 1999, he met one of his friends’ older brother, DJ Clioo, there. At the time, Clioo was a big-shot kuduro producer—one of the hits under his belt is the famous (for Angolans and kuduro nerds) “Wakimono” by Nacobeta. When X-Trio saw all the gear at Clioo’s house, he nearly lost it. He, however, had absolutely no gear. With no laptop or even headphones to work with, he took full advantage of his one and only USB stick, which he used to carry the Mixvibes DJing software around with him all over town. He’d hop around and install it on any computer he could get his hands on, practicing his DJing skills while visiting PC-equipped friends.

A year later, he traded a bottle of Calvin Klein perfume to get his first pair of headphones. Then in 2003, he got a hold of Fruity Loops, which he also put on his pen drive, and would now wander town in search of PCs to install the software on. This is how X-Trio started making beats. At the time he tried to reproduce some of the current kuduro hits, which explains X-Trio’s incredible strength with drum patterns. Eventually DJ Clioo recommended X-Trio hone his skills with kizomba, to get a deeper feel for creating melodies and baselines.

But here comes the best part. For years, while he lived in Namibia where his family temporarily settled (the civil war in Angola only ended in 2002), X-Trio made kuduro and kizomba beats, which in Windhoek were not exactly the latest rage. In 2008, he DJed at a school event, and was spotted by the founders of the brand new Fresh FM radio station, which specialized in increasingly popular South African house. The guys invited X-Trio for an interview the very next day. X-Trio knew kizomba and kuduro was not what the listeners were after, so he said he also produced house music, which he didn’t. The hosts asked him to bring some tracks to play on the air. So X-Trio went home, locked himself in front of his laptop, went through the South African tracks he had on it for inspiration, and got busy. The next morning he had finished his two very first afrohouse tracks, which he brought to the radio. The feedback was good, and the radio instantly started playing the songs!

That is how X-Trio started producing afrohouse. He’d adapt current hip hop hits, made a bunch of remixes and kept sending his music to the radio, which kept playing his songs.Shortly after X-Trio finished high school in Windhoek and moved back to Luanda, now capital of a peaceful (albeit still almost as wild) country, where he started university. One day a friend shows him the track “Jezebel” by Professor, a South African house classic. X-Trio thought it sounded cool but says, “it could never work in Angola, it’s too soft.” So instead of meticulously focusing on his computer programming class, he put on his headphones, in class, and started working on a remix. By the time school was finished, he’d put his kuduro programming skills to good use, and added the intricate drum patterns you hear on this remix:

Professor, “Jezebel (X-Trio Afro-Flavour Remix)” by The FADER

At Afrohouse was not getting any kind of attention at the time (2008) in Angola, probably because in general it was more soulful and melodic than percussive. Too soft in a world where kuduro sets the bar (can you imagine a place where kuduro sets the bar? DOPE). But after passing his track around for a few weeks, X-Trio’s remix became a hit in Luanda. From its popularity, Angola discovered Professor. The same story happened a few months later with another South African hit, “Fairy Tale,” by Liquideep. X-Trio amped up that track too, shaping it into a proper Angolan hit song with complex and heavy drums. Since then, both Professor and Liquideep have performed in Angola.

X-Trio was not alone in bringing afrohouse to the forefront. He tells me the first massive Angolan house hit was “Elegom Bounsa”by DJ Djeff and Maskarado, which I am proud to say I noticed last year, and released on Akwaaba. Others, such as Silyvi (also featured on the Akwaaba Remixed compilation) Renato Xtrova and Dutch housemeister Gregor Salto have contributed to bringing afrohouse to the forefront of the Angolan music scene. I initially assumed afrohouse was somewhat of an elitist trend, confined to the posh clubs of Luanda’s Ilha. I was wrong. X-Trio tells me candongueiro’s now blast afrohouse across town. Unbelievable!

Still, X-Trio is restless. He is now studying sound production in Cape Town, after his fame finally convinced his father to let him pursue music, apparently not an easy feat. Once he finishes the program of stufy next year, he wants to jump into film production. His goal is to master all creative aspects of the business, from making beats to making music videos, in order to create a proper record label in Angola. So while his songs are still free and available, I highly recommend you check out the rest of his output here. I had a really hard time picking one song to feature here, and went with the one which is the most historically relevant. But others are just as relevant on the dance floor. So before he is signed to a major label who pull down bootlegs, enjoy them while they’re still up!

Kanye Meets Angola on the Dancefloor

Kanye Meets Angola on the Dancefloor

 

Via Benjamin Lebrave‘s Lungu Lungu column over at Fader Mag:

I’ve been neck deep into Angolan house. I recently discovered a never ending thread of good afro-house coming from Angola on Soundcloud. So I quickly put my rusty Portuguese to use and connected with a slew of cats making these beats. If you are wanting to start making your own music you can Buy Rap Beats and R&B Instrumentals here. After a few weeks of nerding out I’m now getting a better feel for what seems to be much more than a Soundcloud blog-house microtrend. In fact I’m told this sound is taking over clubs in Luanda. A few days ago I had a chance to chat with DJ Delany Duvall of Luanda, who schooled me on this recent Angolan house bidniss.

Most readers are aware of Cabo Snoop, whose sound has seriously shifted the music scene in Angola. His producer IVM Beatz (who unfortunately passed last February) has been instrumental in pushing a more polished, house-y sound. Along with Cabo, producers such as DJ Djeff have been on heavy rotation at major Angolan nightclubs, pushing straight-up Angolan-flavored afro-house. I remember when I went to clubs in Luanda in 2009 I heard Angolan music (semba, kizomba and kuduro), Francophone music (ndombolo, zouk), some US-style hip-hop and R&B, and that was pretty much it. It seemed diverse to me, but I also realized the boundaries of these genres were never crossed. Playing some Black Coffee or Culoe de Song seemed unthinkable. But only two years later, I stumble upon dozens of afro-house artists, who are not just on Soundcloud: they are actually playing and getting played in Angola!

How did this shift happen? DJ Delany’s story is quite insightful. Like many high school kids in Luanda, Delany started messing around with Fruity Loops. The software is hardly avoidable in Angola, where it has allowed beatmakers to create pretty much any kuduro song you can think of. During his first years playing around with Fruity Loops, Delany was mainly making semba and kuduro-inspired beats. The shifting point for him was moving to Namibia in 2008. Like many middle and upper class Angolan teen-agers, Delany left the country to attend university. And like many Angolans studying in Windhoek, Jozi or Durban, Delany caught the South African house bug.

What’s interesting to me here is that like many other young Angolan afro-house producers, Delany keeps a distinctly Angolan feel in his beats. This is probably what is allowing him, DJ Djeff and the like to take over Angolan nightclubs: they are not just playing or making afro-house, they are creating Angolan house. The difference might be subtle for most of us, but for someone raised on semba and kuduro, it’s huge.

To further showcase how Angolans like to keep things Angolan, and how doing so with music only makes things better, I picked a Kanye West bootleg remix. I live in my African music bubble, and had never heard the original song. So I rediscovered Kanye through Delany, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Maybe some day Delany or one of his peers will replace A-Trak as Kanye’s DJ… unless A-Trak starts DJing for the next Cabo? Or maybe the next A-Trak AND the next Kanye are both Angolan? Best to embrace this stuff now, it’s going to happen!

Power (DJ Delany Duvall Remix) – K.West by Dj Delany

 

 

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Kanye Meets Angola on the Dancefloor

 

Via Benjamin Lebrave‘s Lungu Lungu column over at Fader Mag:

I’ve been neck deep into Angolan house. I recently discovered a never ending thread of good afro-house coming from Angola on Soundcloud. So I quickly put my rusty Portuguese to use and connected with a slew of cats making these beats. If you are wanting to start making your own music you can Buy Rap Beats and R&B Instrumentals here. After a few weeks of nerding out I’m now getting a better feel for what seems to be much more than a Soundcloud blog-house microtrend. In fact I’m told this sound is taking over clubs in Luanda. A few days ago I had a chance to chat with DJ Delany Duvall of Luanda, who schooled me on this recent Angolan house bidniss.

Most readers are aware of Cabo Snoop, whose sound has seriously shifted the music scene in Angola. His producer IVM Beatz (who unfortunately passed last February) has been instrumental in pushing a more polished, house-y sound. Along with Cabo, producers such as DJ Djeff have been on heavy rotation at major Angolan nightclubs, pushing straight-up Angolan-flavored afro-house. I remember when I went to clubs in Luanda in 2009 I heard Angolan music (semba, kizomba and kuduro), Francophone music (ndombolo, zouk), some US-style hip-hop and R&B, and that was pretty much it. It seemed diverse to me, but I also realized the boundaries of these genres were never crossed. Playing some Black Coffee or Culoe de Song seemed unthinkable. But only two years later, I stumble upon dozens of afro-house artists, who are not just on Soundcloud: they are actually playing and getting played in Angola!

How did this shift happen? DJ Delany’s story is quite insightful. Like many high school kids in Luanda, Delany started messing around with Fruity Loops. The software is hardly avoidable in Angola, where it has allowed beatmakers to create pretty much any kuduro song you can think of. During his first years playing around with Fruity Loops, Delany was mainly making semba and kuduro-inspired beats. The shifting point for him was moving to Namibia in 2008. Like many middle and upper class Angolan teen-agers, Delany left the country to attend university. And like many Angolans studying in Windhoek, Jozi or Durban, Delany caught the South African house bug.

What’s interesting to me here is that like many other young Angolan afro-house producers, Delany keeps a distinctly Angolan feel in his beats. This is probably what is allowing him, DJ Djeff and the like to take over Angolan nightclubs: they are not just playing or making afro-house, they are creating Angolan house. The difference might be subtle for most of us, but for someone raised on semba and kuduro, it’s huge.

To further showcase how Angolans like to keep things Angolan, and how doing so with music only makes things better, I picked a Kanye West bootleg remix. I live in my African music bubble, and had never heard the original song. So I rediscovered Kanye through Delany, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Maybe some day Delany or one of his peers will replace A-Trak as Kanye’s DJ… unless A-Trak starts DJing for the next Cabo? Or maybe the next A-Trak AND the next Kanye are both Angolan? Best to embrace this stuff now, it’s going to happen!

Power (DJ Delany Duvall Remix) – K.West by Dj Delany

 

 

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