After an initital burst of excitement, it’s been a quiet year for Kuduro in terms of its exposure outside of Angola (Guillaume at Masala eloquently drew this into context last October). Of course, I’m sure that there remains a ferocious supply and demand culture within Angola, but – sitting so far outside of the source – we’ve been largely starved of new material. Portugal’s Buraka Som Sistema offer a glimmer of hope for a ‘second coming’ with their new track ‘The Sound Of Kuduro’.
I fully acknowledge that this clip has been through the blog rounds on various sites over the last few days, but I feel the need to represent and archive here on Fat Planet – particularly due to the quality of the guest talent involved: Znobia (who received the royal remix treatment from Diplo in July last year), Puto Prata (find a ‘megamix’ of some of his material at Likembe), Miss World Town – M.I.A and Subarosa.
It’s also good to see the Portuguese crew reconnect with the roots of Kuduro – Frederic Galliano was a little dismissive of non-Angolan Kuduro in our 2007 interview: “The kuduro in Portugal … Angolan people say this is ‘kuduro de blanco’, ‘kuduro of the white people’, because it is really cheap”. It feels like this track – particularly the definitive nature of the title – is the start of a mission to put such criticisms to rest. Stereogum notes that the forthcoming album is titled Black Diamond is due mid-year.