| Buraka Som Sistema have always liked throwing curveballs. From their first DJ residencies, where off-the-cuff sets were pretty much rehearsed live...mixing for people at raves, that was our practice kinda like shock therapy- to incorporating unusual material into their songs - recording shattering glass, or throwing an orange at the wall and using the sound as a snare. Even their first drum & bass collective, Fusion Lab, had a reputation for mixing things up: it wasn't all about drum & bass, it was all about experimenting with crazy beats. So it was hardly surprising that some years ago, on a whim, they ended up playing around with an obscure mid-90s genre like kuduro.
Years from now, Buraka Som Sistema will be written about in text books, discussed in reverent tones and used as case studies for a long forgotten period, as they are utterly symbolic of the musical landscape in the late 00s. With the proliferation of the internet around the world over the last decade there has been a massive international cultural exchange, with Western influences - particularly outside the mainstream - permeating as they never have been able to before, whilst the reservoirs of innovation and talent outside the traditional territories have been tapped and incorporated into the mosaic of contemporary music. Buraka's musical brew is the result of the cultural mixture brought on by long term African, specifically Angolan, immigration to Lisbon, combined with the influence of European dance music and beyond. |
