FABRICLIVE 49:
BURAKA SOM SISTEMA
ARTIST: VARIOUS
LABEL: FABRIC RECORDS
UK/R.O.W. RELEASE: DATE: 7 DECEMBER 2009
USA RELEASE: 26 JANUARY 2009
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 .
“We bought this kuduro compilation and there were so many amazing ideas! Nothing was valid as a whole song, but the ideas, the loops, were amazing. The genre exploded in popularity at the beginning, then it went back to being something left field that producers were trying to develop; artists were exploring the possibilities, sampling really crazy things – and coming up with something people had never heard before. We just got a bunch of tracks and decided we need to do something with this.” – Buraka Som Sistema
Buraka’s sound is the result of a thoroughly modern post colonial cultural exchange between Portugal and Angola, a former Portuguese colony. It started out as kids trying to make techno music in Africa on old analogue equipment. By the time it hit Lisbon, European dance music had been added to the mix and things were set to go off. After working on a few genre-smashing kuduro re-edits, Buraka kicked off the night from which they later took their name. It was a sweating, heaving party that embodied the spirit of everything a club night should be. Raw and unadulterated, it was instantly recognisable as a landmark event, generating a tangible thrill of something special and new coming together.
“By the second night there was already a huge hype around the whole thing; we were on the cover of a newspaper, turned away 200 people at the door… it was crazy! There was a small stage in front of us and people just kept on coming up, dancing, grinding and doing all kinds of stuff. It was so hot, my laptop kept on crashing - a proper sweatbox. We did like four or five of those and then the club got shut down. We were stuck with this brilliant idea.. this sound that everyone wanted to dance to, so we decided to run with it.” – Buraka Som Sistema
From here and through the internet, Buraka’s sound took on a life of its own. The guys got started during the “golden age of Myspace”, and in no time, the likes of Diplo and Sinden were loudly championing the cause. “Things just started happening, the right things happening at the right moment. A couple of months later MIA was calling us to work together and since then we haven’t stopped.” Their first fabric show followed soon after, and Buraka Som Sistema laid their cards on the table with a manic, rambunctious, unhinged live show for which they’ve become best known. “The album was everything we had wanted it to be but the live gigs are very fun, very explosive and very intense.” All that said, behind the live drumming, the dancing troupes and the stage invasions, the core of Buraka’s live show is still as simple and as devastatingly effective as that first club night in a small sweatbox in Lisbon.
And after a year of touring their debut album ‘Black Diamond’, the guys are taking things back to the beginning. FABRICLIVE 49 recaptures the same explosive dynamism, and ebullient enthusiasm of those original Buraka Som Sistema parties in Lisbon on disc; a vibrant reminder of the idea behind the name of the group – Buraka Sound System. Their FABRICLIVE CD encapsulates Buraka’s love for the lost art of the remix album, with a stackful of re-rubs of their own records, putting the emphasis on talent over big names (including versions from L-Vis 1990, Stenchman and A1 Bassline, for instance). Interestingly, what has become clear to Buraka over the last few years is the impact kuduro has had on club music the world over, with more and more sounds beginning to resemble, or show signs of the influence of, kuduro itself.
“A mix CD is at the core of what Buraka was about at the beginning. It’s like going back to the roots. At the same time, it’s very exciting to be out there doing different music and influencing different sounds. A lot of artists, like some dubstep artists and even some UK funky are picking up on the sound, and that’s amazing. That’s something that we are really happy to be part of. We also wanted to avoid making a compilation of 20 club bangers that two months from now are going to be totally forgotten and people are going to be totally sick of them because they’ve heard it in the club so many times already. We also wanted to have a lot of our fresh material on there. And thirdly, we wanted to achieve a kind of flow where there are moments in the mix for you to relax, like Zomby’s track.” – Buraka Som Sistema
Tracklisting:
01 Dre Skull – Gone Too Far Ft Sizzla [Buraka Som Sistema Remix] - Mixpak
02 Buraka Som Sistema – General [Stenchman Mix] - fabric
03 Buraka Som Sistema – General [L-VIS 1990 Mix] - fabric
04 Ku Bo Ft Anbuley - Tsu Bo – Man
05 DJ Znobia – Pausa - fabric
06 Buraka Som Sistema – Kurum [Roulet Mix] - fabric
07 Seductive - Underground Sound - Döner Digital Records / Maniax Music
08 Diplo & Laidback Luke – Hey – Southern Fried
09 Buraka Som Sistema – IC19 [A1 Bassline Attack Mix] - fabric
10 L-VIS 1990 - United Groove (Buraka Som Sistema Remix) – Mad Decent
11 Skream – Fick - Tempa
12 DJ Riot – Mermaid Dub – Faster Music
13 Zomby – Dynamite Sandwich - Unreleased
14 Crime Mob – Rock Yo Hips Ft Lil Scrappy - WEA
15 DJ Znobia – Danca Da Mae Ju [Buraka Som Sistema Edit] - Enchufada
16 Batida - Bazuka (Quem Me Rusgou?) – Difference
17 Yolanda Be Cool - Afro Nuts (Douster Remix) – Sweat It Out !
18 Solo – Joga Bola - DeadFish
19 Buraka Som Sistema Feat Deize Tigrona – Aqui Para Voces [Buratronic Mix By Buraka Som Sistema] - fabric
20 Djedjotronic - Gum Attack - Boysnoize
21 Harvard Bass – Caked - Institubes
Buraka Som Sistema Feat Pongolove – Kalema [Wegue Wegue] Acapella – fabric
22 Mastiksoul – Run For Cover [Dub Mix] - Vidisco
23 Nova Lima – Machete – Mr Bongo
24 DJ Malvado - Puto Mekie - Unreleased
25 Buraka Som Sistema – Luanda-Lisboa [Nic Sarno Mix] - fabric
26 SonicC - Stickin - MixMash
27 Major Lazer – Bruk Out [Buraka Som Sistema Mix] – Universal
28 Buraka Som Sistema Feat Bruno M – Tiroza [Bert On Beats Remix] - fabric
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