Quick-tempered global sounds electronica from the ghettos of Lisbon
PRÍNCIPE
Quite surprisingly, these days the most innovative global sounds infected electronica/dance isn’t coming out of hotspots like London, New York or Berlin, but rather the sultry outer-suburbs of Lisbon. Príncipe is the name of the latest prodigy (active since 2011) and is, by their own account, ‘fully dedicated to releasing 100% real contemporary dance music coming out of this city, its suburbs, projects & slums.’
Spin described the raw sound of Príncipe as ‘An ultra-vivid hybrid of grime and trance.’ and FACT magazine did so as ‘The sound of Lisbon ghettos.’ Their music is in fact contemporary techno & house but receives a unique, and extremely Southern, warm touch through their fusion with African genres like the energetic kuduro (Angola), kizomba (Angola) and funaná (Cape Verde). ‘This is our grime’ Dj Marfox once claimed.
Feeërieën is proud to invite three Príncipe institutions:
DJ MARFOX (Port.)
Príncipe’s godfather, not only because he was responsible for the very first release, but also because he’s the label’s unofficial A&R manager. His name hails from the Nintendo game Star Fox and out of respect for his status, many young producers launched themselves in his wake: the likes of Karfox, Dadifox or Nigga Fox. Spin wrote about his sound: ‘You wonder: what the hell is this stuff? How can it sound so familiar to the club music I know, and yet so alien?’
DJ NIGGA FOX (Port.)
Angolan-born Rogério Brandão, or: DJ Nigga Fox, is a Protégé of DJ Marfox. American music mag Spin praised his sound as follows: ‘It's the kind of fourth-world vanguardism both M.I.A. and Ricardo Villalobos have been struggling for years to articulate.’
NIDIA MINAJ (Port.)
Her roots reach right back to Cape Verde and Guinee-Bissau and her name is an ode to – yep – Nicki Minaj. She impressed, just recently, at the latest edition of BRDCST. The Quietus oracled that: ‘Her music is dazzling in all senses, a trance-inducing tangle of boxy drums, vivid swirls of synthetic melody and buzzsaw grime bass.’