CYCLIC DEFROST reviews DJ NERVOSO’s EP

Nervoso likes his percussion, and doesn’t need much else, as the six songs here, clocking in at 20 odd minutes in total, are wonky unsettling rhythmic workouts with minimal extraneous ingredients. Occasionally there’s a hilarious repetitive vocal sample saying “Ah Ah,” such as on ‘Ah Ah’, a bit of bass here and a siren there, but in the main, it’s percussion, sampled hand percussion and electronic beats. Most of his sounds feel culled from a techno music sample library, though whilst Nervoso is no doubt tipping his hat to this world, his stuttering beats, odd cadences and peculiar time signatures, alongside colliding, near incongruous rhythmic patterns keep everything joyfully off kilter and uncertain.

The most interesting piece is the final ‘Kuia,’ and it’s also his also his most diverse, and though it barely gets above a canter, the beats evolve, swing, and even the implementation of some strange pitches of sound that are vaguely reminiscent of farmyard animals from kids keyboards still manages to end up with this really seductive stilted groove. Like much of Nervoso’s music it almost feels like a challenge he’s given himself, by beginning with a cold difficult near grooveless snare, then it’s up to him to slowly breathe life into the track. And it’s incredible how Nervoso and many of his compatriots seem to be able to make challenging fascinating and unexpected dance music from the simplest of ingredients.

This is the kind of music that makes you wonder if you’re playing it at the wrong speed, it’s a deconstruction of electronic music, where it has been disassembled and pieced back together a little wrong, leaving the listener feeling more than a little bit, confused, energized and Nervoso.

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CYCLIC DEFROST reviews DJ MARFOX “Chapa Quente”

Words by Bob Baker Fish

DJ Marfox’s first EP, 2011’s Eu Sei Quem Sou was a bolt out of the blue. It was also the label’s first release, and heralded the emergence of a new electronic sound that was distinctively Portuguese – rough and raw electrics, influenced by the frenetic rhythms of Angola. Marfox is something of legend within the scene, with many subsequent musicians taking on his fox moniker as a sign of respect. Listening to this first missive you can understand why. This was the sound of hope, expression and creativity in the outer suburbs of Lisbon, precisely at a time that the entire continent and particularly Portugal were in economic decline. This was something new, something progressive, something of their own.

The opening track of Chapa Quente, 2685 couldn’t be more different from its predecessor, it begins straight out of a club, all hifi rave sheen, 4/4 beats, handclaps, and it’s difficult not to freak out a little, and ponder what the intervening years and surge in popularity done to Marfox. But these thoughts dissipate as quickly as they arrive as he continues to layer the ingredients, the frenetic polyrhythmic hand percussion and a hyperactive flute helping the piece to evolve into an overwhelming, somewhat woozy and frenzied slab of inspired off kilter dance music. This is forward thinking club music. Make no mistake though, it’s still very much Marfox and it’s pedal to the metal, and with its humour and hat tipping to rave culture it demonstrates that Marfox’s focus has expanded outwards. Perhaps the title of the second track, the wonky reggae inflected ‘Unsound’, might give away how far his focus has shifted, referencing his time at the Polish festival. Yet this is not a bad thing, as there is no way that these two pieces and indeed the remainder of the EP could’ve come from any other artist in or outside Portugal. Marfox consumes reference points and integrates them into his own musical world like few others.

‘Cobra Preta’ (Black Snake) is another balls to the floor percussion workout, with an insistent whistle and repetitive vocal sample it’s pure dynamics that you can only imagine being grist for his live show. In fact the dancefloor seems to be very much a focus for Marfox, yet it’s his unique ability to seamlessly integrate the hand percussion or marimba samples, the wooden hits and rumbles with these clipped insistent and raw electronics that is entirely unique and unparalleled. The final piece, the stilted wooden ‘B 18’ seems like its locked in a groove yet it expands almost miraculously outwards and before long we’re back on the dancefloor, albeit with strange almost tribal ingredients. Yet this is the miracle of Marfox. His ability to shift time and space is unsurpassed. We knew he was one to watch in 2011, yet now it’s 2016 and I wouldn’t dare my eyes or ears away for a minute. Something important is happening.

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P013 reviewed for CYCLIC DEFROST

Words by Bob Baker Fish

With the majority of releases on the Portuguese label Principe two words spring to mind immediately: ‘raw’, and ‘wonky.’ To this writer it’s incredible how you can apply these words so consistently to such diverse and consistently interesting music that comes from their roster. Their music is the street sound of outer Lisbon, an incredible fusion of traditional Angolan rhythms and current day electrics. Yet like all the more interesting music scenes, it seems to almost feed on itself, where inspiration comes internally, with the artists engaged in a healthy creative competition.

Normal Nada a.k.a. Qraqmaxter CiclOFF, a.k.a. Erre Mente is one of the more eccentric personalities to appear on the label, with Principe referring to his sound as ‘metakuduro’ and suggesting his approach is that of “a special kind of cosmogonical pirate exploring chemical balanced regimes of wake – sleep and the seductive dimensions between both.” So we’re dealing with a mystical kind of electronic dance music, and there’s no denying his unique, at times quirky compositional decisions. It’s great that the persona matches his approach to sound, which is consistently off kilter, yet also consistently inspired.

There’s repetition, and the very strange samples, yet there’s also a certain ironic playfulness. His electrics sound like birds on the EP closer Tarraxinha Da Calopsita v2 yet they’re pared with a gentle down-tempo kind of somberness that vaguely reminds me of DJ Shadow’s Midnight in A Perfect World, if it wasn’t so insistently annoying – which is kind’ve its charm.

Nubai (Wo lo lol) is remarkable though, and it’s impossible to draw any parallels to pretty much anything else. It must be the ‘metakuduro’ that Principe were talking about. It’s a weird stuttering, jerky track with a very odd time signature and a peculiar yet slightly catchy drawling vocal sample. Again it’s insistent, yet it’s also distinctive, a peculiar merging of ingredients that shouldn’t work together yet somehow do. It’s the kind of music that you shouldn’t listen to if operating heavy machinery.

Elsewhere his desire for experimentation continues unabated, from an industrial dirge pared with funky house to a wobbly sped up dubstep to a raw kind of mutant house, Normal Nada traverses a wide variety of styles and approaches on Transmutação Cerebral, marking him as a forward thinking if not eclectic producer who appears to be capable of anything.

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CYCLIC DEFROST reviews P010

Cliquem no scan abaixo para ler em contexto.

Click scan below to read in context.

By Bob Baker Fish

Niagara are dirty house, or rough house. Maybe raw house is a better description of this Portuguese group who apparently make their music live even on recordings. I say apparently because it’s house music and surely no one would consider jamming out house music in this day and age. Though to be fair if anyone would even consider it, it would be this Lisbon outfit, signed to one of the most influential underground labels currently in operation, Lisbon’s Principe, who release a ridiculously limited quantity of hand painted 12” vinyl’s that sell out a little too quickly, with even a label of Warp’s stature recently jumping on the bandwagon releasing two 12″ compilations of Principe’s unique Angolan Portuguese electronica.

This is funky repetitive music. It’s mutant disco, punchy and raw, with a darker edge than your run of the mill house music. At times there’s almost a punk funk feel, with a minimal, almost aggressive DIY approach. The edges aren’t as rounded as you’d expect and there’s an urgency lurking within the 4/4 beats. It’s also brimming with unexpected moments of experimental weirdness, like the music is trying to force itself through the rudimentary ingredients. You ask yourself questions that you normally wouldn’t, like are they birds or a synthesizer? The jammy nature gives it both a feeling of momentum and immediacy, which is almost non existent in house music. Who knew house music could be this raw, this urgent, this amazing?

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