Vinyl 12″ / Digital
Written and produced by DJ Nigga Fox;
Mastered by Tó Pinheiro da Silva, Artwork by Márcio Matos;
Released February, 2022.
VINYL/DIGITAL: Order from us
A1 – Madeso
A2 – Gás Natural
A3 – Sanzaleiro feat. DJ Firmeza
A4 – Sasuke
PRESS RELEASE
We are instantly dropped into the record. A rush of adrenaline and it’s up to us to figure out where exactly do we stand. The insistent “strings” loop unsettles even the percussion, loose and propulsive. A brief pause signals the return for part 2 with some daring brass stabs adding an extra voice. One gets the feeling that the producer stands quietly amidst the storm, observing its effects. Nigga Fox has been flexing his muscles, keeping the production fit and – as always – very personal. At the same time, it’s casual, effortless, revealing a steady hand and ideas that just seem to be extracted from the air.
With DJ Firmeza in “Sanzaleiro” it’s a game of contrast, dissonance, driving force and constant pushing of limits. Here, brass stabs communicate how epic this journey is. Layers are deployed where common sense would dictate none extra should exist, and so again we find ourselves looking for a handle. Once found, we can participate in this displacement of the atmosphere. It ends just as “Sasuke” begins. Its main motive suggests tranquility, but elements gradually appear from all corners: an erratic bassline, broken beat, organ keys pressed down, voices from the yard. No agenda but the sonic agenda, the natural flow of this producer’s unmatchable sense of composition.
Retreating a little bit to “Gás Natural”, there’s a break at around 01:21 we feel could go on forever and take a life of its own. This reinforces the notion that a typical Nigga Fox track could in fact be more than one. Gateways, portals are there. They show glimpses of different realities or, if you’re pragmatic, just call them options.
Vinyl 12″ (red vinyl); individually hand-painted sleeve, 500 copies available for the world.
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Música Da Terra segna il ritorno di Dj Nigga Fox. A tre anni da Cartas Na Manga, questo EP propone quattro tracce per una ventina di minuti di musica inedita. Dopo un decennio di attività – gli esordi risalgono al 2013 con O Meu Estilo – il produttore di stanza a Lisbona è a tutti gli effetti il nome di punta della scena lusitana che dalla batida arriva fino al kuduro. L’EP vede anche una collaborazione con Dj Firmeza, sempre dal roster Príncipe, che prende la forma di un ipercinetico banger (Sanzaleiro) dai bassi pompatissimi sotto ottoni ossessivi e poliritmi parossistici; Sasuke mena con un broken beat quasi sorprendente per le abitudini del Nostro, con un basso sintetico da Roland 303 che contribuisce alla lisergica costruzione della struttura. In apertura c’è Madeso, di nuovo con fiati sintetici frammentati che sembrano portare a un millimetro dalla follia (o forse è l’estasi). Chiude il poker l’episodio più giocoso del lotto: Gás Natural fa anche tirare il fiato, per qualche minuto vagamente più misterico con una melodia quasi al confine con l’IDM. Ma è solo una suggestione, presto stravolta ancora per quello che è un lavoro che conferma Dj Nigga Fox quale vero e proprio ambasciatore più danzereccio e viscerale della scena batida/kuduro della diaspora angolana.
Sentireascoltare, February 2022
‘Música Da Terra’ marks just over 10 years since DJ Nigga Fox came to our attention on the ‘African Digital Dance’ compilation, and this latest EP on Príncipe sees him cement his status as one of the most trailblazing producers on the contemporary Kuduro scene. The sounds on the EP, as ever, are pleasingly far away from convention. The tracks are percussive and rhythmically-led but never predictable, and the syncopated beats achieve a real groove when teamed with psychedelic, experimental production sensibilities and so many different musical style influences. A standout moment is ‘Sanzaleiro’ – a hazy, thumping jam with fellow Príncipe teammate DJ Firmeza, and as a whole the EP takes daring twists and turns that will delight even the most seasoned listener of the Príncipe catalogue.
Bleep, February 2022
Le moins que l’on puisse dire c’est que DJ Nigga Fox ne s’embarrasse pas de pincettes, il nous plonge d’emblée dans un grand bain de batida, de tarraxo et de kuduro, où les beats se croisent et s’entrechoquent d’une manière presque erratique, voir désagréable, où le ressac incessant des synthés et des basses vient nous taper sur un coin du crâne jusqu’à nous en faire perdre la raison ! Et à peine Nigga Fox nous offre une petite respiration entre deux parties du morceau, que voilà déjà le presque dérangeant rythme de « Madeso » qui se remet en marche dans une grande danse aux abords du chaos et de la dissonance.
Oui, « Madeso » est dérangeant et il nous pré-dispose à un EP qui s’annonce déjà comme une tempête électronique qui va souffler dans les clubs de Lisbonne comme ceux de Luanda, et balaiera nos terres musicales, avec un son, celui de la Música da Terra ! À noter également que DJ Firmeza viendra s’inviter sur le disque pour un feat sur le titre « Sanzaleiro ».
Djolo, February 2022
Deploying four immediately upfront, naturally experimental workouts, ‘Música Da Terra’ marks just over 10 years since DJ Nigga Fox came to our attention on the ‘African Digital Dance’ compilation, and solidly affirms his role as the leader of Lisbon’s new school. Balancing a cosmic jazzy depth akin to Jamal Moss or Ron Trent’s deep house with more urgent, syncopated ghetto grooves, his music is the pinnacle of contemporary Kuduro, if you ask us. The lad’s catalogue practically charts the sound’s development from grimy and hardcore to more sensual, textured and rhythmelodically psychedelic in a way that places him like Kuduro’s answer to Dego or A Guy Called Gerald, and especially on this EP.
Including an instant standout jam with fellow Príncipe don DJ Firmeza in the muscular bass churn, bolshy brass and groggy pads of ‘Sanzaleiro’, Nigga Fox absolutely bosses it on his three solo works. There’s the adrenalizing scorcher ‘Madeso’ at the front, with its shards of marching horns sliced up into swingeing heads-down swagger, but also laid with a mental breakdown, while ‘Gás Natural’ cools off for a hot minute with its exquisite, chill breeze melody and in-the-pocket log drums leading somewhere deliciously darker, and ‘Sasuke’ simply slays with jaw-dropping twist of cosmic acid broken beat soul, lathering hazy organs, 303 and nimblest drums into the tightest, inimitable step.
Boomkat, February 2022
In 1973, director George A. Romero made an educational film about elder abuse in America. The project was financed by the Lutheran Service Society of Western Pennsylvania, who either ignored his horror bonafides or were completely unaware of them. Like Romero’s masterful Night of the Living Dead, his church-funded The Amusement Park leverages supernatural terror as a metaphor for social ills. The film depicts old age as a ruthless carnival where the elderly are subjected to routine violence or cruel neglect—all in a maddening, circular timeline mimicking fairground rides.
DJ Nigga Fox (aka Rogério Brandão) may not have had Romero on the mind while composing his new track “Madeso,” but it feels like careening through a haunted funhouse. Appearing on his upcoming EP Música da Terra, the latest single from Lisbon dance label Príncipe Discos is propulsive and cyclical. Brandão drives the rhythm with an artillery of drum effects and a bent, pulsing tone that sounds like an accordion gone haywire. Tracing its urgent melody, you almost feel trapped inside the synthetic instrument, riding its violently undulating bellows like a rickety roller coaster.
Like Romero’s carnival of dread or New Jersey’s notorious Action Park, “Madeso” brings an element of danger into the sphere of play. Its polyrhythms demand vigorous dance, but cataloging each texture and contour of the percussion would drive you mad. Horn patches bleat like goats, and warbled loops sound like sampled and stretched hiccups. Within “Madeso,” nothing is as it appears—and this frenzied delirium is part of the fun.
Pitchfork, January 2022
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