Look out, Buraka Som Sistema has entered the room.
BSS are a group of Djs taking electronic music by storm with their rhythmic beats and creative production styles.
Your ears may fool you, as there is something familiar about their music, but listen carefully, as you will hear something unexpected…

Welcome to the world of Kuduro, or ‘progressive Kuduro’ as BSS call it. This genre of music originally from Angola, Africa, started evolving around the early nineties. It’s a type that has a contagious groove; runs directly into your veins and makes you want to dance until you fall.
BSS bring you Kuduro with a touch of electronic music. Many are their influences but what they want to show us is their interpretation of this music which reflects their own lives.

Want to know more about these mischief makers?! Keep on reading.
Here is a little interview with the guys…

Hello Buraka Som Sistema! How are you guys doing?
Introduce yourselves to us.
We are very well. Thanks for asking. We are 3 producers (Conductor, Dj Riot and Joao Pequeno aka Lil’john) with various backgrounds, that got together in Enchufada (a studio and workstation in Lisbon) to develop an idea called Buraka Som Sistema. To make this happen we invited Petty to sing on some track’s we produced.

How come you are called Buraka Som Sistema?
What’s in the name?
Buraka SS is all about making music for the dance floor with a Kuduro twist.
This is a dance genre which emerged in Luanda, Angola and most Angolan people who live around Lisbon, live in the area of Amadora. Consequently, Buraka is a district inside Amadora. That’s where our name comes from and then “Som Sistema” is just a bad translation for sound system from Portuguese.

You are originally from Portugal and this is where you started producing. How is the music scene there?
The music scene in Lisbon is good; Portuguese Hip-Hop is exploding at the moment generating a good “do it yourself” vibe. People are feeling good about downloading cracked Fruity loops and starting to make beats!
We are kind of alone in the Kuduro approach to music making but I’m confident that soon there will be more.

Has music always been in your mind?
When and how did it all start?
As I mentioned before the 3 of us have different backgrounds, but one way or another we have been involved with the Portuguese music scene for about 8 years. From Cooltrain Crew (Riot, Lil’john, Kalaf) which is Portugal’s oldest drum and bass collective, to 1-Uik Project (Lil’john, Kalaf) to Conjunto N’gonguenha (Conductor) and many more things. Buraka was just an idea in the middle of many more that ended up where we are now.
Our first ever official show was on April 30th 2006. We had the show without having many releases. Riot and I (Lil’john) were djing and Conductor, Petty and Kalaf were on the microphones spiting Kuduro style hooks. We kind of wanted to keep things like that but it got to a point where we had to do something more serious.
People started to see us as a band, which we didn’t like because we just want to be dance floor beat makers with guests! But we ended up releasing 750 copies of our first EP “From Buraka to the World” in June and made lots and lots of gigs!

For you, ‘it’s all about re-connecting the urban music’s deepest realities’. Tell us what your music is about and what your major influences are.
This all started from the need to explore Kuduro; a genre that we felt that was developing more and more into something that sounded absolutely groundbreaking. At a certain point producers in Angola started making beats that we felt that could be introduced in our individual dj performances (buraka wasn’t born yet), so we started to make re-edits of some tracks and we were spinning this with a huge reaction from the crowds. It’s obvious that because we are living in Europe we followed the trends and always enjoyed stuff like drum’n’bass, grime, dubstep, 2 step, dancehall and this is what we have in mind when producing a track. Kind of our own “Amadora Style” approach to beat making with a Kuduro twist!

Last summer you launched your first album ‘From Buraka to the World’ in Portugal and it rapidly sold out. How did you feel about it?
It was an EP that was born out of the need to get something on the shops to feed the hungry Portuguese kids that were coming to our nights and dancing their asses off! There are photos to confirm this! So to be reeeeeally honest we kind of expected that the cd’s would fly away fast. There was a huge demand on our nights for something like this.

I must say I was very surprised in March when I opened my copy of Mixmag and saw that the Annie Mac’s Mix CD included your from Bonde do Role’s Song ‘Gasolina’. That must have been pretty exciting for you guys, right?
It was amazing. Some of us follow Annie Mac’s work and it’s for us completely nonsense that she picked one of our tracks!

Wherever you play, you are known to cause a mischief. How do the crowds react to your music?
The crowd goes wild for numerous different reasons. In Portugal, people already know Kuduro, but it was underground, gettho/ gangsta music, so it wasn’t “legal” to like Kuduro. Now they feel that it’s ok to dance so they just let loose.
In other countries the phenomenon is more about the beats.
It sounds really fresh and tribal, almost hypnotic, so people just...go places!

Until now you have played mainly in Portugal but you have a lot of gigs scheduled around Europe for this summer.
This is quiet a big step…any expectations?
We have played in the U.K (a small dj set in the Old Blue Last) Sweden, Holland and France and it was great. Our expectations are that people will love the music and leave their problems at home and just jump around like crazy Man-Monkeys from Saturn!

Soon you will also be working on a new record with the label ‘Modular’. Can you tell us a little bit more about it?
It’s a 12” which will be released next month, with 3 songs from our Portuguese E.P: Yah, featuring Mc Petty, Coozi o mambo and Com Respeito. We think these 3 tunes can really show the diversity of the Kuduro sound.

And where do you see Buraka Som Sistema in five years?
Making beats like five years ago! I think Buraka has still a lot to give to the world, something’s never seen, never heard before.

Just to finish up…How do you feel about the state of music today? What would you change?
I think that power to the people is the phrase that would best describe the state of music today. We wouldn’t change anything, because we believe that with the internet, everyone has their 15 minutes of fame....plus a lifetime, really.

Thanks guys for the interview. Keep the mischief going :)

There is little doubt that this summer is going to be huge for BSS.
They will be playing at Glastonbury in the UK, Eurocultured Festival in Manchester, Festival Alive in Lisbon, Roskilde Festival in Roskilde, Lovebox in London, also Pantiero in Cannes and will have many more gigs in Portugal.

Catch them this Friday, the 4th of May, at Fabric in London for the Get Familiar Vs Mad Decent night.
And be ready! They will bring down the house! Expect everything from DJs and dancers to percussion and singers and a great vibe to keep going you for the whole night.
Believe me, after listening to it, you will know the ‘real’ African/Portuguese way of partying, and I must say it rocks!!

MySpace Buraka Som Sistema
Enchufada Press