HARD ASS SESSIONS

When Buraka Som Sistema showed to the world in 2006 what could be done with the rhythmic structure of Kuduro, a new sound was born. It wasn’t actually Kuduro neither any of the other genres you could listen in the BSS tracks. At that point there was a need for a new name, but the truth is that there is still no name. No one could classify precisely this new wave of electronic music so far.

Some connoisseurs and opinion makers decided to name it “Global Dance Music”. There’s also the term “Tropical Beats” due to the Caribbean influence in genres such as the UK Funk but for many, the rawness of Kuduro and the way Buraka shows it in their music, made us once again go back to the African continent in search of inspiration.

The HARD ASS SESSIONS project clarifies that reality, but instead of losing time naming that sound we decided to invite several musicians and producers to create original songs, showing us their interpretation of that so called rhythm that is Kuduro, adding or subtracting elements in order to make it work for their own live sets and their dance floor.
Until the day some expert finds a name that defines it, we’ll just call it HARD ASS!

HARD ASS SESSIONS Vol V

The Hard Ass challenge is simple. Artists must create their own unique take on a Kuduro beat. Stepping up to the plate this time around are NYC’s Kingdom, Montreal’s Poirier, Bert on Beats from Tallinn, Estonia, and Pocz & Pocheko from Venezuela.

Ever since he released his first mixtape in 2006, Brooklyn producer and DJ phenomenon Kingdom has been garnering a rabid following for his signature sets and productions, which blend bass-heavy, dance-savvy global sounds with a distinct r&b sensibility and emotional depth. Kingdom’s ecstatic and unique approach to club music has already caught the ear of tastemakers (Pitchfork, Fader, XLR8R, Dazed), and the music more than lives up to the buzz! For HA5, he gives us ‘Stadium Pass’.

Poirier is a rising DJ/producer who, in his own words, focuses his productions on “the fusion of Caribbean and electronic music.” Never afraid to integrate a myriad of influences in his music, he rose to the Hard Ass challenge admirably with ‘Vivendo Juntos’, his first ever foray into Kuduro. “The energy and the speed of it is something I’m quite comfortable with.”

Bert on Beats has had a busy few months with an album (Antenna of Tallinn) out now on Man Recordings, remixes for Moombathon genius Munchi, Bologna based Dj Farrapo and BandishProject from Mumbai, and producing Estonian electropop group HU?. He’s not phased though, far from it: “it’s all really interesting as the clash of all these transnational styles inspires me and gives me new ideas.” In his track, the appropriately named ‘Bassy Baile’, he melds dancehall with Indian flute for what he calls a “global bass mash up.”

Pocz & Pacheko are two DJ/Producers creating beats on a daily basis in Caracas, Venezuela, while running a producer/promoter collective alongside a blog and podcast series: www.abstractor.net.. Their sound is a mix of bass music, Kuduro, Reggaeton and House – they call it Tropical Bass Music, but the tag ”Caracas Bass” has also been used. They first collaborated on ‘Zarbak’ in 2010, released on the UK´s Senseless Recordings and supported by DJs such as Untold, J-Wow, Cardopusher & Mr Gasparov, before releases on Kid606’s Shockout exploring the combination between bass-heavy music, Kuduro and more tropical influences.
With a similar dance oriented scene in Venezuela called ‘Tuki’ or ‘Raptor House’, the duo were keen to bring some of that flavour to Kuduro, and they definitely succeeded in their track ‘Tuki Love’.

Tracklist
01 – STADIUM PASS – Kingdom
02 – VIVENDO JUNTOS – Poirier
03 – BASSY BAILE – Bert on Beats
04 – TUKI LOVE – Pocz & Pacheko

HARD ASS SESSIONS Vol IV

After inviting artists like Bok Bok, Douster, Zombies For Money, WILDLIFE!, Mele and Toy Selectah to collaborate on previous editions, Buraka Som Sistema’s home label Enchufada continues to challenge artists into creating their own vision of a Kuduro beat in their Hard Ass Sessions. In this, the fourth edition, they’ve invited a host of international producers to the party.

Fresh French talent Canblaster’s profile has been steadily on the rise in 2010, with remixes for J-Wow, Drop the Lime, Teki Latex, Rusko and Klever and a second EP in the pipeline, ‘Master of Complication’, out in December on Nightshifters.

London’s Martelo was DJing on promo tours for Justin Timberlake, 50 Cent, and Destiny’s Child as well as holding down a residency at Ministry of Sound and shows on pirate stations Freeze and Bassline all by the age of 20. Since then he’s become know as part of the yOyO family, been Santigold’s international tour DJ since 2007 (as recommended by Diplo), opened for Jay-Z twice, had a smash hit with club banger ‘Wasted’ on Hervé’s Cheap Thrills label and played festivals the world over, from Coachella to Exit.

The two have joined together to make ‘Cannibal’, a moody, frenetic number with a definite hip hop flavour. As Canblaster says, it’s “really over the top, with crazy drums and a narrative mood.” Listen closely and you’ll hear a number of interesting samples… as Martelo explains, “I sat down on YouTube one night and ended up spending 4 hours watching documentaries about cannibals and that’s where the idea came from. There are a lot of samples from random cannibal clips in the track.”

Anyone who’s shown an interest in quality, forward-thinking electronic music over the past 10 years will have come across Paul ‘Seiji’ Dolby, ne of the UK’s most respected and talented producers. As a founding member of the much-loved Bugz In The Attic collective, a solo artist for Sonar Kollectiv and producer and co-writer for Roisin Murphy, he needs little introduction, having been one of the progenitors of the Broken Beat genre that went on to inspire many of his peers.

Seiji gives us ‘Buzzcut’. He said of the Hard Ass project, “I didn’t need to be asked to make a track influenced by Kuduro because it’s already been a big influence on me! Of course to be ‘challenged’ like this is great for firing up the creative spirit, and I did have to stretch myself to make sure I delivered something that I was proud of, especially given the other names involved!”

New York born Dubbel Dutch (aka Marc Glasser) first started producing electronic music when inspired by the early sounds of Warp Records, classic house, dubstep and Minimal Techno. Now drawing from an increasingly diverse range of influences, from US club, dancehall, UK funky, and cumbia tribal, his sound is always energetic and original, delivering a unique style of global bass music. Now relocated to Austin, TX, he is a contributor to the Palms Out Sounds blog and is currently working on a guarachero project which will be released through a sublabel of Untold’s Hemlock imprint, as well as remixes for Sound Pellegrino, DJ Sneak, and Ghetto Division’s D51. Another artist heavily inspired by the kuduro sound, he reveals, “I was really excited when I was given the opportunity to release with Enchufada. Mostly because it felt really natural and that this was already a direction that my music had been heading into. […] Part of the challenge for me was to give respect to original Angolan kuduro by focusing on producing a kuduro inspired track rather than just simply attempting to imitate kuduro. I gravitate towards sounds that are dark, percussive, and have always focused on creating music that amalgamates many influences.”

Carli Löf and Måns Glaeser run a convenience store outside of Stockholm where they specialize in Halal meat and tropical fruits. They also make some pretty fine music in their free time under the name Savage Skulls, having already released an EP on Switch’s Dubsided label, and remixes for Moby, Crookers, Dada Life and Jesse Rose. This year has seen them release an EP on Mad Decent with Douster and vocals by Robyn, as well as unveiling a brand new collaborative project with Crookers called Dr. Gonzo.

When label boss, Buraka Som Sistema’s J-Wow, asked the duo be involved with HA IV, Gallic wunderkind producer French Fries just happened to be in town and joined then in the studio to create ‘Marawa’, a bonifide kuduro club monster.

Hard Ass by name, Hard Ass by nature.

Tracklist
01 – CANNIBAL – Martelo vs Canblaster
02 – DEAD POOL – Dubbel Dutch
03 – BUZZCUT – Seiji
04 – MARAWA – Savage Skulls & French Fries

HARD ASS SESSIONS Vol III

THE HARD ASS SESSIONS ARE BACK… VOL.3 IS HERE!

After inviting artists like BAOBINGA, OCTA PUSH, NIC SARNO, BOK BOK, DOUSTER and ZOMBIES FOR MONEY, we continue to challenge artists into creating their own vision of a Kuduro beat.

On Volume 3 we have J-WOW (from Buraka Som Sistema) and Toy Selectah (Mad Decent) mixing Cumbia and Kuduro for the first time ever (think of Africa playing ping-pong with South America in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean), we have Oliver Twizt and Rockid transposing the whole dutch house energy into Kuduro (HUGE!), Melé applying all his 140bpm London lessons and
WILDLIFE! flirting with techno in a very respectful way.

Some quick info on our guest producers, Joao or J-WOW is part of Buraka Som Sistema and one of the pillars behind Enchufada, he released a couple of singles on labels like Deadly People (UK) and Mad Decent. Toy Selectah is like Jesus for the whole Cumbia Raverton South American world. He also releases through Mad decent. Melé is the new kid on the block with 18 years old (he probably started going out clubbing around 12?!?), releasing music trough Mixpack and Sinden’s brand new imprint Grizzly. Oliver Twizt is definitely one of Netherlands next big thing (his biggest release “Gangsterdam” became an instant classic) and together with turntablist sensation and Foktop label owner Rockid, they created a club “slow motion” beast! WILDLIFE! is nothing but super quality production from Switzerland, his biggest track to date Jumbie was a big crossover moment, with djs from all sorts of worlds playing it.

Tracklist
01 – MO’CHAXO – J-WOW & Toy Selectah
02 – KANOPA RIDDIM – Melé
03 – WANNA BE GANGSTAS – Oliver Twizt & DJ Rockid
04 – METAZOA – WILDLIFE!

HARD ASS SESSIONS Vol II

After introducing you the volume I with DJ Znobia now comes the volume II and this time we came up with a total different concept: we challenged music producers to make a Kuduro beat.

Instead of boring you with long bio’s and information that you can find all over the web we asked them to introduce themseleves, what they felt when they got this invitation, how it was making this track and what songs they’re really into lately. Here’s what they have to say:

NIC SARNO (Italy)
Track – “Mana Wasa”
- My name is Nic Sarno and I’m from Italy. I’ve started as a dj when i was 13 playin’ in my home with friends after school, with two crashed turntables, smoking weed and listening to nonsense italodisco, hip hop, Sex Pistols and Michael Jackson stuff. Then came the first evenings in clubs, and slowly over time, i’ve sharpened my musical selection. When i was 16/17 years old I’ve started to play in small club and illegal raves and then this strange game turns into a real job. At that time my bag was full of records from Trax, Djaxx Up Beats, Hi Bias, Strictly Rhythm, Power Trax…i was totally into acid house. And then I got my first R&S rec and Warp stuff, like Joey Beltram, AphexTwin or LFO……The productions comes a few years after….but in the same way….playing with samples and synths…without any particular idea about what to produce.
- (working on this project) was a great pleasure. I’ve always been involved in Buraka’s productions. They really inspired me and I am very attracted by the idea to be confronted with different kind of styles. I have always defined me as a DANCE dj – not a techno, or house, or whatever dj. I think this is the real essence of being a dj – MIXING DIFFERENT THINGS – and trying to give it a sense. I’ts just a matter of time and space.
- 5 songs I am into: GONJASUFI – Kowboyz And Indians; STARKEY – Alienstyles
CARIBOU – Sun; MARCUS PRICE & CARLI – Var e Naaaken ( Bok Bok rmx); IL TEATRO DEGLI ORRORI – E’ Colpa Mia

BOK BOK (UK)
Track – “Dance Report”
- I am Bok Bok, I’m a DJ and producer from South London. My tracks live in Tron.
I am co-founder and boss of the Night Slugs label and club alongside my fam L-Vis 1990. I build house tracks for the world of UK bass-heavy soundsystems. I started off playing grime music back years ago and that 100% informs my aesthetic to this day.
- When making “Dance Report” I had to get my head around a whole different type of groove to the one I normally use. I love the totally alien banger aesthetic of real gutta kuduro, and for my track I tried to channel that in the form of hard shaker triplets, massive compression and that crackish repetitive, hypnotik groove. It’s not my usual aproach but I’d like to think on “Dance Report” my grimey house style and the Kuduro style met somewhere in the middle, somewhere sweaty.
- 5 songs I am into: LIL SILVA – Perfussion; GIRL UNIT – IRL; L-VIS 1990 – Forever You; IKONIKA – Look (Final Boss Stage); GUIDO – Mad Sax

Douster (FR)
Track – A Mi a Louco
- I’m a Dj/Producer form Lyon, France , mixing all kind of stuff, from dancehal to house, cumbia to gabber… My music just sounds like my influences, well… all blended together, i can do stupid house music, trippy carribean tribal stuff or straight bangin rap, i like it all! I have stuff out on many different record labels, Nueva cumbia kings ZZK records from Argentina, parisian house music saviors Sound Pellegrino or Family buisness Bebup with my boys Jay weed and Arcade here in Lyon.
- I play kuduro in my sets very often, and a few of my tracks are really kuduro-inspired but i never did a proper kuduro track. I really like very atmospheric kuduro, but i like straight to the ground kuduro stuff too… i kinda get lost into that second option while making the track, as it’s 140bpm stuff, you can easily go half tempo, so i grabbed my autotune and did a little vocal part. The rest of the song is actually pretty basic, Kuduro percussions, gunshots and half epic half gangsta melodies.
- 5 songs I am into: JAY WEED – City Staccs; VYBZ KARTEL ft POPCAAN & GAZA SLIM – Clarkes; DVA – Ganja; DJ ERICK RINCON – La Bomba; MARCUS PRICE & CARLI – Mat, Bira, Kvinnor, Weed (Kingdom Remix)

Zombies for Money (PT)
Track – Me Toca So
- Zombies For Money are Dj Manaia & Klipar, although we have different points of view on electronic music we share a common goal, to make different music getting the right connection between world music and electronic music, from house to techno.
- Its was very interesting to do this track, kuduro is very energic and fast, what we did was trying to do a low tempo kuduro and “Me Toca So” was the result.
- 5 songs I am into: SIDNEY SAMSON “The World Is Yours”; J-WOW “O Dedo!”; BART B MORE “Romane”; KID KAIO & D-RASHID “Tarzan”; LA RIOTS “The Drop”

Tracklist
01 – MANA WASA – Nic Sarno
02 – DANCE REPORT – BOK BOK
03 – A MI A LOUCO – Douster
04 – ME TOCA SO – Zombies for Money

HARD ASS SESSIONS Vol I – DJ ZNOBIA

“The most original sound to come out of Angola through DJ Znobia
is married with Mekwa’s and Target’s art to fashion 400 unique hand-painted sleeves.”
Juxtapoz Magazine

“An inspiring project”
Upperplayground

Hard Ass Sessions 1 — DJ Znobia in an original limited Artist Edition from thevinylfactory on Vimeo

The first of the Hard Ass sessions, delivers an original track by DJ Znobia remixed by Buraka Som Sistema, Baobinga & I.D. and Octa Push.
In the finest tradition of The Vinyl Factory and Enchufada’s innovative drive, Hard Ass Sessions I — DJ Znobia has crystalized new original beats from Angola into a vinyl artist edition of 400 unique hand painted 12’’ sleeves.
The Vinyl has been pressed in the legendary EMI 1400 in super heavy-weight 200gr for the best quality sound on earth. This release also features a free download of the album. Click here to purchase
DJ Znobia mirrors in his music the urgent reality of Angola and Luanda, a capital in constant mutation. Almost single handed he has brought about a revolution in Kuduro, to the point where we can clearly see a before and an after DJ Znobia.
Buraka Som Sistema, Diplo, Radioclit and M.I.A. have all pointed DJ Znobia as the driving force for a new Kuduro sound from within Angola, and rightly so. DJ Znobia’s music is about reinventing Africa. It mixes the ancient and rooted with occidental technology through the use of computers, as it mashes and marries sometimes apparently disparate sources, influences, beats, it unveils the contradictions of a new Africa and African reality.

Mekwa is one of the artists who has been collaborating with Buraka Som Sistema from the very beginning. His body of work is mostly about catalyzing touch through digital media. Target is a young and talented street artist who tends to explore the clash between a self-made cartoon reality and an urban environment.
Mekwa and Target have tried to capture the essence of the aggressive Kuduro dance moves in two panels of 200 12’’ vinyl sleeves each.
The first panel represents a social network of thousands of kuduro dancers, all clustering and reconnecting after years of war.
The second panel is a random collection of dancers as these take centre stage in the vinyl jacket.