- For Príncipe, the label championing Lisbon's kuduro and batida scene, their first release for DJ Nervoso is important. According to the label, he's ground zero for the movement, the main inspiration for veterans like DJ Marfox—a guy so influential that other DJs and producers use "fox" in their name in his honor—and DJ Firmeza. Nervoso's DJ sets in the early 2000s, and his early productions, which mutated Angolan kuduro, lit a fire that many club enthusiasts are enjoying the warmth of now.
While only the earliest of trainspotters could know which of this EP's six tracks come from the last 15 years or so (Príncipe aren't telling), they all share a bare bones aesthetic and a nervous (nervoso, naturally) funk. Much of batida's appeal is its hyped energy, but some of the deepest grooves here draw from the slower, sexier pace of tarraxinha, like the mantric trance of "KUIA." While these tracks are almost entirely percussion, you might get a blaring horn, like in "Vuto," or some mostly non-verbal vocal exclamations, like in "Ah Ah." A distorted synth makes an appearance, as in "Avacs," or perhaps a sonar blip ("KUIA"). It's inspiring to hear how a keen sense of syncopation can do so much with so little.
TracklistA1 Vuto
A2 Ah Ah
A3 Avacs
B1 27aca
B2 Djj
B3 KUIA