- The Princípe breakout star gets loose and limber on his latest EP.
- With just two solo records under his belt, DJ Lycox has become one of the darlings of the Princípe roster. Last year's Kizas do Ly was a real head-turner, throwing a light on kizomba, a leisurely, romantic style of music that underlined a new potential for elegance and melody in the Lisbon club sound. A year later he returns with LYCOXERA, a six-track EP that expands his sound by combining the delicacy of the kizomba work with the rowdy rhythms of his 2017 release. Then Lycox adds the swagger and low-end heft of Afro house, hinting at new paths for Princípe to go down.
One listen to "Yoga" and you'll know what I mean—there's a certain thrust and spaciousness to the groove, allowing Lycox's signature tumbling melodies to ride the groove in a very different way.. The opener "Eu Mbora Dou Bue Show" has a string-led stagger (and rambling vocal) that looks to gqom, while "Rapaz Sinistro" is a delightfully funky array of percussive sounds all plunking out their own path, like an ensemble of mallet players each playing a different rhythm.
"Southside" and "Momentos Únicos" have a touch of older Lycox to them, and the former's zany bounce and punch-drunk breakdown—it sounds like the track is stumbling around confused—mirrors the anything-goes glee of the earliest Príncipe records. The most promising track is "Wildin," whose dark textures and fussy but fantastic use of reverb and delay—so that some synths sound like water droplets falling to the ground—borrow tropes from techno, both Afro and otherwise. Lycox's discography has always been a synthesis of the influences around him, whether that was UK club music, Lisbon or Paris, and with LYCOXERA he takes on the sounds of the wider diaspora for an EP that's both fearsome and exquisite.
Tracklist01. Eu Mbora Dou Bue Show
02. Rapaz Sinistro
03. Southside
04. Yoga
05. Wildin
06. Momentos Únicos