- Lisbon's master manipulator of rhythm gives his audience room to breathe with bright, airy moments peppered across dense percussion.
- Música da Terra roughly translates to "earth music," though there isn't much earthly about DJ Nigga Fox's music. If Príncipe mainstay DJ Marfox once described the drunken beats reverberating out of Lisbon's batida scene as "free," Nigga Fox is the finest example of the genre's brazen limitlessness. Tracks from his catalog can pair well with the most out-there Chicago footwork, engaging with the beat grid in a way that feels both anarchist and danceable.
The latest EP shows a somewhat reserved Nigga Fox. This might be difficult to believe with an opener like "Madeso," an unrelenting windstorm of brass stabs and cross-hatched percussion. But then there are pockets of calm in the dallying melody that skips across "Gás Natural"'s rhythm of mayhem, a beat crafted from hulking hi-hats, maracas and more curiously, a sample resembling cartoon swoop effects. There's a more satisfying reprieve in the oceanic pads that cut through the histrionic drums and delirious looping melodies of the claustrophobic "Sanzaliero." Closing out, "Sasuke," is the most sedated of all, folding lo-fi house and acid bleeps into sleepy batida. Like any DJ worth their salt, DJ Nigga Fox knows what goes up, must come down.
Tracklist01. Madeso
02. Gás Natural
03. Sanzaleiro feat. DJ Firmeza
04. Sasuke