DJ N Fox - Chá Preto

First long player in a good while from one of the Principe OGs and what a return. The Principe sound remains alive and kicking here, yet something has changed, too. A mutation of the mutation. The characteristic polyrhythmic clips of kuduro and incessant footwork-referencing cut-n-shuts are now pared to a dreamy glaze, not minimal by any conventional understanding of the term, but certainly NOT in the same maximalist high octane zone of 2019's Cartas Na Manga. Fox has always possessed an insane ear for detail, here turning his attention to ethereal synths, punctured snares snaps and the underlay of diegetic samples, all aligning to an overall shift towards the gloomier corners of the dancefloor. If the dancefloor is indeed where you might find this - I'd contend we're more third room, afterhours, the hinterlands of the night territory this time out, though they don't feel like especially familiar spaces in Fox's hands. So who to compare to? Outside of Principe itself, there's Rashad of course, and I know he hangs over a lot of what happens in electronic music, but the jazz-y rhodes of 'Mutadoree' and 'Wangulia' do bring to mind Theo Parrish's monumental 'Ah' as if walked around the Casino Lisboa, and really, that flatters both parties but doesn't really tell too much of the overall story. Real future fwd stuff this. Always different always the same in the Principe universe.