See also: Nuno Beats - Sai Do Coração
Two different dimensions of the Principe universe on show with the latest long players from Nuno Beats and Deejay Veiga. Kuduro is the binding glue for near-all that comes from the Lisbon powerhouse, but well over two decades in with 50+ different releases under their belt, it's endlessly fascinating mapping each new mutation/derivation/inspiration. Nuno Beats first showed up as part of RS Producoes in 2018, contributing to the still bracing Baghdad Style 12", which, if you're asking me, is arguably one of the best records in the entire stable. There's been a few other RS-related contributions since then, but out on his own, Beats makes a marked swing for the fences, maintaining the heatsick swing of kuduro, but slowing the BPM and incorporating loverman vocals, woodblocks and jazzy Rhodes ala Detroit's finest (think Theo, Larry, even Moody, the results something akin to Principe's very own Casa Profunda. The vision isn't too dissimilar to that of DJ N Fox's LP from earlier in the year, devising new idioms through cross-pollination and restless thinking. Deejay Veiga is a relative newcomer, his freshness written all over the dayglo exuberance of Tudo é no Guetto, which is about as classic Principe as it comes in 2024, that alluring amalgam of light and shade that intuitively knows where there's sun there's shadow. And in equally classic Principe style, it doesn't belong exclusively to that world either, the glassy synths and chopped vocal sample of opener 'My Mind' taking me right back to Rustie/Night Slugs circa 2010, while the alien gloom of 'X de Destroi' aint a million miles from the braindance grime Slaughtermob were preaching in the early 2000s. But that's the Principe ethic in a nutshell - omnivorous, supple, ever-evolving. The sound of the disapora; forever the sound of the future.
