Buraka Som Sistema

While some might worry that the globalization of music could lead to a flattening and homogenization of sound, Buraka Som Sistema are evidence that international exchange can instead deepen music’s specificity and push it into new territory all together. The group formed when three members of a Lisbon-based drum ’n’ bass collective (João “Branko” Barbosa, Rui “DJ Riot” Pité, and Kalaf ngelo) became interested in kuduro, the urgent genre of dance music from Angola, and tapped Andro “Conductor” Carvalho, a hip-hop producer from that country, to join them. The unique blend of genres—which soon folded in techno, breakbeat, grime, and zouk—quickly made Buraka Som Sistema one of the most singular electronic acts not only in Portugal, but on the planet, as evidenced by their 2008 hit “Sound of Kuduro,” which paired the group with M.I.A., who was then blazing a similarly global-minded trail. From their opening salvo, 2006’s From Buraka to the World, through 2014’s Buraka, the group’s last album before a long hiatus, Buraka Som Sistema have bent and warped the tension-release structure of EDM into shapes so radical and unexpected that you could scour the globe and still not find any replicas.