2012 was a busy year for Man Recordings boss Daniel Haaksman. First, he started his own weekly radio show „Luso FM“, focussing on eletronic dance music from the Portugese speaking world, i.e. countries like Angola, Brasil, Mozambique or Portugal on German public radio „Funkhaus Europa“.

Parallely, Daniel produced remixes for Kry Wolf, Lord Nelson, So Shifty, Makina Del Karibe and Bonde Do Rolê, and also released his “Rambazamba Remixed” album, plus his much acclaimed compilation of Brasilian Tecno Brega. In between, Daniel travelled the globe DJing, including Angola to play at “União Electronica” festival. While out clubbing in Angola ́s capitol Luanda, Daniel instantly fell in love with the city ́s local house sound.

The Luanda house sound is called Ku House (a mixture of Kuduro and House). The „Ku“ in „Kuduro“ (literally meaning „hard ass“) stands for booty. Besides, Angolan house is in dialogue with local music styles as well as the South African style of house music. Far from the raging, raved up vibes of current European ghetto club music, Angolan house tunes add a subtle form of deepness, mixed with frantic beats and hypnotic Portugese vocals.

Thus for his brand new single, Daniel teamed up with Angolan singer and culture impressario Coréon Dú and produced “Lemba”, originally a Semba tune on a lavish woman named Lemba. Coréon Dú is the brains behind the popular Angolan reality-style dance competition programme „Bounce“, also running „Os Kuduristas“, an internationally travelling roadshow programme promoting Angola’s unique kuduro style of rapping and dancing.

CORÉON DÚ

„Lemba“ is a unique Berlin-Luanda cooperation of Afro house made with a minimalist Berlin twist. Featuring a plain, percussive beat, a speaker busting sub-bass, a subtle arpeggio and the beautiful voice of Coréon Dú, this stripped down track has all it takes to become the big cross-culture club tune of spring 2013. This is a tune that could easily be played both at Berlin ́s Berghain club and Berlin ́s street carnival, the “Carneval Of Cultures”. Yes, it ́s both for house heads and barefoot dancers.

But then that ́s what Daniel Haaksman ́s music is always about: Establishing cultural bridges and sonic exchanges, incorporating the legacy of European bass music, while keeping a keen eye on the dancefloor. Drop “Lemba” and you ́ll feel Daniel Haaksman ́s vision.

Listen to it here:

DJ Feedback:

Laurent Garnier: “Great stuff!”
Riva Starr : “Bravo, Daniel”
Sinden: “Love Haaksman stuff”
Roundtable Knights: “First time I hear about Ku House and I love it!”
Foamo : “Whoa, love this!”
Oliver $: “This is a hit!”
Acid Washed: “Beautiful, this is big!”
Toshio Matsuura (UFO, Tokyo) : “Nice step!”
Shirkhan (Exploited): “Hot stuff, will play this!”
Schlachthofbronx: “Yeah, Haaksman in house!”
So Shifty : “Lemba goes hard, great vocals!”
Isa GT: “Amazing direction, Daniel. Tired of noisey stuff. This is both stylish and heavy!”
Scottie B: “Great!”
Bert On Beats: „Love it!“
Wildlife!: “Dope!”

Buy the release at these fine shops:

This month’s episode is all about Lusotronics, the festival presented by Daniel Haaksman on May 18th and 19th in Berlin. Listen to a selection of tracks by the festival’s artists, a chat with Daniel and exclusive guest mixes by Edu K and DJ Comrade.

Also, get a first listen to Daniel Haaksman’s new single Lemba, which is out May 15th on Man Recordings.

Giveaway: Win two tickets for Lusotronics festival! Tune in and listen to find out how. Boa sorte!

Visit Soundcloud for the tracklist.

#17 in Daniel Haaksman´s weekly radio show on Funkhaus Europa presents new tracks by Gang Do Eletro, Waldo Squash, Schlachthofbronx, Tropkillaz and many more. By the way, if you ever wondered what the hec “Funkhaus” means, it´s the German word for “House Of Broadcast”. “Funk” means “broadcasting” in German (how cool is that actually?).

Que Bajo, New York´s finest club night for all things global just uploaded Uproot Andy´s “Worldwide Ting Mixtape”. Now in its 5th year, Que Bajo will “open up its crates,” with the creation of Que Bajo Records, to share the sound of the party with a global audience. As a preview of the upcoming releases, Uproot Andy is offering up the Worldwide Ting mix, an hour long journey of all original remixes, most of which have never been heard outside of the Que Bajo party or Uproot Andyʼs DJ sets. In the months to come Que Bajo Records will be making these tracks available for free download on this website, and will follow up with a string of party tested remixes created or curated by the Que Bajo DJs.