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:

Beleza…the flyers of our Lusotronics festival have arrived and they´re looking great! The date is getting closer and we´re more than excited: The music line up, the lectures, the film program – it is all more than dope. Check the Lusotronics. site for the full program, and make sure you´ll make your way to Berlin on May 18th/19th! By the way, it´s the same weekend as Berlin´s legendary Carneval Of Cultures (the German capitol´s equivalent to the Nottinghill Carnival) – the city surely will be boiling!

Zouk Bass, coined by Buraka Som Sistema as a term for the slow motion tropical jams with which they opened their set at a recent Boiler Room performance, is currently all the rage. Numerous artists have been jumping on this new genre since, but hardly anyone is hitting the right spot since the balance of slow paced tarraxinha and zouk inspired rhythms mixed up with heavy bass and r n´b splinters is a particular science. Buraka´s “Zouk Flute”, released last week for free through their Uppercuts label, could be considered the blueprint track.

Tarraxo or Tarraxinha is generally cited as the main influence of Zouk Bass, originally created by Kuduro producers across lusophonic countries such Angola, São Tomê, Capo Verde and Portugal as an instrumental version of romanticist Kizomba, a generally more melodic, music-to-please-ladies-to-the-dancefloor vibe, which is couple friendlier for the dancefloor than the fast paced Kuduro rhythms. When I first heard Tarraxo (pronounced: “Tarrasho”) , I thought of it as the lusophonic version of Bogle.

Regarding the genesis of Zouk Bass however, there´s only one original tarraxo track (from DJ Kuimba ft. DJ Yudifox) in the Zouk Bass part of Buraka´s set, other tracks come from Dubble Dutch, Buraka themselves and bits from yet unreleased Buraka-Schlachthofbronx collaborations. Nevertheless, the Zouk Bass hype as opened the ears to Tarraxinha and the lovers music of the lusophonic world. Now mixtapes pop up from the homelands of Tarraxinha: DJ Marfox from Lisboa released his “Keep Calm And Dance To Tarraxinha” mixtape last week. DJ Satelite from Luanda, who has made his name with various Kuduro and Afro house tracks in the past, just sent us a link to his mix of Tarraxinha jams. Listen to it below.

LUANDA DE VOLTA NO TEMPO VOL 1 BY DJ SATELITE Seres Produções

1 – Abadja Mix – DJ Znobia
2 – Cheila – Chico Max
3 – Chuva – Dede Vesa
4 – Comboio – DJ Massacres
5 – Lola – Dj Marcelo
6 – Znobia Na India – Dj Znobia
7 – Fica Assim – Dj Mania
8 – Mocinha – DJ Joice Gomes
9 – Tarracho – Dj Znobia

#11 of Daniel Haaksman ´s weekly radio show, “Luso FM” on German public radio “Funkhaus Europa” is now on Soundcloud, featuring tracks by DJ Znobia, Gato Preto, Gregor Salto & KiT, Bonde Do Rolê, DJ Marfox, and many more.

#10 of Daniel Haaksman ´s weekly radio show, “Luso FM” on German public radio “Funkhaus Europa” is now on Soundcloud, featuring a short introduction to Tarraxo, and tracks by DJ Marfox, Throes & The Shine, Buraka Som Sistema and many more.