In contrast to the kind of EDM that finds a groove and then clings to it for dear life, the songs on Guetto Star and Despertar develop in surprising ways.
While both records are rooted in the driving African polyrhythms that are Príncipe’s calling card, particularly kuduro, they range widely from the restless to the ruminative and back.
The palpable tension that results leaves both the mind and body guessing, in stark contrast to the metronomic consistency of post-rave idioms.
Guetto Star’s “Edson no Uíge” opens with an acoustic guitar figure that evokes folk idioms of the Iberian Peninsula, while “To Bem Loko” features a recurring melodica riff that calls his adopted home of Paris to mind.
The last two tracks of Despertar both scale the tempo back, but to strikingly different effect. While the bottom end of “BALEBALE” broods like slowed-down dubstep, “Txeca” is so buoyant it barely remains tethered to the beat.
Although these two albums break new stylistic ground, their indebtedness to the Portuguese underground scene is obvious.
Lisbon is a fertile environment for multicultural experimentation, shaped by immigrants from Africa and their descendants, particularly from Angola and the Cape Verde Islands, as well as contact with Brazil.
This diversity is reflected in the Príncipe roster, which has released numerous records featuring DJ Lycox and Blacksea Não Maya ‘s mastermind, DJ Kolt.
At a time when cultural innovations spread around the world so fast that it’s hard to remember where they began, Principe’s commitment to the local stands out.
The label is devoted to Lisbon, releasing only music from people with deep roots in the city, “new sounds, forms and structures with their own set of poetics and cultural identity”.
Although Principe’s artists draw ideas from all over the place, their presence on the label contextualises that hybridity in relation to the city’s post-colonial legacy.
Despite Portugal’s small size and waning political influence, it held on to its overseas territories longer than other European states after Antonio de Oliveira Salazar’s regime converted the country’s remaining colonies into provinces with the same legal status as their European counterparts.
Rural parts of Portugal are among the most ethnically homogenous in Europe. But metropolitan Lisbon is a place where the legacy of Greater Portugal is felt in many ways.
Portugal has a long history of racism, centred on its early involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. Yet the fact that its African territories were considered part of its sovereign territory gives discrimination a different inflexion than in countries which never integrated their colonies.
The country’s location on the outer rim of Europe has long inspired an openness to foreign influence, reflected in its cuisine.
Even though the surge in authoritarian populism plaguing the continent has also affected Portugal, as demonstrated by the enormous gains made by the Chega party in last year’s election, it will be hard to mute the cultural impact made by people of colour.
Listening to the evolution of Príncipe’s roster from the past decade, it is abundantly clear that cultural miscegenation is taking place at a rapid pace, even if the African diasporic communities that it showcases still contend with poverty and segregation.
By staying focused on their contributions instead of branching out beyond Lisbon, Príncipe makes a powerful case for a multicultural aesthetic that prioritises fusion over exclusion.
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Photograph courtesy of Lua Eva Blue. Published under a Creative Commons license.
