What's that, you don't know what kuduro is? You aren't aware of the type of music that's been sweeping the townships of Angola for the last ten years? What sort of clueless loser are you? How do you sleep at night?

People in the know (usually self-satisfied men with beards and a penchant for ponchos) will tell you that kuduro has been popular in south-west Africa and Portugal for a while now. But because those places are far away and a bit scary everyone in the UK has happily ignored it as a genre. Until now that is.

 

Buoyed by the success of the likes of MIA and CSS, Buraka Som Sistema have released 'Black Diamond' - the record that's going to break kuduro to the world.

 

As long as you ignore the fact that Buraka are actually three lads from Portugal and are therefore effectively 'doing a Paul Simon' and raping an African music genre for their own gains, 'Black Diamond' is actually pretty good.

 

Anyone who's listened to an MIA record knows what to expect from this sort of 'ethnic electronic' stuff. You get some pretty harsh beats and rhythms that are a bit unfamiliar and then some rapping that is partly in English and mostly in languages you don't understand but should make you look cool when you play it to your mates.

 

It might drag after the halfway mark but there's certainly enough on 'Black Diamond' to suggest that kuduro could join baile funk or kwaito as a style to be named-dropped.

 

By James C