Heat Seeker Thrum
Listen to ‘No Cubau’ by PML Beatz
There’s not a lot I can add to the mythos of Lisbon’s feted label Príncipe. In very short label time, their catalog has come to be coveted by all ofthose that have encountered it. Displaying an immense reserve, Príncipe releases are fairly far and few in between, which is an acceptable failing in a label legitimising batida in the severely white-presenting electronic music mise en scène. Taking from kuduro to kizomba, funaná to tarraxinha, Príncipe releases reanimate the corpse of European techno and house music with a vitality it has a struggle encompassing otherwise.
White Portuguese populace has an annoying habit of relegating African diaspora culture to being libertine, implicating it as lowbrow in the politest terms possible, in true Portuguese style, while simultaneously exploiting it for personal gain and entertainment as and when possible. The work Príncipe puts out in face of this deeply disillusioning paradigm is, thankfully, not attenuated to this standard exacting erasure of identity.
Pedra de 800 Kg is a reassuring confirmation of this, with PML Beatz once again applying the anodyne of polyrhythmic percussion with exemplary competence. My pick ‘No Cubau’ breaks up the monotony of techno without sacrificing the internal balance of the loop, redepositing it to its status as fuel for the feet, beating like the body and flowing like the air around it.
It’s likely this is all personal bias contingent on what only I find appealing, although that seems incredibly trite. Regardless, Pedra de 800 Kg has qualified as the first record I’ve put my pinched penny towards, at the ripe age of 31, to finally put my money where my mouth is. I am not one to wear my affiliations on my sleeve, literally, but starting with Príncipe I am moved to make a change, once the O Principe Sou Eu long sleeve somehow miraculously becomes available again.
Listen here:
Released January 24, 2020
Written and produced by PML Beatz
Mastered by Tó Pinheiro da Silva
Artwork by Márcio Matos
