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Buraka Som Sistema - Komba [Album]

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by Louise, November 13th, 2011 and has been Read 1269 times.
Last Edited by: Jack Stovin November 14th, 2011.

Komba: an Angolan religious ritual, celebrated seven days after someone passes away. Friends and family honour the deceased with drinking the person’s favourite drink, eating their favourite food, dancing and singing to their favourite song and telling stories about their life, with the belief that the best part of your life happens after you’re death.

Buraka Som Sistema is an electronic dance music collective from Portugal. They fiercely explore the borders between life and death with their new album Komba, getting people all over the world dancing to their fusion of techno beats, the dance music known as Kuduro from Angola, drum ‘n’ bass, bleeps and whistles. This album throws one big party, probably the best that you could possibly ask for when you’re deceased. The collective most certainly want you to see life the same way they do.

The album kicks of with “Eskeleto”, featuring Afrikan Boy rapping about dissecting chickens and eating pig tails. It’s dark, it’s twisted and certainly drops the bass. It ends with these lyrics; “to remember the one who passed away, they cooked his favourite food, they brought some wine, they played the music he loved. And they danced, and they laughed, and they cried, celebrating his life, celebrating what they call, Komba”. The next track is simply called “Komba” and has a much more carnival feel to it, with drums and African chants, whilst “Voodoo Love” is a club-like track filled with techno synths.

“(We Stay) Up All Night” is probably the most notorious track from the album and pretty much sums up what the Komba festival is all about. “Hypnotized” does what it says on the tin, with the hypnotic, sampled vocals of “I’m like, I’m I’m like, I’m like hypnotized”, whilst the track “Lol & Pop” sounds like something from a Prodigy album. Komba finishes off with “Candonga”; a French sounding track with an accordion. The track pretty much sums up the sound of this album; Euro-techno, African rhythms and percussion. On the whole, Komba takes elements of African music, throws in some European cultural sounds and then turns it into one big dance track.

If you like your multicultural bands bringing together influences and experiences from their travels, then you’ll probably like this album from Buraka Som Sistema. It’s darker, deeper and more powerful than what they have brought out before - they are developing their own sound of Kuduro, diverging away from the Latin influences that are usually heard from producers within this genre.

Fans of the music put out by M.I.A and Diplo will certainly like this album. After all, these are artists that Buraka Som Sistema have collaborated with. Overall, Komba sets out a new direction for Buraka Som Sistema.