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LP
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ENLP 141LP
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Branko, the Portuguese producer and Enchufada label owner, announced his fourth solo album Soma. The project pushes the maintained standard for over a decade in shaping the expression of electronic global music to greater heights. The producer started the creative process with a three-day jam session in Lisbon, with local musicians, over a framework of multiple beats, later recomposed as a repository of grooves that served as the blueprint for the album's instrumental. Branko's artistic vision for Soma is grounded in authenticity and the expression of local and global talent. He has collaborated not only with critical Lisbon-based musicians, but also with vocalists from London, Cape Verde, and Brazil, including Jay Prince, June Freedom, BIAB, and Tuyo. Lisboa never sounded so good. Soma see's Branko evolving his production process by incorporating some of the cities' most relevant musicians alongside a large array of global vocal guests. The twelve tracks feature collaborations with artists such as London-based Jay Prince and Angolan-Portuguese musician Carla Prata, Cape Verdean American artist June Freedom, Rio de Janeiro-based artist BIAB, Portuguese singer Teresa Salgueiro, Brazilian band Tuyo, Lisbon-based Dino d'Santiago, Ghanaian music producer Gafacci, London-based Ghanaian rapper and vocalist Bryte, Sintra's singers Yeri & Yeni, and Carlão, the frontman of Almada's band Da Weasel. Branko achieved widespread recognition thanks to his continuous output of new music and his ability to turn his ideas into reality. As an artist, his three solo albums played a crucial role in showcasing his unique musical identity and vision, aided by iconic live performances. He also founded Buraka Som Sistema and Enchufada, forces that still shape the expression of electronic music today. RIYL: Pongo, Buraka Som Sistema, Dengue Dengue Dengue, Nicola Cruz, Sango, Chanca Via Circuito.
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ENLP 132LP
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Buraka Som Sistema co-founder and Enchufada label-head Branko presents OBG, his third album. The artist's most personal and reflective work to date, it's a letter of love and thanks to the community around him, to Portugal's breathtaking landscapes, and to the syncopated, window-rattling rhythms that emanate from the clubs and car stereos of Portuguese cities. As a musician, DJ, label curator and promoter, few have been as pivotal as Branko (aka João Barbosa) in bringing the sound of underground Portuguese electronic music to a global audience. Since his formative years growing up in the city of Amadora on the fringes of Lisbon, Barbosa dedicated his career to elevating the unique club music hybrids -- mutations of kuduro, kizomba, zouk, baile funk and more -- that were spreading in the communities around him. Branko initially achieved success as part of the collective Buraka Som Sistema, before beginning a career as a solo artist and releasing two LP's, Atlas (ENLP 073LP, 2015) and Nosso (ENLP 102LP, 2019). But Barbosa's creative output is just one side of his work. As a curator Branko launched the Lisbon festival Enchufada Na Zonain 2019 and in 2022 will curate a stage at the first Sonar Lisboa. Through his label, Enchufada, he works tirelessly to raise the profile of up and comers from Lisbon and the global Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) diaspora. OBG is an album of organic textures and inviting rhythms, created in Branko's signature style, and inspired in part by a series of outdoor DJ-sets performed and streamed from beautiful locations across his native country. Opener "SRA" starts with a beckoning vocal, wasting little time setting the tone with warm piano chords and a low-slung, kizomba-esque beat. On the brooding "ETA", written with Portuguese beatmaker Fumaxa, subtle sliding bass tones underpin a brooding, colorful arrangement. Features Ms Mavy, Fumaxa, Iúri Oliveira, Traz Águá, and Éllàh. For fans of: Buraka Som Sistema, Dengue Dengue Dengue, Sango, Quantic.
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ENLP 120LP
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Roughly translated from Portuguese, Na Zona means something like being in a specific place, occupying a zone and owning it -- a fitting metaphor for Branko's career as a DJ and producer exploring the global side of club music. But what happens when you can no longer occupy physical spaces to create a shared experience around club music... Enter Volume 2 of our Branko Presents: Enchufada Na Zona compilation series, where following the release of his sophomore album Nosso (ENLP 102LP), the Enchufada founder curates a selection of original music from himself and some of his favourite artists, as well as a series of his own edits and remixes, all created during quarantine from home studios in Lisbon, Accra, São Paulo, London, or Paris. With the club seeming like a distant memory, Branko puts forward a collection of songs more fitting to the times we live in and the physical space we get to enjoy them at: home. Alongside new music from the likes of Dengue Dengue Dengue, Studio Bros, or Vanyfox, as well as his edits and remixes for artists such as Dino D'Santiago, DKVPZ, or Gafacci, Branko presents a more melodic and introspective take on the always-evolving and warm-blooded rhythms of global club music, a product of every artist's shared experience of creating and enjoying music in isolation. Also features Ellah, Rose Juam, Hagan, and Lua Preta. Edition of 300.
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ENLP 102LP
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The first thing that strikes one when hearing Nosso is its feeling of intimacy and warmth. The title, which means "Ours" in Portuguese, is apt since Branko sees the record as the result of letting a wild variety of people into his world. João notes that "I didn't know most of the collaborators before meeting up with them in a studio somewhere in the world, so most of these songs are coming from a very immediate and honest sense of collaboration where you spend an afternoon with someone learning about each other at the same time as you're making music. It's a shared experience, a moment where two or more people came up with ideas together, that they probably wouldn't have had if they were in their comfort zone." These meetings were turned into songs at home in Lisbon once the main ideas were created collaboratively elsewhere. "On this album, like in everything else I did so far, the focus on the instrumental side of things was experimenting with rhythmic patterns and genres from the Portuguese-speaking universe while applying them to songs created with other artists from completely different backgrounds and places." There's something in this process that has left the album sounding super fresh as this is a sound without borders that pulls one in. It's music everyone can be a part of, where even the most rugged up-tempo cut sounds welcoming. It's an overwhelmingly positive and joyous experience to immerse oneself in Nosso. Branko fuses local rhythms from kizomba to baile funk and Afro-house through European electronic genres with a clear accessible pop sensibility and the aim of creating a unified sound that puts all these individual musical expressions in perspective as part of a greater whole.
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ENLP 073LP
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Lisbon-based DJ and producer, Enchufada label head, Red Bull Music Academy alumnus and Buraka Som Sistema co-founder Branko is ready to embark on a whole new adventure. Atlas sees Branko becoming part of an international network of artists and shaping a solid body of work that feels his own, while at the same time being truly communal and global. This can be clearly felt both in the impressive number of artists who lined up to participate: over 20 collaborators across five different cities, and the hybrid nature of the music, which in true global style connects distinct geographies and musical genres to create something new for the world's dance floors. Afro-house, zouk bass, gqom or baile funk are treated as pieces of a larger puzzle, put together to create a new tropical-flavored musical picture for the digital age. After hours of work in Red Bull Studios in Amsterdam, Cape Town, New York, São Paulo and Lisbon, (documented in the Atlas Unfolded webisode series) recording vocals, laying down beats and tweaking samples, Atlas comes to life and the final list of collaborators is as long as it is culturally rich. From Mr. Carmack to Okmalumkoolkat, Mr. MFN eXquire, DJ Sliink, The Ruffest, Princess Nokia and Lewis CanCut, to name only a few, Atlas is a veritable "who's who" of the global club music scene, all handpicked by Branko to help him bring his colorful artistic vision to life. Red vinyl.
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