Buraka Som Sistema
One of the most popular kuduro bands, Buraka Som Sistema, are the latest addition to this year's festival line-up. In just two years the group have released a critically acclaimed debut album and a number of breakthrough singles, torched the blogosphere with their MIA featuring viral video 'Sound Of Kuduro' and become the driving heartbeat of the global ghetto-funk revolution.
Buraka Som Sistema was founded in 2006 by João Barbosa (Li'l John), Rui Pité (DJ Riot), Andro Carvalho (Conductor) and Kalaf Ângelo, a hip-hop producer and member of the hip-hop band Conjunto Ngonguenha .
Word of mouth about them started to grow fast, which led to packed club nights and acclaimed gigs in the Portuguese summer festival circuit. They soon released their EP "From Buraka to the World", which included the single "Yah!", featuring vocals from Angolan hip-hop MC Petty, which was followed by another Petty vocalized track, "Wawaba", and a re-release of "From Buraka to the World", expanded to full album.
As proof of their growing popularity, in the MTV Europe Music Awards 2008 they were awarded the Best Portuguese Act and were nominees for Best European Act.
Their breakthrough single "Sound of Kuduro"featuring M.I.A. helped the band spread sounds of Kuduro all over the world, garnering almost 5 million viewers, and thir next single "Kalemba" (wegue wegue) shared the same popularity.
In November of 2008 they released their eagerly awaited full-length, Black Diamond, featuring M.I.A, Saborosa, Puto Prata, Pongo Love and DJ Znobia, which garnered generally positive reviews from critics.
As Kalaf from Buraka Som Sistema admits that their primary starting point is always, "making people dance like hell, sweat like hell and scream like hell", we expect their gig at this year's T-Mobile INmusic festival to be nothing short of a brilliant dance-driven spectacle.
