“In my high school class, I was the only person that was openly against the regime,” says Nazar. His family fled Angola for Belgium before he was born: his father, a general in the opposition army, was targeted by the Angolan regime during the civil war. Growing up in Belgium, he was seduced by electronic music. When he and his family moved back to Angola, to be reunited with his father, they faced a different reality.
Bandcamp is waiving its revenue share for all sales this Friday 20th March, between midnight and midnight PST, in support of artists.
The online music store and platform will not be taking any cut from purchases made, in turn offering a bigger payout to record labels and their artists.
Kode 9's imprint Hyperdub has also promised to give 100% of March sales on Beatport directly to artists, and has recommended buying this Friday.
Hyperdub will give 100% of Bandcamp sales directly to the artists impacted by coronavirus this month.
The London label, run by Kode 9, made the announcement this afternoon via Twitter. The post also encouraged fans to make the most of Bandcamp's own offer to waive fees this Friday 20th March, which will further add to what artists take home.
Huddled in a circle on the dark, smoke-filled dancefloor at Corsica Studios, the four MCs that make up Bala Bala Boyz spit over syncopated bass-heavy rhythms, passing a single microphone between the collective's members. Captivating crowds with their energy, and an effortless ability to flow as a family unit, it’s on these South London dancefloors — as well as DIY festivals like Kallida and Boiler Room's four-day London takeover last year — that Bala Bala Boyz come alive.
Nazar will return to Hyperdub for the release of his debut album next year.
Titled 'Guerilla', the album sees the Manchester-based producer draw on his family's experiences of the Angolan Civil War. Using a kuduro framework, Nazar looks, a press release says, to "sensitively examine and digitalize his family's collective memory and country's past," with his father having been a rebel general in the country who published a wartime journal, called 'Memorias de Um Guerrilheiro', in 2006.
Hyperdub has launched a special edition Sega Megadrive with a compilation of fresh tracks stored on a game cartridge.
Produced in collaboration with game system cloners Analogue, a company that has previously worked with similarly revered imprint Ghostly International, just 1,000 units of the limited edition Megadrive remix, dubbed the Konsolation, are available, only 150 of which will be sold in Europe.
