The first in a four-volume retrospective of Kuduro and tarraxinha pioneer DJ ZNOBIA.
Incoming unto the world for a very long time from the musseke of Rangel, home of Casa da Mae Ju, in the Angolan capital of Luanda, one if not the pivotal visionary of his country's music electronic and digital modernism - DJ Znobia, o/um/an inventor. Usually considered the first purveyor of the fluency regarding tarraxinha (drinking in its foundational slow shuffle from the city of Benguela), as well as a main player in free thinking, spontaneous, funny, depressive, silly, melancholic, hilarious all encompassing beats within kuduro, batida, techno and beyond, his influence as a producer, DJ, MC and public figure has had a great imprint in Angolan culture for the better part of the last three decades. This venture went through over 700 tracks of his archive (more than double are lost in the meantime between his and the NNT library) in order to collaboratively select a fiercely representative albeit balanced affair from his pro-duction, between instrumentals for sung kuduro, instrumental kuduro/batida, sung and instrumental tarraxinha, and other creative styling from the late 90's to the mid 2000's. Forms now heard around the world which started here, with Znobia a decisively influential contributor, along with several of his peers and collaborators, which will be also in evidence in this four volume retrospective. His story is way too far flung for this endeavor to try and make a simple narrative out of it. You have to be him, you have to be within this territory, and we ask of the people who will approach to ask him what has happened with the history of this music and what is the current reality at ground zero Luanda, as he is a mirror and visionary of its streets, in a country with such complicated dynamics and brutal treatment of its citizens. To try to put in a clean slate for this conversation, let's talk to a genius of street music. Your question. First, here's the opening collection of what we have to share with you.