album review: buraka som sistema, komba

Imagine this, if you dare. Just like Max in Where the Wild Things Are, you wake to find yourself in a dark jungle city, inhabited by bizarre beasts making crazy noises. It sounds like Diplo has been put in charge of celebrations for Mexico’s Day of the Dead. Mad.

So where are you? Right in the heart of Komba, the follow-up to Buraka Som Sistema’s debut album Black Diamond. The Buraka crew retreated to woodlands in the south of Portugal to experiment with concepts and beats, sharing inspiration with collaborators including Stereotyp, Terry Lynn and Sara Tavares, Afrikan Boy and Roses Gabor.

Dark, heart-pounding bass beats with a melange of crazy sounds as colourful as Sao Paulo’s infamous street art, Komba was designed in the jungle to drive the urban audience to dance.

Dangerously dark opener Eskeleto recreates a posthumous Angolan ritual, celebrating the life of a beloved friend of family member by drinking, eating, dancing and singing in their honour. Buraka’s Kalaf explains that the idea was inspired by “the irony that the best party of your life happens after you’re dead…we should live every day as if it was our last”.

So embrace the darkness, the wildness outside and within yourself, and celebrate today as if it was your last with the only soundtrack that can transport you between this world and the edges of the next.

Buraka Som Sistema’s Komba is out now through Enchufada/Fuse.