Posted on Aug 1st 2012 3:00PM by Jesse Ship
Buraka Som Sistema thrive on a melting pot of cultures and sounds that emerged from Portugal’s colonialist domination of countries like Angola. Pulling rhythms from African and Latin music, you would never think that world music could be so cool. In fact vocalist, Kalaf doesn’t think it is either.
“Well, for a 20 year old kid, it’s not cool,” Kalaf tells Spinner. “World music is the kind of thing you see on Starbucks compilations, it’s not something you kick on your iPod. However, because the playlist shuffle phenomenon, it’s easy to jump from Lil Wayne toFela Kuti. That’s normal now, we grew up with that.
“Indeed, where America used to be called the great melting pot, now that designation falls to the pop music of the world, where picking out an ethic music flourish — a flamenco guitar here, a tabla there, a didgeridoo somewhere else — can elevate a song above “sounds like everything else.”
