Neurobeat is a music series on Nothing’s Shocking that comes out late on Tuesday nights. Every other week a new song is featured to complement my mood or experiences of the previous week. If you’re wondering why in the hell I’m doing this, please read the original Neurobeat for my reasons.

Kuduro is an Angolan sound that originally combined and mixed percussive African styles of drumming with the calypso beats popular in Trinidad and Tobego. Kuduro kept evolving, eventually incorporating aspects of electronica (which, along with the drums, first garnered my attention), hip-hop and perhaps even a bit of punk. The name means “location” in the native Kimbundu language of Northern Angola, but also loosely translates to “hard ass” in Portuguese, the official language of Angola. I discovered Kuduro by chance on Twitter, learned more about it and came across some groups I liked. Of those, Buraka Som Sistema rose to the top.
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Buraka Som Sistema, named for an area of metropolitan Lisboa, formed in 2006 some time after Kuduro found its way to Portugal. This relatively young group of musicians has only 1 full length album, Black Diamond, but has already collaborated with several high-profile artists, not least of which is Tamil artist Mathangi Arulpragasam (better known as M.I.A.).

I’ve been in a dancing mood this past week and almost all songs by BSS are produced to oblige that feeling. Here are two of my favorites:

“Aqui Para Voces”-

“Kalemba (Wegue Wegue)”-