Kuduro

What it is

Tony Amado is generally credited with naming it, some time around 1994 in Luanda, after a stiff-hipped dance he had seen in a Van Damme film. The music underneath the name is Angolan: semba and carnival percussion put through whatever hardware or cracked software was available, at a tempo nobody had used for either. The kick moves in a 3-3-2 figure, congas run across it, and a scraper marks the offbeat sixteenths without ever stopping. What is not obvious from a transcription is how much of the record is shouting. Kuduro tracks are built around a vocal that is closer to a chant at a football match than to rapping, and the drums are arranged to leave room for a crowd.

What it sounds like

Bright, hard and slightly cheap in a way that is deliberate. Kick with a snappy top end rather than sub weight, an electric snare that cracks rather than thuds, and congas recorded or sampled with all the room left in. A dikanza, the notched Angolan scraper, rasps on every offbeat sixteenth. Synths are cheap presets played as stabs. The vocal is up front, often several voices, often distorted from the input stage rather than by choice. Compression is heavy and obvious, and the whole record has the flat loudness of something built to survive being played off a laptop through a PA.

Key elements

• The 3-3-2 kickBeat 1, the a of 1, the and of 2, then beat 3, the a of 3, the and of 4. The same cell twice, which is why it feels like it is accelerating.
• A snare on beat 3Not 2 and 4. One hard electric snare on beat 3 and a short roll into the barline, so the bar has a single crack in the middle rather than a backbeat.
• Congas across the kickFive conga strokes in bar one, on the and of 1, the e of 2, the a of 2, the and of 3 and the e of 4, none of them coinciding with a kick.
• The dikanzaA scraper on every offbeat sixteenth, mostly alternating between 38 and 54, which is what makes the tempo feel higher than the number suggests.
• Chanted vocalsGroup shouts rather than verses. The drum pattern is dense, so the vocal has to be rhythmic to fit, and it usually lands on the beats the kick misses.

How to get them

• KickShort, tuned around 60Hz, with a click layer above 2kHz. It has to cut through a busy hat lane, so length is the enemy and attack is not.
• Build the 3-3-2 twiceWrite three sixteenths, three sixteenths, two sixteenths, then repeat it across the second half of the bar. In the second bar shift the fifth hit later so the cell breaks.
• CongasTwo samples, an open tone and a slap. Place each one where there is no kick, then check the two lanes together and remove anything that doubles.
• ScraperA cabasa or guiro on the e and the a of every beat. Vary the sample rather than the velocity if you can, because a scraper played evenly still sounds different stroke to stroke.
• SnareAn electric snare, short, with the decay cut at about 120 milliseconds. Put it on beat 3 and let the roll into the barline get progressively louder.
• Leave the vocal roomDuck the conga and hat lanes by two or three decibels under the vocal rather than filtering them. Kuduro is arranged around shouting and the drums are supposed to yield.

Reference points

Tony Amado, Sebem, Os Lambas, Dog Murras, Nagrelha, Titica, Puto Prata, and Buraka Som Sistema on the Lisbon side. Named as reference points for the sound, not as endorsements or as anyone to imitate.