Príncipe has released a new EP from PML Beatz, a collaboration of two brothers, Lisandro, 20, and Ivan, 22.

Of Cape Verdean and Angolan descent, Lisandro, 20, and Ivan, 22, are no longer producing physically as a team but they currently exchange ideas from their respective homes in Portugal and Luxembourg, one of the countries where Portuguese have traditionally sought a better life.

The duo developed an interest in making music in 2010 but they were still too young to play with software, and then they returned to it in 2017 when they approached neighbour DJ Bebedera for serious lessons. They had been listening to him blasting fresh sounds each weekend.

Pedra de 800 kg is the duo’s first release on Príncipe, and follows a series of self-releases via Soundcloud. The title is an adaptation of a motivational expression their father used when the kids were having trouble with something: “That’s easier than lifting a 500 kg rock,” he used to say.

We’re told that the title track “delivers a magnificent, warped, kuduro punch, updating the continuum with an abstract, fast, elastic, dancefloor-designed tune.” You can sense a heaviness in the distorted bass tones and everlasting drone on “Manganza,” while “No Cubau,” the opener, is “a journey through layers of groove that, though tense, gently carry the listener from take off to landing with zero alienation,” the label adds.

This is Príncipe’s first release of 2020.

Tracklisting

A1. No Cubau
B1. Manganza
B2. Pedra de 800 kg

Pedra de 800 kg is available now via Bandcamp. Copies are limited to just 300, with hand-painted sleeves by Márcio Matos. Meanwhile, you can stream “No Cubau” below.