New Discovery: PEDRO

New Discovery: PEDRO
You may now go and pick that old “Vote for Pedro” T-shirt that you keep in your closet and repurpose it tongue-in-cheekily. Seeking to represent his upbringing in his music, PEDRO ‘s tracks are bubbling with the afro-caribbean melange of sounds that we’d expect from the post colonial Portugal and engages them in a friendly conversation with ‘more European’ electronic music sensibilities.

A natural from Damaia, a suburb of the Amadora municipality of Lisbon’s Metropolitan Area, Pedro Mauricio grew up to the influence of the city’s music, and was particularly drawn towards the sounds brought by Angolan immigrants. These were sounds of struggle and nostalgia, packed into a punchy dance rhythm as to stay in heat and keep the joy of living from fading away: sounds of Kuduro, Tarraxo and Kizomba, genres that took a prominent place in his work as soon as he caught the gist of sampling and began producing beats around 2013.

 

His tracks slowly piled up and become his first album under the guise of KKing Kong, which was released by ENCHUFADA. Bearing the name of his hometown and standing as a homage to his upbringing “from sharing 40oz beers with friends on a park bench in Alfragide, listening to techno blaring from pimped-out cars at the 6 de Maio projects, and getting my New York Yankees cap stolen on the first day of school”.

 

As his energic mixes earned him notoriety in Lisbon’s club music scene he often collaborated with other ENCHUFADA acts and other DJs around the world, releasing remixes for Buraka Som Sistema, Viní (a prominent DJ from São Paulo) and DDOTs.

 

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Not that long ago, he made friends with Branko, one of Burakas S. S. founding members, who has kinda recruited him on a nefarious world domination scheme. Together, they released MPTS: short for Meus Putos which, in spirit, means “
my dudes” but literally, “my manwhores“, oozing a bit of that naughtya and rambunctious brotherly love; a track which very suitably represents their vision of Global Club Music. And then they went touring (all around Europe, mind you).

 

It would seem like the producer is just getting started on what might be a very successful musical career, with two solid albums and a repertoire of collaborations with established and rising artists. As he went touring, he delivered a playlist to Rimas e Batidas magazine to keep us waiting for his presentation in the upcoming Lisboa Dance Festival. Check the playlist and the rest of his works on the links below: