It’s not easy being an artist in Portugal. Years of overtourism coupled with a surge in foreign investment and various tax-saving schemes have contributed to a serious housing crisis that is currently driving artists and young people out of the country. The rapidly gentrifying capital of Lisbon is one of the most expensive cities in Europe in which to rent an apartment but, as of January 2024, the national minimum wage still stands at just €820.00 per month. To say nothing of both the insufficient arts funding and increased cost of living.
Nevertheless, Portugal’s electronic music scene continues to grow, resulting in a scene that’s overwhelmingly DIY in spirit and adept at making use of non-conventional venues, from repurposing 18th-century reservoirs for sound art festivals or dancing in schoolyards—as locals did for a 2021 set by Príncipe artist Nídia—to cultural spaces that double as boxing clubs. A gradual rejuvenation has taken place over the past decade or so, with a fresh crop of artists, labels, parties, promoters, communities, and collectives sprouting up at various points along the way.
The country’s musical upswing has propelled Afro-Portuguese club fare, or batida, onto a global stage; it’s also led to the of birth infamous raves and respected imprints like mina, naive, and Disco Paraíso. But most of the activity remains largely within the confines of Portugal. “I still don’t see many Portuguese artists playing internationally, or able to make a living out of it,” says Diogo Vasconcelos, DJ, A&R, and manager of Lisbon-based label Discos Extendes. Portugal is also home to the world’s second-largest Brazilian community, and the pulse of Brazilian music can be felt everywhere. “People are starting to understand the value of baile funk,” says Vasconcelos, noting its presence in the mainstream.
Elsewhere, various clubs and parties defy the heteronormative, West-dominated narrative of electronic music while feeding the appetite for social interaction and dancing. “I’m really happy to see a party such as Dengo Club grow,” says Vasconcelos. “It is a Black and queer leadership event which embraces all the diversity that it can encompass. Planeta Manas is also this amazing artist-run non-club, at an industrial warehouse at Prior Velho. It is a safe haven for the queer community, and they include a lot of safe measures for ravers, which is super cool.”
Vinyl LP
Naturally, Portugal’s rave legacy stretches back to the ‘90s golden age, when anything-goes free parties were all the rage, and the trailblazing Alcântara-Mar compilations captured the hedonism of the time. And anyone who has even a passing interest in Portuguese dance music will agree that it’s hard to overstate the influence of Lux Frágil, Lisbon’s very own superclub, which has presided over the scene since 1998. “Lux is the mothership,” offers Vasconcelos. “It has been there since forever, and it’s an institution that will always have its own relevance.”
“Portugal is very vibrant regarding the club scene and it has always been,” offers Yen Sung, who has been playing at Lux since the early days and is among its resident DJs. “The difference now is that there are a lot more clubs, which I think can make it harder for all of them to sustain themselves, because Portugal is a very small country.” Sung notes that several of these clubs have opened and shuttered in the past few years. “On the other hand, it creates diversity, which is always a good thing. I think it is starting to happen with the Afro community getting more active and the cultural mix that we are seeing now in Portugal.”
In 2021, Sung launched her label Alphabet Street with another Lisbon figurehead, DJ, producer, and mina co-founder Photonz, and the pair have, to date, released music by homegrown artists such as Violet, KAKAF, and 2JACK4U. Similarly, internationally renowned DJs and Lisbon implants CC:DISCO! and Joe Delon pour their knowledge and passion for dance music into their own Lisbon-based labels Miami Daddy, formed in 2023, and Welt Discos, which was formed in 2020 in partnership with Lisbon record store and distributor Carpet & Snares. They also organize popular parties that unite Portugal-based DJs with out-of-towners. All of these complementary voices and sounds only add to the wealth of talent bubbling up in Lisbon’s electronic underground; a dynamic, ever-changing ecosystem rooted in a country that dances to its own beat.
From keyed-up rave trax and baile funk mutations to tricksy conceptronica, here are seven albums that tap into the well of electronic music in Portugal.
Various Artists
10 Anos Extended Records
Cassette
Lisbon’s Extended Records celebrated their 10th birthday in 2021 with a 15-track compilation that remains true to the label’s stated goal: “Prime focus on national talent.” The album serves up offerings from their wider network—which includes the Vasconcelos-managed sub-label Discos Extendes (launched in 2018)—cutting across a broad spectrum of dance-forward electronic music. “We are interested in music that feels less formulaic but fresh,” Vasconcelos says. “Unique approaches that challenge you and makes you think ‘What the hell?!’” Vasconcelos notes their predilection for breaks and “bassy stuff” that sometimes connects the dots between kuduro and baile funk. “We like to have this kind of wacky and humorous approach to music so that we don’t take it to seriously.” You can hear this in DJ Nevoeiro’s memory-jogging collage “Um Paraíso Chamado Areosa,” which is just one of the LP’s many highlights.
Various Artists
BALTHAZAR DISCOS X COLETIVO LENHA
Compact Disc (CD)
Balthazar Discos also seem to have serious soft spot for breakbeats and drum & bass. Spanning various artists, this snappy, eight-track release is a joint effort with the multidisciplinary design collective and record label coletivo lenha which, to borrow their term, “ping-pongs” from thumping diva house with a breaks-y twist (dj mafia’s “The Price I Have to Pay”) to swirling, dreamy jams (dj vicecity’s “Love Make U Better”) that gesture towards the sweet-toothed jungle-pop of PinkPantheress. Other sparkling additions include Dusmond’s “Quatro Quejos,” a beefed-up meeting of minds between footwork, drum & bass and gleeful hardcore, and Co$tanza’s goofy headrush “EverGreen,” which bounces around like a bright yellow jumping bean to bring you nothing but silly joy.
UNITEDSTATESOF
Selections 1
Cassette
Since launching with the NOVA VISTA EP by trash CAN in 2017, Lisbon’s Rotten \ Fresh have built a reputation as champions of homespun electronic experimentalism, turning their attention to everything from IDM-centric releases and cutting-edge power ambient to excursions in smoked-out trap, always anchored by a future-facing outlook. Selections 1 by ubiquitous producer UNITEDSTATESOF plays like a showcase for the label’s deconstructed electronic side, comprising remixes of some of their flagship artists: Odete, TERRORRIBA, Florian T M Zeisig, Superalma Project, Arad Acid, Concrete Fantasies, Hydrarchy, FARWARMTH, Swan Palace, Ondness, and Oströl.
Various Artists
System Paradox
A serious reminder that it’s not all about Porto and Lisbon, Ovelha Trax channel the exact kind of surrealist, acid-soaked trips you’d expect from a label tucked away in the center of Portugal and named after the Portuguese word for “sheep.” A hilly university city littered with abandoned warehouses—architectural relics of its former wool industry—Covilhã, where Ovelha Trax is HQ’ed, is the gateway to the sublime Serra da Estrela mountain range—the highest point in the country, where snow is commonplace. The small villages that make up the wider region feel satisfyingly at odds with the electro-futurist output and garish artwork of Ovelha Trax, but that’s what makes them even more appealing. Here, AJAE’s “Beatboxin” veers off on a delightful acid trance tangent while ATM’s breakneck “Urban Menace” feels ripped from the cyberpunk bible. It’s a sound in thrall to a bygone era with, two gleaming eyes fixed on a bright new future.
XXIII
XXIII / / Volume 12
Circling back to Brazil’s towering influence on Portuguese culture and music, these 20 “club tools” edited by Porto’s much-loved XXIII label, XXIII / / Volume 12, pack in a stack of hybrid bangers that bridge the gap between UK bass-adjacent styles and Brazilian baile funk. The artist contributors span Portugal, Brazil, and the UK as well as the U.S., France, Russia, and Greece. Vasconcelos is a big fan of the label. “I’m really into the kind of events promoted by XXIII,” he says. “Those guys and girl (NOIA) are putting up great line-ups and releasing super good music. I really dig what they are doing. They are like our soulmates in the north!”
Various Artists
Mind Disorder Vol. II
Portugal’s ‘second city’ of Porto is a place famed for its port wine and Douro river as much as its dance clubs—from the stylish, taste-making hideout of Passos Manuel (formerly a movie theater in the ‘70s) to the alternative music hub CC Stop, a four-story shopping centre that has been serving Porto’s alternative music scene as rehearsal studios for more than two decades. The city is also home to the label Mera, who have been offered up sound art, glitchy electronica, splintery techno, textured ambient, and more, since 2019. Accompanied by the tagline “drifting into a time of no future,” their aesthetic often commingles with digital visual art. Mind Disorder Vol. II brings together a selection of “relevant artists from the national electronic music scene” to give you a taste of what they’re all about.
DJs Di Guetto
DJs Di Guetto
2 x Vinyl LP
No list honoring contemporary electronic music in Portugal would be complete without a trip to Príncipe Discos, arguably the biggest original dance music imprint to emerge from the country since the ‘90s. Much has been written about Príncipe since its debut release in 2011 (DJ Marfox’s Eu Sei Quem Sou), but DJs Di Guetto winds the clock back even further, channeling the uncompromising energy of the nascent neighborhood parties: “Direct transport to the outskirts of Lisbon and the Afro-Portuguese experience with a sense of purpose,” write the label. As such, DJs Di Guetto represents a “Big Bang for the scene as we know it today, materia prima out of which Príncipe came to be.” With contributions from some of Príncipe’s major players, including DJ Marfox and DJ Nervoso, this 13-track LP delivers an embryonic snapshot of a hyperlocal sound that went on to captivate the world.
