DJ Danifox: “Ritual”

DJ Danifox is one of the many Lisbon-born artists committed to batida, the shuffling sound of the city’s Afro-diasporic underground. “Ritual,” the slow-burning highlight of Ansiedad, his second project for Príncipe Discos, chips away at a thick bedrock of tension. Dry-palmed claps and tin-plated percussion ride steadily over rippling waves of synth as he ushers you onto a sweat-lined dancefloor, the shadowy silhouettes of party-goers steadily melting into one. Danifox plays with space across the track, isolating layers of mystical flutes and panging hand drums before building back up to a pounding loop. With an arsenal of from-scratch electronics at his disposal, DJ Danifox summons foot stomps as if to aerate the earth, letting light into the caverns below.