FRESH JUICE: ‘ALTO’ by AKSENT & Prince Prada

Dublin’s AKSENT & Prince Prada combine on the samba meets hard groove ‘ALTO’ EP.

Words by Oisín Campbell/ Design by Michael Savage

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Buy/ Stream here: aksentire.bandcamp.com/album/alto

With their eyes set firmly on the quietly approaching festival season, AKSENT (Mark Murray) and Prince Prada (Adam McLoughlin) have cooked up a carnival hard groove scorcher on their debut collaborative project.

The affair is filled to the brim from the get go with a combination of parading horns and vocal samples from the likes of Jonatos Petróleo’s ‘Revoada’, helping to create a 4 tracker of locked percussive grooves that are readily peak dance tent anthems.

The pair share the spoils on the opening two tracks ‘PACHA MAMA’ and ‘BONGO BANANZA’ which appropriately coexist with rotating visuals based on drawings from fellow Dublin residing artist Nicole Holbrook (NICOLE HOLBROOK // Soundless Art - Instagram) who was behind the EP’s Latin inspired artwork also.

(see BONGO BANANZA | AKSENT x Prince Prada (Official Visualiser) below)

(Pictured L-R: Prince Prada & AKSENT)

Running off the back of a string of releases on his self-run ‘STUCK IN LIMBO’ imprint, North Dublin’s AKSENT has been throwing himself into the deep end of the music business of late and was met with further challenges and learning curves on the ‘ALTO’ release.

“It was a long journey trying to license the different samples used on the EP, but it sounds great and was worth every bit of hard work myself and Adam put into it. I’m also very happy having learned how to license tracks now from other artists. I’m ready to get stuck into getting stuck into the music business in the next year to further develop the label!”.

(Pictured: AKSENT)

The second half of ‘ALTO’ is comprised of a solo effort each from both Murray and McLoughlin with the former’s ‘ON FIRE’ setting a blaze of big beat piano and hard house stabs alongside Prada’s 90s rave in Rio melting pot on ‘STEP INNA DANCE’.

Previously uncertain about working with outside producers, the Dubliners highlight a seamless connection with one another on the release that so happened to grow organically out of a series of studio hookups.

“I was always quite hesitant about working with other artists,” says Adam. “When Mark asked me to go to the studio, I wasn’t too sure about it at all until we actually went. We instantly clicked and produced a really good track and then we met up a few more times and began to really narrow down the sound we were going for. The EP came together naturally and it is a true depiction of how our live shows are when we perform”.

(Pictured: Prince Prada)

An exciting first venture into the collaborative world for both acts, ‘ALTO’ thrives on its choppy rhythm sections and raucous carnival energy marking the release out as prime festival bait for selectors and dancers alike. An initial reluctance to collaborate has gleefully blossomed into the partnership identifying a clear direction in sound together. We’d like to see it happen again. Let's hope they do too!

Discover the extended AKSENT & Prince Prada catalogues on Bandcamp.