This week at the PAM Club, we welcome Porto’s very own and XXIII record label co-founder and DJ, NOIA. Expect a thirty five minutes long set full of hard drums bangers, afro-electronic gems of rare intensity and a pinch of futuristic baile funk that only her has the secret. Be prepared, it shakes.
Based in Porto, Francisca Cunha aka NOIA has been touring Portuguese and European clubs for over five years now. With the speakers at full volume, she expresses her love for explosive percussions and contagious rhythms that do not spare the body. In 2015, she founded XXIII with baile-funk expert DJ and now radio host Torres, an underground record label entirely dedicated to club music and more specifically afro-diasporic club music, which has since become a true reference in the field. You may have already heard her ultra percussive and relentless DJ sets on Rinse France, Reprezent Radio in London or Lisbon’s Rádio Quântica where she is regularly invited to mix. Alongside her activities, she has launch SORO Collective, her most recent project, which is an inclusive platform for creative women and LGBTQ+ community.
Despite its relatively short duration, Noia’s PAM Club is no easy thing, as it’s almost physically exhausting with these BPMs that only weaken on rare occasions throughout the set. In any event, the science of the mix and the quality of the selection are well and truly on display on this sonic journey that links the hardcore and syncopated leanings of the London club scene to Santiago, Chile, via São Paulo and beyond.
NOIA tells us more about her vision of what a mix is and explains the direction her PAM Club is taking :
“A mix has to tell a story, has to express a state of mind, and has to have a beginning, a middle, and a end. It has to show who we are without necessarily having to introduce ourselves. It has to have its own signature and tell us something more about the artist. It’s the selection of the tracks that take us on that journey.
Not much escaping the usual dogged search for the right tracks in my mixes, I’ve mixed a bit of my nostalgia for the dancefloors and my new sonic discoveries. Since the pandemic started, the tracks I look for are more focused on deconstructed beats, powerful bass, and something else that compels me to have that track and play it eagerly.
This mix has 23 tracks (it was not on purpose!) and the mixture of musical genres is endless. Obviously I haven’t missed to play some of my favorite producers like Badsista, 3WA, Evehive, Kaval or Caucenus. To these, I added some tracks from dubstep, rave, vogue, with a little step into funk. I hope it will take you back to your favorite club! “
Tracklist:
- Ravevv101 – Seven Orbits
- Gubbed – Drumheller
- Na Podridão – Sueuga Kamau
- Dancing Lemurs – Kaval Glass
- Comb – Kavari
- After Forever – Violet
- Disengage – Rose Bonica
- Disturbance – KTM
- Exo (Mosca’s Shaolin Version) – Bonebrokk
- Altair – 3wa
- Format – LR Groove
- Forsaken – Bonebrokk
- rAvE oVeR – DJ BA$$AN
- TOMA – EveHive
- ZL CLUB MUSIC pt. II – badsista
- Cattiva II – Dj Tess
- CRAZED (BR) – BEAT BOLADO [ZONA0800-06]
- Caucenus – Unreleased
- Kutofaulu – Wulffluw XCIV
- Barruntada – Santho Mhiércoles
- Rackz 282 – Safety Mark
- Rolla – Walton
- Cobalto (Syntrovert Remix) – Motivado
Follow NOIA on Instagram, Soundcloud and Mixcloud. Discover and find the discography of XXIII here, and more info on SORO Collective here.
