DJ Helviofox

𝙇𝙞𝙨𝙗𝙤𝙣’𝙨 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙞𝙜𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨 𝙘𝙡𝙪𝙗 𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙪𝙗𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙧 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙣𝙚𝙬𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙧 𝙃𝙚𝙡𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙛𝙤𝙭 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖 𝙗𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙥𝙞𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙗𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙙𝙖, 𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙤 𝙠𝙪𝙙𝙪𝙧𝙤 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙪𝙗𝙬𝙞𝙨𝙚 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙨𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙙 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙙𝙧𝙞𝙡𝙡, 𝘼𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘼𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙚𝙛𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙛𝙧𝙪𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖 𝙧𝙪𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙙 𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙩 𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙛. 𝙄𝙣 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙨 - 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙡𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙛𝙞𝙡𝙚 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝘾𝙖𝙧𝙡 𝘾𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙜, 𝙉𝙞𝙙𝙞𝙖 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙇𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙪𝙜𝙖 𝙕𝙖𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙤.

Helviofox is the little brother of seasoned Angolan-Portuguese producers Dadifox and Erycox and he learned how to make beats before most of us had finished figuring out how to spell Autechre. Helviofox is 19 now and got his start when he was just 13, establishing the production crew TLS Produções - with E8Prod, DiionyG, Alberfox and others - only two years later. He’s a producer who’s figured out the shared DNA between garage, Afrohouse and kuduro with whipsmart edits of Jorja Smith's 'On My Mind’, Tems' 'Found’, and most recently turned Clara La San's almost beatless 'Unplanned' into a sensual, helium-gassed R&Batida floor filler - expressing a mix of rudeness and romance that’s key to Príncipe’s broad, durable appeal beyond its Lisbon hotbed.

The six tracks of his ‘Rodeado de Batida’ adapt influential cues from brothers Dadifox and Erycox into a captivating emotive declension of feels and energies, steadily loosening up and slowing down from a killer opener ‘Capucho do Xaboy’, going like a Chicago percolator rubbed with Theo Parrish’s special bass oils, to the exquisitely balmy tarraxho of ‘She WantMeYou’ where you can practically taste Atlantic brine on the air and skin-on-skin in the dance.

Depending on what end of the night you’re coming at, there’s hypnotic, stepping pressure leavened with whistling Martian melody in ‘Alien on Carcavelos Beach’, and sping-heeled bounce on a ‘Rolote da Ice Spice’ brimming with sticky hooks, but he also knows how to simmer it with elegant maturity in the wistful keys of ‘Com as Tropa’, and take it right down to Black Atlantic, almost Drexciyan depths on ‘Sonho Lúcido’, making ace use of an iPhone alarm motif and shoreside atmospheres.