After hearing the rough, crunked-out African sounds of Buraka Som Sistema in a club late last year, I became instantly addicted. The song was Kalemba (Wegue Wegue) and the only way to properly describe this teched-up piece of gnarly ghetto-funk is to just listen to it. I didn’t need another reason to get my samba-shaking booty to the Becks Bar to see the Portuguese/Angolan four-piece play their only Sydney solo show, but when I read that Fader Magazine had described one of their live performances as “one of the most jaw-droppingly effusive club moments we’ve experienced”, I was most definitely going to be there.

Buraka Som Sistema come from the dangerous outer suburbs of Lisbon, Portugal. They are essentially the only band in the world to take kuduro – a rhythmic style of samba-infused beats originating from Angola in the 1990s – and mix it with dub-step, techno and drum n’ bass to make their own banging dance music. Following on from their EP From Buraka to the World, the band released their debut album Black Diamond in December last year on the legendary Fabric label.

The album is purely shuddering dance music featuring a host of wordsmiths, producers and singers – from M.I.A and DJ Znobia on the album’s first release, Sound of Kuduro, to Brazilian baile funk kingpin, Deize Tigrona, to Angolan MC Pongolove on my beloved Kalemba, to the young MC and songstress Petty, whose fierce lyrics lined Buraka’s first hit Yah! in 2006.

Their shows are almost manic, filled with big-bosomed African raptresses, massive kick drums and fiercely energetic MCs. But at tonight’s show at the Becks Bar there were no kick drums, no big African ladies and no live show. Instead, after a ripper warm-up set from Tha Fizz, BSS members Joao Barbarosa (AKA Lil’ John), Rui Pite (AKA DJ Riot) and charismatic Angolan ex-pat MC Kalaf took to the stage with a laptop, two decks and a microphone. What ensued was a two-hour DJ set accompanied by MC Kalaf in a red bow tie and thick-rimmed glasses.

Disappointed at the lack of live show action? Yes. But as I deconstructed my disappointment afterwards, I came to the conclusion that I was only disappointed because I knew just how manic a live show would be after hearing a BSS DJ set. It was absolutely crazy. Two hours of the most massively jacking club tracks I have ever heard strung together into one energy-sapping set. By the end of it, I could no longer move.

Their own songs Kalemba, Sound of Kuduro, Yah! and IC19 featured in amongst bangers like Switch – A Bit Patchy, Snap! – Rhythm is a Dancer, Tocadisco – You’re No Good For Me, Benny Benassi – Satisfaction, a re-work of Buraka Som Sistema’s jacking track Aqui Para Voces and an epic journey from Sound of Kuduro through to heavy dubstep and back again. And everything, of course, with that shuddering Kuduro beat underneath.

“Don’t be shy,” Kalaf shouted out to the audience a few times, and they certainly weren’t. About six different women jumped up onto the stage at different points throughout the night, trying their hardest to impress Kalaf with gyrating booties, sensual Latino moves and, for one girl, the odd flash of underwear. In amongst his incredibly sexy moves and MCing, Kalaf and Lil John came out to spray the audience with water pistols, film the crowd on their digital cameras and pull women up on stage.

“Oh my God this is a fucking party!” Kalaf said and from where I was standing, right up the front, it certainly was. A crazy party with impeccably selected club hits and BSS tunes led by the irresistible MC Kalaf? Yes. A jaw-droppingly effusive live performance? Not really. But it’s not often you get to party with the newest pioneers of world music.