alan abrahams, the man behind portable, emerged out of the ruins of a post apartheid south africa. growing up in an impoverished cape town township, tagged >beverly hills< by the locals, abrahams was always immersed in his sisters ritual of getting ready for a night out to a soundtrack of 80s soul, hi life and hip hop. inspired by the first batch of chicago house records, the foundations were laid for his future in music. experimenting with ways of combining traditional african rhythms with the 4/4 sound of house,abrahams completed various projects in south africa. most of which gave a commentary to the political turmoil of the country at the time. abrahams inevitably became frustrated by the geographic isolation of the country and relocated to london in 1997. in the uk abrahams went on to complete various releases for internationally recognised labels such as context and background records before starting up his own label, süd electronic in 2002