Multi Culti Vinyl & CDs

Review: When it comes to hybrid blends of intoxicating world music sounds and contemporary dancefloor rhythms, few producers are quite as accomplished as Nicola Cruz. He's at it again on "Hybridism", the Equador-based Frenchman's first EP for Multi-Culti for almost three years. Opener "Aima" sets the tone, with Cruz wrapping lilting synth lines, weirdo electronics and chanted vocals around a bubbling electronic groove, while "Naeku" makes the most of echo-laden drums, what sounds like an African children's choir and faintly foreboding acid lines. "Drom Tradisie" is an exercise in trippy sounds and layered percussion, "Third Eye Dub" is a darker and moodier slab of techno-exotica and "Kawe's Dream" is a blissful blast of clarinet-sporting musical positivity.