Wonderwheel US Vinyl & CDs

Review: Brooklyn's Wonderwheel imprint has been going strong since the mid noughties, and the label has always offered the best freshest that the world dance scene has to offer. Gliding between broken beat, nu jazz and house, their identity has never truly been reliant on one genre or form, and we like them all the more for it. This week sees the tenth installment of the Turntables On The Hudson series, another chapter in a fine collection of multi-faceted music for the lovers of something a little funky and different. Main man Bonobo comes through with "Flashlight" on the A-side, a tropical house tune with a gentle touch, while jazz funk legend Gregory Porter is remixed and housed-out by Claptone, the man's soulful vocals riding beautifully amid those kick drums and piano lines. On the B-side, "Tshunga" by Aero Manyelo is an Afro dance tune with a heavy dance backbone, while Pablo Sanchez turns "Brother Dragonfly" by Sorceress into a lo-fi house tune with a tight little percussion knot. Gorgeous!

Review: &Chakib is the debut album from Swiss Producer, DJ, and live-act Dominik Traub, also known as Dandara. Infusing influences from Africa, Asia, and Latin America with European techno and house, Dominik's signature sound shines through. The album's inception came after a fateful encounter with Algerian vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Chakib Bouzidi at a festival in Basel. Despite Chakib's untimely passing, Dominik continued the project, honouring his memory by completing the work. Infused with Chakib's voice notes and collaborative recordings, the album serves as a heartfelt tribute and through resilient collaboration and creative influence it emerges as a fine collection of globally influenced dance music.

Review: Brooklyn's Wonderwheel is kind of like an institution by now; a label which has been delivering high levels of quality since the early 00s, and who is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down. In fact, the imprint has only managed to develop and nurture their tribalistic style of the years, and it's fair to say that they have successfully managed to create a Wonderwheel 'sound'; heavy, club-friendly deep house with subtle Afro nuances. This new EP, Turntables On Ipanema, is a collaborative effort by a series of familiar names: DJ G's wonderfully tropical house ballad "Samba De Terra" leads the 12", and is followed by Simbad's darker, more broken house groove called "Detroit De Janeiro", a perfect blurring of the sounds of the two American cities. Over on the B-side, "BerimBOOM" by Nickodemus and Simbad is a warm, beat-heavy deep house tune, and Zeb's "Space Forest" winds the tempo down to a sweet, mid-paced groove with magnificently dubby harmonies, and a balearic kinda feel.

Review: Nickodemus has always enjoyed skipping between musical styles, with previous releases touching on everything from hip-hop and Latin beats to reggae, ska, jazz and broken beat. This time round, he's decided to turn his hand to good, old-fashioned house music. "In My House", featuring the distinctive vocals of former Naked Music chanteuse Lisa Shaw, is a loose but driving number, where fuzzy, low-slung guitars and clipped electric bass notes are smothered in tech-house electronics and warehouse-friendly stabs. Art of Tones provides the flipside remixes, delivering a heavily electronic deep house Remix before serving up a deeper and dreamier Dub version that makes great use of Shaw's freestyle vocalizing. The EP's bonus cut, loose jazz-house shuffler "Funk That", may be the best of the lot.

Review: This is a global single with a great story that starts with an afro-funk groove made by Italian Jah Sazzah. He wanted a vocal for it so turned to Nickodemus who handed his own touches and then sent it Grammy-nominated Colombian vocalist Jimena Angel. The result is a vibrant Afro tune with vivid melodies. Remixer Poirier is a legend in Latin music circles. The Montreal man has formerly been associated with Ninja Tune and is synonymous with lots of classy remixes and fresh takes on a modern Afro-Caribbean sound. This is another one that reworks the ring into a more bouncy and infectious sound with gorgeous vocals and a clean arrangement that allows the drums and perc to shine.

Review: Both Nickodemus and the Wonderwheel imprint are from NYC, and both parties know how to lay down some pure, hypnotic goodness when it comes to house. This time, the former is joined by Alsarah, who provides the mystical, charming Eastern vocals over the deep, progressive beats of "The Crow", a vibrant house tune for the big room; Saangan does his best to inject a little more techno sensibility into the tune. On the flip, "Alkoan Kulu Bidoor" heads into broken beat territories with its slower, sloppier beats, once again guided by Alsarah's arabic spoken word, and iZem provides the 'umph' by layering a rolling, glitchy blend of percussion into the mix. Solid.