Tags: Latin House

Review: Having thrown somewhat of a creative curveball with the launch of Latin and soul-centered project Sol Set, John Beltran hands over the Detroit collective's debut album Ola De Novo to a list of impressive global talent for the remix treatment. Kiko Navarro, Kaidi Tatham, Blair Frech, Ezel, Cee ElAssaad, Chris Coco and John Beltram with John Arnold all line up to do their duty, incorporating the sun kissed, percussion-heavy and exotically instrumented vibes into their more house and techno productions. Highlights include Cee ElAssaad's remix of 'Get Away', its gloriously optimistic vocal retained and re-purposed over light and nimble beats, and Chris Coco's dubby slow motion samba take on 'Linda Sau Paulo', but like the label says, it's All Good

Review: Daniel David (FKA Trailer Limon) makes a great impression on Bastard Jazz with his first solo record. This 7" finds him link with the Jazz Mafia for a feature after he has done plenty of work with the legendary San Francisco duo the Pendletons. Because of that he is credited with helping to kickstart the Bay Area's modern funk resurgence but here he shows he has plenty of his own skills too. 'Tambor De Cura' (with Guinu) is bustling jazz that is vibrant and vivacious with big horns, steamy jungle atmospheres, humid pads, bird calls and many other great details that form a hefty groove. 'Devotion' is then a funky jazz fusion with cosmic pads and lush vocals.

Review: Coming to Trad Vibe, French music production duo Boar & The Badlibs impress us to no end with their 7" singles, of which their latest 'Bossa Nova Rico Suave' now becomes a part. The track is a clean nuevo-bossa-nova exercise, underlaid by a pumping backbeat making it equally as worthy of an eclectic hip-hop or downtempo mix. We're sure the nominal pun on 'Madlib' isn't without its inspirations. The King Most remix on the flip side is just as neat, drawing on samba while pinning down a bustlingly percussive groove.

Review: Not to be confused with the 2007 remix album Percussion Madness Revisited, this excellent double-pack offers features some of the best bits of Latin percussionist Luisito Quintero's Louie Vega-produced Percussion Madness album. If you missed that set 14 years ago, it's well worth picking up. Heavily percussive and rich in South American rhythms from start to finish, the set sees Quintero, Vega and collaborators flitting between slick soulful house (see the Josh Milan-voiced 'Love Remains the Same'), heavy salsa ('Tumbao'), boogaloo ('Skinny Papa'), tech-tinged Afro-house (Francis Mbappe collaboration 'Gbagada, Gbagada, Gbogogo, Gbogodo'), bossanova ('Our Love', with Anane) and epic, jazz-flecked Latin house (12-minute closing cut 'Free My Soul').

Review: Sadeira - a trio made up of members based in both Brooklyn and Brazil - previously impressed with a handful of high-grade releases on Let's Play House. Now they've transferred to London-based Leng to showcase their latest colourful, cross-cultural musical fusions. Lead cut 'Luzes Ca Didade' is undeniably brilliant: a swelteringly humid slab of samba-nu disco brilliance rich in fluttering flutes, layered Brazilian percussion, squelchy synth bass, glistening guitars and life-affirming bi-lingual vocals. It's backed with two tidy reworks - a flute-heavy instrumental take, and the band's own sweaty, percussive, and sub0heavy broken house revision, which drags the track further towards peak-time dancefloors. The EP's final track is fab, too: a synth-heavy, early '80s influenced dub reggae rework of previous single 'Deixa Tudo Fluir' that may well be the EP's standout moment.

Review: Louie Vega remains a towering presence in house music 30+ years after making his early mark. As a solo artist, he deals in soulful, Latin-tinged and musical house sounds that are lavish in arrangement and often made with real instrumentals. The Vega boss now serves up a bumper collection of previously unreleased tunes across no fewer than ten sides of vinyl. There are collaborations, remixes, demos, dubs and reworks along the way and the range in impressive - from deep and triable joints to shuffling samba sounds and back again, this is a vital collection from a real house master.

Review: Motor City mainstay and former Slum Village associate DJ Dez Andres has many skills up his sleeve from mad scratching to vibrant Latin flavour mixes that draw on his Cuban heritage via dusty house rollers and deep hip-hop gems. Here he mixes all that up on a new EP for Beretta Music that is now available on purple vinyl. His sunny and delightful melodies are present and correct in each cut, as are his signature slouchy and hip-hop-inspired drums. All four of the tunes hit the sweet spot but the funky boucle of 'Back To Nature' is one that really stands out here.

Review: There are plenty of rich influences in this EP from Coflo - from the Latin percussion to the jazzy melodies, the tribal drums sounds to the lush depths of the drums. That makes it the sort of EP that that is perfectly suited to the warmer months, to bar parties, sundown sessions and dancing outdoors under the hot sun. 'Transition Deep' (Coflo remix) kicks off with the gentle patter of percussion and flute melodies that life your soul. 'Menina' (Coflo's mix) has more of an Afro feel to it and 'Feels Like' (club Fusion mix) is a lively one with big chords plenty of cosmic guitar lines.

Review: This release is a story of serendipitous stars aligning. Having released Bala Desejo's anthemic single, 'Baile De Mascaras', back in May 2023, Mr. Bongo could sense that they had a summer classic on their hands. The label always thought that it had the potential to find fans in a dance music audience; and in a further twist of fate, the sensational DJ, producer, and radio presenter Jamz Supernova recently graced their Great Escape in-store event with a phenomenal DJ set. After some feverish digging and emailing to her team, Bongo discovered that she was a fan of the original song and had made a personal edit to play in her DJ sets. Gilles had heard Jamz spinning the edit and asked for a copy, and by sheer coincidence and good fortune, it all fell into place. The track is a beast of an edit that gets heavier and deeper as it progresses.

Review: Great Cape Verdean singer Cesaria Evora was pretty prolific and put out several still well-regarded albums, from Distino Di Belita to Cafe Alantico via Vox D'amor. Many of them have been reissued recently and next up to get that treatment is Club Sodade, which finds a bunch of her tracks getting a contemporary club rework by a wide array of musicians. It comes on heavyweight red vinyl so is ready for serious DJ deployment. Carl Craig's mix of organic hand claps and fizzing techno synth intensity on his rework of 'Angola' is one of the most well-known cuts here but deep house heads will also know and love Kerri Chandler's percussive take on 'Nho Antone Escarderode.'

Review: Brazilian producer Zopelar is a real wizard when at work in the studio. He has done disco-tinged full lengths, synth-laced house sounds, deeper than deep grooves and now steps up to Sudd Wax with another brilliantly musical EP. It opens with the shimmering pads and free-flowing keys of 'Papaia' which then gets a Byron The Aquarius Jazz Twist mix that cuts even more free and gets even more cosmic. 'Jazz Class' is a funky one with golden chords and astral pads and the flip brings three more house gems laced up with the sort of meaningful melodies you don't often hear in this genre.

Review: Last year, Wonderwheel Recordings founder returned to Turntables on the Hudson with The Remix Machine, a vast digital compilation (and eight-track vinyl sampler) featuring some of the countless reworks he's completed since the 1990s. This second 12" expands on that set, serving up six more of the New York-based producer's favourite re-rubs. There's plenty to set the pulse racing throughout, from the rolling Cuban house business of his Megablast tweak ('La Isla'), and a low-slung, d&b-influenced Latin breaks take on OVEOUS & QVLN, to a suspenseful slab of psych-funk-goes house (the New Yorker's tweak of 'Yiorti' by Antois Antonio), and even some bouncy, low-tempo Balkan beats (Balkan Bump's 'Codek America'). Hot global fusion business!