Chances With Wolves is not a Radio Show. It's a state of mind.

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Annual print publication
Issue 14 out now!

"This 45 hoarder made soul music fun again with his Soul Clap & Dance Off parties, where five-hour sets of rare grooves and B-sides provided a fleshy alternative to the club scene’s industrial snarl. Instead of bucking the trends of American pop music for some underground alternative, Toubin has made his name by embracing pop’s connective tissue, tracing the rhythm and blues, soul, and rock and roll of the nineteen-fifties and sixties. " (The New Yorker)

"The most-liked man in the soul music scene" (Rolling Stone)

"Jonathan is pretty much the only DJ we actually like." (VICE)

"Particularly chic... one of the most popular spinners in Williamsburg and the founder of the New York Night Train dance parties. His fare is already cleaner and more appreciative of American pop music history than much of the rest..." (NY Times)

Awarded "BEST DJ" in "The Village Voice" 60th Anniversary “Best of NYC”: "We might live in an EDM world, but Jonathan Toubin has no truck with today's musical whims. Since 2007, Toubin's Soul Clap and Dance-Off has brought throwback pizzazz and retro cool to New York's late-night underground. Culled from an endless array of long-forgotten Sixties soul singles, Soul Clap is pure musical dynamite, the kind of after-hours party that exposes today's iTunes-bred, press-play DJs for their relative lack of roots and ingenuity. No fist-bumps or atomic bass drops here... You can try to put your moves to better use, but you'll be hard-pressed to find more cathartic, sweatier fun elsewhere in the city." (Village Voice Critics Choice Award, 2015)

"BEST DJ" (Village Voice "Best of NYC" Readers' Choice Award 2014)

"Jonathan Toubin is the reigning king of the sweaty, non-stop super-fun dance party" (Paper Magazine)

"Jonathan Toubin is a multihypenate in every sense of the word... Toubin fuses obscure rhythm and blues from the '50s and '60s, with rock 'n' roll and soul 45s. His ongoing New York Night Train parties easily draw those typically found sulking in corners of bars out onto the dance floor." (Interview Magazine)

"Jonathan Toubin is New York rock and soul DJ who plays his collection of original 45rpm records to packed dance floors all over the world." (BBC World Service)

"Most fun ever!... Jonathan Toubin is one of our all time favorite DJs who spins rare 45s and travels around the world making people happy" (BUST Magazine)

"The long-running Soul Clap remains one of the sweatiest dance parties to be experienced in New York City. Fueled by his rare and raucous 45s collection, DJ Jonathan Toubin draws on raw soul and the most feral strains of rock 'n' roll from the early 1960s to power the nights." (Wall Street Journal)

"Few people recognize the roaring, crackling songs; even fewer can really dance the blues. It doesn’t matter. The evening’s not about proving you know the most obscure records or looking good; it’s about some kind of soul-shaking alchemy. Before you know it, it’s the opening scene of “Dirty Dancing,” all swerving hips and bare shoulders—you would’ve sworn you’d be the last to dance, but there you are, breathless.... Spellbound bodies slip into the song’s shuffling rhythm, and Toubin reaches for the next bit of black magic." (The New Yorker)

"Soul Clap is the most popular soul dance party in the world, playing to more people in more places than any other... Toubin plays all original soul 45s from the 1960s and uncommon upbeat cuts." (SXSW Music News)



"Indeed, Toubin's 45 r.p.m. record-fueled, rock-and-soul heavy dance parties were some of the best, sweatiest nights we've had in this city." (Gothamist)

"Jonathan Toubin is the only person we can call a "professional DJ" without involuntarily making a jack-off motion with our hand... His parties are like what Ancient Stonehenge was like if it was, as archaeologists theorize, filled with people dressed many times better than you completely losing their shit." (VICE)

If you ask Ilhan Ersahin about the magic happening at 62 Avenue C, he'll give you an enigmatic answer: "We're just playing music."

The truth is, from the inside out, it's just about as simple as that. Nublu, the East Village outpost that Ilhan started in 2002, is like a little clubhouse where friends get together and just play music with each other.

But, as is often the case, what seems most simple is most special. The magic under the little blue light that marks the entrance to the club emanates from a group of players from all over the world with regulars hailing from Brazil, Eastern Europe, the UK, the US and everywhere between. What's more, they happen to be among the most sought after musicians around. They've regularly shared stages and made recordings with Herbie Hancock, David Byrne, Sun Ra, Beck, and John Zorn to rattle off a few. Nightly these players come together at Nublu to share their ideas and create music together. Their improvisations reflect all their influences, shared and individual. There's no telling what combination will rise to the top on a given night. About the only certainty is that it will sound both fresh and familiar.

Quite often, the improvisations of these musicians give rise to songs, and those momentary communions of musicians become bands - bands like Kudu, Brazilian Girls, Wax Poetic, Forro in the Dark, Love Trio, and the Nublu Orchestra conducted by Butch Morris - all representing different moments in time and different sounds, but a similar ideal. That ideal - the indefinable sound that stretches across the creation of every band and DJ within the club's walls - is known around the house as the Nublu Sound.

The Nublu Sound is what made the necessity for Nublu Records clear. Whereas many labels that come about develop out of a few people's desire to go out and search for music, 

Connecting club culture to the wider world, on screen and irl through parties, film and video.

Jon Handel 2 is following