Heimlich III

Khepre

Wonderwheel mainstay Chancha Via Circuito (aka Pedro Canale) introduces his fifth full-length with its first single, “El pavo real,” featuring the Meridian Brothers (aka Eblis Álvarez). Cutting his teeth early at Buenos Aires’s legendary ZZK digital cumbia parties, Chancha became known worldwide as the originator of the cumbia-inspired electronic music that takes cues from environmental sounds and South American folkloric traditions. Pedro’s musical progeny include names such as Nicola Cruz, El Búho, Dengue Dengue Dengue, King Coya and more.

“El pavo real” (or “the peacock” in English) is rooted in the now-familiar chug-chug of a dembow beat, made increasingly complex with the addition of further polyrhythmic percussion; the main melodic motif is initially played on a buzzy synth - a sonic prelude to the accompanying strings that join later in the song - adding yet another layer. It’s in this layering that Pedro’s true mastery shines: If one tries to isolate the individual sounds and rhythms, the incredible complexity is apparent, and yet, taken as a whole, everything melts together in a seamless sway of movement and melody. 

Providing vocals is Eblis Álvarez, the academy-trained Colombian singer-songwriter & multi-instrumentalist of the acclaimed Meridian Brothers (really more of a solo project than a band, as the moniker might suggest). Alvarez, recently hailed in a longform article by the New York Times, sings about the titular peacock in lilting Spanish, at times stretching out the vowels in question. It’s the perfect addition to an already great song, and the collaboration of two of Latin America’s foremost innovative artists places “El pavo real” in rarified air.

“El pavo real” is out on Brooklyn’s Wonderwheel Recordings September 30th, 2022, with an album to follow later in the Fall.

Pre - Order Album Here

Chancha Via Circuito - El pavo real (feat. Meridian Brothers)

All My Sins Are Drafts

Life Is Your Problem

Asenda [Cafe De Anatolia]

F# Minor, 60-121 BPM

Artwork by: Francisco Michel (https://soundcloud.com/francisco-michel-886079182)
Mixing and Mastering: Fede Martinez & Adrian Caccaviello (https://soundcloud.com/adrian-caccaviello)

Acceleration

Multi Culti’s lucid-lifestyle dreamer Peter Power takes us on a free-wheeling trip to the motherland on AFRO DAMBA.

The Irish-born Voodoohop resident has returned from the jungles of Bahia with a fresh ep of primal party tracks sampling voices and rhythms from across Africa and it’s neighbouring islands, producing what is easily his most club-oriented work to date. Whereas his tracks for Voodoohop were spiritual flute-heart-openers, these are neo-pagan mating-ritual floor-fillers. The rhythm is set to tribal chug, with rollicking percussion, reverb-soaked vocals, and all the fun jangly bells & bits you expect to be hanging off such a well-traveled producer.

If that weren’t enough, we enlisted Romanian-dance-duo Khidja to double-down and remix both Adama Waro and Dansakoni (available as a digital-exclusive). Resident mix-lord Dreems also weighs in with a subtle remix of Dansakoni, gently upping the tempo and tweaking the knobs in selfless service of the original groove.


• ‘Dansakoni’ samples Guinea’s Famadou Konaté

Afro Damba [MC033]

Peter Power - Dansakoni

"Chinampa EP" out worldwide 8/19. 
Pre-Order: https://wonderwheelrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/chinampa-ep

Following on from his Tamoanchan EP inspired by the landscapes and diversity of Mexico, El Búho presents "Chinampa" - the twin EP this time inspired by the sprawling Mexico City or Distrito Federal. Chinampa comes from the Nahuatl work for an old agricultural practice of growing crops on the lake beds in the Valley of Mexico, often on floating islands that can still be seen today if you take one of the beautiful trajinera canal boats in the iconic area of Xochimilco. Though the album is a dedication to "DF´s" urban sprawl, it digs down deeper to find inspiration in the cities inherent ties to water and to ways of life - past and present. 

"Salto de Agua", now a bustling metro stop used to mark the end of the ancient Chapultepec aqueduct - one of the series of canals that allowed the Aztecs to navigate the city. Meanwhile, "Al Tianguis" is a nod to the city´s renowned market´s (tianguis), a tradition that has existed for hundreds of years and remains a crucial part of city life and culture. "Pasale" is a word that you hear all over the city, but especially on its public transport system like the infamous green pesero buses that race through the city streets, booming out classic cumbias or banda and the unwritten rules of traveling on these beasts. The final track, "Temporada de Lluvia", was inspired by the immense downpours during the city´s rainy season from June to September when for a few hours in the afternoon the city is transformed back into its ancient watery past. The city swells with water as the major roads around the city become flooded canals and chaos descends. 

UK born, Robin Perkins AKA El Búho is now based in Paris but spent the last two years living, working, playing and producing music in México City.

Chinampa

El Búho - Pasale

Another tune of mine from this brand new compilation which is gonna spice up your summer .....and your Shisha ;)
Here is the link to the whole album : 
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/casbah-beats-club-chillout-remixes/1399206301

Electric Bedouin The spy from Cairo

Lagartijeando's new album "Jallala" is out worldwide on June 7th
Purchase LP / Digital: https://wonderwheelrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/jallallan 2017, Lagartijeando (Mati Zundel), released his second full length album ‘El Gran Poder,’ via Wonderwheel and subsequently hypnotized the masses with the way he laced the traditional Charango playing that he picked up traveling the Andes with the pulsing, digital-cumbia electronica that’d been popularized in the region by the likes of Chancha Via Circuito, Nicola Cruz, and beyond. El Gran Poder plucked Zundel from his small town of Dolores in Argentina and catapulted his sound onto a global stage. He was revered by the likes of The Fader and Bandcamp, who referred to him as an electro-folk alchemist - and that he is. 

On June 7, Lagartijeando casts a new spell with Jallalla, an ambitious new full length being released on Wonderwheel Recordings. Jallalla is a word used in Bolivia to celebrate something- and it’s a word that strengthens in meaning when more people say it together. Jallalla is an entire life in an album - beginning with what would be the sonic representation of pulling back reeds to discover a new path with the song Villazon-Potosi and its sparse electronic percussion gradually filled in with curiosity-giving winds. Following is joyful charango riff that becomes the base for the track La Frontera, which features the sweet, wispy voice of Minük, the Colombian artist Alejandra Ortiz, known as half of the duo Lulacruza.

Pre-Order LP / Digital

Lagartijeando - La Frontera Feat. Minük

GET IN ON BANDCAMP
https://shikashika.bandcamp.com/album/devenir-maleza

Devenir Maleza was one of those projects that just arrived in our overflowing inboxes one day out of the blue. We opened the link and discovered four finely crafted, beautifully produced and captivating tracks of transformative, percussive music. 

It rare to find music that marries so well recorded percussion, live instrumentation and vocals with deep electronic productions without one dominating on the other. With Devenir Maleza Prisma and Martin Broder, a duo based between Berlin and Buenos Aires, managed to find that sweet spot that we love so much here at Shika Shika: deep, electronic but natural, acoustic and introspective. Or as the duo describes it: “a crackling, soothing, hypnotic lullaby.” 

Devenir Maleza’s was inspired by the concept of “becoming” and of transformation in many aspects. Through their long-distance collaboration the duo’s starting point was to imagine music becoming la maleza or “the undergrowth”, as if it the synths, vocals and instruments were sinking into the humid earth or drawn from the whistling wind or emerging from a rustling forest. 

The duo is joined on the EP by the talented singer and pianist Maria Barone as well as techno-producer / percussionist Merlin Genschel.
credits
released July 25, 2019 

Credits 
Produced by Prisma & Martin Boder 
Vocals: Maria Barone 
Percussion: Merlin Grenschel 

Turbina de amor was originally written by Rafael "flaco" Ferriaolo 

Mastering: Rob Small 

Artwork: JUMU (instagram.com/jumumonster)

BUY ON BANDCAMP

02. Prisma & Martin Boder - Turbina de Amor

Download

Silvio Astier - Civilización Y Barbarie

One of the amazing things about the deeply Jamaican music called Dub is its ability to act as a conduit. From its early days as stripped down versioning of popular Reggae tunes to its indoctrination into late 80 / early 90s UK Soundsystem & Dance Music culture, to its current massive mutation (with the “Step” planted firmly in its behind); Dub has shown itself to be not only a musical art form that stands strongly on its own, but also a vehicle of sorts that can transport and connect disparate musical universes. And it’s at the unique nexus of Dub and Arabic music that the Spy From Cairo sits the most comfortably. 

The Spy From Cairo aka Zeb is the kind of musician that fits perfectly in with the downtown NYC music scene – Italian by birth, Gypsy by heritage, and Brooklynite by residence, he has been closely associated with the Turntables on the Hudson scene for close to 12 years – producing dozens of albums as Zeb, the Spy From Cairo and the Organic Grooves project, as well as remixing for everyone from Baba Maal to Tosca to Billie Holliday to Novalima, steadily garnering a worldwide collective of fans and followers 

The Spy’s new album, “Arabadub” is perhaps his most realized vision of deep Middle Eastern and Jamaican sounds coalescing into something that sounds right and natural – because it was conceived and produced in just that natural way. There are no samples used on the album, and Zeb has programmed everything, as well as playing traditional Middle Eastern stringed instruments called the Oud, Chifteli and the Saz himself. Check the opener “Alladin Dub”, with its echoed out skanks, pulsing bassline, and majestic strings – and the deepness that is “Taksim Square”, complete with swirling, psychedelic accordion. Other highlights include the tense four-to-the-floor stomper “Desert Tears”, the rolling dub of “Sons of Hannibal” with it’s beautiful Middle Eastern vocal chants, the nostalgic “Egyptian Pulse” with its Steppers sound and melancholy vibes, and the dancehall vibes of “Prince Ahmed” – sounding like 3AM Kingston wrapped in a Bedouin Tent!
credits


Electric Bedouin The spy from Cairo

Zebda-The spy from Cairo