A Worldwide Thing: #Feb

3 March 2014

Radio Broadcaster and DJ Amrisha hosts a weekly show on Delhi based online radio station; Radio 79. It's called 'A Worldwide Thing'. It showcases global underground sounds that range from soul and funk, right through to tropical bass. Every month she'll be bringing us a recap of the show's freshest sounds and styles - exclusively for The Wild City.

...February; the month of love. Do we need an excuse to celebrate it?

Not really, but it gave me a reason to play out some classic bump and grind. London-based Oneman aroused us with a mix that brought us classics from the likes of Jeff Buckley right through to the '00s (naughties) thanks to Jon B and Usher's Nice & Slow.

We also featured another guest mix, this time continent-traversing to Africa. Kenyan-based ST.Evo has been spurring Equatorial house with his Nairobi-based label Celsius Degree since 2009, and I remember the first time I heard his label's sounds and being amazed at how fresh the production was.

East Africa is a region that's been criticised for being 'unoriginal' and duplicating sounds of other African countries, but ST.Evo and his label's vision aims to change that. He simply wants to highlight the local region's talent, and from what I've heard they are far from these claims. It was a pleasure having him share his WWT mix and also to discover new local sounds.

And it's been a great month for new production styles. One track that really got to me was 'Mike Black' by Mo Kolours. The producer infuses Sega-inspired sounds, a style from his native country Mauritius - combining them with deep, infectious mid-tempo jams. The result is special. An exotic and yet very-British sound noted throughout his debut album, which is out on Tru Thoughts.

Keeping with the infectiousness was the release of Quantic's new track. Quantic aka Will Holland is one of the pioneer's of the new Latin sound that draws upon cumbia, salsa, funk and jazz. On his latest track 'Duvida' with Portuguese native Pongo Love he subtly blends his known style but moves more into the space of Afro-Colombian rhythms. Marimba Colombian beats meet Angolan kuduro and semba over electro bass.

Another sound that made me tingle was Manchester-born Werkha's new EP. A mix of energy, tempo and nuanced live instrumentation. It was hard to pick one track to air out though I chose 'Lapwing' becuase of its interesting Afro post-dubstep vibe, with hints of James Blake on the vocals. And the video. Well. It features British-Goan hippies that have been transported back to their hometown of Essex. Rather odd.

A lot of credit also goes out to Delhi based producer Hamza - for the release of his debut LP ‘Gitano.’ It's the first time in a while I’ve heard a mash-up of genres that work so seamlessly on a deep house album. Experimental in the truest sense.

**The new tracks featured and Amrisha's previous shows can all be found here and don't forget you can tune into her weekly show every Monday at 4pm on Radio 79.**

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