Sonido Lava

Adding a Berlin sheen to Latin America's electric rhythms, DJ-producer Daniel Haaksman returns with his fourth full-length release, Sonido Lava. The German native has long pioneered the mixing of tight European tempos with a looser tropical sound, and has championed the music of the southern hemisphere through his label, Man Recordings, with a particular line in Brazilian baile funk. In this latest album, he wears his passions on his sleeve, fusing a melee of Latin genres into a fiery whole.

Opener ‘Vidrio’ leads with ambient forest noise, blown bottle necks and synth burbles, held up by the steady stomp of programmed percussion. Follow-up ‘La Mujer Dormida’ introduces Sonida Lava regular MALAGÜERA. The Chilean multi-disciplinary artist's intimate and urgent vocal style features on almost half the album's tracks, coming in with particular appeal on ‘Bruja’, a compulsive Cuban rumba about a witch who purifies her soul through dance and fire, and the forceful club thump of ‘Takekema’. Haaksman's celebration of Latin genres peaks with ‘Magma’, which moves from string-led breakbeats into a slick bossa nova breakdown before wheeling up into a blast of UK funk. This playful release from Haaksman is certain to stick in the mind of any dancefloor fiend.