New releases today: House

Review: For the latest offshoot of his ongoing 'unofficial edits and overdubs' rework project, New York house/disco mainstay Joaquin 'Joe' Clausell has decided to turn his hand to "African classics', delivering what he describes as "psychedelic takes". On this EP, the first of two, the Body & Soul NYC resident offers up extended revisions of a quartet of cuts. He begins with 'New Africa', wrapping a gorgeous sand gently soulful vocal workout in spacey synths and layers of spiritual house percussion, before upping the tempo on the breathless and brilliant 'Griot Ba'. His love of deep, dubby basslines, restless percussion and delay-laden vocal snippets comes to the fore on EP highlight 'The Ya Yo People', whjle 'Drum Sore' - a version of what sounds like an early to mid 1980s number - very much lives up to its name.

Review: Body & Soul NYC resident Joaquin 'Joe' Clausell has launched a new series, 'Iboga' - an extension of his 'unofficial edits and overdubs' project focused on "psychedelic takes" on "African classics". He begins EP number two with 'Abuja Rough', a rolling, lightly housed-up take on a lesser-known mid-80s Afro-synth-pop number, before ratcheting up the tempo, intensity and percussive pressure on 'Summer Africa'. He successfully straightens out and beefs up an organ-rich Afronbeat workoput on 'People', while standout 'Afrikan Basement' is a lightly dubbed-out chunk of densely percussive Afro-house topped off with effects-laden vocals and sax solos.