- Straight out of Ubatuba, Brazil comes a record that's everywhere and nowhere at once. Düsseldorf, Chicago, New York, Berlin, Johannesburg: they're all pins in Yes Wizard's crinkled map, and that doesn't even begin to address the retro-futurist tangle of time zones here. "Djamba" is the most straightforward of the three tracks, with an easy-going drum machine and conga groove and a sprightly synth lead that's got DJ Mujava's "Township Funk" written all over it, and a touch of Oni Ayhun as well. (It's made for mixing, with a killer 32-bar introduction that's all percussion, but it's also tricky: there's a heart-stopping few seconds of silence, and when the melody enters, the rhythm shifts from 4/4 to 6/8 time.) It's an inspired, off-kilter earworm of a tune, tough but also almost naïve. "VD9D09" sets a trim 808 pattern against booming toms and spooky female vocals that faintly recall Holger Czukay's "Boat Woman Song"; with its unsettling sonics and post-industrial echoes, it slots in nicely alongside recent records from B.D.I., Factory Floor and Afrikan Sciences.
And then there's "Aya Dance," the EP's most electrifying song, which takes to its sawtooths like a mountaineering expedition wending from peak to peak. Aside from some hair-raising congas, the beat is all but an afterthought, focusing all your attention on a mass of synthesizers that expands to almost monolithic proportions. If you're partial to droning, Kraut-leaning dance music—Holden, Four Tet, Luke Abbott—this will set your hairs on end.
Tracklist 01. Djamba
02. V09D09
03. Aya Dance
04. V09D09 (Instrumental)