Audiopile Review: Italy-born, London-based percussionist Valentina Magaletti is a big fish in the small pond of Audiopile’s weekly newsletter. A serial collaborator with seemingly limitless energy, she has worked with everyone from Jandek to that bloke out of Super Furry Animals. Along the way, she’s become one of leftfield music’s must-hear movers and shakers. (See what we did there? A shaker is a kind of percussion instrument! Please do try to keep up.) ‘Estradas’, Valentina’s new collab with Afro-Portuguese beatmaker Nídia is a treat for body and brain alike. The beats are hyper-tight feet-bafflers in the vein of Jlin, DJ Python, or Equiknoxx. Magaletti’s organic percussion does more than simply embellish the electronic canvas. It broadens the frame significantly, adding tints of Jon Hassell’s fourth world sonic stews and Can’s ethno-forgery grooves. There are even destabilizing elements of post-Autechre IDM. But things never go completely off the rails, rhythmically speaking. This is a funky, funky album that will keep you moving through the cold days of late January.

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