Various: Dance beat from deepest, darkest Africa

Bob Sinclar has introduced a world music element to his fourth album.

By all accounts Bob Sinclar's fourth long-play effort, Western Dreams, heralds the rise of world house. Complete bollocks, but the flash Frenchman's dished up a little ray of bubblegum sunshine to warm a dire winter all the same.

Love Generation kicks off proceedings in well-worn, pop-reggae fashion with a righteous vocal courtesy of the Wailers' stunt-Marley, Gary "Nesta" Pine. The track's been around long enough to need a shave, even winning selection as an official World Cup tune, but it still deserves a tip of the hat for introducing community whistling to the dancefloor.

Elsewhere, Sinclar puts various worldly traditions through his Gallic disco blender, meaning Tennessee comes off as more of an ode to the state's gay clubs than gun-totin', cross-burnin' hillbillies. Despite the marketing hype, no-one's going to buy this for a lesson in musicology - it's all disposable, hand-waving fun about sexy ladies, party people and children of the sky. Utter nonsense and there ain't no crime in that, but house is still waiting for someone to assemble an album worthy of a considered all-time best list.

Time for some real music and the all-star remixes of some unreleased tracks from vibes-meister Roy Ayers comes as welcome relief. Well, they could hardly fail with such tasty ingredients and the old jazzster's class and all-round Maxwell Smarts oozes through the efforts of everyone from Kenny Dope's Afro-house treatment of Holiday through to Basement Jaxx re-examination of I Am Your Mind Pt II. In between, Ayers' sophisticated late-70s, early 80s funk holds its own through an array of reinterpretations which jump from drum'n'bass to hip-hop, Latin and electronica. Splendid stuff even if they do go on a bit sometimes.

Meanwhile, way over at the most remote, far away end of the technological galaxy is Konono No1, the first obscure gem to feature in the Congotronics series. Over the past 25 years this group have been offering the people of Kinshasa some of the most unhinged streetside Afro-trance-oddjobbery you're ever likely to hear. Their "voice-thrower" soundsystem runs on old car parts with the techno plinky-plonk factor coming from grunged-up thumb pianos. The vocals and chants sound like they're emerging from a rolled-up newspaper over the top of a battery of pots-and-pans percussionists.

From this distance, they sound like they're damn loud, go like the clappers and would make total sense live, but it still seems to work just as well if you spread your arms really wide and spin in fast circles.

Now, seeing as it's June it must be time for another Gilles Peterson compilation and he hasn't made a liar of me with the arrival of Back in Brazil, a double CD joblot of past and present Latin-estas.

CD1 looks back to the classics of the 60s and 70s with a few that will be familiar from previous collections alongside some splendid newbies like Evinha's sweet Que Baneira and the bass-driven funk of Antonio Adolfo's Cascavel.

Their successors on CD2 may have flasher equipment, but it's a more uneven affair.

Reggae probably doesn't much need the Toots-referencing Echo Soundsystem, but Zero DB's percussion-heavy A Pomba Girou packs a wallop while Roni Size would offer his gold teeth for the cool, bassline of S Tone Inc's Beira Do Mar.

LOWDOWN

Bob Sinclar: Western Dream
A merry collection of loved-up tracks to get the midwinter blood pumping.
Label: Yellow Productions

Roy Ayers: Virgin Ubiquity Remixed
Smart, sexy and fits like a glove. Ooooooh, suits you, sir.
Label: BBE Music

Congotronics: Konono No1
Flintstones' technology in a bodyslam with deep African voodoo.
Label: Crammed Discs

Gilles Peterson: Back in Brazil
Yet another worthy offering from the busiest compiler in the business.
Label: Ether Records