NYC drummer and producer Peter Manheim has released his debut album and its title track, ‘Early Waves’. You’re hit with effortless funk almost immediately, with a beautifully polyrhythmic pattern crafted on drum kit and percussion beat sitting beneath luscious flute melodies. The second section provides an instant twist, giving keys and guitar space to breathe over a groove that feels almost entirely different to section one. On the influence Senegalese percussionist Modou “Mamadou” Sarr Mbengue had on the release, he says: “Him being a master Senegalese percussionist, and encouraging me to play the way I was playing and write the way I was writing, took the doubt away of whether I should shy away from writing in these styles. For better or for worse, I felt like I needed some kind of permission and I had gotten it. Since then I have more strongly resolved to unabashedly compose from my influences and what I love.” Be sure to check out Early Waves in full - it’s out now. -Dan Peeke.