Back catalogue: All genres

Review: YES! Any self respecting music fan will no doubt already have fully acquainted themselves with Black Messiah, the long promised new album from soul artist D'Angelo and know that it already stands as one of the long players of the year if not the decade! The real fans have probably been waiting for the vinyl release and it's great to see the correct decision has been made to grant Black Messiah a double LP pressing. Everyone no doubt has their favourites on Black Messiah but it's great to have cuts like "Sugah Daddy" on wax, that one is perfect for the house party situations.

Review: Having re-released Rim Kwaku's long lost Rim Arrives album, BBE follow it up with more dusty disco treasures from the Ghanaian hit maker's repertoire. From the blistering horns and thundering drum rolls of the near-nine-minute romp "Shine The Ladies" right the way through the looser, more Afrobeat-focussed "Peace Of Mind" by way of the emphatic Stevie Wonder-style showmanship of "I'm A Songwriter" it's a collection that still sparkles with soul 30 years after they were recorded. If you're unaware of Rim's story, you'd be wise to check it; from Quincy Jones endorsements to homelessness in the space of 24 hours, Rim's tales are as serious as his music is funky.

Review: Longtime synthpop, future dance and "washed-out" musician and DJ Teen Daze (Jamison Isaak) presents Elegant Rhythms, his latest and most personal album to date. After several years of exploring music made for a dancefloor, Elegant Rhythms is more indebted to the singer songwriters of the 70s, the sophisti-pop sounds of the 80s and the vaporwave sounds of the 10s. Negating the showoff approach - of artists gloating of how little time it took to make a song or record - Isaak does the opposite, drawing attention to the album's four-year making, and its production in parallel to other releases that do not share its scale and sense of personhood. An album developed with the express purpose of expressing personal development - facing trauma, growing older, holding true to questions of purpose - something resolute wafts from its autotuned falsettos and prismoid reflections of R&B, soul and electronische musik, the mercurial highlights of which have to be 'We're Out Of Phase Again' and 'HST Underwater'.

Review: During a trip to Lahore, Pakistan in April 2019, multi-instrumentalist and all-rounder jazz musician Tenderlonious set about a storied collaboration with local quartet Jaubi, laying down a set of six full, original instrumental ragas form a single one-day recording session. The result is the record you hear here; the emanative sounds of Indian and Pakistani classical music, acting as a framework for a spiritual interdiction between Tenderlonious on flute and soprano sax and Jaubi band members on tabla, vocals, sarangi and guitar. A determinant synth drone, lent to the euphony by Polish composer Marek Pedziwiatr, underlies the entire suite, lending this six-pack a not unfuturistic mood of brooding. Four years in the post-productive making, Ragas From Lahore is a pristine, on which the boughing lops of the tabla, the effortless flurries of the sarangi and apical vocal, and the arch-mood of overcoming and perseverance through strife, are felt with full sway. A deeply foreboding, but rewarding contemporary raga album.

Review: Cuba-meets-Cameroon-via-Guinea-and-Senegal, the roots of this African-adopted Cuban sound are as rich, unique and exciting as Amara Toure's tale itself. After years of club performing in Dakar, Amara and his Black & White Ensemble in the late '60s and proceeded to release 10 songs during the '70s. Here, for the first time ever, all of these recordings are united on this immaculately presented collection. From the cobble-kicking percussive Cuban heels and emphatic harmonies of "Fatou" to the deep yearning crooning blues of "N'ga Digne M'be" and the spacey, out-of-this-world guitars and jazzy trumpet lead of "N'Niyo", there's something very special and unique about this collection. With a heart that beats in Africa but a soul that shines with Cuban fire, as Analogue Africa state themselves... It's only taken 10 songs for Amara to become a legend. Very few artists can claim this feat.