KAIDI TATHAM Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Kaidi Thatham remains one of the truest artists in the field of broken beat and modern jazz, and his fifth album for First Word shows no signs of slowing down. There's a certain signature you know belongs to him when those nasty Moog synth lines start flexing around the groove, but there's such depth and variety to his expression at this point in time, it feels like the possibilities are endless. From rattling neo-funk get downs to blissful downtempo reveries and on to the killer hip-hop of 'The Only Way' featuring Uhmeer on mic duties, this is an album bursting with invention at every turn.

Review: The word 'legend' gets banded about rather a lot, but it is certainly applicable to West London scene stalwart Kaidi Tatham. Further confirmation of this elevated status can be found throughout "It's A World Before You", a staggeringly good album that marks the musician-producer's first solo set for some seven years. While rooted in the kind of warm, rich and life-affirming jazz-funk-fuelled broken beat workouts with which Tatham is most readily associated (and they're naturally superb), there's plenty of killer diversions dotted throughout. These include a couple of spacey, soul-flecked ambient rubs, a sublime collaboration with hip-hop/modern soul fusionists Children of Zeus, and a fine head-nodding hip-hop jam featuring rapper Uhmeer. In a word: essential.

Review: Kaidi Tatham is a master of broken beats and a widely respected figure in the London music scene. His new 12 track album takes us on a lush and louche trip through all his myriad musical skills and styles. Boogie, gospel-tinged hip-hop, jazz-funk and more all colour the futurist grooves with contributions from The Easy Access Orchestra, and pianist Robert Mitchell. This is a fourth solo album from the man and maybe his best yet, even though it has come so quick on the heels of the release of An Insight To All Minds in 2021.

Review: In our eyes, Kaidi Tatham can do no wrong. The long-serving keyboardist barely seems to sleep and releases a high volume of collaborations and solo records, but his quality threshold is so high that there's barely a duff track in his catalogue. Over the last few years he's developed a trademark sound that wraps Herbie Hancock style jazz-funk keys around crunchy broken beats, while also drawing influence from hip-hop, '80s electro, boogie, Latin jazz and slick deep house. An Insight Into All Minds, the veteran musician's fifth solo album, is naturally rooted in this trademark style, offering up a collection of cuts that bristle with positivity, pack plenty of punch, and are as well produced and life-affirming as you'd expect. It's a high bar, but it could well be his single best LP to date.

Review: When this album was initially released way back in 2008, it was Kaidi Tatham's first under his given name (previously, he'd released solo records as Afronaught and appeared on all manner of collaborative releases). Since then, he has of course gone on to greater critical and commercial success, but as this timely reissue proves, "In Search of Home" still hits home hard. Like much of his work, it deftly showcases his Herbie Hancock-like jazz and jazz-funk keyboard skills within tracks that variously join the dots between broken beat, hip-hop, deep house, Latin fusion and sumptuous slow jams. Colourful, rich, jazzy and impeccably performed throughout, the album remains one of the high points of Tatham's career and is well worth adding to your collection.

Review: After offering up EPs titled "Hard Times" and "Changing Times" in 2017, Kaidi Tatham returns to First Word to complete the trilogy with "Serious Times". Of course, the music contained within the EP's tightly packed grooves is as joyous, rich as intricate as ever. Check, for example, "Don't Cry Now", a samba-soaked, sun-kissed affair that wraps harmonic freestyle vocals, twinkling electric piano lines and darting jazz-funk bass around a seriously shuffling groove. Tatham's much-discussed jazz-funk influences are once again given an airing on "Sugar", while his fine piano work takes pride of place on instrumental hip-hop head-nodder "Zallom". Best of all, though, is opener "Cost of Living", which emphatically weaves together all of these strands and more besides.