New releases last four weeks: Breakbeat

Review: Portuguese producer and Enchufada label owner Branko is back with his fourth full-length solo album and once again he pushes his own high standards even further. Soma was recorded in Lisbon over a three-day jam session that saw him asking plenty of top local Lisbon-based musicians to improvise over rhythmic frameworks. The resulting man-hours live recording was the blueprint for the album which Brano then worked into the compelling and worldly tunes you have here with vocals from the likes of London, Cape Verde, and Brazil, including Jay Prince, June Freedom, BIAB, and Tuyo.

Review: 'Beehive Breaks' is a new curveball from the Numero label, pitting together 15 'feminine funk' fixtures for your listening pleasure. All sourced from the label's back catalogue, we're met with an impressive array of funky-drummed, double-X'ed ditties, from Sandy Gaye's Cruella-synched 'Watch The Dog That Brings The Bone' to James Brown's soul sister #1 Marva Whitney; from teenage girl gangs The Trinikas and Promise, to Miami's queen of soul, Betty Wright; and to top it all off, there's even a previously unissued belter from Chicago's Sonics Band on there.

Review: Numero Group brings together a slew of desirable and very rare soul and funk songs together for one fantastic compilation. Many of these tracks in their original physical release form - you'd be looking at hundreds of dollars for the first pressings, so thank Numero Group for gathering these together and saving the fans from spending a lot of money and a lot of time finding them. Tracks like the amazing 'Mr.Lucky' by Betty Wright - which sounds fit for a blockbuster movie soundtrack - Trinikas' 'Remember Me' and the James Brown-like funk 'Good Things' by Pearl Dowdell are must have scarce tracks, but there's a host of yet to be discovered gemes here too, like Fay Cooper's 'Closer Together' and Betty & Angel's 'Everlasting Love'.